May 26, 2008 - 11:37 AM - (0) Comments
Much to the revulsion of my husband, I love hummus. I’m not sure what he doesn’t like about it. One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to crack open a can of chickpeas and eat them like candy. So, my taste for hummus seems natural to me. The problem is that, at $6.00 for an 8 oz. container, I can’t afford to indulge as much as I want. The solution was to find a fast, easy hummus recipe that I could make at home but not give up any of the flavor of the hummus I was used to buying in the store.
Most of the recipes I found online involved sesame paste or tahini, which is no less impossible to find in my little podunk town than raw sesame seeds, but there were several recipes that didn’t call for it. I had to do a little modification anyway, as I found the original recipe to be a bit bland, but with a little more lemon juice, garlic and red pepper, my homemade version tastes, at least in my opinion, just as good as store-bought. It also has the added bonus of costing much less.
1 can chickpeas (or garbanzo beans - same thing)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp of lemon juice
1 tbsp of diced garlic (fresh or from jar)
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
pinch of salt
Drain and rinse chickpeas. Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender and puree until mixture forms a paste. Add more olive oil if mixture is too thick. Plop mixture onto a plate and spread. Garnish with anything. I like olive oil, parsley, and red pepper or paprika...makes a nice color scheme on top. Serve with pita, pita chips, potato chips, or just plain old crackers...honestly, I would eat this stuff with cardboard.
May 11, 2008 - 11:22 AM - (0) Comments
We’re back from the cruise, and we’ve been back for about a week. I just haven’t had the energy to write about it. Pictures are up (click link at top to go to flickr) but don’t have any descriptions yet. I plan to do a blow by blow soon and upload video, but I just don’t feel like it right now. So there.
Apr 20, 2008 - 02:04 PM - (0) Comments
I thought this was funny. A breeze is wafting the smell of manure and garbage from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands all the way to London.
They should try living in Juniata County. The other night we came home from work and the smell was so bad I could taste it in my mouth. I was only outside for maybe five minutes and I could smell it on my clothes hours after I came inside. I thought it was just the farmer down the road spreading pig manure on his field, but apparently the smell was blown on a stiff wind all the way from Canada. Who would have guessed?
Apr 06, 2008 - 01:18 AM - (0) Comments
For some reason, there are certain clothing companies out there who believe that the bigger the girl, the bigger the boobs. Something tells me these companies are usually run by men or skinny women. I bought two brand name swimsuits online because they were the most inexpensive suits I could find ANYWHERE. We’re talking $35-$40 vs. $90-$150.
When I received the swimsuits and tried them on, I was pretty surprised that though the suits were in my size, there was 1. absolutely no support whatsoever in the chesticle region, and 2. the under wires were at least two cup sizes too big.
I’m not going to lie to you. I can wear a D-cup but I buy DD because anything else gives me quadraboob. So I’m a pretty big-chested girl. When I go shopping, I usually have trouble finding shirts that don’t look like sacks and still accommodate the girls. This is the first time I’ve ever had the opposite problem. When I put the swimsuits on, the wires stand out away from my body, creating the perfect place to store a large bottle of sunscreen or maybe even my beach towel. Handy, but not entirely decent.
We’re now 19 days away from the cruise. Things seem to be coming together and I almost can’t believe we have less than a month to go. There are times though, when I think about the remaining days before vacation, I don’t know how I will be able to make it through that many more days of work. Really, there are 14 more workdays and four more weekend days. It still seems quite a ways off and at the same time feels like it’s just around the corner.
Mar 02, 2008 - 04:24 PM - (0) Comments
The cruise is coming on as fast as it possibly can. As of today there are 54 days left. I need to start getting my clothes out and see what I have and what I need. I bought a few things already, including two swimsuits for cheap. They’re nice, but they’re unexpectedly unsupportive, if you know what I mean.
That’s what I get for ordering online and not trying on first, but do you know how hard it is to find a plus-size swimsuit in a brick and mortar for under $100? So, in fear of flopping out for all eyes to see while in the pool has prompted me to enlist my mother to make some alterations.
I found a great deal on lenses for my camera on Amazon last week and ordered a kit. It came with a wide-angle, a telephoto with macro, three filters, a lens adapter, a mini tripod and a cleaning kit, all for under $50. I haven’t had an opportunity to test them out much yet, but I know they’ll come in handy on the cruise. I also bought a camera bag two weeks ago, which is now just big enough to hold all of that above and my camera. Fitting it all in though, does involve a modest amount of stuffing and rearranging, but at least I know nothing is going to get tossed around or smashed together.