I’m a big fan of grocery shopping. I can spend hours wandering the aisles looking for interesting ingredients, new products or strange things I didn’t even know that I needed.

For the past few years I’ve made a commitment to pick up a new item every time I go grocery shopping. Something that challenges me as a cook to think out of the box or help me get out of a food rut. Sometimes it’s a new marinade, an ethnic spice or some icy treasure from the frozen section. A few weeks ago, I spotted these beautiful baby eggplants from across the produce section. They were so bright and colorful, they looked like they were glowing.

I first thought they would end up as a baba ganoush but they were pretty tiny and that sounded like a lot of work. Instead, I found a recipe from SteamyKitchen for Roasted Baby Eggplant with Caponata Sauce. They are the perfect shape and size for a tender and flavorful one bite appetizer.

Once roasted, the baby eggplant is topped with a mixture of tomatoes, onion, garlic and harissa. The heat level of purchased harissa varies greatly by brand so be sure to start with just a little bit and add more to taste. It’s topped off with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt, cilantro and lemon zest. This was also the perfect way to use up some of the Garam Masala Roasted Chickpeas that I had left over. It’s just a basic pancake the tahini dressing Mine was fabulous Why not make cookies Frosted Sugar Cookies keep crumbling Isn’t she a beaut They're fantastic I always found a bit weird Sweet Carrot Pancakes