I've concentrated on various dishes that use lots of peppers or eggplant lately. My freezer is still full from last fall.

One thing I've created is a sort of broad application taco meat - at the heart of it is a pound of pot roast that I grind myself (I no longer buy ground beef - too many horror stories about how it is handled). I brown the initial seasoning (I grow my own onions and peppers, diced and frozen on a tray then bagged) and add the browned meat into it - in this dish I prefer poblano pepper. Add some fresh garlic, a generous grind of pepper, oregano (dried, from my garden), a teaspoon or so of ground chili pepper, a tablespoon or more of cumin (I LOVE cumin!) and let it cook together a bit. To this I pour in a pint of my diced home grown canned tomatoes. Simmer some more, then either open a can of, or if I had the forethought, have soaked and cooked, black beans. When it's pretty close to finished I add some cilatro or culantro (I finally can find that culantro - a long leaf, stronger flavor than the parsley-like cilantro).

That is used to make tacos or burritos or nachos. I can use it to make a kind of fancy quesadilla on a tortilla with cheese in it to melt, though it is a bit on the lumpy side. I top it with homemade guacamole (I buy the avocados and make it then freeze it in ice cube trays and bag the cubes. If you defrost in a microwave watch it - you don't want to accidentally cook your guacamole).

Another thing I make as a small meal or a snack is babaghouj (various spellings). Eggplant was roasted last fall when it was fresh, and I peeled and mashed it and measured 12 oz at a time, to which I added 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice. After I thaw the mix I add 1/4 cup sesame tahini, garlic press in a couple of cloves of garlic, 1 tsp salt, a dollop (maybe a tablespoon) of olive oil, and I puree it in the food processor. There is a middle eastern bakery near where I work so I regularly stop in to buy warm pita bread. It goes into the freezer and I can eat home grown eggplant all winter. I have other eggplant recipes also, but this is probably enough for now. Some of the babaghanouj is spread on a plate, topped with a little olive oil, and scooped up with chunks torn off of a warmed pita bread. (This tastes like humus, but is creamier.)

I'm not eating as much meat as I used to, and I'm losing weight now because I'm doing a method of fasting every other day. If anyone has seen the documentary Food, Inc. this is referenced in there. You can research "fasting diet" and find information. The best part of this is that because it means you're not eating as much beef (I am a meat eater) it lowers the blood serum levels of one of the hormones that can spur the growth of cancer cells. In the program the narrator followed this and found it successfully lowered the levels, and he lost weight. I'm not diabetic or no health problems. This isn't a true fast, there is one meal on the fasting day - in the middle of the day I eat up to 500 calories of fresh fruit.

SRS