No Music -- Forgot my iPod

OK. So this week I've been driving to work because I have been missing the train by a couple minutes. And I've been having fun listening to podcasts. So this morning, I'd listened to all the podcasts and hooked up my iPod to my laptop to get a couple new podcasts that came through like Dawn and Drew and The View From Here. And in the rush to get my daughter and myself out the door, I forgot the iPod. Oh, well.

The View From Here guys had an episode where they went to this Israeli Arab town and had really good hummus. Except I discovered the pronunciation is really hOOmus where the h is the Hebrew "hairball-in-throat" sound. The whole idea of hummus makes me excited because I never knew it was so easy to make, and now I make it all the time. Probably not good stuff, but as good as the stuff in the stores. I did have one of our friends, an Israeli, tell me once that my hummus was good, so maybe it doesn't suck. And I'm even buying the garbanzo beans and soaking them and everything rather than using cans! And I'm discovering that tahini from the middle-eastern grocers is so much cheaper than in the supermarkets. Not to mention spices like cardamom and coriander and cumin. Cardamom is SO expensive in the supermarket, like $12 for a typical-sized spice jar of ground. You can get a huge bag of pods for a few bucks at these markets.

Along similar lines -- I bought a few mortars and pestles last year to help with grinding and pounding herbs, and started making pesto. Pesto, of course, is named for the fact you make it with a pestle. Except no one makes it with a pestle. They make it with a food processor. But when you make it with mortar and pestle it's so good! And my boss recently told me about cilantro pesto -- basically just replace the basil with cilantro. And I've made that recently and had it turn out very well. And cilantro is an herb that's very good for me according to ayurveda.

Back to work.