Autumn: when I get it together, usually

You've all been pretty patient with me this past month as I've veered way off topic - nothing food or plant related in the nomadic life! Today, though, a recipe.

We are currently living in my parents' home. Our movers haven't arrived and won't till next week, so while we have keys then new home stands empty for now. Such is life. I have run out of patience with take out, restaurants, other people cooking for me. Last night, I made dinner. My mother happened upon a lot of eggplant at the farm stand last week, so I asked her to leave one and last night I made the eggplant parmesan I have mentioned in a couple early posts but never actually shared. This is a fairly simple recipe and not wildly unhealthy, and fast enough that it could be a weeknight meal (plus you probably have most of the ingredients on hand, save the eggplant). As we get back into the fall, with the busier schedules and cooler weather, it seems like as good a time as any!

Easy Baked Eggplant Parmesan
(adapted from Whole Foods)

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant, sliced lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick pieces (about eight) [I do the more traditional crosswise slicing - makes it tidier]
2 eggs, beaten with a fork
1 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (sundried tomato or plain) [I suppose you could use regular bread crumbs, but the panko gives it that nice crunch that you would normally get from frying the slices]
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 (25-ounce) jar pasta sauce (roasted vegetable or any variety) [I make my own tomato sauce, and know many people who do, but jarred is actually good for this recipe. I don't use sugar when I make my sauce and the extra sweetness that the jarred stuff has actually balances the salt of the cheese nicely.]
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Preheat oven with a baking sheet inside to 375°F. Coat eggplant slices with beaten egg, then bread with panko crumbs. Spread oil on hot baking sheet and place eggplant slices on it in a single layer. Bake 15 minutes, flip and bake another 10 minutes.

Increase oven temperature to 475°F. In an 8x10-inch ovenproof dish, layer pasta sauce, then eggplant, and top with cheeses. Repeat, finishing with cheese. [It's almost like an eggplant napoleon when you're done...using a bigger baking dish will help you have less density in the end result if this seems like an issue for you.] Bake until the cheese melts and turns golden in spots, about 15 minutes.

The recipe suggests a side dish of sautéed broccoli rabe. I agree that this sounds delicious, but two things -- that's something you can't put on and then walk away from, which makes it somewhat less weeknight-friendly. Also we don't happen to have any right now, but we do have whole grain thin spaghetti, which I like. I made a small amount of that with some garlic oil, added a salad, and felt fine about it. As, apparently, did everyone else.

That one time where we accidentally drove to winter

It's been quite a couple of days, friends. So we went to Yellowstone on Sunday -- really beautiful, well worth the price of admission. Waterfalls and steaming slopes of hot spring-laden rock and herds of bison and elk wandering about.

Then, we left the park.

(Dramatic pauses for a reason)

We took US 212 out of the park, the far northeast entrance - the one going the way we were headed. I didn't notice till we were well en route the map's note about how the road is closed in the winter. This may seem irrelevant as it was August 31st but living in the shadow of the Cascades and Olympics, I know this is not generally a good sign and that winter is more of an elevation difference than a season in the West. I didn't think too much of it, though, and figured we'd be fine. Well, we were, but that's probably because EPH was driving and he is much less inclined to panic. We were cruising along, headed up a series of switchbacks through what the map told us is known as Beartooth Pass. (At the time I hypothesized that this was due to the jagged silhouette of the mountain but now I wonder if people get stuck and eaten up there) As we climbed, I was a little nervous about the extremity of the switchbacks, as well as the odd tendency to NOT put guardrails next to sheer drops. But it was beautiful so I tried to not worry, and EPH was driving slowly to keep me calm. Early on we noticed that there was snow at the top of the mountain - again, very far up so didn't dwell on it. But then the snow got closer...and closer...and the GPS elevation told us we were passing 10,000 feet and suddenly the snow was along the road and the "fog" was extremely dense and the ground all around was covered in thick frost. Keep in mind we're still on extreme switchbacks and we're in the middle of nowhere with no cell signal at all - rural Montana. This is how survival movies start, amirite?

Then it got scarier -- we had to go DOWN the other side. Still switchbacks, only now we notice the road surface itself is, uh, shiny. So we're going down twisty windy roads, on the side of a mountain, on ice-covered roads. We're going super slow and I'm praying every prayer I know while mentally alternating with swearing a blue streak, and we're hoping that a) we stay on the road and b) nobody comes along behind us and can't slow down in time and we both go off the mountain.

Needless to say, since I'm typing this we clearly survived, but in my head I was definitely running through the various provisions and blankets in the truck and thinking I might actually have to use them. Scary. Pro tip - AVOID BEARTOOTH PASS if driving in/out of Yellowstone!!!

Just inside the western edge of North Dakota.

Not long after, though, we encountered more bison - these were just roaming free near a rest stop. Amazing.

So, that was Sunday. Monday we got to Fargo, which was surprisingly adorable, and where we had a fantastic dinner in a place called the Beefsteak Club. Check it out if, for some odd reason, you are in Fargo. The next morning EPH hopped a flight off to work, and I drove on. My adventures, such as they are, in the next post.

Homer lost patience with this road trip business and spent some time sulking. 

Life in the west

Wenatchee, WA yesterday morning

Good morning from Butte, Montana. I've stayed in Montana before, but not in Butte. It's...interesting. We checked out the hotel-attached dive bar late last night (seems to be a trucker hotel here so I guess there's a clientele). We learned that the front desk manager doubles as the barkeep ("beer and wine only, folks"), that he has lots of opinions on the US Postal Service, and also on Anna Nicole Smith. We also learned that coming through his bar three, four times a year qualifies as a regular. 

It seems there is a pretty big Irish and Chinese population and culture out here. I guessed at railroad workers being the immigration trend, but a little research by EPH turned up the fact that it was actually mining work.

Today: Yellowstone, then the booming metropolis of Miles City, MT!

Island Life

I want to live on Vashon.

Boarding the ferry eastbound, 5:45am

I mean, not really -- we're moving back east and looking forward to it -- but Vashon is absolutely my happy place. Tiny, woodsy, friendly, farm and beach and small town and engaged citizens all in one. I had great grand plans of roaming and hiking and kayaking -- haven't done so yet, but maybe tomorrow. In the meantime I've spent time on the water (even if it's a ferry), we've gotten the hang of where to get what in town (pro tip, the IGA is a sad sad supermarket. Thriftway is so much better I can't quite get how IGA is still in business...something I'd know if I lived here, I guess), where the best coffee is (Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie -- which most places serve anyway, but the place itself is charming. There are mugs hanging on hooks for the regulars). Farmstands are on the honor system (bring exact change, but if you don't you can can probably bring it by later). There is a wine tasting room, a delicious bakery, a forest in the center of the island for hiking and roaming and - apparently - trail riding (horses, people).

Honor system farmstand

There is the kind of small town friendliness and familiarity only seen now in Hallmark movies, only without the schmaltz. Everyone generally knows who is who and what is what, but the development is so NOT overdone that most people seem to have quite a lot of land, so they aren't all tripping over each other.

Main Street/Vashon Highway, early evening

So, anyway, great trip so far. We're in this guest cabin that has tons of land around it. There are owls hooting during the night, roosters throughout the day, and in the evenings the next property over plays reggae. Not meant for us but it adds a certain something. Other than that, it's so quiet we can hear leaves falling. It's spectacular.

The "backyard". That's a hammock in the lower left.

Catching my breath: a photo album

The movers came. The movers left. We ran all the heck over South Seattle saying goodbye to people and having adventures. Our extended stay in Tukwila was...functional, if not exactly luxurious. But it was definitely efficient and convenient, so it's hard to complain. Now, we're on Vashon Island in a guest cabin and it is basically paradise. 

We had a little more stuff than the mover expected....awkward. 

"Where IS ALL MY STUFF!" says Homer 

Visiting my friend V up on the coast near Bellingham

Hotel room birthdays!

Pink Martini on the lawn

5:45am, eastbound from Vashon to West Seattle aboard the WSDOT ferry Issaquah

Our current "backyard". Island living sure is rough. 

This is not so bad...and I'm sure I just jinxed it

So, we've all heard the tale/recording at this point of the guy who tried desperately to cancel his Big Evil Cable service, right? Well...I just had the exact opposite experience. When the very chipper young woman inquired as to why they were losing me as "such a valued customer", I informed her we were going nomadic and would be off the grid for the foreseeable future. Granted that's a tiny exaggeration - three weeks is not the foreseeable future - but that is neither here not there. She was utterly bewildered, and after a moment of dead silence exclaimed "that is SO.COOL. I would never think of that!" And just like that, everything was canceled. No hassle, no harm, no foul. Compared to the other guy's experience I feel like a big winner right now.

On a more blog-related note...I've cultivated a bit of a container garden here, and have been trying to figure out what to do with it all without a) throwing everything into the compost and/or passing them on to people who I KNOW will kill them, b) having to part with all the planters. Turns out that what they say is true: people will take literally anything from the free section on Craigslist, even if it involves them digging up a plant and carting it off in a plastic bag. Two huge bamboo plants: rehomed! A friend from the neighborhood has agreed to adopt my cherry tomato plant (which is LOADED with little green tomatoes, sniff sniff), which is great. Now I only have herbs and house plants to address.