I generally enjoy a hot lunch over a sandwich any day which is usually why I bring dinner leftovers to the office everyday. Of course, sometimes there are no leftovers or I am not prepared and that is when having a supply of Lean Cuisine's, or other frozen meals, in the freezer is essential. I admit that I am a little cheap and only buy the meals that cost less than three dollars. Lucky for me, this usually includes the Asian varieties such as the vegetable eggrolls, potstickers (shown above) and the chicken chow mein.

I've been keeping a running list of my absolute favorite foods lately. Here are a few:
- chicken salad
- bbq ribs
- german potato salad
- coleslaw
- orzo pasta salad (giada de laurentis)
- deviled eggs

After reading this list, I have decided I am a diehard "picnic"er and fan of the cookout.

Johnnycakes is on quite a roll lately concocting various spice blends. Spice collection seems to be his new hobby. He lent his new talent for blending delicious flavors to our dinner this evening.
We had a few eggplants left over from a recent trip to the Baltimore City Farmers Market. We are sort of tired of eggplant Parmesan, despite having a good recipe for making the classic Italian fare, and decided to think of other recipes we could try.
We decided on Baba Ghanoush and an eastern rub on the chicken and began to compile the necessary ingredients. Johnnycakes grilled the eggplants (another new hobby) until they browned and softened. We then baked the eggplants until completely cooked and skinned the blackened vegetables. We mixed the eggplant with tahini paste, lemon, garlic and cumin until we liked the taste. A garnish of chopped flat leaf parsley and a sprinkle of olive oil completed the mixture.
We served the Baba Ghanoush with chicken, flavored with garlic, cardamom, ground coriander, cinnamon and cumin, and grilled onions and pepper, pita bread and basmati rice.
We generally have not been going to these great lengths on weeknights in the past several months but we seemed to have the motivation tonight. We didn't end up eating until after 8 p.m.! Well, at least we ate a great meal and have our lunches packed for tomorrow.

I know that we haven't posted at all this summer, or this year for that matter, but I figured I'd post some photos of the cooking and feasting extravaganzas we've had this summer. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed eating all this great stuff!