What I Had for Lunch Today: Moussaka

Moussaka is supposed to be made with ground lamb, but since I'm a vegetarian, I used Morningstar Farms veggie crumbles, which looks and cooks like ground meat. In chili, it might fool you. In this dish, not quite so highly spiced, it really doesn't. Oh, well.

To make it: grill, broil, or sauté slices of eggplant. Fry an onion in some oil, add some cinnamon and a package of the ground "meat," then a couple of diced tomatoes (or the equivalent amount of canned tomatoes or sauce). Make a béchamel sauce of two tablespoons butter, a tablespoon or two of flour, and a cup or so of milk. Whisk a beaten egg yolk into this. Into a greased baking dish layer a couple of spoonsful of bread crumbs, half the meat, half the eggplant, a couple of spoonsful of Parmesan, the rest of the meat, the rest of the eggplant, the sauce, more cheese, and more crumbs. Bake about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. I ate this with an ear of corn on the cob and a glass of vegetable juice. The best part of the meal was the retro polka-dot glass I bought at the Salvation Army for 69 cents. A perfect match for my polka-dot napkins!