Les Bonnes Choses

This evening, I am having a rather spartan meal. Though I like to cook, I don't like having to decide what to cook, especially because I don't live in a grocery store, and am therefore constrained by what I happen to have on-hand and what needs to be used up (see also my recent entry on freezer-burned entrees). This evening, when I came home to face my kitchen dread, I noticed a couple of bags of pita chips on the table (presumably left by Jerome et al) from last weekend's homecoming tailgate party. The only correct thing to do with pita chips is to dip them in hummus.

I've got the ingredients for hummus covered several times over, probably as a result of some OCD grocery shopping. I first made it some number of years back for some small gathering of the usual suspects, following a random recipe off the internet. I still call up a random recipe, but that's mostly to get a rough idea of the proportions, so I don't end up making a thick salad dressing by adding too much oil, for example. The recipe to which I have linked is a good starting point, but you'll be quite happy with the results if you also add cumin and paprika (smoked paprika is especially tasty). Combined with pita chips, and some raw vegetables that will rot in my fridge if I don't use them when I remember them, that's a tasty meal.

Now, lest anyone be concerned about my welfare, I should note that I had a hearty breakfast and had 2 cups of chili for lunch. Arguably, people have their meals backwards when they have a piece of toast and coffee for breakfast to fuel the first half of their day, followed by medium lunch to get them through to a relatively large dinner, just a few hours before they go to bed. Unless you're a sleep-powerwalker, those dinner rolls are going right to your bum.

Plus, I still have a stash of jerky.