The Beautiful Flowering Baba Ghanouj

I apologize for offending all three of my regular readers yesterday by implying that I thought they were emotionally immature; I was only trying to discuss my own "growth patterns." There is, I am sure, nothing wrong with gently correcting someone regarding botanical identification. Speaking of which, as I did mention yesterday, Tiffy always asks me what a particular flower is, and when I once admitted that I did not know, she said, "I'm disappointed! Aren't you going to make something up?" So then anytime I didn't know the answer to her question, I would just say, "Oh, that's baba ghanouj," since we both love Mideastern food. When she went to Hawaii, she sent me a postcard saying there were many beautiful flowers there, "and," she said, "I think most of them are baba ganoosh." (Her orthographic skills are right up there with her botanical identification ones. Kidding! She is usually a very good speller.)

I did once make my own baba ghanouj, grilling a giant eggplant on Rich's tiny grill. Seriously, it was bigger than the grill! Then I threw it in the blender with the other ingredients but managed to mangle Rich's plastic spatula by trying to stir it without actually turning the blender off. Oops! A real blonde moment. (I claim no wrongdoing in the Yorkshire Pudding Pyrex Calamity, also in Rich's kitchen, but that is a story for another blog post.) Anyhow, the baba ghanouj was tasty enough to bring to a potluck party, once I fished out all the little spatula shreds.

When I told Hardingfele about this, she sent me pictures of garlic and eggplant flowers, since they are two of the main ingredients in baba ghanouj. Since they are very similar in color, this inspired me to create a composite: the world's first glimpse of the lovely blossom of the baba ghanouj!

Figure 1: Garlic Blossoms

("borrowed" off internet by Hardingfele)

Figure 2: Eggplant Blossom

("borrowed" off internet by Hardingfele)

Figure 3: Baba Ghanouj Blossom

(terrible photo doctoring by Famous Hat)

Famous Hat