Obama-rama!

Not to get all Michelle Obama on ya'll, but I can honestly say that for the first time in my life, I'm proud to be American. I've never been a fan of the country's imperialist attitude toward other countries. And even though I did love Bill Clinton back in the day, my anarchist tendencies wouldn't allow me to embrace America back then. I was just born here. I'd rather live somewhere else, like Holland, the U.K., or maybe Canada.

But last night, seeing Barack's name and face next to the words "President Elect" on CNN was purely magic. I have faith that the American people are finally ready to stop making stupid political choices based on crazy religious fanatacism. And I believe that we're finally on the path to realizing Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of equality. Today is a good day!

It also didn't hurt that California's Prop 2 passed, banning gestation crates and battery cages on factory farms in that state. Now if only the rest of the country can follow their lead. Score one for animal rights!

On those happy notes, I'll share my food with you. This morning, I dined on Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits, Diced Tofu Ham, and Red-Eye Gravy:

All three recipes are in my cookbook, but I usually don't cube the tofu before baking it in the ham marinade. All Kroger had on Sunday night was Nasoya Cubed Tofu, so I had diced ham. Red-eye gravy is a Southern delicacy typically made with strong black coffee and ham grease. But I used olive oil, some of the tofu ham marinade, and fair trade, locally-roasted coffee. The gravy is awesome for dipping biscuits and dunking "ham."

For dinner, I needed to use up some eggplant and ripe summer tomatoes that my Granny gave me last weekend. She gave me a TON of tomatoes, and since they're the last summer tomatoes I'll probably see, I wanted to do something special with them. So I whipped up this Whole Wheat Linguini with Eggplant, Tomato, and Red Wine Marinara:

Basically, I just sauteed two cubed eggplants (I don't salt and drain first cause I'm lazy like that), added 4 cloves of garlic and 4 diced tomatoes. While it simmered, I seasoned the sauce with salt, a teaspoon of turbinado, a sprinkle of dried basil, and a generous splash of shiraz.

After I took the picture, I added some Parma and grated Teese and stirred it in so it would get all melty.