This evening I used tomatoes that were imperfect (so I couldn't use them for canning) in a favorite dish called Hirino Me Melitzanes (Pork with Eggplant)

I went poking around online and found the recipe transcribed on a cooking site, it comes from the same cookbook. They didn't use US measures (2 cups of diced peeled tomatoes, 2 pounds of pork) but it's the same recipe. I didn't have mashed potatoes, but I have red lasoda potatoes from my garden that I cut up and pan fried the other day and I used leftovers with the pork. Amazing!

Hirino Me Melitzanes.

If you want a marvelous cookbook, The Complete Middle East Cookbook by Tess Mallos is it. She offers techniques and, where needed, substitutions. I go to this book all of the time. I made hummus last week, I'm going to be making babaghanouj next week. I make some of her rice dishes and her lamb dishes and her vegetarian dishes. I use Bookfinder.com to find copies. I always keep extras here to give to people when the urge strikes) and you can find used hardcover copies much cheaper than a new perfect-bound (soft cover) volume. And though it doesn't make sense, if you search on the title with "The" at the beginning you get much better results (the search database should filter that out, but it doesn't.) Don't search on "Complete." Search on "The Complete."

Anyway, its a great book. Mallos is a cookbook author from Australia. Her ethnic background is Greek, and I don't know much more about her than that.