Luck

I'm definitely a lucky person.  I have a great family, great friends, and a great life in general. Good things seem to just happen to me.  That is until I get on my bicycle.  It all started several years ago, when the most reliable bike shop in New Mexico improperly installed the rear derailleur on my bike.  There I was practicing clipping in and out of my new pedals when all of a sudden the bolt fell out of the derailleur and the derailleur lodged itself into the back wheel of my bike, leaving me and my bike in a tangled heap on the ground.  Since then there have been multiple crashes, one including a Mac truck (I won't go into details) and a particularly spectacular crash today while I was biking with my husband, enjoying the beautiful day and the WO&D trail.  Since the incident with the truck, I prefer bike trails to the open road.  My mistake.  We were under a bridge biking along a pastoral little stream when a biker shoots around a blind turn IN MY LANE heading straight for me.  There was nothing I could do except yell several profanities and brace for the head on impact.  It wasn't pretty.

MoussakaSo what does any of this have to do with food?  Absolutely nothing except for the fact I really need to cook dinner tonight to decompress.  I purchased some beautiful eggplant at the farmer's market this morning, so I think I am going to make moussaka with roasted garlic pasta.  I love moussaka.  It is a lot of work--not difficult, but just involves many steps.  The results, however, are worth it.  Instead of frying the eggplant, I bake it in the oven.  It's less greasy and the results are just as good.  For my filling, a use a combination of lamb, tomatoes, red wine, cinnamon, mint, nutmeg, cloves, garlic and onions.  It is savory and delicious.  I bought some nice looking mushrooms in the market, so I think I will throw those into the filling as well.  As is traditional, I place a layer the eggplant on the bottom of the pan.  I then add all of the filling followed by another layer of eggplant and then bechemel sauce on top.  You cook the moussaka until it is golden and bubbly.

It's already 5:30!  Unless we want a midnight snack, I better go cook!