Fire up the veggies!

Something my neighbors and I do often is make our dinners over an open flame, then sit and enjoy a night by the fire, usually with a beer or 3. A couple weekends ago, I had two college friends visiting and after a long day at the beach, we threw together a quick but easy dinner to make over the fire (I'd originally planned to make falafel, but because of the nice weather we took advantage of continuing to be outdoors).

On the way back from the beach, we stopped at a rest stop with a farmer's market and picked up a couple of eggplants. We had a large squash from the garden, and then picked up a few zucchini, mushrooms (cooked separately, as I violently detest them), provolone cheese and whole wheat pitas from the grocery store.

To prepare the veggies, I cut the zucchini and squash into small pieces and stirred in a bowl with EVOO and a couple of diced garlic cloves and a sprinkle of salt. After salting and rinsing the eggplant, I also cut it into small pieces and let it soak in a mix of balsamic and red wine vinegars. This gives a tart but delicious taste.

Once we got the fire roaring and put the cooking grate over it, I used an old cookie sheet (note to self - invest in a cast iron pan) and laid out all the veggies. I ended up putting all (except the mushrooms) on at one time, which mixed the vinegars and garlic. I halved the pitas and warmed them on the edge of the fire...let me tell you, there is nothing like a fire-warmed pita! Once all the veggies were cooked, we stuffed the pitas, put a piece of cheese inside and savored them!


That's me in the middle with my college roommate, Chrissy, on the right and our friend Christian on the left - he was visiting from Florida. And of course, we have our veggie pitas!