Grilled Eggplant on Seeded Ciabatta; Notes on "Sheese" and Liz Lovely Cookies

For tonight's dinner, I quickly grilled in a little bit of , Sweetwater Growers' infused roasted garlic rosemary oil, slices of Italian eggplant. I lightly toasted seeded ciabatta (Italian "slipper" shaped bread), spread it with leftover sauce from yesterday, and some "cheddar with chives" vegan "sheese" from Scottish manufacturer Bute Island Foods (skipping the "sheese" on my wife's - she didn't like cheese or cream even before she was vegan), then topped it with the eggplant. It was a delicious combination.

I also served Lundberg Jubilee^® rice (Sweet brown rice, short and long grain brown rices, and black japonica) cooked with vegetable bouillon (it smells so good as it cooks!). Some sweet bell pepper and grilled Brussels sprouts completed the meal.

Yesterday was my photography class, so we ate out. We were rather disappointed with an unexceptional Greek buffet dinner that we had at a Chapel Hill restaurant. Tomorrow is a potluck dinner, so I probably won't have another blog entry until Sunday.

---

I received a comment on the blog today that my friends (I know the very nice husband and wife owners - in fact, they want to carry my cookbook) at Vegan Essentials are now carrying sheeese! I have some samples of additional flavors; when I open them, I'll be sure to describe what I think of them.

By the way, my wife and I discovered a delicious, big, soft cookie last summer - certified vegan, artisanal, fair-trade, mostly organic, Liz Lovely cookies. We can't get them locally, but Liz and her husband Dan sent some for our annual Thanksgiving raffle. Yesterday they sent me a nice sized box of samples to get my feedback, get samples to some others (I'm going to take some to a potluck dinner that the vegetarian society has tomorrow), and get leaflets to some area stores. We have begun to sample their oatmeal / walnut / chocolate "cowboy cookies" (my wife loved them and I thought they were quite good; like most of their cookies, they have a thin coating of luscious dark chocolate) and "peanut butter classics" - I like the whole peanuts and the overall flavor.