Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Hummus and Cable Access

Emmeline

Came slipping between

The two tall trees at the end of the green.

We all ran up to her. 'Emmeline!

Where have you been?

Where have you been?'"

--"Before Tea," A. A. Milne

Hey, everyone. What's been going on? I've missed you all while I've been busy elsewhere.

So today I appeared on a cooking show. And by "cooking show" I mean a half-hour program sponsored by a local grocery store that's shown on cable access three days a week for a month. Rachael Ray, eat your heart out.

Seriously, it's a fun show, and today's theme was--wait for it--food allergies! (An idea I shamelessly proposed to my friend Dave who stars in the show and who has recently been diagnosed with food allergies himself.) Dave and Chef Mark prepared three recipes on the show, two of which were ones I gave them: Nut Butter Cookies and Overnight Oatmeal Cookies. Mark also made a vegetarian pasta dish with brown rice pasta. And I ended up being onscreen the entire time and preparing my Easy Hummus recipe. (Ok, Dave ran the food processor because I couldn't get the lid off. Smooth. Food Network, are you watching?)

Of course the store does this to promote what it sells, but since I want them to keep carrying dairy-free foods so I don't have to drive all the way to Pittsburgh to get them, I was happy to be a support. And several people who watched the taping said that they learned a lot and/or knew someone with an allergy or intolerance who would like the recipes. That was really nice to hear.

Because I was nervous about all of this yesterday, I decided to distract myself by cutting Eli's hair for the first time. We now have an appointment with a barber at 3 pm today to fix his hair. My mom looked at him and said, "I have one thing to say: 'Semper Fi!'" Thanks for being a sacrificial lamb, E.

Easy Hummus

1 can chickpeas, rinsed
3 T water
3 T lemon juice
1 T sesame oil
1 t. chopped garlic
¾ t. cumin
¾ t. salt
Process the chickpeas and all other ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth. Keeps refrigerated up to a week. Serve with vegetables, tortilla chips, pita chips, etc.

Notes: You could also use tahini in this recipe instead of sesame oil, but sesame oil is cheaper and easier to find.
I often leave the garlic out or use garlic powder instead since Katherine doesn't like garlic.

5 comments:

  1. Hey, thanks for the hummus recipe! I made some last summer with tahini and it was bitter - all the tahini I bought, EVERY JAR, was bitter. I will try with sesame oil instead. Poor, poor Eli. Can the barber fix a bad jar-head haircut?
    And congratt's to you, ***Superstar***!

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  2. Hee. I know I *felt* like Mary Katherine Gallagher; we'll have to see what it looks like when they broadcast it. Yikes.

    The barber smoothed the edges a bit, and it does look much better, if a bit short. He said he'd seen much worse.

    I hope you like the recipe. Katherine likes it because it's much milder than most prepackaged hummus.

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  3. Congrats! That must have been fun.

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  4. It was, actually! I think it helped to be with an old friend. And, he said when I finish my cookbook, he'll sell it in his store. More motivation, right?

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  5. Sounds delicious. My family loves hummus, but I've never made it from scratch before. Thanks for sharing this recipe and so many other delights!

    lisa

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