How to make roasted red pepper hummus!

Actually, making hummus is not quite as hands-free and disgusting as all that, but it's surely worth the extra effort!

All a good classic hummus consists of is chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice, with salt and pepper as desired. It's not terribly difficult to make if you've got a blender (or a mortar and pestle for that matter), and it beats anything you'll buy at the store. The wonderful thing about hummus' simple flavor, is that you can basically tweak it to have whatever flavor you're craving (I'm not so sure about the idea of sweet hummus though...). Anyway, I picked up these tasty little red peppers at the farmers market and thought that a great way to use them would be to roast'em up and throw them in with some hummus!
I'm not big on exact measurements when it comes to savory cooking, and I think that hummus is something that one should tweak to tickle their fancy, so I haven't provided any measurements...BUT here are the ingredients I used:

Chickpeas
Tahini
Olive oil
Fresh garlic
Black garlic
Roasted/caramelized sweet red peppers (throw in the oven with olive oil, salt, pepper at 400 F until brown/black at edges)
Lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Paprika

I was really aiming for a caramelized flavor, and the red peppers and black garlic certainly helped to bring that out. If you can't get black garlic, then some nicely roasted fresh garlic will certainly suffice! Enjoy. :)

Pickling Season!

According to the Star Tribune, pickling and canning has seen a resurgence in popularity. This is due to a variety of factors. It is a way to eat local produce, even in the dead of winter. A good method of preservation for an overly-bountiful garden harvest. A way of connecting to the grandmother you never knew all that well. Tastiness.


For me, canning is all of these things and more...As hyperbolic as that may seem. In a world where societal structures and bureaucracy have become oppressively complicated while corruption and terror seem to run rampant, canning is the embodiment of nostalgia for a prior, simpler age. Of course it is commonplace for those beyond middle-age to lament the state of the world, of society, of 'these kids today;' but more frequently I seem to be hearing similar despair voiced by members of my own generation. The pace of life has sped up. The machinery has become to complex. Post-post modern society (particularly in the developed world) has gotten tangled in its own gears, smoking and hissing; carrying on with a horrible grinding of metal. The extreme bipartisan politics in America and the current financial collapse. The devaluing of creativity and ideas in place of consumerism and materialism. These are all matters of concern cited by my fellow generation Y-ers. The world today just seems far more complex and frightening than that of our grandparents.

And so, feeling a twinge of insecurity and helplessness in the face of a world in turmoil, I have begun the yearly pickling ritual. If nothing else I can glimpse a vision of an idealized simpler past amongst the cucumber slices and brine.