Tara's Birthday and BACK TO SCHOOL and a yummy veggie dish

WHEW!  The past few weeks have been crazy!  Tara's and my birthday's are in the last week of July, and the kids started back to school the end of last week (August 9th).  They only had 2 months of summer vacation this year, but at least we'll get out late May next spring.  WHATEVER!   We were going to do a cookout for Tara at the house this year, but we were going to try to make it to a short vacation, but it never happened, and it was kind of too late for invites.   I made Tara a 3D Hello Kitty cake and I think she liked it.  I only wish that pan had somewhere to put the candles beside's the feet... I guess she just has fabulous flaming foot claws.  LOL  I also made a few cupcakes with a bow in the top "corner" with the extra mix I had left over.  This cake was made with Wilton's 3D bear pan, and I shaped the ears, and decorated it with butter cream icing.  Oh, and the whiskers are icing covered spaghetti.

Oh, and we made some DELISH eggplant cannelloni (I guess you could call it that), but it was a very yummy vegetarian dish we made for dinner for some vegetarian friends.

1 large eggplant, sliced in 1/4" to 1/3" slices.
1 batch homemade ricotta cheese  (http://www.framedcooks.com/2011/08/how-to-make-fresh-ricotta.html)
1 sundried tomato
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Sauce
4-5 medium tomatoes, peeled and diced
6 cloves garlic
half a medium onion or about 6 shallots
basil to taste
oregano to taste
salt to taste
Olive oil

I put the diced shallots and garlic in a saute pan with EVOO and cooked them till they started to go clear.
Added tomatoes, and I grabbed some fresh herbs (about a teaspoon finely shredded each), and about a tablespoon of salt.  Once it starts to boil, turn down to a simmer and simmer till done.  You can also add some good red wine if you want, but I couldn't find the corkscrew!

While the sauce is simmering, I took the ricotta, added the cilantro and the finely chopped sun-dried tomato and mixed.  Then I took the mixture and put about 1 to 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of the mixture in the middle of the eggplant slice, and rolled it up.  Then, place in a casserole or lasagna dish, folded side down, so that it will stay wrapped up.

Once the sauce has been simmering for a bit, you can either take an immersion blender or pour the sauce into a blender and blend until smooth (or almost).  Pour over top of the eggplant and bake until warm through.

I think some veggie mozzarella would have been nice, but alas, I  had none, and no time to make it.  This is definitely going to be a keeper.