Friday, August 19, 2011

The Perfect Friday Evening


9 x 12 inch wall sculpture

It's Friday evening and you just got home after a long commute in bumper to bumper traffic. You sit down at the kitchen table and open the window overlooking the highway which is always snarled with noisy traffic no matter what time of the day or night. Friday's are particularly noisy. You think to close the window, but the warm setting sun lights up your kitchen and relaxes you. As you look out the window you see two leaves from a sycamore tree floating over the highway below. With the angle of the sun the highway appears magenta instead of the usual dusty and drab gray.


All you have in the refrigerator is a chilled bottle of Verdi Spumonte and a couple of long slender eggplant you purchased at the local market a few days ago. Even though it's Friday night, you decide you're much too tired to go out or fight the traffic again. So you pop the cork and pour yourself a glass of the bubbling wine and slice up the eggplant.


You melt a couple of pats of butter in a saute pan and put in the slices of eggplant. You sprinkle the eggplant with minced garlic, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, celery salt, and fresh ground pepper, and cover the pan with a lid. The garlic and spices permeate the air and you can just imagine the taste of that succulent eggplant melting in your mouth. As the butter is absorbed into the eggplant you drizzle a little olive oil to keep the slices from burning, then turn them over to brown them on the other side.


You take balsamic vinegar out of the refrigerator and pour a small amount on a plate. When the eggplant is soft you put the slices on the plate and sit down at the sunny kitchen table. You place a bite of eggplant in your mouth and savor the flavors, dipping it gently into the balsamic vinegar just enough to absorb a taste of the vinegar. You're finally relaxing after a stressful work week.


Then you hear a knock at the front door and wonder who it might be. A sales person? Should you answer it? You decide to see who it is and you open the door. It's your favorite neighbor across the hall asking what the wonderful smell is coming from your apartment. You invite your neighbor in, pour them a glass of wine, and you slice up the other eggplant. As you both sip your wine accompanied by the sauted eggplant you realize it's the perfect Friday evening.

11 comments:

  1. pass to the right- I am there!

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  2. Hi Meredith, thanks, te he. I wish I had a magenta plate to put the eggplant on. The spumonte was kind of sweet but Gary wanted to try it. only 5% alcohol too. Ha.

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  3. This does sound like the perfect evening, that conviviality with neighbors or friends, a glass of wine, fresh veggies. Perfect, yes. You've described it perfectly, too.

    I love the color combo in the wall sculpture. Purple and sage green might well be my favorite combination.

    Love this post.

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  4. Shame I'm so far away. Sounds like a wonderful evening. I'm planning some blue cheese and a little merlot, a good movie and my crochet.

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  5. I have never eaten eggplant but that looks so good and easy that I will just have to try. Thanks.

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  6. Sounds perfect to me. Love the wall piece. Pretty colors and like how the leaves put distance between the you and the road. You get that feel from the piece even without the story.
    :)

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  7. Love this! Wish I were your neighbor.

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  8. i have a nice little eggplant in the fridge and i am going to follow your recipe tonight... jeff doesn't like eggplant so i get to have it all to myself :-)
    i really enjoyed you friday night story!

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  9. Hi Teresa, thanks, purple and sage, I love the sound of those colors too, not sure if they'll be that color after firing, but we shall see. I like your new photo with Buddy and the flowers in the background.

    Hi Cazz, thanks, I wish you were closer, that blue cheese would be good melted on a couple of eggplant and Gary doesn't like either one so we could have them al to ourselves.

    Hi Patti, thanks, the eggplant takes on the flavor of whatever you put on it as it is rather bland, but kind of a mushy texture when cooked this way, lots of folks roast eggplant, but steaming it under the cover like this achieves the same result without turning on the oven.

    Hi Barbara, thanks, glad you can see that about the piece without the description. I'm really liking making these pieces with the backgrounds and the foreground; I'm thinking about some more now too.

    Hi Mary, thanks, I wish you were too, bet you'd have some good stories to share with me.

    Hi Michele, thanks, Gary doesn't like eggplant either, I think it's the mushy texture, but it really only picks up the flavor of what it is cooked with, now if I made vegetable lasagna, I bet he'd eat it Ha. So glad you liked the story, sometimes my imagination just runs away with me; it was fun thinking of it to accompany the piece. Ha.

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  10. So lovely and I have an abundance of eggplant in the garden right now! Thanks

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  11. Hi Lori, thanks, they do taste so good and so quick to make too.

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