tonight we celebrated Jim's birthday by having a few friends here for dinner. here's what i fixed ... and i gotta say it was pretty damn fabulous! there's no real recipe, just revisions to a couple that sounded good. for about 8 healthy servings i started with 3 medium eggplants, sliced across in 1/2 inch disks, dipped in egg beat up with a little with milk, then breaded with seasoned breadcrumbs (salt, pepper, Pensey's Greek seasoning), baked for 20 min. each side at 350. while they are baking, saute a chopped medium onion (Vidallia or Walla Walla), lots of chopped garlic, lots of sliced mushrooms (prob. at least a pound), dried basil from last summer's garden, more Pensey's Greek seasoning. at the end, add 2 or 3 TBLS balsamic vinegar, mix it up and set aside. now the cheese... about 8oz mozzarella sliced thin, a few slices of something interesting from the refrig (English cheddar with garlic and herbs, in this case), a lump of good Greek feta and about a cup of shredded parmesan. you will need tomato sauce, which could be made from scratch (i wonder where that "from scratch" came from)... but i prefer to open a jar of my dear friend Paul's sauce..
which is as good as mine and lots easier!
when the eggplant is finished baking and the sautéed onions and mushrooms are ready, the layering begins with some tomato sauce in the bottom of the dish, then eggplant slices (some of which can be cut up to fit in the spaces that are empty), then the onion/mushrooms, mozzarella, crumbled feta, "other cheese", parmesan, layer of tomato sauce, more parmesan and topped with any breadcrumbs left over from the first step up at the beginning.
this is how it looks ... side view ... after all the layering. bake uncovered in 350 oven for 30 to 40 minutes til it's bubbly and smells delicious. we had a green salad, fresh spring asparagus and warmed many grain bread ..... and carrot cake and ice cream. i had put 2/3 of the cake in the frig after we had a piece friday night of the 1/3 that Meika ended up stealing from the table and finishing off (see last "bad dog" post). and, by the way, she had no ill effects from eating all that cake!
this is how it looked before baking. 
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