A sauté of red onion, red pepper, zucchini & yellow squash with shrimp … all mixed with a pesto sauce. Quite amazing over the homemade spinach fettucini!
My first attempt at homemade pasta!
There’s a hummus among us!
Oh hummus, how I love thee! Thou art a smooth and satisfying dip for crackers and crudité alike. A light spread of thee makes a mere sandwich a pocket of yummyness. And you’re pretty easy to make too!
“But why should I make my own hummus when there’s a plethora to choose from at the grocery store,” you ask?!?
Because you can, that’s why.
Hummus is one of the easier dips to make. Once you have all the ingredients, you just throw them in the ‘ole food processor and presto, you’re done!
Here are the basics you’ll need for any hummus you make:
- Beans - pick your poison: Chick Peas (or garbanzo beans) are classic, but Great Northern beans work great too! Or try a Black bean or Kidney bean version for some color variations!
- Tahini - Sesame Seed paste. You can usually find this near the olives in your grocery store. You’ll only use a couple tablespoons per recipe but it keeps for a really long time in your fridge.
- Lemon juice - fresh is always best!
- Garlic
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Salt & Pepper
So here’s the basic recipe:
Hummus
15-ounce can of chickpeas
2 cloves of garlic - crushed
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons of tahini
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Drain and rinse the chickpeas then put them in a food processor orblender with the garlic, lemon juice, tahini and salt & pepper to taste. (Add any other flavorings here! See below) Process to a smooth paste.
With the food processor running, slowly stream in the olive oil. If the hummus is too thick for your taste, smooth out with a little bit of hot water to give the desired consistency. Adjust the seasoning with salt & pepper to taste. Store in the refrigerator.
Now’s the fun part! You get to choose what flavors you want to add to your hummus. Here are a few ideas but feel free to create your own …this is a METHOD recipe!
- Fresh Herbs - Parsley, Oregano, Rosemary, Dill … any of these would work - try combining flavors like Parsley & Dill or Oregano & Basil.
- Roasted Red Peppers
- Lemon Zest & Pine Nuts
- Artichokes & Spinach
Just add whichever combination of flavors you want into the food processor before you add the olive oil. Adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper to your taste and ENJOY!
Okay so this blogging thing is great and all … but it’s making me feel pretty technically incompetent. I don’t like that feeling.
Mmmmmmuffins ….
I made muffins on Friday. Sounds pretty banal, right? But oh, these muffins are amazing. See, I had several fruits that I needed to use up before they went bad:
- Blueberries - from the CSA
- Mangoes - left over from the Mango & Lime Jam I made earlier in the week
- Bananas - very black bananas, perfect for baking with
The first muffins I made were Whole Wheat Oatmeal Banana Blueberry Muffins with Walnuts. Unreal. So moist and delicious.
jam on it, jam on it …
I love jam. I love it on toast. I love it with peanut butter in a sandwich. I love it on warm biscuits. I’ve even been known to warm it up and put it on ice cream. I love jam.
But jam isn’t very good for me … at least not the traditional way jam is made (4 cups of fruit to 7 cups of sugar!)
So I searched and discovered that indeed, I could make jam with honey! I could use A LOT less honey than sugar and create a lovely tasting concoction that more than satisfied my hunger for the sweet, fruity spread.
So far, I’ve made 3 flavors using this method:
- Strawberry
- Strawberry & Blueberry
- Mango & Lime
…and all 3 are quite wonderful. Here’s the basic recipe:
In my opinion, the five food groups should be bread, cheese, wine, chocolate and coffee.
- Karin Simmons
