Grilled Vegetables with Garlic Aioli

Marinated Grilled Vegetables

This can be grilled or oven roasted. For the oven, I found I needed to finish them with a few minutes under the broiler to get them truly browned.

Vegetables

1-2 eggplants

1 lb zucchini

1 lb sweet mini peppers

1 lb asparagus

1 red onion

Instructions: 

Cut eggplants, onions, and zucchini in 1/4-inch thick slices. Salt the eggplant slices, and leave in a colander for 20 minutes so the bitter juices drain out. Rinse and pet dry. Wash the peppers, and leave whole. Wash and trim asparagus. Brush vegetables with marinade and grill or roast.

Vegetable Marinade

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 garlic cloves, smashed

1 Tbs dry oregano

salt & black pepper to taste

Whipped Goat Cheese

1/4 cup goat cheese

2 Tbs whipping cream

salt to taste

Aioli

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1 tablespoon lemon juice fresh

½ teaspoon salt

1 to 2 garlic cloves small, peeled, roughly chopped

1 cup oil, blend of canola and extra virgin olive oil

Place egg, egg yolk, mustard, lemon juice, salt and garlic in a jar that works with your stick or immersion blender (a 1 pint wide mouth worked well).

Pulse the blender to mix the eggs and combine them with mustard and lemon juice and also to start breaking down the garlic.

Slowly add the oil to allow the emulsification process to take place. Occasionally, lift the blender out of the mixture to allow some air to be mixed in. Continue blending. You should notice that the aioli starts to emulsify and thicken.

Continue blending until thick and emulsified. 

Upcycling a Vintage Wool Jacket

I bought this vintage boiled wool sweater jacket on eBay for $7.50 ($17 total with shipping). It came with some holes and was missing its buttons, but I liked the princess seam shaping in front and back. A quick search on the brand name indicates it was made in Hong Kong, probably in the 1980's. Another indication of how durable wool can be. I bought some vintage buttons on eBay as well.

Sweater listing

When it arrived, I gave it a good soaking in Woolite to clean it, and laid flat to dry. Next, I tackled the holes. Gray is my favorite color, so I had yarn and wool roving in close colors. I untwisted wool yarn so I was working with just one ply, darned the bigger holes, then needle felted over them. Smaller holes I fixed with needle felting. The sleeves were ridiculously long. I cut off 4 inches saving the knit bands, tapered the bottoms of the sleeves, and reattached the bands with a zigzag stitch. After a good steaming, you can't tell they were shortened. I defuzzed the jacket with my sweater shaver. 

I searched for a simplified view of the Minneapolis skyline and cast it onto the TV so I could adjust the image size then trace it. I did the same with another simplified skyline I found online so I had enough skyline detail to go around the bottom of the jacket. 

Casting skyline image to TV

Tracing onto tissue paper

Traced Mpls skyline

I used the traced patterns to cut out the wool felt (purchased on Etsy) then needle felted it onto the bottom of the jacket. 

Cutting the felt