A Whole New Hummus

Good evening! It's time for another installment of me versus the cookbook, hooray! We're back to square (actually chapter) one with some "Everyday Antipasti." This recipe was the last one in the "Fresh from the Pantry" section of this chapter. This also marks my third time going through the book! Very exciting!

All the "Fresh from the Pantry" recipes have been pretty easy, and this one is no exception. Tonight's recipe was White Bean Dip with Pita Chips. I didn't see the point in buying pita bread for this little recipe when I still had 1/4 of a baguette in my freezer from the crostini recipe, therefore I used that instead. I sliced the bread extremely thin to make them more chip-like, sprayed each piece with some EVOO, and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and dried oregano. I then placed them on the mini baking sheet and into the toaster oven at 400 degrees.

I recently discovered that lining the mini toaster oven baking sheet with aluminum foil saves me time in clean up. I felt bad because every time I was done using it, one of my roommates needed it and they would end up cleaning my mess. Rather than have them go through that trouble just to dirty it up again, I figured it would be much easier on them (and me!) to use this method. I must say, it's been great :)

As the bread crisped up, I put half a can of cannellini beans, a small clove of garlic, lemon juice, fresh parsley, and salt and pepper into my little chopper (holy run-on sentences Batman!). Once this was coarsely chopped I added two teaspoons of olive oil, then continued to mix it till it was nice and smooth. As much as I love this little chopper, I absolutely hate the sound it makes. If you've ever seen the movie Dumb and Dumber, you'll know what the most annoying sound in the world is. Well this is that sound combined with nails on a chalkboard. At a high amplitude. It's so terrible. Needless to say, I persevered, lost some of my hearing, and got my dip to the proper consistency.

The bread chips came out exactly as i wanted them to. They weren't burned at all, just a nice brown color and EXTREMELY crunchy (my father can attest to this. I was crunching in his ear on the phone). In Giada's notes in her book, she says this dip is the Italian version of hummus. That's what I was expecting when I made it, but there are some subtle differences between the two. This dip is lighter and almost fluffier than hummus. This may be due to my decreasing the amount of oil needed. But I think I prefer the fluffier texture. It was very smooth in texture and the parsley with the raw garlic gave it some spice. I would recommend this for your next party. Maybe I'll even make it for my next family party!

My Dove chocolates have been giving me the same message lately (I eat one chocolate every night. If I didn't, I would go on a crazy chocolate spree). This recurring message is "Patience is a virtue." I do agree with this, but the fact that I keep getting this one makes me wonder, is there something I should be waiting for? Is all this work with cooking going to take me somewhere? Or maybe my bag of chocolates just didn't get mixed up enough. The world may never know.

My next day to cook is Sunday when I take on a new sauce: Checca Sauce! Check back then to see if it's a success, or if I go hungry for the night (ha, me? Hungry? Never!)!

P.S. Happy Birthday Madison!!

Crunchy, Crunchy, Crostini!

It's official. I am the queen of improvisation. Today's mission brought us back to "Everyday Antipasti" with the second recipe of "Fresh from the Pantry" which was Crostini with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Chickpeas. I highly recommend this recipe as a starter for parties and gatherings. It has crowd-pleaser potential. And it takes no time at all to make.

You start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees. Then you cut a baguette into 24 diagonal slices and brush them with two tablespoons of olive oil. I don't doubt that I would eat 24 pieces of crostini (I am a good, bread loving Italian), but it would go against my better judgement to do so. Therefore, I reserved my Weight Watcher points for the day and cut the recipe in half making 12 pieces. Also, on the subject of health, I substituted the two tablespoons of olive oil for some olive oil spray. Not only was it much easier than brushing each individual piece, it was also fat free! The baguette pieces only need to cook for eight minutes, so as the oven preheated I made the spread.

I hardly had to do any chopping with this recipe since the whole spread is made in a food processor, and I luckily have a little chopper! After today, I absolutely LOVE this gadget. It's right up there with the electric frying pan. I started by using the chopper to chop a clove of garlic. The recipe called for one clove for the full crostini, but I figured one small clove couldn't hurt when cutting the recipe in half. It turns out I was right. Once that is done, you are supposed to add a can of chickpeas, some fresh lemon juice, two tablespoons of water, and salt and pepper and mix it all up in the chopper. Me being me, I completely forgot to buy chickpeas for today, however, I still had another can of cannellini beans left from the tuna and white bean salad that started this project. I used those instead of chickpeas which I'm sure changed the flavor in some way, but I love both so it didn't faze me at all. This is all mixed till the texture is almost smooth.

You are then supposed to add 1/4 cup of olive oil as the food processor is running. I once again took the health food route and opted for just a tablespoon of olive oil rather than the two that were called for by cutting the recipe in half. Also, my chopper doesn't allow me to add the oil as the machine is running, so I just had to add it then mix it. I don't think it made much difference either way. This is all blended till completely smooth and it ends up looking like hummus (yum!).

Next, you add 1/4 cup of sun-dried tomatoes (drained if you bought them in oil, which I did not) and some basil and parsley. Giada added at the top of the recipe that fresh herbs from your "window box" could be substituted for dry herbs in the recipe to add more flavor. Well, I don't have a window box of fresh herbs in my apartment, but I do have parents that I see every weekend that bring me awesome things such as fresh herbs. Therefore, I took Giada's suggestion and listened to Ina Garten's rule of always using "really good herbs"and it DID pay off. The spread was VERY fragrant and flavorful (which I wasn't expecting since I forgot to cut the amount of water added in half) and had a hint of red color from the tomatoes.

After crisping up the baguette pieces in our toaster oven, I spooned a teaspoon of the spread on top of each piece. I then topped each piece with a little sprinkle of Romano cheese (not part of the recipe, but cheese never hurts). The crostini was crisp and made the classic crunch sound when I took a bite into it and the spread was smooth and creamy. If you were to serve this at a party, I would suggest having the spread in a bowl for guests to add themselves since it can make the crostini soggy if left on there for too long. The spread could also double as some delicious hummus for chips and pretzels :)

Success once again! My next day of cooking is Friday when I take on Tomato Sauce with Olives! As always, check back before then for more updates!