Eggplant Sumac

So when you think about Sumac I'm pretty sure you think of the poisonous stuff. But let me take your taste buds to different place. Sumac is normally used in Middle Eastern dishes; such as,  dips and different meat dishes. I used it for the first time with Andouille Sausage this time. When I first found Sumac it was at my favorite spice store called, The Savory Spice Shop in South End Charlotte, NC. It's a great place.When I first smelled Sumac it made me think of an interested twist on pork BBQ. It's lemony, tart, mildly sweet, red-brownish in color. Something tantalizing!

Ingredients:

Skillet

Olive Oil

Eggplant

Onion

Garlic Clove

Andouille Sausage

Ground Smoked Paprika

Herbed Sea Salt (spice grinder)

Pepper

Garlic Powder

Ground Sumac

Basil

Mueller's Pasta or Rice

Instructions:

Cut Eggplant & Onion & sausage into slices . Smoosh garlic clove, and add 2 TBSP Olive oil to skillet. Add eggplant, onion and sausage to skillet. Put heat on Med-Hi if you want a bit of brown cruchiness on sausage or Med if you just want it to cook. Add 1 tsp ground smoked paprika, grind herbed sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, 1-1.5 tsp sumac and some dashes of basil. I love basil. I normally just shake spices until I feel like it smells right. But I tried to gauge the sumac and ground smoked paprika. Feel free to add more if you feel it needs more but please mix what you have to get hot before you add more to get the tastes right.

Cook pasta or rice and add veggie mixture to which ever one you would like to star in your night. It's super tasty!

Enjoy!

Sauteed Veggies with Spicy Mustard

When you have veggies that have sat in the fridge for long enough and you know that they won't be eaten unless they're cooked, here's what you do.

This time I had these in the freezer:
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Button Mushrooms
Sugar Snap Peas.

Slice squash and zucchini, dice mushrooms, and throw in snap peas. Pan size depends on how much of each you have.

Pour a bit of Olive oil in the bottom of pan, throw in veggies and let them start cooking. When steam starts to waft start seasoning.

Other Ingredients:
A reasonable squeeze of spicy mustard ( any kind you prefer)
Dill seed
Black pepper 
Salt (to your taste)

Garlic Powder
Onion powder

Sprinkle and shake into veggies and continue to mix until veggies are soft!

Spur of the moment deliciousness can be served by it's self, with rice, or with some sort of meat!

Yummy!