Rollin'

I had a 4 day weekend over Labor Day so I headed to NOVA to spend some time with my parents. I had a hidden motive: my dad was going to teach me how to cook eggplant roll-ups.

As is Italian custom there isn't a recipe for the dish. There are ingredients, but no portion sizes and the method constantly changes. It's so very delicious but I obviously needed guidance.

First I peeled

Dad sliced ( I was not good at this part!!)

And laid em' out to dry

Then came the interesting part of mixing the ingredients together and sampling until it tasted right. I like to follow recipes exactly so I had to throw that out the window and just eat, toss in another ingredient in, eat, repeat.

Any proper Italian cooking session also calls for lots of this -

Then Dad showed me the ropes on frying

And I assembled!

I was texting Mike through the entire process and he is way excited that I am acting like a proper Italian wife. It was alot of fun just learning how to cook on instinct and I loved being taught a 'family recipe.' Now I have to hope it tastes good!