When we woke up this morning, we expected to see the ground covered in snow.  Instead, we heard ice pellets hitting the windows, creating a glaze over the yard and house.  After a few hours, the snow finally started and we placed a bowl on the deck to catch snow to prepare for snow cones later in the afternoon.

We had a great day outside, shoveling paths in the driveway to create roads for races.  We were in and out throughout the afternoon and spent about three total hours outside.  "Operation Fresh Air Induced Sleep" was put into effect in the hopes that my parent's theory that kids sleep more soundly when they've had loads of fresh air would work.  Sophie made it all the way to 5:30PM before she fell asleep in my arms, not able to wake up long enough to even eat dinner.  I don't know what that will bring for the night or the morning, but I couldn't even prop her upright in her chair to try to wake her up, so I had to let her sleep.

I spent part of the afternoon creating a new recipe for eggplant parmesan that didn't include any dairy.  This is tricky since one of the main ingredients (as the name suggests) is cheese.  Although I wouldn't say that the recipe was totally perfect (it was a bit salty, the eggplant didn't fry all that well, and it took massive amounts of olive oil to even get the eggplant to brown at all), it was pretty tasty.  I did, however, come up with two parts of the recipe that would be excellent on their own:

Marinated Mozzerella:
11 oz. package mozzarella style soy cheese, cubed into small pieces
1/2 c. kalamata olives, pitted and halved
1 clove garlic, minced
2 t. olive oil
1 t. white vinegar
1 t. dried basil
1 t. dried oregano
1/2 t. fennel
pinch salt
Four turns freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients, cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.
[This was so good that we ate it out of the container and thought it was delicious.  This says a lot, considering most soy cheeses taste pretty gross.  If you are a person who eats dairy, you could easily substitute regular fresh mozzarella and it would probably be great.  I would serve this with toothpicks to pick up a few bits of cheese and olives as an appetizer.]

Seasoned Breadcrumbs:
1 c. panko breadcrumbs
1 t. dried basil
1 t. dried oregano
1/4 t. garlic salt
1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients until well blended.
[I used half of this recipe combined with 1-1/2 t. olive oil to top the eggplant non-parmigiana instead of parmesan cheese.  It browned nicely and gave a bit of flavor, color and crunch to the top.  I'd use this again in any Italian or Greek-style recipe that called for melted cheese on top]

Buon appetito, and hopefully sweet and long dreams for everyone at my house.