Thank you SO much for the smoke detector tips. I am buying shower curtain caps this weekend. Y'all are brilliant.

Last night I made a roasted eggplant and tomato tart from Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone, a dish which fortunately required oven temperatures of 375 and 400, neither of which cause the smoke detector any distress. Deborah Madison warns that this tart is pretty drab looking, and boy is she right.



The basil helped that drabness, for sure, as did the addition of some of those teensy tinsy mozzarella balls from TJ's. (Probably the only thing those balls are good for. The Fearless Flyer claimed they were great for anything you would use shredded mozzarella for or for antipasto, and they are crap on pizza and worse straight up. They taste like water. They're awful. And TJ's sells the North Beach whole milk low moisture mozzarella, which you have to shred yourself, but which is AMAZING on pizza, so I will never buy another carton of balls there again. Also, Beavis, shut up.)

But the drabness didn't matter- Jeff looked dubious when I served it to him, but the roasted eggplant and charred tomato (I used a grillpan) is flavor-iffic. And the crust, which I really had my doubts about (Deborah Madison suggests a really short crust which she claims you can make with room temperature butter!) was flaky and rich and to die for. Of course, I overfilled it which made the crust stick to the tart ring which led to a mangled if beautifully browned shell.