Just TRY it already! Jeez.

Our little garden has produced a great amount of basil, tomatoes and eggplant.  We failed horribly with the peppers and carrots.  The carrots never sprouted from the seeds and the peppers I believe got too cold.  We had one sad struggling plant that produced one itty bitty pepper but it never got bigger than an inch or two.  The basil however has been awesome and I have created two different pesto pasta dishes. One with basil, walnuts, garlic and olive oil and the other with basil, sunflower seeds, garlic and olive oil.  Both were good but I liked the dish with walnuts better.  If I was smart I would stop at the road side stands that sell pine nuts and make it the traditional way.  My husband ate the pesto pasta but not Addy stating that she doesn’t like the “green stuff.”  Awesome. 

The second dish I made was spaghetti sauce. I was determined to keep the fact that there was an eggplant in it a secret.  I figured if I mashed it up in the Cuisineart with tomatoes no one would notice.  Apparently allergies and tobacco smoke don’t dull my husband’s sense of smell.  He walked into the kitchen and said “I smell cucumbers.”   I tried distracting and redirecting but eventually he figured out that something was in the tomato sauce that he wasn’t quite sure of (which means he won’t eat it).  I admitted there was eggplant in it and he tried it.  When I say he tried it I mean he got the most miniscule bit on the very tip of a fork and dabbed it hesitantly on his lips.  “Oh my gosh” I exclaimed “Just put it in your mouth already!”

He made tacos.  What-ev-er.  I ate it and I wasn’t impressed at all it didn’t have enough spices which I should have realized while making it!  I knew it was good for me and there was an eggplant from my garden in it so I ate it.