Hmmm...hummus!

Once upon a time, this was my favourite party dips while I was in Toronto. But, as I only just purchased tahini sauce on Saturday while on Commercial Drive, I haven't made it since being in Vancouver (or Winnipeg for that matter). But, it's super easy and super tasty. This was my dinner last night...

First, open up a can of chick peas and drain the liquid into a cup. Pour the chickpeas into a deep medium-sized bowl. It should be deep, as I learned last night, so that you dont get a lot of splatter (i.e. chickpea bits in your hair) as you are blending the ingredients together. Add in: one clove of peeled garlic, a 2-tablespoon-sized chunk of onion, juice from 1/2 a lemon, 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin and coriander, 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and 1/4 cup of tahini sauce. Blend until smooth with a hand-blender. (If you don't have a hand blender, you should get one. They are very handy. Pun intended.) It will be very thick, so you will want to add some of that chickpea liquid that you saved earlier to give it a creamier texture. You probably won't need that much, maybe 1/4 cup depending on how fluid you like your hummus. Enjoy with warm pita bread or with fresh veggies.

Add a little crunch to your salad...mmm...croutons!

In your face Brendon...some people (ok, my brother) think that my food blog IS a good idea. So, I present to you my instructions for the preparation of crunchy croutons. While it may sound completely lame to make croutons, these are simple to make and it gives you a use for those ends of bread that you have been throwing away. First, you need to collect the first and last pieces from your loaves of bread and save them until you are ready to use them, in your freezer. If you are impatient, then you can use the middle of the loaf too. Once you have about 10 ends, then you can make a decent amount of croutons. Preheat oven to about 250 degrees C. While it's heating up, cut the bread up into little cubes, drizzle them with oil and sprinkle them with spices of your choosing. I like to use the "garlic blend" that I mentionned in the perogy post. If you don't have that, then rosemary or chili powder would be nice too. Spread them out on a cookie sheet and let them dry out (about 40 minutes). Let them cool before transferring to a plastic bag. You will never buy croutons again...