freezing eggplant

my past weekend was a mess of debauchery and youth.

driving out to dayton in the late evening is a beautiful experience, especially during harvest. the striped hills are like enormous polo shirts heaped across the landscape. as the sun goes down, the light makes everything look like a pastel painted jane austen background.

it was a lot of fun, but tiring, and i was glad when sunday rolled around.
my project for sunday night: blanching and freezing eggplant.

i followed these directions but after the experience i believe these may be better.
looking at the state of the eggplant after steaming them, i think 4 minutes was a little long and that the 2 minutes listed on about.com is a better choice. similarly, the second set of directions explains to put the lemon juice in the cold water bath, which also makes more sense to me.

still, they turned out all right. they will be useable and that is what counts.

and there will be plenty more chances. last night i processed six bride eggplant, one thai green eggplant and one large white patty pan squash. outside i have at least four sizeable globe eggplants that will need to be used, but i am thinking eggplant parmesan for those.

look at those beautiful babies growing

tonights project is multi-fold: freeze green beans, freeze squash, plant for fall.