Made With Love

So apparently there's some dissension in the ranks about yesterday's post.  Something about it being too fluffy or some such nonsense.  Whatever; a girl's gotta get excited about shopping, right?

But I also get excited about cooking.  So here are a few things that I made this past week that have me looking forward to every meal at home.

• Nut butters - My dad's birthday was in June and as part of his gift, I decided to make some homemade nut butters for him to sample.  As a family, we really come together around food, so I hoped that a gift centered around it would hit the spot.  I made him three kinds - cinnamon raisin almond butter, chipotle chocolate almond butter, and chocolate hazelnut spread.  The hazelnut spread was the only one that made extra, and I absolutely fell in love with it.  I actually threw it in the freezer at one point and ate it with a spoon (sort of like ice cream.... what?  Don't judge.)  What I love about making these at home is that I know every ingredient that goes into it, and they're just as simple as they sound.  After running out of that batch, I ran to Whole Foods to stock up on almonds to make another kind for myself.  I went with chocolate cinnamon almond butter and it's awesome - a little bit thicker than your store bought variety, but the texture and flavor are great.  All that went in are roasted almonds, dark chocolate cocoa powder, ground cinnamon, vanilla extract, and a little almond milk to thin it out.

•  Hummus - I've made hummus many times before, but usually half-assed it by not buying the right ingredients (peanut butter instead of tahini) or trying to make it overly healthy (no olive oil).  I read recently that if you heat up the garbanzo beans prior to blending them together, the result is a smoother, lighter hummus.  So when I was at Whole Foods and saw dry garbanzo beans in the bulk bins, I decided to go all in and truly make it from scratch.  It may seem like a big task, but really, there is minimal work that goes into this, especially if you're hanging around the house anyway.  I soaked the beans for 4 hours (helps reduce cooking time, aids in digestion, rids beans of chemicals that prevent binding of nutrients), drained them, and then cooked them for 75 minutes.  The next steps are for any basic hummus:
• 1.5 cups dried garbanzo beans (not exactly sure what this came out to after cooking)
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• liquid to thin it out (you can use chicken broth [which I didn't have] or cooking water [which I threw out].  I used plain tap water)
• Juice from a lemon - I didn't use this because I didn't have any, but so badly wanted it!
• 2 cups fresh basil leaves - these were an after thought when I remembered I had bought a big container of basil while the beans were processing

Although my pictures don't nearly do any of these foods justice, I was enormously surprised at how well this hummus turned out.  Super smooth, creamy, and flavorful.  Much more delicious than any of the store-bought varieties I have tried.

One small stumbling block I came across was finding tahini.  I guess I assumed that my grocery store would carry it, but after standing in the ethnic foods aisle for 15 minutes staring at cans, I was stumped.  I had two options:

Umm... is that even spelled right?

What the hell is Marble?

I knew that Joyva (bottom picture) makes tahini and it's the brand that I've always seen.  But I got confused when I saw that it was called Marble.  It says something about sesame on the can, but I didn't want to have the wrong ingredient, so I bought both.  Turns out that it was a good thing I did, because after researching this, it looks like it's sesame paste with honey and (maybe?) chocolate it in.  Not something I want in my hummus.  Maybe a delicious snack though ;)

• Cucumber avocado salad - In an attempt to make a lightened-up version of guacamole, I concocted this recipe in my head.  Take all the ingredients listed below and mix together in a large bowl.  You can eat it with some crunchy chips (I made some baked chips out of corn tortillas) or even on its own as a salad.  I also took a few big scoops and put them on top of a piece of baked salmon for dinner.
• 1 avocado
• 2 heirloom tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1 lemon
• fresh basil
• salt and pepper

How can you not want to cook with food that looks so good?

•  Watermelon and cucumber salad - This isn't something I made, but was inspired to make in the future.  Last weekend I went to Santa Monica Place (an outdoor shopping area) to get my new watch re-sized and found myself extremely hungry afterwards.  There are 5 or 6 restaurants on the top level of the shopping complex and a new space had recently opened.  The Market is a group of restaurants and food stands enclosed together where you can walk around, buy a few small treats or sit down and eat.  There is even a cooking school set up there!

 I decided to eat at The Curious Palate and was able to get a seat outside on their rooftop patio.  My sandwich of choice was The Brooklyner - smoked salmon, goat cheese, roasted tomato aioli, house pickles, and red onion pressed on sourdough bread.  It was fantastic.  The pickles were definitely homemade and just a little bit spicy.  Each sandwich came with a side and I chose the daily special which was watermelon and cucumber salad with fresh mint.  It was a pretty hot day out and the salad was so incredibly refreshing, especially with the addition of the mint.  It was so simple that it's something I feel like I could easily make at home any night of the week.

What recipes have you made recently?  What are your favorite store-bought-turned-homemade dishes?