A bag full of produce

A friend of mine stopped by yesterday with a bag full of assorted veggies from her veggie co-op. "I can't use all of these," she said. "I thought maybe you could do something with them." I thanked her and she went on her merry way. I opened the booty to see what I had. The bags contain: an eggplant, some cilantro, some chilis, two heads of lettuce, a red cabbage, and a green cabbage.

So, what to do with all of this? Tonight, we are having a family dinner with my daughter and her husband and my son who is freshly back from Iraq. Will I be able to incorporate some of the odd assortment? You bet. Not to say that I will use it all tonight, but certainly the eggplant will become Napa Valley goat cheese and eggplant ravioli for a first course. The lettuce will become the base for the carmelized pear salad that I wrote about not long ago. We will also have cedar-planked salmon, sauteed leeks, and butternut squash risotto. For dessert we are having a pear and maple crumble. Don't you wish you were coming here for dinner?

The cabbage presents a little more of a dilemma. It's a lot of cabbage. People are not always fond of cabbage. What shall I do? Wait! I have it! Last year, my sister-in-law made a really simple, yet wonderful Russian Piroski. She made a basic rich yeast dough, and filled it with cabbage which she sauteed until nicely browned. I think she added onion and dill. It was really good and the kidlets liked it a lot. (Big surprise. Kids and cabbage? It was that good.) I think I'll call her.....