Good Friday

I woke up at my usual time on Friday. I went and posted to the Blog and then went back to bed, lol. (Hey, it's my day off)

I made a pot of the "Eight o'clock Columbian coffee" instead of breakfast. It was judged the best coffee and it's cheap!

I whittled away at the ToDo list for the rest of the day until I decided it was time to make parts of the dish I want to take out to Mom's on Saturday.

So, first I made the tomato sauce. I put olive oil in my Dutch oven and added in three cloves of garlic I had minced. I cooked that for about one minute, and then I added one cup of rough chopped Kalamata olives (already pitted), a teaspoon of red pepper flakes and three tablespoon of capers (drained). I let that all cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Then I opened two 28-ounce cans of San Marzano tomatoes and crushed them with my hands. I added them to the pot and brought it to a low simmer. I took fresh basil and tore the leaves by hand until I had about 1/4 cup. I added them in along with a little salt and a lot of pepper. I let it all simmer for about 10 minutes and then took it off the heat.

I made up my breading station with one tray of flour, one with three beaten eggs and the last one with bread crumbs mixed with garlic powder and oregano. I took the four pounds of eggplant (three good-sized ones) and cut off the tops and bottoms and then sliced them lengthwise into half inch slices. I heated up olive oil in my big skillet, and then started frying up the eggplant. When they were golden brown, I took them out and put them on a rack to drain and cool. Then I repeated the process (over and over again).

I put the tomato sauce into the fridge and went to watch some TV. I came back later and put the eggplant in the fridge as well. Then I put myself to bed.