Spicy Eggplant

The weekly trip to Queen Anne's farmers martket was sweet this week-- though working late caused me to miss the knit-in, an event where men and women gathered to socialize and knit baby hats to donate to hospitals, I did meet a woman spinning beautiful wool from her angora rabbits into elegant lace-weight yarn. She also displayed some very creative knitted hats (all hand-spun, hand-dyed, hand-knitted with combinations of alpaca, angora and sheep wool from either her own farm or her sister's). She let me in on the location a spinners group that gathers once a month and casually invited me to come meet people since I'm new in town. :)

And of course, the produce looked wonderful! Berries are coming on strong, but the real pull for me were the deep purple, plump, fresh eggplants. Besides taking home eggplant, I picked up some green beans, hot peppers, and get this-- Peanuts! Never before have I seen "locally grown" peanuts! In my naive mind I'd almost forgotten that farmers could actually grow these; prior to yesterday I'd only ever seen them packaged up for sale in grocery stores. And they're tasty.

Tonight's recipe:

Chop/Blend/Mix/Puree (whatever) together:
1/2 c Cilantro
1/4 c Olive Oil
1 Serrano Pepper
Couple shakes ground cinnamon
2 tsp cumin
Juice of one lime

Slather the mixture all over (top and bottom) 1/4 inch slices of eggplant and broil for 10-15 minutes, depending how cooked you prefer it. Sprinkle with salt and pepper afterward. Yum!

Ps. Went for a bike ride downtown, pushing through rush-hour traffic to get to the Central Library before it closed at 6. A few items I put on hold were in and I wanted to pick them up for the weekend. It was like Christmas! An audio recording (book cd?) of tales of old women's wisdom, a DVD about birth, and a couple memoirs of midwives. I love libraries.