Eggplant Parmesan, fixing to make salsa

This was what was for dinner tonight. I got the recipe from A Tiny Homestead  The eggplants and the eggs used in the recipe came from the homestead.

http://atinyhomestead.blogspot.com/2012/08/eggplant-parmigiano.html

I oppsed a little. I didn't have marinara sauce. I had Ragu. I used what was in my cabinet. I forgot to mix the parmesan in with the mozzarella. I sprinkled it on after it was out of the oven. I'd fried the eggplant before with the bread crumbs. While it was so tasty, I was put off by the sogginess. I didn't let the slices drain log enough before hitting the oil. This time I set them on a plate, stacked them and added another plate with a weight and left them in the fridge over night. Big difference. The pan is still in the oven, so picks and a verdict after it's done and we eat.

OK, here's the verdict. The good: I liked it. Scott liked it. I'd never had eggplant that I can recall until I planted WAY too much this year in my garden. I ate my whole serving despite feeling full before I got done. I needed to sprinkle more cheese between the slices. I need to remember to add the parmesan before the cooking. The bad: eggplant really looks like something that something else puked up after it's cooked. It's this weird brown-ish green-ish color and it looks mushy. Add the small seeds that were staring to develop, and ewwie. I don't think this is going to make good reheat leftover food. I'm still going to take some with me tomorrow for work.

I had a whole mess of tomatoes sitting and piling up in my fridge. I found a recipe for fire roasted salsa at Hard Work Homestead. 
http://hardworkhomestead.blogspot.com/2011/09/fire-roasted-salsa.html

I fired up the grill. Pulled up some onions that were ready to come out of the ground. I did have to buy jalapeno peppers. Mine got frosted this spring after they went into the ground. The did recovers, but the peppers are small and the output was low. I grabbed up some of the banana peppers that have been adding up in the fridge too. I thought I had a lot of tomatoes. After grilling and taking them in the house what I had was a crapload of tomato juice. The giant bowl I'd put the tomatoes in after taking them off the grill was almost full, and took some careful maneuvering just to get in the front door without spilling it all down the front of myself. I'm still not sure how I managed to pull that off. I seeded and skinned the tomatoes into one bowl, and squeezed what was left into chunks in another bowl. All said and done I had half a gallon ziplock of tomato guts, three quart jars, and a two quart pitcher full of juice. I still have to run it through a strainer to remove the seeds and get it into my freezer, but the freezer is more than full. It takes some careful smooshing to get it to close.

The jalapenos are what almost did me in though. I had them and the banana peppers in another bowl to peel off the roasted burnt skins. I honestly had heard people say to wear gloves when you handle them, but like most things, the warning fell right out of my head.I really thought it was so you could throw them away after you were done and not accidently touch something you shouldn't like you lips or eyes, while you had pepper juice all over you. I reached in there and started peeling. I also split them open and pulled out the guts. Did the bananas as well. It wasn't until I was done, had everything bagged and in the fridge before I realized my mistake.  My hands were getting warm. Reaching into the hot dish water while I was cleaning up was getting increasingly unpleasant. I finally got to the point where I couldn't wash anymore dishes because my hands were on FIRE! I tried washing them twice more, though I'd just been washing dishes, so I don't know what good I thought that was going to do. I put lotion on them. I didn't know what else to do. I didn't have enough milk to soak my hands. Just enough left to make my cup of tea in the morning. It really was bad enough I had a very hard tome falling asleep. After my shower the next morning they burned again. Every time I got them wet they burned. I was and groom dogs for a living. That next day was torture. Yes you can say lesson learned.