Day 32

Fruit/veggie day.  Success!  I found cardamom for a price I was willing to pay at the Indian grocery store.  Along with rose water, fresh mint, and tahini.  The tahini is not for the lassis.  They also had ripe mangoes for cheap, so I grabbed one of those for dinner.  By the way, if you're ever looking for spices, go to a local ethnic food store.  This grocer had DOZENS of spices, all fresh, and not what you typically find in your standard supermarket.  For much less cost.

Lunch was really tasty.  I cooked up my artichoke, and diced up an eggplant (one of the little ones) and sauteed it with some green onion, garlic and white wine.  Put a little too much salt into it, but it was still quite tasty.

Garlic Eggplant with Artichoke
1 baby eggplant
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup white wine
pinch sea salt
1 artichoke

Fill a medium saucepan with water, add artichoke and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, place garlic and a little water in a wok over medium heat and allow to cook until water evaporates and garlic is fragrant.  Add the white wine, onions, eggplant, and salt, and saute until eggplant is tender.  Add water as necessary (use the artichoke water) to prevent burning after the wine has evaporated.

Remove eggplant from pan.  Add some of the water from the artichoke to the pan to get all the garlic bits, then return the water to the artichoke and continue to boil it until it has turned a nice dark green and the leaves are tender.  Drain the artichoke, cut off the sharp tips, and serve opened up like a flower alongside the eggplant.

Artichoke may be eaten by pulling off the individual leaves and biting off the meaty ends, or you can pull off all the leaves until you get to the heart, then scrape off the fuzzy stuff, and cut it up to eat.  You may also get into the heart of the artichoke and chop it up and add to the eggplant for a single dish.