Hummus

Some friends came over last weekend with their kids aged 3 and 5. We were helpful friends by introducing the kids to the drum set, keyboard and guitars in the basement. Now the 3-year-old girl's favorite phrase is "I want a drums at my house." The 5-year-old boy, a natural front man, noticed the microphone and asserted, "This is where you sing. Turn it on please!" An inspiring songwriter apparently, he shouted, whispered and tried various voice contortions while saying "rock and roll" over and over again.

This type of hard-core rawking certainly works up an appetite. Given that 3- and 5-year-olds shouldn't be suppressing their appetites with Jack Daniels and cigarettes just yet, I prepared kid-friendly and adult pleasing simple finger food, hummus and pita with falafel balls with salami, crackers and chedder cheese and a dish of a mix of kalamata and green olives. We washed this down with cold apple cider, which sounds like a completey weird drink to serve with a mostly Mediterranean meal, but the sweet apple cider nicely rounded out the garlicky hummus and went great with the cheese, crackers and salami.

It was one of those classic fall days where the air felt crisp but warm and the bright sun glowed spectacularly against the golden leaves. We filled up on healthy food then went to Washington Park, which has to be one of the most spectacular city parks in the country. There's a giant kids playground with a rubbery, flexible ground and about 100 kids can easily slide, swing, climb, crawl and sit in a box and pour sand on one another. Above the playgound is a park train which winds though old growth forest, an arboretum, rose garden and ending at the Oregon Zoo. The vegetation is true Oregon, exploding with gigantic flowers, immense trees, vibrant colors and hundreds of different shades of green. It's quite a treasure. It also has ice cream, a fact that did not go unnoticed by our small companions. So we all had chocolate-caramel-vanilla sundae cones and topped them off with a bag of M&M's. Oh well, they're not our kids.


HUMMUS
(recipe is adapted from epicurious.com)

Hummus is definitely something to experiment with. Try different spices, more or less garlic, make it with different beans even. No matter the flavor, hummus is smashed up beans mixed with garlic, lemon juice, sesame paste (tahini) and olive oil. No sugar, no butter, just healthy lean protein, fiber and good fat. And I have yet to encounter a kid that doesn't like it. Hummus is incredibly easy to make and given that a half cup at the grocery store is about four dollars, your dollar goes a lot further when you make your own. This recipe makes about 4 cups.

2 cans organic chick peas, drained and rinsed
3-4 cloves garlic
1-2 t salt, to taste
up to 1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice, more to taste
2/3 cup tahini

Smush the garlic cloves through a press into food processor, add lemon juice, salt, 1/4 cup olive oil, chick peas, tahini and 1/2 cup water and puree until smooth. Add water, salt, lemon juice or more olive oil to taste. There, you're done. And you actually have enough hummus to feed a bunch of people. And maybe even some leftover for tomorrow, because it just gets better with age.

Things to experiment with:
blend it with about 1/4 cup fresh parsley and 2 T pine nuts
add paprika, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, mustard powder
blend in about 1/4 kalamata olives

For the kids I made the simple version and added a few dashes of cumin. I sprinked the top with paprika when I put it in the serving dish. We all lapped it up with warm triangles of pita I had sitting in a low oven wrapped in foil while we were rocking out. Delicious!

There's a mid-eastern, Mediterrenean grocery store near my house so I have the luxury of purchasing frozen, pre-made falafel balls, which are great. Sometimes I make my own from scratch, but I don't like deep frying in my kitchen. It's too pretty for that kind of mess. I have baked them before with relative success. Traditionally the falafels should have been served alongside tzaziki sauce, a yummy cucumber-yougurt dressing that is pretty easy to make, if you want to wash your food processor twice in one day. You can buy it too. Or you can forget it altogether and tell the kids to dip the falafel in the hummus and call it a day. That's what I did.

The crackers were these fancy things called generic Triscuits, the cheese was white sharp cheddar (I am extremely biased toward white cheese. I simply cannot understand orange), the salami was decent quality from New Seasons (pork is a rarity in our house, so if I buy it, I buy quality) and the olives were whatever brand was on sale in the condiments aisle in the regular grocery store. Be sure to get pitted olives if young ones are coming over. Of course, if you didn't know that already maybe you shouldn't be hosting kids.

I prepared this feast in about 30 minutes, and had the kitchen cleaned up in about 15 minutes, this is a very low-mess meal. I did it all right before they showed up. Which I wouldn't advice, but that's just how things go sometimes. Hummus is one of those easy snacks to make if you kid surprises you with three hungry friends after school or you find yourself hosting an impromptu get together. Chick peas, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and tahini are all part of my pantry staple list.

Have fun and share your hummus experiments!