Goat cheese failure

Made roasted eggplant with goat cheese last night.

Fred wasn't too excited, he kind of hates eggplant, but I convinced him to try it, told him that it's suuuuuch a yummy recipe...

I served dinner, we each took a bite, and... Horrible. We bought "honey" chevre instead of plain goat's milk cheese.

It was so bad.

Ended up going for a walk by the river and eating a Dairy Queen blizzard for dinner.

Caramelized onion lasagne

Easy and good, and you can speed things up by preparing the onions, eggplant, etc. ahead of time.

Steps:

• Caramelize your onions (cook slowly pver low heat until soft and sweet and golden).
• Roast, grill, or sauté slices of zucchini and  eggplant.
• Make your cheese mixture: 3 beaten eggs + ricotta + grated whatever other types of cheese you like + nutmeg.
• Layer your cooked noodles with grilled veggies + tomato sauce, cheese mixture, and some spoonfuls of goat's milk cheese.
• Finish with a layer of the caramelized onions (I use a lot, maybe a cup and a half of them) and  some grated mozzarella + parmesan.

Tips:

• Put a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of your baking dish before adding the first layer of noodles.
• Use fresh lasagne noodles or the dried ones that you have to boil in advance. The noodles that cook while baking are weird. They taste a tiny bit bizarre. I think. But I might be over-thinking things and just making extra work for myself.

Roasted eggplant delicious amazingness

Really good eggplant and chèvre with tomato sauce. I made this for my lunch last Saturday to celebrate the end of the semester - I had my house to myself and spent the afternoon cooking and reading and drinking wine. It was nice :)

Slice eggplant into thick rounds (I peeled it, you don't have to). At this point, sprinkle salt on both sides, let rest for 15 minutes, then press the rounds between dish cloths to remove some of the bitterness and extra water.

Roast the eggplant rounds at 400°F, flipping over once, until they are browned and soft. It's really important to spread olive oil on your cookie sheet - eggplant will stick! like crazy!

While the eggplant is roasting, make a quick tomato sauce. Chop up the leftover eggplant - the bits from the ends -  and sautée it in olive oil. I added a glob of honey once the eggplant was golden and sautéed a bit more.  Then add a can of tomatoes and let simmer. In the summer you can use blanched fresh tomatoes and some basil if you have it.

Okay. When the eggplant is soft and golden, spread chèvre (soft goat milk cheese) on each round and cover with tomato sauce and some good parmesan cheese.