So...Here We Go Again!

School starts tomorrow, and I'm not even in mourning. Of course, I would prefer to be independently wealthy and not work every day, but since I'm not, I feel lucky to have a job that I hardly ever hate and sometimes even love. Sorry folks who think that teachers only deserve respect if they sacrifice their health and family life for their job. I'm a hard worker, but I've been doing it long enough to understand the game and how to (usually) keep my sanity. Of course, some people might say I'm a poser because I've been getting and answering texts all summer from honors students who had questions about their summer work, and I spent all last Friday night getting some online learning modules ready for my high school students who are taking my college, composition class.

I can't knit quite as much once school starts...or at least, I shouldn't; and it's easier for me to pick up a project for brief knitting sessions if it's a simple one. Pettine fits that bill. I've been working on it for a while actually, but I played "chicken" with it and didn't begin my decreases for the second half of it early enough, so I got to within about four inches of being finished and realized that I wasn't going to make it with my one beautiful skein of Ellen Rae merino yarn that I bought at Heidi's in Ukiah, California two summers ago. Luckily I'm enjoying knitting it, so unravelling all that work wasn't too painful. I have also finally memorized the pattern, which isn't that big of an accomplishment since it's easy.

Whenever we're in Humboldt County, we go crazy over the food. There's so much fresh, good, orginal stuff everywhere, especially in my parents' backyard. My parents' grow tons of garlic, and they usually give us a huge bunch of it to take home. This year was no exception. The kids helped me pick out the very best heads--twenty-five of them to be exact.

We've already gone through two heads of garlic after being home for a little over a week. Yeah, we have no vampire problems here. Today, I thought I'd use up some of the eggplant that I'm growing in my backyard. I'm not a huge fan of eggplant, but I think some of varieties are really pretty. Of course, I'm having the best luck with the tried and true aubergine eggplant that you see in the grocery stores. I used several cloves of our garlic and four eggplants to make some babaganoush this morning.

I don't think babaganoush usually looks that appetizing, and my batch is no exception. It's kind of muddy looking. It tastes pretty good though. This is a picture of Paige's lunch, which she had with cactus chips we bought at the Bakersfield farmer's market yesterday from the Baba Foods guy.

Babaganoush

• 2 large  cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3 tbsp tahini
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley (optional)

Preparation:

Prick the skin of each eggplant several times with a fork, scorch skin until black and bubbly, then roast in a 400 degree oven for about 30 min. If you don't have a gas stove, just roast a little longer in the oven.

Allow to cool slightly, then scoop out inside of eggplant, leaving skin behind.

Pulse eggplant pulp in a food processor. Add remaining ingredients, and pulse until smooth.