Vegan Eggplant Almond Enchiladas from Moosewood (a puppy drama moment involving chocolate...gaahhhh!)

I swear, if it weren't for the Moosewood cookbooks in my collection, some nights, there'd be no dinner. I mean that literally. When the pull of kitchen apathy strikes, or major puppy trials--I find inspiration in their recipes. These eggplant almond enchiladas have earned a place in our dinner rotation (when I can find a "decent" eggplant in the middle of the country, in the middle of winter/early spring!). Say what you will of the combo eggplant/almonds--it works and it works deliciously. I'll tell you up front, there are a few pots and pans needed to bring this delicacy to the table in all its glory--small price to pay to do this right. You'll make your own enchilada sauce (which is no more than cumin/garlic enhanced diced tomatoes), then there's the toasting of the almonds, and the eggplant filling--which from a "throw together" standpoint is really not that big a deal, I mean you're already in the kitchen, right. Make it worth while and bring your cooking self out. 

Of course, not cooking is not an option around here. First of all, I have great anxiety over other people making food for me. (There it is. I've said it.) Second of all, if it were up to DH, it'd be a PBJ night. Nothing against peanut butter.

So to get this dinner entree going, you'll definitely need to have an eggplant on hand (the original recipe calls for six cups, but I find only one medium eggplant diced up to be plenty), better get some corn tortillas, too. And the almonds are not optional. They make the final product divine. Trust me. 

The filling is nothing more than diced onion, minced garlic, eggplant, green bell pepper and some seasoning thrown in. After you remove this from the heat, you'll add a little vegan cheese to the mix--totally optional, but I sort of love my vegan cheese. 

I like to cook my "sprouted" corn tortillas in a bit of oil before rolling them up--thus the little shine you see. Another optional matter, but to me, necessary. Don't stuff them too much, or you'll have eggplant all over the place.

Your filling is really up to you--mostly a Mexican flavored enchilada only using eggplant in lieu of chicken, say, if you were looking to an easier reference to vegan-ize. I found the recipe at Serious Eats helpful, too. So check his posting out. I can't recommend the Moosewood cookbook enough. Really. A life saver. Any one of them--or collect all of them like I have. 

Got some gorgeous yarn from Yarnbox last month--decided right away it needed to become another Hitchhiker. 

Then got bored with my other two knitting projects and thought I'd mix things up a bit with another crochet project, so started a "Corner-to-Corner" throw. So easy. So relaxing. Such a fast going little project, too.

So our baby girl had an ear infection. But the thing with Great Pyrs is that they won't exactly shake their heads all over the place and whine. They aren't sissies. We are constantly rubbing and scratching and giving good girl kisses to her--how we missed this is beyond me. But that wasn't why we found ourselves in the vet office in the first place. We discovered this "ear problem" by accident when her "mommy" was worried because she consumed four (or was it five) cookies. . . in a split second!

Of course they had chocolate in them!--and she was sort of exhibiting a little lackluster behavior. Into the vet we went. I was panicked about the chocolate. Panicked. The vet was very sweet and said for her size she'd have to consume a considerable amount more to cause harm, but that all chocolate is off limits to dogs. (Which we KNOW!) But she is stealth-like with her arms (I mean "paws") and in the time it takes to say "chocolate"--she is up on the kitchen counter and devouring cookies! *The top of the fridge is now our new "kitchen counter space". Good Lord. But we love her soooo much. Lo and behold, during the exam, it was discovered she had the beginning signs of the ear problem, so we treated her for that, took some blood and are having this analyzed as well, because NOW I'm worried about predispositions to 'other' ailments. Let's cover all the bases.

Yes. Call me an overprotective canine mom. . . 

When we were discussing the chocolate incident, it was mentioned that this time of year sees a spike in the admission of dogs for chocolate toxicity. "Why" you ask? Because inevitably someone, somewhere will leave a big bunny made of chocolate within arm's/paw reach and like I witnessed, in a nano-second, there goes bunny. There goes a canine emergency.

**Keep the chocolate away from the puppies and dogs! 

And don't ask me why they love it so much. 

Soon. . . she'll be nine months. 

She likes to bring sticks and logs and anything she finds interesting to the back door for us to see. What I can't believe is that not too long ago, she was only as big as the fire log herself.