Eggplant parmesan

We found a beautiful eggplant at the grocery store yesterday, so we decided to make our version of this  traditional italian dish.

The recipe is very simple and it was easy, so I thought I'd share it.

Here are the ingredients we used:

1 Large or 2 Med Eggplants
3 T milk
1 C bread crumbs
1 t garlic powder
1 t dried oregano
2 t dried parsley
1 t dried basil
4 C pasta sauce
3 egg whites
2 C shredded mozzarella
Olive oil

First we peeled the eggplant with a vegetable peeler.

Then sliced it into 1/2 inch (~1 cm) slices. 

We mixed together the bread crumbs, parsley, basil, oregano, garlic powder, and parmesan to use as breading. 

Then, we removed the yolks from three eggs, added 3 tablespoons of milk and whisked it really well. This is the egg wash.

Next, we lined a cookie sheet with tin foil and coated it with olive oil.

We lined it all up on the counter.

And started the breading process, starting with the egg wash...

...followed by the bread crumb mixture.

Then we just placed the breaded eggplants on the oiled foil.

We baked the breaded eggplant slices at 400 degrees (Fahrenheit) for a total of 20 minutes, flipping them halfway through (ten minutes per side). 

 You can use just about whatever kind of pasta sauce you like in this recipe. We made our own sauce out of a couple of cans of tomato sauce with some added ingredients.

Such as: hot pepper flakes,

 fresh chopped basil,

 and italian sausage.

We chopped up the sausages and cooked them before adding them to the sauce.

Once the breaded eggplants were done baking in the oven, we were ready to assemble the final dish.

We used a 3 quart (2.8 L) glass baking dish, oiled up with a little bit of canola oil. 

We layered the ingredients, starting with the eggplants, 

then the sauce, 

and half of the shredded mozzarella.

Followed by a second layer of eggplant, 

and sauce, and cheese.

Then we baked the whole thing for 20 minutes at 350 degrees (Fahrenheit).

And it was delicious!

Sugar Fix

I noticed that this trumpet vine (Campsis radicans, Bignoniaceae) was covered with ants the other day. Ants are usually on plants for one reason and that is to get a sugar fix.

Often they are getting their fix from aphids or other herbivorous insects that produce honeydew (see a video here). Sometimes they are getting the sugar from the flowers of the plants in the form of nectar, just like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds do. You can see clearly in this photo that they are entering the flower's corolla to access the nectar inside. There is, however, another way for ants and other insects to obtain nectar from flowers.

As you can see, the ants are also foraging on unopened flowers and flower buds. This is because trumpet vines, like a surprising number of other plants, produce nectar in special glands outside of the flowers. These glands are called extrafloral nectaries. They are the little circular structures seen here on the calyx of the flower.

Extrafloral nectaries produce nectar that is attractive to a variety of insects, most of which are beneficial to the plant by defending it from its enemies.
The next time you see ants on a plant in your garden don't just assume that they are harming it. A closer inspection may reveal that they are actually defending it. If you see them tending aphids though, there may be cause for concern!

Yikes!

Cute bug?

I saw this Pandorus sphinx caterpillar (Eumorpha pandorus) on a grape vine last weekend. 

These caterpillars belong to the Sphingid family (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae), which includes the infamous tomato and tobacco hornworms. Although the caterpillars are often referred to as hornworms because of the "horn" at the tip of their abdomen, the adult moths carry the more attractive names of Sphinx or Hawk Moth. This caterpillar doesn't have a horn though. Instead it has a thin curved hook and an eye-spot on the tip of its abdomen. As they get older they lose the hook altogether, leaving only the eye spot.

This caterpillar was an amazing dark red color, but I saw others that were a much lighter rusty-orange.

When they feel threatened Sphingid caterpillars often rear up and tuck their heads back, in a motion that is reminiscent of a serpent preparing to strike.

But let's face it. It just makes them look ridiculous and...kind of cute. In fact, I think they ought to be put in the running for cutest bug. Or at least be in the top 10.

Pollinator Pit Stop

I took a break from my bike ride the other day to see what insects were visiting this patch of wildflowers.

Flowers that bloom late in the summer are often teeming with insects. This is an important time of year for them to stock up on pollen and nectar to help them or their offspring survive the long winter.
Many of the insects on flowers have black and yellow stripes, which make them easily mistaken for bees or wasps. This syrphid fly (Diptera: Syrphidae) for example, is a fly, not a wasp, and it couldn't sting you if it tried!

Syrphids are actually very beneficial insects in the garden. They lay their eggs near aphid colonies and when the syrphid larvae hatch out, they devour the aphids one after another.

Here is another fly that could be mistaken for a bee. This is a bombyliid fly or "bee fly" (Diptera: Bombyliidae).

Some members of this fly family are parasites of bees and wasps. They attack their hosts insects by flicking the eggs into their nests. The bombyliid eggs then hatch and the larva eats the host larva as well as the food that the host's mother provided for it in the nest. Its a pretty nasty strategy, but bombyliids are pollinators too, so they're not all bad.

Speaking of pollinators, there were honey bees visiting this flower patch as well.

Honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) are the #1 insect pollinator of our food crops and they are also important for honey production.
Honey bees are not the only bees that pollinate our food crops though. There are hundreds of other bee species that help with the pollination.
This is a sweat bee or halictid bee (Hymenoptera: Halictidae).

They are called sweat bees because of their habit of landing on our skin to drink droplets of sweat. Many people find this irritating so they have a bit of a reputation as a nuisance, but they are important pollinators. They can sting people too, but will only do so in defense and their sting is fairly mild. Next time you have a sweat bee on your arm try just shooing it away rather than swatting it. Sweat bees come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. The green metallic one above, is one of the largest ones in our area (Northeastern United States).
Here is a much smaller one on a goldenrod flower.

As you can see halictids tend to carry pollen on their hind legs. The pollen is held in place by tiny hairs on their legs. They are gathering pollen to take back to a nest where they form it into a ball for their offspring to feed off of while they grow. Halictids usually nest in burrows in the ground, sometimes in large groups. If you ever come across a cluster of tiny holes in the ground with sweat bees bees going in and out you may have found a colony of halictids.
Halictids are just one of the many important bee pollinators of our wild and cultivated plants. I will hopefully get to cover other groups in future posts. You can also follow this link to all of my previous posts about bees. Thanks for reading!

Knappy Dread

We were out picking blackberries the other day and came across some Spotted Knapweed (A.K.A. Star Thistle). This is a very controversial plant because it is an important nectar source for honey bees, but it is also an invasive species in parts of the world where it isn't native. Up close, the flowers are actually very pretty.

Unfortunately, the rest of the plant is not particularly attractive.  Here is what it looked like in our blackberry patch.

Usually, however, spotted knapweed is found in large patches where it has eliminated many of its competitors.
Large patches of knapweed can be a very important source of nectar for honey bees and many beekeepers depend on this plant for their livelihoods. The bees use the nectar to make honey (usually sold as Star Thistle Honey) and they can make more honey in less time if the flowers are all growing together in one place.
We saw many insects visiting the knapweed flowers to gather nectar and pollen, like this bumble bee.

In fact, like all flowering plants, spotted knapweed can be an important food source for a variety of insects. It has even been reported as a food plant for the endangered Karner Blue butterfly!
That is not to say that spotted knapweed is not causing ecological damage in areas where it has become invasive. In these areas it is endangering many native plant species that are also important food plants for insects and other animals. It's a very controversial plant and it is likely to stay that way for some time.