Southwestern Hummus

Do you like hummus? Yes? No? Sometimes? Are you partial to the traditional plain hummus? Or do you like it spiced up a bit?

I love it both ways. Providing it's homemade. But I think I like it a little bit more with a little spice added.

I don't know what made me even try this recipe. Or where I found the recipe originally. Actually, over the years, I have tweaked and altered so is this where I get to call it my own?

Wouldn't you just love to serve this on Super Bowl Sunday and see the faces of the guys when they bite into it, thinking it's guacamole? hahaha!!! I have a brother in-law who doesn't like guacamole (gasp!!!) so it's a good thing my sister told him it was hummus otherwise he'd have missed out on this yummy, healthy treat.

Oh, and ya....he likes it too.

Basically it's the same original hummus recipe...with a few flavorful additions:

2 or 3 garlic cloves
2 - 15 oz cans of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) or...you can use fresh, cooked beans
1/4 - 1/3 cup of tahini
1/3 cup lemon or lime juice (fresh is best)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons sliced nacho style jalapeno chilies (from the jar) or more if you like it hot. remove seeds and veins to reduce heat
Olive Oil and Paprika to garnish

Drain the chickpeas and reserving the liquid

In a food processor, chop the garlic and jalapeno, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the chickpeas and cilantro

oooooh eeeeeeeeem geeeeeee....I just love this stuff!! I swear, I'd be happy just sitting there with my face shoved in a bunch of cilantro, inhaling!!

(clears throat)...ok, focus. Add the tahini

add the lemon juice

Grind for a second and then add some of the chickpea juice

Grind some more. If you need more juice, add some more, a little at a time until you get a nice smooth creamy texture going. You don't want it too watery though. And you won't need all of the juice....so just watch it.

Oh man....if you could smell this! Fresh, spicy with a hint of garlic. Right up my alley!!

Scoop it into a bowl and drizzle some Olive Oil over the top with a sprinkle of Paprika.

Now....what do you think we should we use to scoop up this yummy mouthful of goodness with?

Homemade whole wheat pita?

Talk about some good stuff here. Simple, easy.....unreal! I was amazed at how wonderful these babies turned out. Wanna make 'em? The recipe is in the book "Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day". I'd love to share the recipe with you but have been sworn to secrecy. Sorry :(  I bet you could use just about any bread recipe. Just grab a ball of dough....(after 1st rise), roll it out to about 1/8" thick....bake in a preheated 500' oven for about 5 - 7 minutes and cool, covered with a cotton towel on a cooling rack. Yep...that easy. It puffs up and has the cool little pockets and everything. Maybe I'll dedicate a whole other post to these babies another day.

Anyways....as good (and traditional) as that combo is....I think this hummus is best with tortilla chips.

But this lazy cook didn't go to the grocery store and didn't have any tortilla chips in the cupboard.

What I did have was a bag of corn tortillas

Woooo hooooo!!! Just slice 'em up, pie fashion and fry 'em in a pan of oil until golden brown...only takes a few moments (or if you really must be healthy, bake them. but I have no idea how high or how long....you're on your own there)

Drain on a few paper towels (or if you're in the middle of an online wine club party over at BakeSpace, you'd be using power towels...but thats a story for another time that requires lamp shades and drew scribers.)

And low and behold....you have a gorgeous plate of yummies to present to your Super Bowl guests. Or...just keep it in the kitchen to munch on while you prepare a bowl of potato chips and onion dip for the guys. As if they'd notice anyway, right? (Unless of course you served it while wearing your bathing suit.).

Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?

Seriously...where the heck were they? They certainly didn't show up for the game.

I bet their fans are about as blue as this cake.

Well, the good news is that I can now take my Christmas Tree down. Yep...it's still up. What's the connection? You see...I don't call my husband Sir Sportsalot for no reason. He's a HUGE Dallas Cowboy fan. I think it's something he inherited from his mom. And well....it came to his attention (Thank you very much Natalie) that the Cowboys hadn't lost since I put the tree up.

I was worried for a while that I'd have to leave it up until the Super Bowl.

Btw...this wasn't intended as a celebration cake (it would've been cool if it worked out that way). I made it last Saturday. I bought all the fun stuff that morning and decided I'd better wait to see if they won that game before I made it. They did, and I got to play. I was going to post this earlier in the week but other things got in the way. And now.....well.....I s'pose it's a "See Ya Around Cowboys" cake. (I don't think Sir Sportsalot wants to see it anymore now anyway).

But do you know what I discovered? Fondant keeps cake really moist.

Ok...let's get on with this Blue Velvet Cake.

How cool is that?! Seriously....way fun to make (even though my tongue and fingers turned blue too). I found all the recipes as follows:

Blue Velvet Cake was found on PaulaDeen.com
Buttercream Icing was found at AllRecipes.com
Marshmallow Fondant was found at DDpiesSlices.blogspot.com

First comes the cake and I made a couple minor alterations. I added more cocoa powder and I decreased the vinegar. I didn't have enough blue food dye on hand. Do you know that the grocery store only sells red, yellow and green food dye separately? Why not blue? Why not the primary colors...red, yellow and blue? The rest we can mix on our own. That really irritated me. And the boxes of food dye with all the colors has the tiny little bottles that aren't even 1/2 an oz. Do you know how many sets I'd have to buy? A ton! So I went to Michael's Crafts and looked in their cake decorating area (and found some cool 'star' things to use)...and picked up some blue icing color. I have a feeling those are VERY concentrated. Cuz I only used 1 oz. and that may have even been too much.

aaaaaaaanyways.....

Blue Velvet Cake:
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter (1/2 lb) at room temp
2 eggs at room temp
2 oz. blue food coloring (or less than half if using blue icing coloring)
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vinegar

Buttercream Icing:
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter at room temp (I don't remember exactly but I think I omitted the shortening and doubled the butter)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Marshmallow Fondant
16 oz. White mini marshmallows
3 tbsp water
2 lbs powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Vegetable Shortening (for kneading)

Now...before we move on, I'm not going to give you the step by step instructions for making the icing or the fondant. I highly advise that you visit the links for that. I'm here mainly for the Blue Velvet cake and for the fun of putting everything together :)

Oh and check out this awesome super duper huge ceramic mixing bowl that I got for my birthday!!

Preheat your oven to 350'. Grease and flour your pans. I used 2 8" round pans and 1 really cool star shaped silicone cupcake pan. (the silicone pan doesn't require the flouring).

Tip: It may not be a good idea to drink while baking. One tends to forget to flour the pan. Thus having to remove batter from said pan and wash it out, drying thoroughly so that the pan can be prepared properly. Only to discover that once again one has forgotten to flour the pan. And the cycle begins again. 


In a large mixing bowl, cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. One at a time, add your eggs and mix together thoroughly after each egg. Add the cocoa powder....mix well. Then add in the dye.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together and add to the creamed cocoa mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. Blend in the vanilla and vinegar.

Pour your batter in the properly prepared pans

Can you say BLUE! hmm...maybe I should've saved this for the Dodgers.

Bake for about 25 minutes...doing the toothpick testing thing. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before decorating

Prepare your favorite buttercream icing

This will be used as a "glue". (pretty damn good tasting glue if you ask me) You will need to ice the cake first and then place the fondant on the cake. The icing will hold the fondant in place.

Cover the icing with plastic wrap if you're not going to use it right away. It does harden and get kinda crunchy.

Prepare your fondant according to DD's instructions (link can be found above). Break off a bit and add some dye to it until you get the desired color

Roll the fondant out onto a greased surface and cut out your decorations

First I decorated the cupcakes

Well...all but one. There was a casualty :(

But for the most part....everyone else survived

Ok...now that I'm warmed up a little...it's time to tackle the big boy....

I have a hard time getting this stuff all even when I roll it out. It ends up sticking and getting messy and then I start getting worried that I've used too much vegetable shortening cuz it's like I have this greasy ball. But you know what? By the next day, all that grease had soaked in or something cuz the cake didn't look greasy. I dunno....I just hope I'm doing this right

Well crap! I worked so hard to get that sheet nice and even and the damn thing stuck to itself when I placed it over the cake.

Huge mess!! Had to toss that into the trash. Oh, and speaking of trash...a big ole wad of my blue fondant rolled off the counter and under the dishwasher. What I found was what looked like a dead ball of fuzz that looked like it had been holding it's breath. Man was I pissed! Good thing this batch makes a lot! I had plenty left to make more blue fondant and then more to cover the cake with

Now I'm getting excited!! Time for the fun! (btw....this whole process ended up taking me 3 days. When the cake was cooked, I froze it until I was ready to ice and decorate)

Well...I have to say that this is so much fun to do! It's like playdough for cooks. I had printed the logo off the computer so I could get the cowboy font right and the star the right size. I cut out the "pattern" and wiped the backsides of the paper with shortening, placed the pattern on the fondant and used an exact-o knife to cut the decorations out.

And you know what? If the tops of the decorations aren't real smooth....don't bother trying to use a toothpick as a rolling pin, cuz it doesn't really work that great. (it kinda feels like you're playing Barbie). Just wet the tip of your finger with water and gently run it over the top....smooths out real nicely.

Like I said earlier....the cake is very moist. The only problem I had, is totally my fault. I think I can taste the dye. But thats because I probably added too much of it.

And....I'm sorry to see the Cowboy's go. Better luck next year. After all, Super Bowl XLV will be in their own stadium.

Salisbury Stroganoff

I'm trying to remember how this came to be. I made it a while ago and never got around to posting it. I believe I had purchased a chuck roast cuz it was on sale. It was a rather large roast so when I went to make it, I halved it and only roasted a portion of the meat. (ya...now it's all coming back to me) Two days later I needed to do something with the rest....something non-roast like and something fast since it was a work night.

Not long before this, I had made Salisbury Steak from a recipe I found over at Sprytes Place. I thought it was wonderful. Sir Sportsalot asked me why I had served him meat loaf when I know he doesn't like meat loaf.....(good grief!). I decided that I could use the chuck in a stroganoff. But I was out of something (I think it was the cream of mushroom soup?)....but I had some french onion soup in the cupboard...soooo....stroganoff with a salisbury flavor it was.

I didn't weigh the beef but it looks like I have about 2 cups worth? It really doesn't matter if it's exact. I just know that I cut off the fat and sliced the rest thinly. Sooo....for the ingredients I used:

A pile of sliced chuch roast, fat removed and sliced thinly
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons catsup (or ketchup...whats the difference anyway?)
1 can of french onion soup
1/2 can of water
1/2 med onion, sliced
1 few mushrooms sliced (about 4 oz worth)
1/2 can of milk
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup sour cream

Season the meat with salt and pepper. Not too much salt cuz the soup is loaded with sodium. In a good sized skillet, brown the meat. Add the soup and water then stir in the catsup and garlic

Add the onions and the mushrooms. Cover the pan and let simmer until the meat is cooked and tender...about 30 minutes or more depending on the thickness of the meat. Could be up to an hour.

Combine the milk and flour by shaking in a covered container and add to the skillet, while stirring

Heat to a boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for one minute. Reduce the heat and add your sour cream

Heat through and serve over noodles. I always use those extra wide egg noodles for dishes like this.

It was very yummy with lots of flavor. Perfect for a cold night.

Whole Wheat Bread and Soup

What comes first...the bread or the soup? Do you want the good news first or the bad news? Is the cup half empty or half full?

Last but not least....are you wondering what the hell I'm talking about?

This is the first official (but technically the 3rd) posting for HBin5, which is hosted by Michelle over at Big Black Dogs. She's doing an awesome job. We even have a calendar set up to let us know what's coming out way for the next 1 1/2 years of baking our way through Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day (awesome cookbook for those who love those no-knead breads). Our assignment, should we choose to accept, was to make a loaf of bread, crackers and an epi loaf (basically, an epi is bread dough that has been sliced to resemble a stalk of wheat). For this assignment, so far I've only done 2 out of 3. The bread and the crackers. I plan on making the epi loaf this weekend. I'll let you know how that works out.

Have you ever made crackers before? I had "thickness" issues. Some turned out to be a little on the thick side and others were nice and thin. I also over seasoned mine. Argh. But those are my issues, not the recipes. I'm not allowed to post the recipe but you might be able to find it on the actual chefs' blog Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I have both of thier books....which I LOVE. The blog has several of their recipes (which are all no-knead btw...woooo hoo)....plus a ton of tips on techniques and knowhow.

I think I have issues with my fridge too. Well, not my everyday kitchen fridge but the one in the garage (for the overflow stuff). It gets super cold. If I were to put a head of iceberg lettuce in it...it would get ruined. Sooo...my point is, my dough gets WAY cold. I think I need to let my dough rise longer because of this. Something I need to adjust and play with. I'd like the bread to come out a bit lighter.

I also have decided to use White Whole Wheat flour. It's milder in taste but still retains all the nutrients. From what I understand, white whole wheat just uses the lighter colored wheat. Same nutrients. Same flour texture....lighter in color and flavor.

My other problem is I need to invest in a thermometer. One of those ones that I can insert into the center of the bread to make sure it's done. With this free-form techinque...I think it's a must. Even though the directions say...grapefruit sized wad of dough....well, it's not an exact science unless I decide to weigh it each time to make sure its a pound.

Soo....now that you all know my bread weaknesses....lets look at my crackers and see what I did wrong. (looks like you're getting the bad news first, then the good news )

After dusting my tub of dough with a bit of flour, I got out a wad (it's super cold....not dried out...just shy of being frozen)

Pulled it into a ball (my fingers got sooo cold)

Then I divided it in half so I could make two batches of crackers....two different flavors

Rolled the dough out really thin

Brushed with olive oil....sprinkled seasoning over it, then cut it into little crackers...

Oh ya...you need to pierce the crackers with a fork so they don't puff up like little mini loaves of bread.

Place on parchment paper and then cook. Now I heard about a nice little trick that I will try next time. That is....roll the dough on the parchment paper and cut and everything. Then you won't have to transfer these tiny little squares to the pan as you slightly distort each cracker.

Like I mentioned, I made two different batches. One was with the chili powder for a spicy flavor and the other one was with garlic powder, onion powder and salt.

Some were thick and doughy....and some were thin and crunchy. I really need to practice more. But I have to say... it was fun

Now...for my loaf. Same dough recipe. Only I used the white whole wheat. Which I do like the milder flavor much better. I still need to work on the time table...both for rising (since the dough is so cold to begin with) and for cooking...which proves my need for a thermometer. But it's ooooh so good. I seasoned the top of the bread with a little garlic powder, salt and pepper just prior to popping it into the oven. Lets just say...this is both of my teenage daughters favorite so far.

I made this loaf this morning before I went to work. 90 minutes rise time, 30 minutes cooking time. My plan?

To serve with a nice bowl of Garam Masala Cream Soup...which is so quick and easy...done in 30 minutes...can't beat that!

1/4 cup butter
1 lb chopped veggies (you're favorite....fresh, frozen....whatever you have on hand)
1/2 cup flour
14.5 oz broth, chicken or veggie
2 1.2 cups milk
1 tablespoon garam masala seasoning
1 tablespoon parsley flakes

Melt butter in a pan over med-high heat. Add your veggies and saute until tender. If using fresh, you may want to cover the pan so they get tender faster (especially if its been a long day at work and it's late and you're tired). Stir in the flour and continue stirring for 1 minute. Add the broth and milk. Stir and cook for about 10 minutes, until the soup is thick and creamy. Now stir in the garam masala and parsley. Serve and enjoy with a nice slice of homemade bread.

And while I'm at it, I think I'll enter this in Souper Sundays over at

Kahakai Kitchen.

If you need ideas on soups, salads or sammies....Deb's is the place!