Israeli Hummus

I love dried beans.  They cost nothing, they're SO GOOD for you and you can feed an army with a small bag.  Today I was messing around with chickpeas to make Israeli style hummus.  Here are some of the overnight-soaked beans next to dry ones straight from the bag.  I learned you should opt for the smallest garbanzos possible if there is a choice.  These were the only bagged variety at Aldi.

I was watching Milk Street and saw this recipe come to life and absolutely had to try it today.  Here are a few fully cooked beans next to the dry.  This concoction is processed while the chickpeas are still warm.  With my other tried and true hummus recipe, I'd cook an entire pound at a time and chill them and work with them cold.  The Milk Street recipe also uses 3/4c of the bean cooking water and some lemon juice for liquid, 3/4c tahini and no garlic.

There is no olive oil mixed into the hummus but it is garnished with 2 tablespoons.  It isn't as firm as supermarket hummus, it almost has the consistency of sour cream.  And you eat it warm!  I just couldn't believe how different and delicious this was!  My mom was telling me about the hummus when they visited Israel.  She hates anything with garlic but she could eat a ton of their hummus.  She said it was sold in cottage cheese size containers.  Of course I had to bake some pita bread to go with this and Marek and I had this for supper while Dave is out fishing.

Here is this little booger getting into everything in the kitchen.  i had him in there in the walker to get him to stand up and scoot around.  He is so close to walking.  You can see the corner of  the new oven we got last month because mine absolutely died.  It came with the house and was an awful electric coil stove.  It was functional which is what matters, but it was so ugly and awful to clean and I hated it.  We replaced the stove with a flat top ceramic range and I love it.  My entire kitchen is quite ugly but functional.  Someday when I win the lottery I'll get my dream kitchen.

I haven't had much to blog about lately because I haven't finished any projects and my garden is absolute garbage.  There is a stupid deer who treats our yard like his personal buffet.  He has nibbled down my squash and cucumber plants and he pulled out my dill plant that I had nurtured and fussed over.  I've been worried about canning on the new flat top because I heard years ago that if the canner goes outside the circle of the burner area, you can shatter your cook top.  I don't know why I'm worried about it because I have absolutely nothing to can right now.  Our tomatoes have been relatively safe behind their netting and our first two zucchinis are shaping up out there.  On a more positive note, here is my patient dog putting up with Marek jingling her tags.  I love these two so much!

We went to the Washington County Fair on Friday and enjoyed it as usual.  It is such a nice country fair.  Marek hung in there til about 3 PM before he was ready for a nap.  He was particularly interested in these geese.

I'm proud to report Marek's cabled sweater took the grand champion in the hand knits!  The prize includes a gift certificate to a fabulous yarn shop so I was very pleased.  My temari ball won a reserve champion in the needlework category also so it was a sweep.

I got Marek a kiddie pool at Aldi earlier in the summer and he absolutely loves it.  We entered this photo of him in the "action" category of color photography and didn't win a thing.  I still think it is a darling photo of him.

Also of note around here, my car died in the beginning of June.  It had been becoming more and more unreliable and we were always nervous about driving any distance.  We happened to be coming out of the vet's office and it waved a little white flag and croaked.  I'm so thankful we were together when it happened because if I was alone at the grocery store when it died, I would have come unglued.  We'd been meaning to upgrade to a larger family vehicle but summer is never a good time because Dave has limited hours.  Our contract hadn't settled yet either and I was so worried about another strike and didn't want another monthly payment.

Dave's dad picked us up and we dropped Marek off at his sister's house and Dave and I went vehicle shopping.  We got a 2014 Dodge Journey and I absolutely love it.  The best part was putting my tpt window cling and Norway sticker on the back!

I found some old baby photos of myself and Marek and I look a lot alike!  We even have the same hairline in this picture!

He is such a stinker about walking though.  He won't quite let go of things and go on his own.  Dave tries to hold him up and walk him but then he folds and draws his legs up like a figure skater!  Even though money can get tight at times in the summer, it has been so nice just enjoying my family in the mornings before I go to work.  My two boys keep me in stitches!