.roasted garlic hummus with fresh pita.

A few years ago, while we were stationed in Georgia, I surprised my husband to a trip to Savannah for his birthday. While we were in Savannah, we ate dinner at this little pizza place called The Mellow Mushroom and for the first time in my life, I had hummus. I had no idea what hummus was, but the waitress recommended it and we said, "Why not!" Let me just say my eyes were opened to a whole new world of food.

Since that time, I've had hummus multiple times. I've had good hummus. I've had bad hummus. I've had dill hummus. I've had roasted red pepper hummus. One thing I think we can all agree on (all you hummus lovers out there) is nothing compares to good, homemade hummus. (Did I say hummus enough times in that paragraph???)

The other night, an online friend mentioned The Mellow Mushroom and I immediately started craving a batch of roasted garlic hummus with FRESH pita. Now you could buy that store bought, I'm dry as bark, pita bread, but I'm telling you, once you have fresh, there ain't no goin' back! If you take the time to make pita yourself, you will love yourself forever and so will your family. It's easy easy easy. You can find the recipe here (you'll have to scroll past the souvlaki recipe) and if you make a double batch, you can wrap them in a freezer ziploc and have them ready anytime you want.

Now for the actual hummus recipe!

• Begin by roasting your garlic. Take a bulb of garlic and chop off the top. Put it on a piece of foil, drizzle with a little olive oil, then wrap it up nice and tight. Pop in a 375* oven for 45 minutes. Roasted garlic is AMAZING!!! It mellows out the sharp pungency and almost makes the garlic sweet in flavor. Really delicious stuff. When it's done roasting, remove from the foil and let cool. When it's cool, just squeeze out each clove from the skin and put in a bowl. You can keep this in your fridge for up to a week. It's great in sauces and in homemade bread! For this recipe, you can use the whole shebang if you want, but I used 1 Tablespoon. Put it in a blender.
• Add to the blender: Two 15.5 oz cans garbanzo beans, drained, the juice of 1 lemon, 2 Tbsp tahini, and a little sea salt.
• Blitz for a minute.
• Turn off and use a rubber spatula to move things around.
• Turn the blender back on and slowly drizzle in some extra virgin olive oil. You'll have to keep turning the blender off and mixing by hand with the spatula. You don't want to add too much oil because the hummus will become runny. Keep doing this until the beans are completely pureed and the hummus is a smooth, yet thick, texture.
• Transfer to a bowl and stir in a small handful of chopped cilantro. Taste and re-season with salt if it's needed.

Hummus will keep very well in the fridge for quite awhile, but I doubt it'll last that long, it's that good.

So go and eat hummus my friends! It's good for you and it's YUMMY!!!!

.it's pizza night.

We really enjoy making our own pizza. Everyone gets involved and I have found it's a great family bonding time.



One of my favorites to make is BBQ Chicken Pizza. It has a tangy sauce with a bit of a kick, chicken, cilantro, and sauteed red onion. Paige doesn't like this one very much so we make pepperoni too. Get creative and make it your way. Give your kids bits of dough to roll out and let them make their own creations. That's the best way to get them to eat!

Start with your pizza dough. If you know how to make bread of any sort, the pizza dough will be a cinch for you.


Start by proofing your yeast. Put 1 1/2 c. warm water, 1/2 tsp sugar, and 4 tsp yeast in a bowl. Let dissolve and get foamy for 10 minutes.











Add bread flour to your bowl, one cup at a time. After adding the 1st cup of flour, put in 1 tsp salt as well. This recipe only needs a few cups of flour so don't dump it all in like a crazy person. You can always add more flour. If you put too much in, you can't take it back out and your dough is going to be ruined because it will be too tight for it to rise. When the dough starts clinging to the dough hook and is no longer "sticky" on the bottom, it's ready. Drizzle a little olive oil along the edge of the bowl and turn the mixer on low to coat the sides of the dough. Remove dough hook and cover the bowl with a towel. Allow to rise in a warm spot in the kitchen for an hour or until double in size.

Right when you finish your dough, preheat your oven to 500* F. I know that seems really hot, but trust me. You want it hot because it will give your pizza crust a nice crisp bottom but still chewy in the center. Make sure you put your oven rack on the lowest setting and put your pizza stone in if you have one. It needs to heat with the oven.





This BBQ Sauce is a little different than the one I make for my ribs. It's more tangy and not as sweet.

First you want to heat a little olive oil in a saucepan. Add 2 cloves minced garlic and 1/4 cup finely minced onion. Saute in the oil with 1 bay leaf for a minute. Don't let the garlic burn or else you'll be left with a bitter taste.




Add 1 cup ketchup, 2 Tbsp worchestershire sauce, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp tabasco sauce, and a shake or two of celery seed. Allow this to cook on low for about an hour. Remove bay leaf at that time.







Cook up one chicken breast, seasoned with Seasoning Salt. Dice into cubes. Set aside.










Slice some red onion.











Saute in a saute pan until they become nice and soft.

Remove from pan. Set aside.








When your dough has doubled in size, punch it down and pull from the bowl. Knead on a floured surface for a minute or two.









Divide in half. Roll out one of the halves.



















Pull a little of the edge back over and pinch down to make the crust.








Lightly dust a pizza peel with some flour and corn meal. Transfer your rolled out crust onto it. Pizza peels can be found at any home/kitchen store. This is one I bought online at King Arthur Flour for the bakery. I actually own two. The wooden one I own I bought at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for $10.00. They are a must have for pizza making.





Spread out some of the bbq sauce on the crust, being careful not to get any on the edges.












Sprinkle some mozzerella cheese on top of the sauce.








Top with the sauteed red onion, diced chicken and a handful of chopped cilantro.










Carefully shimmy the pizza from the peel onto the hot stone. If you need, keep a spatula handy to help guide the pizza off the peel. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes. The outside crust will be a gorgeous brown and the top of your pizza will be nice and melted (the cheese). You don't want a burnt pizza so keep an eye on it!



Voila!

Now repeat the steps to make the other pizza. We made pepperoni, remember? I let Paige help me make this one since it's her favorite.


Use regular pizza sauce and spread out.

Top with cheese and lots of pepperoni. (we used the whole box! *gasp*)

Mmm.. perfection!

Carefully put on the hot stone in the oven and again.. bake this for about 10-15 minutes.

Here's our final creation!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_31c35nqtcs