I just realized it's been all about food here lately. But that's a pretty good reflection of my day-to-day life, so I'm just going to roll with it. I thought I'd share my super easy recipe for hummus. I made this recipe times five last week during my
bulk cooking session, so I now have a freezer stocked with hummus to last us for a while. Making your own hummus is very easy, and much cheaper than buying the pre-made stuff in the grocery store. You can use canned chickpeas, but cooking your own chickpeas isn't difficult, and you'll save even more money. I've found from talking to others that cooking dry beans can be a little intimidating if you haven't done it before, but really it's quite simple.
My hummus recipe is about as basic as it gets:
2 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 clove of garlic
a dash of salt
about 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (I usually get mine
out of the freezer)
a tablespoon or so of olive oil
about 1/4 cup water
(A note about ingredients: most hummus recipes call for tahini (sesame seed paste), but I nearly always leave it out. Just a matter of preference.)
I'll start with the dry chickpeas. Simply pour your dry beans into a large bowl, sorting through them and discarding any small pebbles you may find (I've generally never found anything in chickpeas, but nearly always find a little stone or two in black beans). Cover with several inches of water, and let soak overnight, or I sometimes start them soaking in the morning and cook them in the evening. This is two pounds of dry chickpeas.
Here the chickpeas have soaked up all the water.
Now drain off any soaking water that's left, and put beans in a large pot to cook, again covering with several inches of water. Bring beans to a boil and let boil for 2 minutes, then turn the heat down to a simmer. Chickpeas will need to cook for about 2 hours or so. (Other types of beans take less time)
Once the beans are tender simply drain and let cool. Two pounds of dry chickpeas will give you about 12 cups of cooked chickpeas. I usually like to freeze chickpeas in 2-cup portions. On my bulk cooking day, I used most of the cooked chickpeas to make hummus.
For hummus, first chop up the garlic clove in the food processor.
Then add in the chickpeas, salt, lemon juice and olive oil.
Process until combined. At this point your mixture will be slightly dry.
Add in the water a couple of tablespoons at a time, processing after each addition, until you have a smooth texture.
We love hummus served with carrot sticks and sliced bell peppers. The kids also like it served in pita bread for a sandwich on the go.
This post is linked to:
That was the year Millie had her first taste of pumpkin pie, using chopsticks.
Then later we had our "real" Thanksgiving meal at the Marriott in downtown Chongqing. The buffet there was amazing, complete with turkey and all the fixings. A fancy splurge for homesick teachers.
I'm grateful to be celebrating Thanksgiving at home now, with plenty of good home cooking.
For Silas, that sticking-out tongue means he's really concentrating.
Millie used a combination of markers and crayons to achieve just the right shades of brown.
Silas worked hard, and was worn out at this point. But he and I were both proud of his picture.
Happy Thanksgiving!
You can print this cute coloring page here.
I thought the unbaked filling looked so pretty, with the contrast of the pale apples and the deep red cranberries
Seeing his creation makes me marvel at how much kids learn when they're "just playing". Silas is learning to be creative by taking a pile of blocks and turning them into a recognizable object. He's gaining confidence by conceptualizing and implementing his idea. He had to use math skills in order to make his airplane symmetrical. And best of all, for Silas, he was "just playing".
Other materials needed are a pencil and some q-tips.
Millie did the whole project without my help, though if I'd been nearby, I might have encouraged her to outline all the pencil lines in brown or black. I might have also suggested that she color the background. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't have the chance to meddle with her picture! I really love the curly pumpkin vine. I asked her what the "PP in the upper corner meant. Her answer was, "prize pumpkin". Of course!
Recently we sorted through our crayons and found all the ones that were broken. The kids helped peel off the paper and break the crayons into even smaller pieces, then I let them each sort crayons into silicone muffin tins. We baked these in a 150 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Then I let the kids give the melted crayons a very slight stir with a wooden skewer. In no time we had "new" crayons.
I think the kids really liked the larger surface area to grip while coloring, and had so much fun just coloring to see what kind of color variations would show up on the paper.
My kind of craft!
Once the beans are tender simply drain and let cool. Two pounds of dry chickpeas will give you about 12 cups of cooked chickpeas. I usually like to freeze chickpeas in 2-cup portions. On my bulk cooking day, I used most of the cooked chickpeas to make hummus. 
I'm planning to finish up and do a bit more cooking tomorrow. Here's my list:
