Back to School

First off, New Years was fun and here is a cute typical Russian dish from the table. It is an eye pleaser and can be made in a variety of combinations. It consists of a ring of baked/grilled/fried eggplant and a ring of tomato. Then you stack them and put in any sauce you want. I just used the traditional fried onions and mayo with garlic. However, mayo can easily be substituted with yogurt or sour creme and you can also sprinkle some grated cheese on top or any of your favorite herbs.

The only problem with these little guys is that it's really hard to get them out on the table because one cannot help but snatch in their mouth :P Hehe grandma had to wrestle them away from me. Who could resist! They're just way too colourful! Just look at that combo of black, brown, red, white and green! Yum!

Tomato and Eggplant Stacks

Ingredients

·  2 onions

·  Oil for frying

·  1 eggplant

·  Salt

·  Oil spray

·  3 tomatoes

·  3 tbsp mayo

·  2-3 cloves of garlic

·  Cilantro for garnish

Procedure

1.  Cut the eggplant into 15 pieces and sprinkle salt over them (it takes away the bitterness)

2.  Leave the eggplants for 30 minutes

3.  Afterwards drain the water, spray the eggplants with oil and bake for about 20 minutes until   tender

4.  Fry the onions in oil until nicely browned

5.  Cut each tomato into 5 round slices

6.  Press the garlic or mince very finely and mix with the mayo

7.  Place the eggplant on the bottom, then the fried onions, then the tomatoes, followed by a tiny a bit of the mayo mixture (about 1 tsp) and garnish with cilantro

8.  Finito 

Apart from the eggplant and tomato stacks my grandma made a traditional stuffed fish. She did kind of go overboard with all the cilantro. It looked so good that I could not resist taking a picture of it :)  

However, enough with family gatherings because my new semester at uni starts tomorrow. I'm so excited!!!! Anyways this semester apart from continuing my thesis project, I'm taking Metabolism and Regulation (all about what happens nutrients and minerals in our bodies), Systems Biology (it's about cells), Clinical Biochemistry and Integrated Health Systems (about alternative and complementary medicine which should be really interesting).

So for the next my goal is to establish some sort of a proper scheduling for myself which includes sleep/ wake up times, meal times, time for entertainment and exercise, time for friends, and of course hard core study time.

Can't wait for school

Nadiya :D