Aubergine

Every so often, I will get a few eggplant seedlings and grow them in my garden.  Most of the family isn't too hot on eggplant, so I just grow it for me, and once every few years seems to be enough.

I love the color of eggplants.  I like how versatile they are for cooking; how, like zucchini, they don't have much taste of their own and thus take on the flavor of whatever you cook them with--spices, tomato sauce, cheese. . .

What I like most about eggplant is the name they go by on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean:   Aubergine.  It just has such a lovely sound.  Much more exotic and appealing than 'eggplant'.

This growing season has been one that I snuck some eggplant seedlings into the garden.  And, with our hot summer and then regular rains since mid-August, those seedlings grew really well.  I have harvested a few beautiful, heavy, purple veggies (or, are they fruits?   I think, like tomatoes, which they are related to, that they are technically fruit) in the last couple of weeks.

They look so lovely sitting on the counter.

They taste so good in recipes such as cheesy baked eggplant or eggplant parmigiana.  And, apparently, you can slice, blanch, and freeze them for making yummy eggplant dishes when summer is over.  I think I am going to try that with one of these, since with only DH and I home, the dishes I've cooked have only required one eggplant instead of the 2-3 I needed when the kids were younger and all at home. DH doesn't like it quite enough to eat it regularly, and I wouldn't want my pretty aubergines to go to waste!