An Improv Sunday

Sunday was a bit of a strange day. It was too hot to go outside, Ann still wasn't feeling great from her bout with this cold that I had last weekend into the early part of this week, and no wine in preparation for my 14-hour fast for bloodwork on Monday morning. Our usual Sunday routine of coffee on the patio in the morning and wine on the patio in the afternoon was shot to hell. But I guess that was OK because neither of us was feeling up for much, with Ann still reeling from her cold and me feeling like I got punched in the face after a brutal, brutal Saturday night at the restaurant.

But it got to be noon and we needed something to eat. In what would become the theme for the day, I scrounged the cooler and pantry for stuff for breakfast and came up with this delightful mess for breakfast. This is the kind of thing I would serve for brunch, if I ever did brunch at a restaurant, which I have vowed never, ever to do.

Black Bean, Potato, and Egg Mess

This particular mess is fried redskin potatoes cooked with onion, black beans, jalapeño, garlic, and cilantro stems and bound with a few fresh chicken eggs, garnished with grape tomatoes, cotija cheese, and more cilantro.

Continuing the improvisational theme for an early Sunday dinner before starting my fast, Ann had some zucchini in the fridge, which I made into traditional latkes. I guess I can add that to my list of vegetables from which I have made latkes. They were really good, tasting like a combination of latke and fried zucchini.

Zucchini Latkes

In the afternoon, I also made Ann some eggplant "meatballs" to eat during the week (eggplant, onion, garlic, rosemary, basil, egg, panko, and cotija). I cooked the onion until it was browning around the edges, then added the rosemary and garlic and let that cook for a minute, and then added finely diced eggplant. I added bits of water as necessary to steam the eggplant and to let me scrape up the fond from the bottom of the pan. Once the eggplant was soft, about 12-15 minutes, I folded in the basil and seasoned the eggplant. After cooling for a minute, I put it in a bowl with some panko, a bit of Cotija cheese, and an egg. Mixed, the eggplant sat on the counter for five minutes to cool at which point I made it into meatball shapes and put them on a greased sheet tray in a 350F oven for 30 minutes to set.