Latin Night!

With a fridge full of stuff, and an empty belly, I decided to cook something for myself tonight, but I couldn't really come up with anything too striking. Well I finally decided on a Latin/Mexican theme, and came up with some pretty interesting, and definitely yummy stuff. On the plate is some corn-on-the-cob topped with a slab of fresh mozzarella, a baked sweet potato topped with rice and beans, some more fresh mozzerella, and some fresh salsa, and finally a spicy hot-pepper eggplant baked with three cheeses. Yup - yummy yummy.
So let's see - the corn is pretty simple, so no explanation needed there. The sweet potato was pretty simple too. I baked the potato and then cut it in half. The rice and beans was a simple kidney beans and rice, with some garlic, peppers and onions, and some green salsa I had in the fridge, served with the mozzarella and fresh salsa on top. The eggplant was a little more time consuming, but not all that much. I used a really flavorful, almost creamy, heirloom variety of eggplant that I got down at the market. It was sort of like purple and white zebra-striped. I first cooked the cubed eggplant with some cumin and dried hot red pepper, and set it aside. Next I cooked up some garlic, onion, and three different types of peppers until they were soft, and then added the eggplant back in for just a minute or so. The mixture was then put in a small baking dish and topped with shredded cheddar, mozzarella, and parmesian cheeses mixed with seasoned bread crumbs (pictured at right without the cheese topping). Baked for about 12 minutes, and served with the rest. Now I just need someone to share this with!