Roasted Dinner

Shrike is working the super-early day shift today and tomorrow, so we got to actually eat dinner together this evening.

Yesterday, she took the pork roast from our Tastefully Simple freezer meal workshop out to thaw, because "it was the one that wasn't stuck to the others," so I had that as my starting point, and I went from there. 

I figured that roasted pork would go well with roasted veggies, so I threw together some red, orange and yellow peppers, purple onion, carrot and potato, tossed them with olive oil, basil and Tastefully Simple Onion Onion and stuck them in the oven beside the roast. 

On a whim, I'd picked up a bit of asparagus from a front yard veggie stand today, so I added a few of those, cut up, for the last ten minutes or so. 

We also had an eggplant in the fridge that I was surprised had not turned yet, so I thought  I'd better use it up. I think I've finally nailed the eggplant chips recipe. 

The main problems I've had with it before are that it's very hard to cut the slices thin enough that they get crispy, and the ones with a lot of seeds in them tend to just shrivel up to nothing but the peel, which we're not to thrilled with. Peeper won't eat the peel on any of them. 

When I made them in Texas, Anonymama suggested that I peel them (Actually, she assumed I was going to peel them, and that sounded like a good idea, because duh.), so I start by doing that, and then I just kept going with the peeler, and shaved off very thin slices all around, until I got to the seeds. 

I threw out a big chunk of eggplant, but it was all seeds and that part sort of goes away anyway, and what doesn't, we really don't like, so I'm okay with that. 

Then I tossed the slices with olive oil, Parmesan cheese, garlic and Italian seasoning, spread them out as best I could on a baking tray and stuck them in the oven with everything else. 

Eggplant, sliced and tossed

Half of the eggplant, ready for the oven

Everything in the oven

I probably should have taken them out a bit sooner, because there were a lot of really dark ones, but even those didn't taste burned, and were super-crispy. There were only a few that were still a bit soft, and they were delicious, too, in a slightly different way.

My plate. That's the eggplant chips on the lower right.
I forgot to take a photo of them in the pan after they were cooked. 

Peeper's plate.

Shrike reports that she and Peeper ate quite a few while everything else was finishing up in the oven, we each had some with dinner, and then I finished off the rest while I was cleaning up the dishes. 

I can't believe I'm saying this about eggplant, but holy cow, these things were good. I was starting to have my doubts about the eggplant plant that I just planted (huh) but not any more. Now I can't wait to start harvesting them!