The hummus amongst us!

Finally, a light-hearted afternoon.  I seized the moment and captured it on electronic paper. Before long, well, I simply cannot predict what happens next, before long. 

Division of labor is great.  It worked magically well in the kitchen for me and Eric for all our years together.  We did not enjoy having too many cooks in the kitchen.  "Too many" meant "more than one."  We understood and respected that spoken rule all too well.  And harmony has been achieved and maintained for over a decade.  We are not smart enough to mess with what works - let the sleeping dogs lie.  

As far as the kitchen went, Eric was responsible for his famous hummus, crispy quesadilla, sausage making, all kinds of soup including my favorite - chicken soup with matzo balls, any kinds of fish, potato salad olivier (Russian potato salad), borscht, creamy oatmeal and grain cereal, creative fridge-gourmet, and all healthy and obscure grains procured from the bulk section at PCC.  I must emphasize, except for the matzo meal, my husband made nothing from a box or a can.    

I am responsible for all other domestic and international cuisines not mentioned above.  I am also the grill-master. The bread baker.  The party planner.  And the turkey gal, if we so desire to roast one of those obligatory birds on that fateful November Thursday.  

Now, unless I decide to abruptly stop eating some of my favorite items from the Eric Menu, I'd better learn how to make those dishes myself:  the potato salad olivier.  The matzo balls.  The poached fish.  Even the healthy grains that loosely resemble coarse sand.  I thought I would start with the simple one:  hummus.  

Lucky for me, he actually scribbled down his hummus recipe and taped it on the cabinet.  And so today, I got brave and took out a jar of chickpeas from the freezer, attempting to replicate.  No, we don't use the canned stuff.  We cook our own dried garbanzo beans, portion them into peanut-butter jars, and send them to the freezer...!  One would think we still live in the 30's. 

What typically took Eric 15 minutes from start to finish ended up a 2-hour project for me.  At one point I vividly remember his five-minutes-to-perfection warning call would always include this question:  "curry or no curry?"  If I happened to be home when he made hummus, he would always make it the Daisy special:  Extra creamy.  


Today's curry-hummus was edible.  Not terrible, but not great.  It was definitely missing Eric's special touch.  What do you know; even garbanzo beans feel the void.

I cannot imagine what my hockey-pucks-matzo-balls would taste like.  I sure miss my husband, in all things big and small.  




"Change the way you look at things, and those things will change." ~Wayne Dyer