5 Years

After 5 years at UCCS I am finally moving on with my life. I am done with the late nights working on homework. I am done staying awake only through the miraculous power of caffeine. I finally did it. I finished my masters degree. I couldn't have done it without Shawn who kept the house from falling apart when I was locked in the office, desperately trying to finish. He took care of the cats, did the grocery shopping, did the laundry, fed me and even rubbed my feet if I asked really nicely. What a lucky woman I am.

The office was quite a sight when I finally emerged!

Cooking Club!

Last night the girls took over the house for an Italian feast! We each cooked an Italian dish and everyone met at my house to share the food, socialize and drink some wine. We should be exchanging recipes soon, so I should be adding some gems to my collection. My contribution was eggplant parmesan following a recipe that my sister gave me.

Eggplant Parmesan:

1 can tomato sauce

fresh basil (chopped)

fresh garlic (minced)

salt/pepper

olive oil

fresh mozzarella

fresh parmesan

eggplant (1 large or 2 small)

flour

Combine tomato sauce, chopped basil, minced garlic and pepper to taste in a saucepan. Heat and simmer to allow flavors to blend (add any other seasoning you want, but I find that keeping it simple brings out the flavors). While the sauce stews, slice eggplant 1/2" thick, dip in flour, and lightly fry in olive oil until golden brown. In a baking dish, spread a thin layer of tomato sauce (quite thin). Next put down one layer of the fried eggplant. Tope with another layer of tomato sauce, a sprinkling of salt and a layer of sliced fresh mozzarella. Continue layering eggplant, tomato sauce, light salt and mossarella until you have used it all. Top it off with fresh parmesan and bake at around 350 to 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with more parmesan and wine.

We had a bottle of Da Vinci Chianti with dinner and I highly recommend it!

One of the girls left behind some homemade sauce so I continued eating Italian with breakfast this morning. I made an amazing omelette! The omelette had spinach, onion, mushrooms, garlic and parmesan cheese. I topped the whole thing with the homemade red sauce. Yum!!!