cooking at home

I've always enjoyed cooking at home, but with the heat of summer in full force, I am being forced to find alternatives to the usual meals I cook. Apparently I like cooking winter foods. Who knew?

I've successfully made cold pasta salad (a definite new favorite). Adding kidney beans and raisins are a fav now. I still won't add olives or capers (well, capers I won't add because I can't find them and I honestly can't see the investment being worthwhile), but I'm loving my cold pasta none the less.

Tonight I made hummus. Yes, that's right. Hummus. I still have to finish making the other half of it. I cooked too many chickpeas. I also learned that chickpeas are called garbanzo beans. Anyway, I have all these dried beans and lentils sitting in my cupboard because Chris left them (along with a myriad of indian spices to tempt me) but I can honestly say I've never cooked beans (apart from Ham and Beans) before in my life. To top it off I managed to make hummus without tahini. I'm going to play around with the ingredients on this next batch and see what happens when I add sesame oil (which is recommended for the tahini flavor). Here's the recipe:

Hummus

1 cup of dried beans (or one tin of chickpeas in liquid)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 tspn of cumin
salt to flavor
lemon juice to flavor
2 cloves of crushed garlic (or more if you really like it)
1/4 tspn of sesame oil

In the recipe I did for dinner I didn't add the sesame oil. I added more lemon juice and salt. Needless to say, Mari and I tackled half of that batch of hummus. And I ate half of a raw carrot. That's right...I'm eating raw carrots now. I have to admit I still don't like them cooked, but raw is totally ok. In fact, I'm cutting up the other half and taking it to work tomorrow with more hummus. Because I can.

Ok, back to the recipe. If you use the canned chickpeas then just blend it all to hell in your mixer, adding until you get the desired flavor. If you're using dried beans then let them soak overnight, change the water in the morning (washing the beans several times) then let them sit again while you're at work. I did this and although I was concerned with them sitting in water for over 15 hours, it worked out. When you're ready to cook then you should put them in a fresh batch of water and add 1/2 tspn of baking soda. Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat, letting it simmer until you can bust a bean between your fingers easily. Then drain, keeping the water off to the side for moisture to the hummus as you mix, and proceed with the blending and flavoring.

Next quest- making sun-dried tomatoes at home in order to make sun-dried tomato hummus (my absolute favorite). Now, off to make my second batch of hummus. Yummus.