Hi guys! Eggplant is gross!

I have an awkward relationship with eggplant.

Basically, it goes like this:

1. I forget that I hate eggplant.

2. I eat eggplant.

3. I remember that I hate eggplant.

The problem is, one of the things that I really miss since becoming a vegetarian is chicken parmesan.  And at home, we have a restaurant nearby called Tony's that makes an eggplant parmesan that I love more than most other foods.  Mostly because they fry the eggplant beyond recognition, melt a brick of mozzarella on it and cover it in their super awesome tomato sauce.

So when I saw this in Tops, a combination of step one in the eggplant cycle and me missing Tony's made me buy it.

Quick, delicious meal my ass.

It just was not good.  I'll walk you through it, but I'm telling you, it was not good.

So first, I, innocent, wide eyed, hoping for nothing more than delicious eggplant parm, cooked some eggplant.

Warning sign number 1: it still looks like eggplant.

I also cooked up some spaghetti, and then I decided to get fancy.  That's usually when things go wrong for me.

It sort of looks like roadkill...

I thought that if I put the spaghetti, sauce, eggplant and cheese in the pan and then broiled the whole business, it would taste like Tony's.  False.

I was so hopeful when I took this photo.

The noodles/cheese/sauce thing wasn't really bad, but the eggplant peel was weirdly hard and it just made the whole experience unpleasant.  My roommate made something similar later in the week, though, and she seemed to be successful.  You can see her blog post here.  Also, she has a really cool blog that you should read.

Anyways, the eggplant cycle completed itself one more time.  When I reread Becky's blog post just now, I couldn't help thinking it looked delicious, so I guess it's only a matter of time before the cycle starts again.