Can we never have that again

One of my favorite stories about the early years of my parent's marriage is the now infamous eggplant incident.  My mom, an eager young wife, dutifully cooked homemade meals for my dad every evening.  In what I can only assume was an attempt at healthy eating, one day, she decided to make eggplant parmesan.  I don't know what recipe she used, how it looked, or what it actually tasted like.  What I do know is how my dad reacted.  He ate his meal and then afterwards causally said to my mom, "can we never have that again".   

"Can we never have that again" has become a long running joke in our family.  I also have to admit, I have made some "can we never have that again" meals for my husband.  Tonight, however, was not one of those nights! 

I really enjoy eggplant and have been toying with making an eggplant dish such as eggplant parmesan.  Unfortunately, I have always been too scared to try cooking eggplant due to the aforementioned incident with my parents.  Tonight, after almost 9 years of eggplant-less marriage, I took the plunge and made baked eggplant sticks to go with our chicken nuggets.  I am happy to report that I really enjoyed the sticks and my husband not only did not ask that we never have them again but he ate all the sticks I put on his plate plus one from the mound left on the counter.  

Now that is what I call eggplant redemption.