Ok, I’ve lost 40 lbs over the last six months, and one of my dietary mainstays has been homemade hummus. It’s so simple and quick to make, and so satisfying with raw veggies or whole grain crackers/pita/tortilla. Here’s my perfected recipe, spicy, creamy, and full of healthy flavor. It’s got a big kick from plenty of jalapenos and HOT Hungarian paprika. Click the pics to see full size shots of the ingredients I’ve come to like best:
Drain and rinse:
1 – 16 oz. can of garbanzo beans (chick peas).
1 – 4 oz. can of jalapenos.
Put them into a food processor or blender and add:
3 tablespoons of your favorite olive oil (I like a good flavorful virgin first cold press).
2 and 1/2 tablespoons of tahini (ground sesame seed. Can be expensive but goes a long way).
2 tablespoons of Greek yogurt (look for strained without pectin and stuff, like Voskos brand, it’s so creamy).
1 tablespoon water.
Juice of 1 lime.
3 cloves of garlic, minced.
1 teaspoon HOT Hungarian paprika.
1/4 teaspoon salt.
Blend until smooth and enjoy. Best after the flavors meld in the refrigerator overday.
For lunch I frequently pack a mini Ziploc container with a 2-3 tablespoons of hummus, and use some veggies and/or a small whole grain something-or-other to scoop it up with.
There are so many variations on hummus, and a bazillion on the internet, this is the one that I’m happy to make again and again.
I like “somewhat quite very very spicy” — it’s “mo betta” than most recipes that weasel out with “a taste” of heat. Enjoy in good health, and please let me know if you like it!
2010 edit!
See http://www.binkydognose.com/word/archives/256 for this years template! Don’t know why it’s not popping up in the searches 
Here’s this years pool template, quick and dirty in Excel or PDF formats, prints in landscape on letter paper (with number cutouts). And if all goes well Phoenix may be taking even greater interest in the game this year than when we hosted last year!
super-bowl-xliii-pool (Excel)
super-bowl-xliii-pool (PDF)
EDIT!!!!
1/19 – We did it! Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl! 
Finally got a photo of the Black Capped Night Heron that roosts in a carob tree nearby. We’d seen him flying out in the evening and back in the morning but here he was parked on the fence. Didn’t seem at all bothered by us on the patio either. The pics are noising because it was getting dark, and I missed a shot of him extending hie white crest (like a skinny cockatoo crest). These aren’t small birds, stocky with bodies the size of footballs!
Hey Seuss the tortoise emerged from hibernation on Easter Sunday, no kidding.
He snacked on a few Hibiscus flowers and planted himself under a Bougainvillea. Imagine sleeping for months. No wonder they live so long…
Third year we’ve spent the first weekend of March with friends barrel tasting in the Russian River/Sonoma. Quickie post so Val can find the few pics I’ve uploaded!
