Eastern Inclinations

Johnnycakes is on quite a roll lately concocting various spice blends. Spice collection seems to be his new hobby. He lent his new talent for blending delicious flavors to our dinner this evening.
We had a few eggplants left over from a recent trip to the Baltimore City Farmers Market. We are sort of tired of eggplant Parmesan, despite having a good recipe for making the classic Italian fare, and decided to think of other recipes we could try.
We decided on Baba Ghanoush and an eastern rub on the chicken and began to compile the necessary ingredients. Johnnycakes grilled the eggplants (another new hobby) until they browned and softened. We then baked the eggplants until completely cooked and skinned the blackened vegetables. We mixed the eggplant with tahini paste, lemon, garlic and cumin until we liked the taste. A garnish of chopped flat leaf parsley and a sprinkle of olive oil completed the mixture.
We served the Baba Ghanoush with chicken, flavored with garlic, cardamom, ground coriander, cinnamon and cumin, and grilled onions and pepper, pita bread and basmati rice.
We generally have not been going to these great lengths on weeknights in the past several months but we seemed to have the motivation tonight. We didn't end up eating until after 8 p.m.! Well, at least we ate a great meal and have our lunches packed for tomorrow.