So, as Sharona will tell you, I am horrible at multiple things, but one of those things is doing anything with any sort of repetition, schedule or longevity, and that includes blogging. I do it sometimes, when the mood strikes me, and when I think I have something of value to share. The reality is, I think I rarely have anything of value to share. That being said, I thought I would share this little tid bit that I learned recently that has made a drastic improvement in my......hummus.
Now, for anyone that reads this and knows who I am (which I think might be 1 person....possibly 2, and that includes me and my wife, knows that I like food, and I like to cook. One thing that I like to make is hummus...that delectable smooth bean paste with hints of lemon, garlic (sometimes more than a hint), and sesame seeds.
As anyone that knows food can tell you, food is not just about flavor, it is also texture, scent, appearance, all those things that we appreciate, but perhaps don't identify until after we analyzed. Well, in the years that I have been making hummus, flavor wise, I have always enjoyed it. And the pleasure of making something from scratch is always nice....but I had the displeasure of knowing that my hummus was a little more grainey than store bought hummus, and it sort of irked me, but I got over it. Then the other night I was reading a blog and they had a suggestion about hummus, and it is fantastic. To think such a small change could bring the smooth buttery texture that I had been craving all this time.
What is it you say? PEEL THE GARBANZO BEANS! What? You didn't know the garbanzo beans had a skin on them? Well, they do, and if you pop them out of the skins while making hummus, you get that smooth buttery texture. Who would have known. Anyways, for those of you that like hummus, are interested in making hummus, and want the texture you get in packaged hummus, I will write the recipe below. If you don't care about the grainy texture, don't peel the beans...it will save you 10 minutes.
Recipe:
2 15oz cans of Garbanzo Beans/Chickpeas (they are the same thing)
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon of lemon juice (usually 1 cap per can of beans)
2 teaspoons of cumin
2 tablespoons of Tahini (I like the Krinos brand, but it isn't always easy to find)
Salt/Pepper to taste
Olive Oil
Water
Drain the beans. Peel the beans....peel the beans....peel the beans. Then throw them in a food processor or blender (both work fine). Blend it up. Peel the garlic and toss it in with the beans...keep blending. Throw in the lemon juice and the cumin. Start to slowly add water until it starts to get a bit of a paste like consistency (maybe 1 cup of water). Once everything has come together, add a bit of olive oil for flavor and/or texture and voila....hummus. All in all, it takes about 15 minutes to make, if you don't peel the beans, 5 minutes.
All of the ingredient amounts above are fungible depending on your personal preferences...enjoy!
Showing posts with label lifestyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lifestyle. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Thursday, November 12, 2009
A bright morning with a brooding glow
Today I woke up to good news -- my hair looks soft and luxuriously silky. Sweet. These days are rare for me and are days to be treasured.
Despite my good fortune, I still find myself riddled with angst. And here I am, sitting in my office, feeling it fester. As I think it over, I realize my angst could be caused by many things. In the police line-up of fester-causing offenders, I eye the many likely suspects --
Suspect #1 -- my mother ever-so-gingerly asked me on the phone yesterday if I was planning on starting a family. I DO mean every so gingerly. She's often ginger about sensitive topics. But it makes me think that this is something I should be anticipating and planning somehow. I realize she has some expectation in this regard. Yipes.
Suspect #2 -- I keep brooding over the fact that my friend has a treadmill she wants to give away and I, who would be delighted to take it off her hands and have dreamed of having a treadmill at home for years, have nowhere to put it in our little apartment. For the love.
Suspect #3 -- Ben's final estimate for completing his car (which we have been much anticipating) finally came in and is going to make us part with a big chunk of our savings if we want to finish the car (which we do). I hate parting with money. Especially for cars. If I have to spend it, I'd rather spend it on a fabulous vacation.
Suspect #4 -- the many things that battle for my free time -- more school (I just found out my employer, a university, has an MBA program for part-timers. Who wouldn't want a free MBA degree?). Getting back into community theater -- that would make me more happy than more school, probably. But it wouldn't make me as marketable. But then there is YW and then I wouldn't have enough time for that. Or I could take cooking classes. I could also benefit from working out more or... I feel like I should know by now what would make me most happy. I feel as though I have some right, at my fabulously mature 30 years, to do what would most make me happy. Right? But it's harder than it sounds.
Suspect #5 -- I miss the dress business. Terribly. How fabulous that project was. I would really like to be spending my free time on that. And I can't yet. The truth is hard sometimes.
Suspect #6 -- I haven't traveled somewhere cool since my honeymoon and I think that's too long.
The desire to live life to its fullest and cram it as full as possible seem to be synonymous for me. And when I'm not, or confused about how, I get the ensuing angst. What am I going to do? I'm going to get to work. I had a day off yesterday and I think it threw me off. Back to the grind I love/hate. I'll work on shaking down and interrogating these suspects later.
My one solace -- at least I'm taking the time to learn Spanish during my commute. The dream of my 3 month sabbatical in South America honing mi espanol is not dead. Even if it's not realistic. :)
Despite my good fortune, I still find myself riddled with angst. And here I am, sitting in my office, feeling it fester. As I think it over, I realize my angst could be caused by many things. In the police line-up of fester-causing offenders, I eye the many likely suspects --
Suspect #1 -- my mother ever-so-gingerly asked me on the phone yesterday if I was planning on starting a family. I DO mean every so gingerly. She's often ginger about sensitive topics. But it makes me think that this is something I should be anticipating and planning somehow. I realize she has some expectation in this regard. Yipes.
Suspect #2 -- I keep brooding over the fact that my friend has a treadmill she wants to give away and I, who would be delighted to take it off her hands and have dreamed of having a treadmill at home for years, have nowhere to put it in our little apartment. For the love.
Suspect #3 -- Ben's final estimate for completing his car (which we have been much anticipating) finally came in and is going to make us part with a big chunk of our savings if we want to finish the car (which we do). I hate parting with money. Especially for cars. If I have to spend it, I'd rather spend it on a fabulous vacation.
Suspect #4 -- the many things that battle for my free time -- more school (I just found out my employer, a university, has an MBA program for part-timers. Who wouldn't want a free MBA degree?). Getting back into community theater -- that would make me more happy than more school, probably. But it wouldn't make me as marketable. But then there is YW and then I wouldn't have enough time for that. Or I could take cooking classes. I could also benefit from working out more or... I feel like I should know by now what would make me most happy. I feel as though I have some right, at my fabulously mature 30 years, to do what would most make me happy. Right? But it's harder than it sounds.
Suspect #5 -- I miss the dress business. Terribly. How fabulous that project was. I would really like to be spending my free time on that. And I can't yet. The truth is hard sometimes.
Suspect #6 -- I haven't traveled somewhere cool since my honeymoon and I think that's too long.
The desire to live life to its fullest and cram it as full as possible seem to be synonymous for me. And when I'm not, or confused about how, I get the ensuing angst. What am I going to do? I'm going to get to work. I had a day off yesterday and I think it threw me off. Back to the grind I love/hate. I'll work on shaking down and interrogating these suspects later.
My one solace -- at least I'm taking the time to learn Spanish during my commute. The dream of my 3 month sabbatical in South America honing mi espanol is not dead. Even if it's not realistic. :)
Friday, January 9, 2009
Tired, oh so tired!
*****WARNING SHALLOW MATERIALISTIC CENTRIC POST BELOW.....READER BEWARE******
So, I don't know how to follow up on a post like that, after all, mine is going to seem so lame compared to that insanely overdramatic, yet life altering potential experience. But, I guess you got to suck it up and move on from there...so I'll post anyways. After all, it is post here or post on my law firm blog, and who really wants to do that? :)
So let's see, the house renovations are coming along. One room should be done this weekend and the rest is just about to be started I think (crosses fingers that money still comes in from somewhere). Work hasn't been speedy to start the year, but networking has been exhausting, and I am not sure how and/or where it is coming from...and I have gotten some good projects in lately which always makes me happy, but alas, I digress into thinking about what I always think about and not what I wanted to be thinking about (see what happens when I talk about renovations and money....always back to work work work work work.)
After reading Sharona's post about risky questions, I wondered what in the world would be risky questions to ask me....and I realized I don't have any...go figure. Not that I state that there are any issues that don't concern me, or I hope never materialize, but I don't think there is a question that could be posed that would make me freak out all night, or that would send me into a tizzy...but I doubt that any question could be posed that may have as an immediate impact on my life as Sharona's, except for ones that I have fully come to grips with and while I do hope they never transpire, am fully aware that they could.
That all being said, I woke up this morning exhausted, and I mean exhausted...and it has only been a few days since I have been at it...am I getting old? Well we all know the answer to that....impossible, but I had an interesting conversation yesterday that led me to ponder about this in my sleep.
A very wealthy individual whom I know and I work with and I were sitting down discussing a deal, and somehow we got on the topic of Madoff and the whole ponzi schema and related....and some how we got on to this individual that has manufacturers in various countries that make lots of clothing and what not, and how this one guy lost all of his money with Madoff, and how he couldn't change the guys mindset into how to make lots of other money another way, blah blah blah blah blah...and then he said something that made me think:
"Most people make all their money in life in a 20 year period, usually between their mid-twenties to their mid-forties, and sometimes into their fifties....but usually they work really hard for ten years, and then work hard and reap the benefits of the next ten, and then live off of basically their really hard work for the next fifty."
Now obviously he was talking about people that make some seriuos dough...we aren't talking about people that make $40-$50k a year (not that there is anything wrong with that...just not the context of the conversation)....but it was interesting that his thoughts were 1. you work hard for 20 years, and 2....really most of it comes in the first 10 years, but you still work hard for another 10 while you are just starting to cash in on that hard work.
For me, I couldn't imagine that I would only work hard for 20 years...it just seems odd...does that mean that I won't work as hard as the guys that get really rich, and therefore, I am destined to work at this pace for the rest of my life? Cause although I do like to work hard, I don't know if I could keep this pace up for the next 40. Anwyays, just a very lame shallow money based post.
Thoughts?
So, I don't know how to follow up on a post like that, after all, mine is going to seem so lame compared to that insanely overdramatic, yet life altering potential experience. But, I guess you got to suck it up and move on from there...so I'll post anyways. After all, it is post here or post on my law firm blog, and who really wants to do that? :)
So let's see, the house renovations are coming along. One room should be done this weekend and the rest is just about to be started I think (crosses fingers that money still comes in from somewhere). Work hasn't been speedy to start the year, but networking has been exhausting, and I am not sure how and/or where it is coming from...and I have gotten some good projects in lately which always makes me happy, but alas, I digress into thinking about what I always think about and not what I wanted to be thinking about (see what happens when I talk about renovations and money....always back to work work work work work.)
After reading Sharona's post about risky questions, I wondered what in the world would be risky questions to ask me....and I realized I don't have any...go figure. Not that I state that there are any issues that don't concern me, or I hope never materialize, but I don't think there is a question that could be posed that would make me freak out all night, or that would send me into a tizzy...but I doubt that any question could be posed that may have as an immediate impact on my life as Sharona's, except for ones that I have fully come to grips with and while I do hope they never transpire, am fully aware that they could.
That all being said, I woke up this morning exhausted, and I mean exhausted...and it has only been a few days since I have been at it...am I getting old? Well we all know the answer to that....impossible, but I had an interesting conversation yesterday that led me to ponder about this in my sleep.
A very wealthy individual whom I know and I work with and I were sitting down discussing a deal, and somehow we got on the topic of Madoff and the whole ponzi schema and related....and some how we got on to this individual that has manufacturers in various countries that make lots of clothing and what not, and how this one guy lost all of his money with Madoff, and how he couldn't change the guys mindset into how to make lots of other money another way, blah blah blah blah blah...and then he said something that made me think:
"Most people make all their money in life in a 20 year period, usually between their mid-twenties to their mid-forties, and sometimes into their fifties....but usually they work really hard for ten years, and then work hard and reap the benefits of the next ten, and then live off of basically their really hard work for the next fifty."
Now obviously he was talking about people that make some seriuos dough...we aren't talking about people that make $40-$50k a year (not that there is anything wrong with that...just not the context of the conversation)....but it was interesting that his thoughts were 1. you work hard for 20 years, and 2....really most of it comes in the first 10 years, but you still work hard for another 10 while you are just starting to cash in on that hard work.
For me, I couldn't imagine that I would only work hard for 20 years...it just seems odd...does that mean that I won't work as hard as the guys that get really rich, and therefore, I am destined to work at this pace for the rest of my life? Cause although I do like to work hard, I don't know if I could keep this pace up for the next 40. Anwyays, just a very lame shallow money based post.
Thoughts?
Labels:
lifestyle,
money,
musings,
odds and ends,
work,
work ethic
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)