3-4 ribs celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 large onion, thinly sliced
1 cup cauliflower, chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 medium eggplants, thickly diced
2 bell peppers, thickly diced (about the size of a quarter)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 lime, juiced
6 oz can tomato paste
3 tablespoons red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon dried oregano
Salt & pepper
1. In a large cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven, heat several tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat and add vegetables one at a time to keep heat fairly constant. Start with celery and carrots, then peppers and onions, then garlic and cauliflower. Add salt and pepper as you go along to taste. As vegetables reduce, push them to the sides of the skillet and add more oil in the middle before adding eggplant. Add additional oil on top as eggplant cooks.
2. Stir in remaining spices, lime juice and tomato paste and continue to cook until everything is soft and well-blended. Serve on bread, top with Za'atar if available.
Friday night I went straight from Penn Station to the Greene Space to see Irish-American supergroup The Gloaming in concert. It was livecast online and it will be edited for broadcast on New Sounds on WNYC at a future date. But you can see me in the front row in the video, just right of center screen wearing a polka-dot top. It was a terrific concert, and probably the most intimate and hassle-free concert I've ever been to.
Kacey had invited me to a play on Friday night but I couldn't go because of the concert, but we made plans to see a different play on Sunday night. Saturday I went to the movies to use my free guest pass and saw Edge of Tomorrow and Godzilla, and part of The Fault of Our Stars. In the late afternoon Katie M texted me and we tried the Hedwig show lottery together, with no luck. So we went to Schnipper's for dinner and came back to TSMC to watch Shopgirl, a modern romance I've been meaning to show her, since she liked the Before Sunrise trilogy so much. As always we had a wonderfully intimate talk about love and relationships, friendships and subway etiquette.
Sunday I didn't do anything except cook and nap until it was time to meet up with Kacey and Becker for the play, titled "The Feminism of a Soft Merlot (or How the Donkey Got Punched)." I have to say it was the worst play we've ever seen together, and possibly the worst play I've seen in New York, which is surprising considering the talent involved (Diana Oh played one of the leads). The acting was good, but the story was uninteresting and borderline offensive in how it portrayed possessive and territorial monogamous behavior and the lack of agency in its female characters.
However, the evening was not a total waste because we got to hang out together on a walk back to their place, stopping at Trader Joe's and I got to test out a convention for group hugs with them when we said goodnight in front of the IFC Theater: 1) Stand in a circle. 2) Put your left arm up, turn your head to the right. 3) Step forward and embrace to share the love.
