MORE MORE MORE!

amore!
and also MORE.
that's what's up.
what do you guys know about fried eggplant?
hmm
what's that?
ahhh.
yes, it IS time consuming.
but,
it's also WORTH IT.
no jokes.
sandwich week went kind of italian-style for the wednesday installment.
that's cool with me, man.
i have that sort of DNA coursing through my veins already,
and a tomato-platelet sauce-count update is always welcome to visit my mouth.
that's the truth.
in order to be ready for dinner,
i made homemade focaccia in the morning.
holy sh!t.
that stuff is dangerous.
like, it's fluffy, but it's also SUPER  heavy on the oil and vegan butter-
again, it's WORTH IT.
we really like eggplant at the Folk Life & Liberty Fortress,
and when it's time to get into it,
we get ON it, go after it, and get BUSY with it.
too much is the right amount, man.
and that means ALL the eggplant, and then, a little bit MORE.
yup.
check the day-four-dinnertime-type teleport:

MELANZANE!!!
AUGERGINE!!!
EGGPLANT!!!
expert.
that's cornflake-crusted herbed fried eggplant,
and sauteed rainbow peppers and sweet onions and arugula,
activated with seared fra diavolo red pepper flake fire-roasted tomato chunks!!!
THAT'S how you take it to eleven, neighbors.
and it looks even F*ing better closer up:

TIIIIIIIIGHT!
but wait,
that focaccia is a light and tight bite, bro.
it's crazily complimentary to that crusty eggplant,
and it soaked up all the juice from the peppers and onions, too.
check it out:
yeah.
so it's essentially an edible buttery sponge?
yes, please and thank you!
mmmmmmm.
here's the recipe.
and the eggplant goes a lil sumthin' like this.
the onions and the peppers were easy easy.
1/4 each red, orange, yellow, and green peppers,
sliced into hella thin strips,
plus half of one large sweet onion prepared the same way.
sauteed in olive oil, gently salted, covered and allowed to soften,
and devoured like a savage.
the arugula is raw. that's done already.
and the tomatoes were just that. plus crushed red pepper, in a HOT pan.
ka-POW!

suddenly,
you're assembling the best thing you've eaten in HOURS...
(it's sandwich week, m'guys, and we're reppin' nothin' but greatest hits)
every single bite, from the first to last of it is passionate.
and thiccccccc.

damn.
that's the TRUTH.
y'all weren't ready for this one.
neither was i, but i caught up to speed real quick-like.
***********
my lady leaves for a week today.
again.
she's off to the big crack in arizona,
and i'm bracing for an april snowstorm.
sweet, right?
totally.
man,
i only vaguely remember what it was like to be young and carefree,
way before AMPERSAND TATTOO and crabtree the dog
ate up all the hours of every day forever and ever.
huh
well, yeah-
the sandwiches help;
but they hinder too.
i mean,
i could NOT do sandwich week,
and stop trying for new and different and better 'guinis every time,
but then,
what kind of man would i be?
not a good one.
the tasks we set ourselves tend to be the easiest to skip out on following through with.
i ain't WITH that, kids.
no way.
this weekend has easily twice as many tattoos as can realistically get done
within the hours of operation of the studio.
now,
i'm not sayin' that something has got to give,
but i will say this: it won't be the sandwiches.
nope.
rules is rules.
i'm replacing close contact with my person
with close-quarters combat between slices of baked wheat.
it's bound to be stressful, demanding, and attenuated along tight tolerances,
but like the eggplant and the focaccia, it's definitely WORTH IT;
never quiet, never soft