{pretty, happy, funny, real}

 ~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

This is going to be a bit undisciplined. I find I do have pictures to show you. Sometimes it goes like that. I think I'm not taking any, and get a little -- "will I have anything for {pretty, happy, funny, real} this week?"

And then I look on my camera, and realize that I have things to show you. 

I do!

So, {pretty}

Last week there was this light.

Living on a hillside means you give up most of one view. Our sunsets come a little early here, or else we have to walk up into the orchard to see them. But the compensation is in the sunrises, and then the autumn light in the afternoon slanting across onto the hills opposite. Often the eastern sky is glowering -- forbidding even -- but the light above is glorious. 

It's beautiful.

And sometimes the light is shining just so in places that don't usually get any. And that is pretty also.

{happy}

Our collection of cards for friends and family who have passed away is growing. A Christian can be happy in the face of death, as sad as it makes us to feel the loss of those loved ones and friends. Until I made this table I didn't know how real the communion of saints would be to me in this area. I do wish I had thought of it long ago, but I show you to encourage you:

It's never too late to show our love in new ways.

I did write a little about this prayer-card holder at the end of a post about something else, and there you can see my original intention, which involved those mini-clothespins. But after the crafting blizzard that was this summer, I can't find those any more. However, at least some of the cards will just stand up in the channel made by the ribbon! So that's fine.

{funny}

This is not that funny, so you can skip it if you want, but it will explain the somewhat lame picture below.

Two weeks ago or so, I got it into my head to make eggplant Parmesan subs, but as much as I cook and do complicated things, cooking-wise, I have a mental block about breading eggplant rounds. Rosie tried to encourage me but I couldn't get over my dread. Chicken, I can bread. Eggplant, no.

Irrational.

But in the end, I bought way too much eggplant, breaded a lot of it until the crumbs ran out, and "fried" it in the oven, and made truly stellar subs. 

To die for. 

So, so good. The remainder that didn't get breaded got roasted and put in the freezer.

So then last week, I decided to make eggplant Parmesan, sans subs. 

But I had an idea, since the eggplant was already cooked, but, as you will remember from the information I let slip above, without crumbs.

What if -- and I do think this is smart, really smart -- what IF you didn't bread the eggplant, but you layered your nice roasted eggplant with lovely buttery garlicky toasted crumbs. See? So you have your sauce, your roasted eggplant, your mozzarella cheese, your Parmesan cheese, and your lovely crumbs, all toasty and crispy, and then another set of layers like that, ending with sauce and crumbs? All baked in the oven?

Eggplant Parm without the breading process! But with the delectable layers!

And it was really delicious! And then, with the leftovers, for lunch we had faux Eggplant Parm sandwiches (because, we were out of sub rolls; this is what I had). And they were good too! Very good. 

But of that whole long process I only got this one photo. Of the very... not terribly photogenic end. And that is a little funny, I guess!

{real}

This is an organizing bin I have in the pantry. It contains some sewing and crafting stuff and my yarn stash in that open drawer. We keep the dog food in the mudroom, although I will admit that mudroom things got into the pantry because it was being repainted.

You can see that this drawer is about waist high (and again, sorry for a bad picture -- it was in the darkness that descends at the crack of 4:30 in the afternoon around here).

In there, in that drawer, in amongst my yarn, was... dog food. I don't know how it got there. Neither does Bridget.