Today at the Farmers' Market

The Farmers' Market was greatly reduced in size today. The threat of high winds and rain from Hurricane Ike kept many vendors and shoppers away. We missed the bakeries and the apples especially. Curtis had been planning on making an apple pie, but that will have to wait until next week.

What we did get was 2 beautiful eggplant for only $2. M picked them all by herself for Baba Ganoush later in the day.

I have this new rule on Saturdays. I don't cook. The exception is if I really feel like cooking or have something special I want to make. Baba Ganoush fit my exception today. It was easy to make and went well with our Greek takeout.

I pierced the skin of the eggplants with a fork (to prevent exploding) and put on the grill. I grilled them, turning occasionally until the skins were charred and the eggplant oozed when I would squeeze it. I immediately put them in a container of cold water upon removing them from the grill. Once they were cool enough to handle, I took off the tops and the charred skins. Everything else (including seeds) went straight into the food processor. I processed the eggplant until it was smooth, then added 1/4 c tahini, 1/4 c lemon juice, 1 garlic clove, 1/2 t cumin, and 1 T olive oil. I processed again until it was well combined. When it was finished I tested it to see if it needed more of anything, and it did. I threw in some more lemon juice to balance the tahini flavor. Occasionally the Baba Ganoush will taste bitter. This unfortunately is caused by the eggplant. Eggplant doesn't need to be bitter. Good eggplant isn't. If you find it is bitter, you can experiment with seasonings. However, I have found that sometimes no amount of seasonings will save a bitter eggplant. It happens.

M and J would have just eaten Baba Ganoush and pita bread for supper if I would have let them. Now I have a weeks' worth of snacks (and parts of lunch) for them.