What's on the Menu? Salsa Verde

This is my first year to grow tomatillos and already I'm a fan!  Both plants are HUGE and covered with little yellow flowers.

And since I've never grown tomatillos, I was surprised to find the fruit growing in little casings that remind me of paper lanterns!  So cool!

I never in a million years thought that these things would produce at the level they do.  I have tomatillos coming out of my ears!  Now I have to admit, I don't know much about using tomatillos.  I have one sauce that I make for fish tacos that calls for a few tomatillos, but that's it.  So here I was, faced with a HUGE bowl of them wondering what the hell to do.  Then it hit me, Salsa Verde!  Duh.

First I had to remove the husks.

Then I washed them and put them on a cookie sheet (about a pound or so of them) with some olive oil, 1 onion, about 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, and a couple of de-seeded jalapeños (I wanted it mild enough for the kids) and popped them in the oven on about 400* to roast for 15 minutes, stirring them on occasion to make sure they didn't burn.

Afterwards, I dumped them into the food processor, oil, juices and all, added a couple of teaspoons of cumin and about a teaspoon or so of salt, a good handful of washed cilantro and the juice from 1/2 a lime.

After a good whir, I ended up with a wonderful, flavorful sauce that was perfect for dipping chips!  I also took about half of it to add to my sour cream chicken enchilada recipe, YUM!

So hooray for tomatillos!  You can bet I'm going to be enjoying A LOT of salsa verde this summer!  :)

Plum Tasty!

A friend of mine sent me home with a TON of tiny, little plums on Sunday.  By Tuesday I was well aware that these tiny, little plums were going to start rotting.  Fast.  So I frantically got online to see what some options were.  I found a plum upside cake, which looked MARVELOUS, but I didn't have buttermilk in the house.  I eventually came across a recipe for plum sorbet at Simply Recipes and I immediately heard a little chorus of "Hallelujah" in my head!

First I started peeling and pitting these.

Yes.  I actually hand-peeled and hand-pitted these little plums because the recipe called for a fine mesh sieve to filter out the large pieces of skin and I didn't have one.  Anyway, after peeling and pitting I ran the plums, sugar, lemon juice and pinch of salt through the food processor until the mixture was smooth.  (Sorry about the sucky pic.)

I poured it all into my handy dandy ice cream maker and spun it for about 25 minutes.  At first it was more like a really thick smoothie, but after about 3 hours in the freezer it looked like this...

Sheer perfection!  And can I just say, YUM!  It was just sweet enough with a hint of tartness and the perfect dessert for a warm summer night!  So when life hands you plums, make sorbet!

Homemade Ice Cream--Take 1

Big Daddy is AWESOME!  I have been begging and pestering and whining for an ice cream maker for months.  So guess what I got for Christmas!  Well, technically I got it a week before Christmas, but you know, he's a punctual guy!  I keep up with this other blog, "Gina's Skinny Recipes" and she got a new ice cream maker awhile back and the sorbets and ice creams and frozen yogurts she has been posting have been making me crazy!  I researched the model she's using and it looked like a nice machine so.... BAM!

The Cuisinart Pure Indulgence Frozen Yogurt/Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker!  How's that for a mouthful!?!

Well, needless to say, we had treats galore over the Christmas holiday (pies, gingerbread, chocolate cookies, sugar cookies, rice krispie treats, etc...) so I opted to hold off on the ice cream making until after we had eaten all of that other fattening stuff!  But last night I couldn't stand it anymore, so I fired it up!  I remembered to put the bowl in the freezer the day before, so it was ready to go.  For our first shot, I decided to go for a simple, no-frills vanilla.  I figured that was the best way to gauge the texture and flavor.  We mixed the ingredients, poured them in and 35 minutes later, we were rewarded with this....

Smooth, luscious, creamy, vanilla ice cream!  The Monkey Man and I had ours with pumpkin pie, Big Daddy had his with pecan pie and the Piglet, well, she prefers her vanilla with Midnight Moo chocolate sauce and rainbow sprinkles!  I am very pleased with our initial attempt and now I am brainstorming for new flavors.  I think coffee or green tea gelato sounds awesome!  Or Irish Cream!  I did notice HEB had blackberries on sale last week, that would make a killer sorbet!  Ahhhhh, so many desserts, so little time!

Cranberry Lovin' from the Oven

It's the time of year when I start hoarding cranberries.  Ocean Spray, Dole, whatever, I buy at least one bag every time I go into HEB or Costco.  I have to get enough to last me the whole year!  Now I'm not that into cranberry sauce or cranberry Jell-O or anything like that.  I just happen to have an unnatural love of cranberry bread!  Cranberry coffee cake rules too, but that's another post!  Anyway, we just baked a fresh loaf today and I thought I'd share.  The recipe I use is from the Ocean Spray site.  There are a couple of things I omit from this recipe, because nuts and orange peel do NOT float my boat, but you can choose for yourself!

Cranberry Bread

2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 c. orange juice
1 tbsp. orange peel (I leave this out, not a fan of the zest!)
2 tbsp shortening
1 egg, well beaten
1-1/2 c. cranberries (fresh or frozen), chopped
1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Oven on 350*F.  Have a greased loaf pan ready.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, & baking soda.  Add OJ, peel (if you're using it), shortening and egg.  Mix until you're sure the shortening has been well distributed.  Stir in the cranberries and nuts.  Pour into the greased loaf pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes.  Check it at 55, do the toothpick tests.  Cool on a wire rack.

This is what ya get...

Now if that ain't some serious love in a loaf, I don't what is!!  ENJOY!

What's on the Menu: Cauliflower Soup

Soup seems to be the menu item of choice these days!  What can I say, we got rain today and the cooler temps just made me crave soup!  And hey, lucky me, I had a head of cauliflower in the fridge!  Anyway, talk about a quick easy dinner, this soup can be made in about a 1/2 hour tops!  It's full of flavor, so much so even my kids like it!!

I found the recipe on the "Taste of Home" website.  I pretty much follow the recipe except I add turkey bacon!!!  It kind of defeats my dreams of going veggie 2 nights a week, but it's SO good with the bacon!

What you need:
1 med. head of cauliflower, broken into florets
1 good-sized carrot, shredded
1 stalk of celery, chopped
2-1/2 c. water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
3 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
3/4 tsp. salt (I use a little less since the bouillon is so salty)
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 c. milk
1 c. shredded cheese

In a large pot, combine cauliflower, carrot, celery, water and bouillon cubes.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 min. or until cauliflower is tender.

In another pan, fry the turkey bacon!  I chop mine up into small pieces.

Set aside the bacon until the end.

In the bacon pan, melt 3 tbsp. of butter.  Then stir in the flour, salt and pepper.  Whisk until smooth.  Add the milk a little bit at a time.  Boil over medium heat, cooking and stirring until it thickens slightly.  We're not shooting for gravy here!  ;)  Turn off heat, add the cheese and melt.  Stir in the bacon bits and SERVE!  I like mine with a nice dash of Tabasco!

Enjoy!

What's on the Menu: Tomato Basil Soup

One of my favorite meals is grilled cheese sandwiches paired with tomato soup.  I was raised eating Campbell's Tomato Soup, and never really thought to change it up, but then I had REAL tomato soup at a restaurant not too long ago and was like, HOLY CRAP.  I have been eating canned swill for years, I NEED to find a decent tomato soup recipe in all haste.  So I started pawing through all of my recipe books and index cards and found exactly diddly squat on the tomato soup front.  Found a great recipe for Mulligatawny soup, but that's another entry.  Finally, I happened across an old "Mothering" magazine article from 2007 that had several different soup recipes and lo and behold... Tomato Basil Soup. 

What you need:
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, chopped
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
2 c. chicken or veggie stock
1  14-1/2 oz. can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp. honey
1/4 sour cream (although I almost think it should have been more)
1/4 c. fresh chopped basil
ground pepper

Heat oil and butter in a pot over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic and salt.  Saute until translucent.  Add stock, tomatoes, and honey.  Simmer for 15 min.  Let cool a bit.  Put half of the soup into a blender with sour cream and blend until smooth.  Transfer to another pot.  Blend the rest of the soup and add to the first half.  Warm the blended soup.  Serve with fresh basil and ground pepper.  This recipe makes about 4 servings.  Serve with hot bread or a nice grilled cheese sandwich!

What's on the Menu? Broccoli Cheese Soup

It's the time of year that soup becomes a major staple in our home.  1)  It's economical.  2)  It's pretty quick and easy.  3)  Soup effin' RULES!  I pity the fool that doesn't dig on soup!  Today's offering is Broccoli Cheese Soup from my super, totally awesome "Treasury of Christmas" cookbook.  It is a thick, creamy, and luscious soup that is always a big hit in our house!

What you will need:
1 small onion, diced
1/4 c. butter or margarine
1/4 c. flour
3 cups water
**This recipe calls for 2-10 oz. packages of frozen chopped broccoli, but about 6 cups of fresh can be substituted.

4 chicken bouillon cubes
Worcestershire sauce (pronounced Were-shur-shur-shire in our house)
About 3 c. of shredded cheddar
2 c. half and half

In a large pan, cook the onion in the butter until tender.  Add the flour and stir until it becomes smooth.  Add the water slowly, then dump in the broccoli, chicken bouillon and Worcestershire sauce.  Cook over medium heat until soup has thickened and broccoli is tender.  Usually about 10 min. or so.  Add cheese and half and half.  Do NOT boil.  Stir until cheese melts and serve.  See?  Easy-breezy!  Leftovers can be refrigerated, but I don't know about freezing.  Obviously, I eat mine with plenty of Tabasco Sauce!  Yummy!

Now THAT'S a bean!

I am so glad someone clued me in on these little beauties!  The vines seem to be doing well, even in the 100* heat.  The flowers are open when it's cool in the morning and I started noticing actual bean pods about a week ago.  They are now about a foot long!  I still have to wait though, 18" is optimal!  I expect to harvest this weekend!  It's about damn time!

Beet It!

OK, sorry about the dumb reference to a Michael Jackson song, I just couldn't help it!  Anyhoo... the other day I really hit the gardening jackpot!  I was out watering and checking on things as I REALLY need to get the summer garden going but I still have winter garden stuff going strong.  I decided to pull a beet or two, just to see how they were doing and you know what?  They were doing FINE!  So I pulled a big ol' bunch of them!

 

Just look at that beautiful red!  To die for!  I washed them up and trimmed off the greens, which I'll be serving for dinner soon.  Can I just say that I LOVE beets and turnips for this very reason!  You can eat the leaves AND the roots.  Super.  Food.  Awesome.

I popped them into a pot of boiling water for about 30 min. (40 for some of the bigger ones).  Then as I rinsed them in cold water, the skins just came right off and I was left with beautiful burgundy beets!  So I let 'em cool off so I could slice 'em and then EAT 'em!

And oh HELL YEAH, they were awesome!  I have been nibbling on them periodically or serving them on every salad I eat!  They have a nice bite and the texture puts those icky canned ones to shame!  Now I'm on the lookout for the perfect beet salad!

What's on the Menu? Mulligatawny Soup

I seem to be on a food kick lately!  Eh, who am I kidding, I'm ALWAYS on a food kick!  I can't help it, I love to cook and I love to EAT!  Last week, I was under the weather, some stupid cold or something.  Anyway, I was looking for a soup.  Something hearty and tasty and nothing brothy and thin, I wanted stick to your bones, nourishing soup.  So I started digging through my recipes.  Lo and behold, I came across an old recipe, from my Portland days.  Honestly, I haven't made this soup in eight years!  An anesthesiologist I had the pleasure of working with in Oregon gave me this recipe after we had a soup-themed potluck one day.  It was so tasty and amazing and I was raving about it and trying to figure out what the starch was in the recipe as I knew for sure it wasn't potato.  I thought maybe it was turnip or parsnip or something along those lines, boy was I ever surprised to find out it was little green apples!  Had someone informed me of that at the beginning, this little country girl would have never put that soup in her mouth!  Apples in soup, CRAZY!  But nobody told me until later and I am thankful for it!  So don't be squeamish!  Chop up those little apples and TRUST me, you won't regret it!

Mulligatawny Soup--courtesy of K. Lalwani

Before you begin, cook some rice!  You'll need about a cup of cooked rice at the end of the recipe.

Saute the following:
1/4 c olive oil
1 chicken breast cubed
1/2 c onion
1 large carrot, sliced
2 stalks celery, diced

Add 1-1/2 tbsp. flour and 2 tsps. curry powder, cook for about 3 minutes.  Pour in 32 oz. chicken broth and simmer for about 30 min.

Add and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes:
1 medium tart apple, diced
Between 1/2-1 c. cooked rice (I use closer to a full cup)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. thyme

Immediately before serving, stir in 1/2 c. heavy cream. 

All I can say, is this is one of those recipes that got lost in the little box of recipes.  I can guarantee, I won't make that mistake again!  Enjoy!

What's on the Menu? Corn Chowder for a cold evening!

OK, it's cold outside and my pantry is severely depleted since I was out of town all weekend.  The last thing I wanted to do was go to the store in 17*F with wind to boot!  Obviously I wanted to feed my family something warm and stick to your ribs, but what to make?!?  I opened the freezer and saw that bag of frozen corn and I knew exactly what I was going to fix!  Creamy Corn Chowder!  Nothing hits the spot like a good soup!

This is a Betty Crocker recipe that I tweaked a bit to suit my taste!  You gotta love Betty!












4 slices of bacon (I use turkey bacon, more meat, less fat, just as yummy)
1/4 c butter
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 small carrot, shredded
2 gloves of garlic, minced
(I added chopped red bell pepper, about a 1/2 of a big one.)
3 tbsp. flour
3 c. chicken broth
3 c. frozen corn
2 medium potatoes, cubed small
3 c. half & half (I only used 2 cuz that's all I had!)
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook bacon in a large soup pan or Dutch oven until crispy, remove and crumble.  Add butter, onion, celery, carrots, bell pepper and garlic to the pot and saute until tender.  Add flour, stir well, cook about 2 minutes.  Slowly add broth.  Stir in corn, potatoes, half & half, herbs and seasonings.  Heat to simmer.  Cook about 15 minutes until potatoes are tender.  Add in the bacon crumbs.  Serve and enjoy!

I served the chowder with fresh popovers!  It was awesome!  I'm thinking Tabasco might have been a tasty addition, but we were out, so I don't know for sure!

What's on the menu? Aunt C's Chicken Supreme

Just an FYI, if you don't have a problem with canned condensed soups then this will be a great recipe for you! If you have issues with canned soup, just stop reading now!  As many of you know, this is my first month of hardcore budgeting and menu preparation. After the first two weeks, I was struggling, trying to find some interesting meals to make as I'm not in the same mindset as my son who could seriously eat meatloaf every week! I was flipping through cookbooks and my handy-dandy recipe notebook and came across a recipe that was given to me almost a year ago by our wonderful Aunt C. formerly of Amarillo, TX and now residing in the DFW metroplex. She served it to us while we were stopping over on the way home from New Mexico and it was AWESOME!! So I thought, what the heck, let's see if I can pull this off. So here goes...


Chicken Supreme

1/2 stick margarine
1-1/4c brown rice
1 can cream mushroom soup
1 can cream chicken soup
1 can cream celery soup
1 can beef consumme (as you can see, I didn't lie about the soup!!)
1/2 soup can of water
1/2 c slivered or sliced almonds
6-10 chicken breasts (I actually used 4 large breasts that I cut into pieces and pounded down a bit)
Parmesan cheese

Melt margarine in large roasting pan. Spread uncooked rice on the bottom of pan, stir in the almonds, then lay chicken on top of rice. Heat soups and the 1/2 can water in a pan, then pour over the chicken and rice. I jiggled the pan a little to make sure it dispersed throughout. Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese and bake uncovered in a 275*F oven for 3 hours. Then... ENJOY!!  Oh yeah, there was totally enough to have for dinner the next night!!

Operation Sun-Dried Tomato

Too many tomatoes, too many tomatoes!!! And not to sound selfish, because I have been giving away tomatoes to neighbors and friends all summer, but I can tell the cherry tomato vine is on it's last leg and I just somehow wanted to preserve these little beauties so I could enjoy them. I have worked hard this summer and deserve to now hoard the bounty! I froze a bunch last year, but they immediately turned to mush once added to a recipe and no one likes mushy tomatoes. So I thought, hmmmmm. What about sun-dried tomatoes? Is it even possible to do this at home without a dehydrator or a desert? Because even though Austin is hot, it's MUGGY and I'm sure anything left outside would turn into a moldy mess within hours! But sure enough, the clever people that post things on the internet came to my rescue! Sun-dried tomatoes in the oven!!!

First I washed and dried luscious, little jewels of tomatoes!
Then I sliced them all in half and sprinkled them lightly with sea salt.
Next I popped them into the oven on 200*F and forgot about them!
About 4 hours into it, a most intoxicating aroma came wafting from my oven, I decided to check them and stir them around a bit to ensure even drying.
I returned them to the oven and began checking on them periodically and about 2-1/2 hours later I was rewarded with my first sun-dried tomatoes!! Just like tart little tomato raisins with such a burst of flavor! Awesome! I started picking out the ones that were done and returning the others to the oven. All in all, to get the entire batch done, it was about 8-ish hours. But they turned out perfectly dried and insanely yummy! And being that every website I perused stated that setting them in oil at home is a BAD idea due to high possibility of food poisoning, I decided to be satisfied with my little tomato raisins and call it a day! Here is a look at the finished product, ready for use in pasta or pizza and can be stored in the pantry for at least a year (not that they'll even last that long)!

Home Economics-Dog Biscuits

After giving the kids a month off, it was time to get our little homeschool academy up and running again! The kids put in a concerted effort Tuesday morning, so we decided to take a well-deserved break from bookwork and delve into what I like to call "practical chemistry and home economics"! The fact is, the dogs were out of treats and we don't put the dogs in kennels without treats. We also need the treats for training purposes. And sadly, dog biscuits were NOT in my grocery budget this go around. So what do you do when you need the dog biscuits but your budget doesn't allow it? You pull up a recipe online and make them with your kids! After all, dog biscuits are made with things normally found in your pantry like flour, oats, and in our case peanut butter!

First you preheat your oven and mix all the ingredients. I allowed the kids to measure everything out (taking the opportunity to discuss fractions of course!). Once mixed, we rolled out the dough and the kids started cutting out the individual biscuits.
And yes, in case you were wondering, we do occasionally cook in our underwear here!

As you can see, we made quite a lot of biscuits! Thank goodness we only made a 1/2 batch!
We popped them in the oven and waited.
While in the oven we discussed mixtures and chemical changes due to heat. Once done, we shook them off the pan and let them cool on a wire rack and observed how they had changed. And yes, those are squirrel-shaped biscuits because the kids thought it would be really funny since the dogs are always trying to get at that pesky squirrel who taunts them from the fence!
We also took some time after it was all said and done to determine the cost effectiveness of making our own biscuits vs. buying pre-made ones. We made approximately 200 dog biscuits for $0.86 vs. $3.99 for a comparable sized bag of regular flavor Petsmart Grreat Choice biscuits or $11.99 for peanut butter flavored Mother Hubbard Biscuits. So not too bad! And the recipients of said treats didn't complain a bit!

What's on the menu? Chocolate mini muffins

I have been such a good girl, sticking to my planned menu and I have to admit, it's kind of nice knowing exactly what you'll be cooking and what you'll need to do beforehand to prep for the meal instead of flying by the seat of your pants! However, this morning came and I was UNIMPRESSED, to say the least, with the prospect of toast or oatmeal. I have been sick for two days, eating bland crap and the last thing I wanted was more bland crap! So. Doo-do-do-TOOOOOOO!

Chocolate chip mini muffins (Oh yeah!)

1-1/2 c flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 c milk (I use powdered milk to save real milk, 1/3 c powder into 1 c water = 1 c milk)
1 egg
1/3 c melted butter
chocolate chips

Grease your muffin tins and preheat the oven to 350*. Combine all of the dry ingredients then add the milk, egg, butter, mix well. Add chocolate chips to your liking. I like mine fairly sparse, so the chips aren't just one big blob in the muffin. Pour batter into greased mini muffin pans, bake 15-20ish minutes until they are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

These are so easy to make, the kids LOVE them and it makes enough to have for snacks later!! Enjoy!

Garden greatness!

It hasn't been quite a month since my last garden post and it's amazing how things change in such a short time! Remember I was worried about my corn and sunflowers? And so happy that they were actually knee-high by the 4th of July? Well, 25 days later and this is what we have...
Knee high? Hell, the sunflowers are at least 8 ft. tall! I have never seen anything so big and beautiful! I do, however, have a small infestion of caterpillars, GRRRRRR!
I removed three leaves with large colonies like this and then sprayed the whole plant with garlic water. Caterpillars supposedly hate this. I also sprayed my corn silks with a healthy dose as well!

And what about those lovely, little black-eyed pea and okra plants?
They're HUGE! The okra is over 7 ft. tall! I have NEVER in my life seen okra plants this big! I mean they aren't really even okra "plants" any more, they are TREES! They are finally producing and I think I will have enough to make a pan of fried okra this weekend! Woo-hoo! The black-eyed peas are really putting on as well. I harvested enough last week to make a full pot! We shelled them then I put them in a pot with some turkey bacon, garlic and a smidge of butter. They were firm, yet tender and just bursting with flavor! Lucky for me, the vine is covered again and I'll be making another pot this weekend! Have I mentioned lately how much I love my garden?!?

What's on the menu... Makeshift Rice Frittata

The kids wanted pancakes for breakfast but I wasn't really in the mood for syrupy sweet this morning so I started to rifle through the fridge to see what my options were. I had leftover rice from stir-fry, various veggies, spinach and cheeses, and of course eggs! So I grabbed the rice, mixed in two eggs, shredded some spinach and a little colby jack cheese, sprinkled in some salt and pepper, then slapped it all into a non-stick frying pan. After a few minutes on each side I ended up with this...
And it was YUMMY!

Happy 4th of July!

In honor of the 4th of July and the fact that gingerbread should be made way more often than at Christmas time! Thanks to Big Daddy and the Piglet for their expert sprinkling skills!

My own little "jam" session!

Here's the deal, I LOVE homemade jam! I am also LAZY! Who has time for full-blown canning and preserving? And in my case, a big enough kitchen!?! But I REALLY want fresh jam, especially when strawberries abound in the markets! As usual, I hit the internet looking for recipes. I will be the first to say that Martha Stewart annoys the crap out of me, BUT in this instance, she pulled through for me! I found a recipe for Quick Strawberry Jam and talk about EASY!!! It takes 10 minutes and has 3 ingredients! That is MY kinda recipe! Now this is not the type of jam you can toss in a jar and store in your pantry for a year, this is fresh jam that must be refrigerated and eaten within 2 weeks, but as seriously yummy as this stuff is, you won't have a problem doing that! I personally enjoy it on fresh-from-the-oven bread! Mmmmmm!

What's on the Menu? Fairytale Eggplant!

So here they are in all of their glory, all whopping 4 inches of them! Aren't they just the cutest little things you ever did see?!?! I just want to pinch them they're so cute! Well for about the last week or two I have been picking at least 2 a day, but since they are so small, I had to save up awhile in order to make a decent-sized dish. I finally managed to harvest enough to do something with, but then I was like, how do I cook these adorable little eggplants? The search was on! I can tell you, there aren't a lot of eggplant recipes out there that don't involve the big fat black beauty eggplants and lots of breading or oil! But finally I stumbled across a lovely blog called "Figs with Bri" where she actually had some recipes for this particular variety of eggplant! Woo-hoo! I tried her Thai-inspired meal of red curry with a side of fairytale eggplant. It looked lovely and I was intrigued, so I tried it out! Here was my finished product, not as pretty as her dish, but tasty nonetheless! I personally made my curry with chicken and I left out the jalapeno from the eggplant so the Monkey Bunch would actually eat it! I also peeled my eggplants as I hear that eggplant skins can cause digestive upset and that's the LAST thing anyone needs in my house! But I have to say, the eggplant was tender, tasty and absolutely not bitter! I'm not a fan of the black beauty eggplants, but I'd eat these sweet little dudes any day of the week!