i’ve been on a quest for many years to find the perfect hummus. up until this year, the quest merely centered around store-bought hummus. it’s been a hard quest, replete with purchasing different types of hummus every week and then sampling them with veggies and pita chips – exhausting work, i tell you!
a year ago, i posted a long and detailed explanation of march madness around here (waaay back before this was a food blog), and here we are a year later, actively caught up in the middle of it again. before you get the wrong impression and think that we’re huge basketball fans, let me stop and clarify – march is the month of birth for practically everyone we know. ok, that’s an exaggeration, but you get the idea. every weekend this month has been full of celebrations (and desserts!), and to add some extra fun, we’re flying out to indiana to spend time with my great-uncle, who is turning 99 this week!
unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past several months, i’m sure you’re all quite aware of the economic crisis facing our country. while mike and i are lucky enough to remain in our excellent places of employment, and the majority of our friends are still working and not impacted by the tough times, it has brought up a new awareness for me about finances. now, mike and i are no financial gurus, but we’ve been using the website mint.com to set budgets and watch where we’re spending our hard earned money. it’s been eye opening to see how much of our money goes directly to food. and while this amount spent on food isn’t exorbitant, there are definitely a lot of take out sushi expenditures, and we often throw uneaten produce into the worm compost bin.
recently, a good friend sent me an article from cnn.com with ideas for $10 meals and challenged me to “better and more vegetarian friendly version.” so i am responding to the challenge with my own twist on saving money in the food realm, because i got frustrated quantifying how much money i spent on a specific meal, mostly since i pull lots of ingredients from my stocked cupboard (spices, flours, bouillon cubes, canned beans, etc). let’s just say this post was inspired by the article above, but does not direct speak to it…and i promise to hone my pricing skills and get back to you.
what the heck is a tagine, i bet you’re thinking to yourself. yeah, i was right there questioning with you until i utilized the powers of google a couple of days ago. technically, tagine refers both to north african (think moroccan) stews as well as to the vessel they are cooked in for hours upon hours. while i love moroccan food, there aren’t any restaurants in santa cruz, so i have to head over the hill to san jose or san francisco to consume the amazing four (plus) course meals that are standard at moroccan restaurants. and usually, i’m so involved in the experience of eating the amazing moroccan delicacies served at these two restaurants (and there is only one veggie meal, not a whole menu of options) that i have never before noticed the name of the dishes i love – tagines!
i am really quite biased against mixes. let me be blunt – i hate to use them because i think that i could put together something better from scratch, and i’m particular about flavors, ingredients, etc. the only thing i make from a mix is falafel (and hummus, on one occasion…ok, and pancakes once or twice. shoot, my statement is really falling apart here – i sound like a hypocrite!!).
but seriously, to me, falafel is a magical delicious food that either comes from a box or a falafel eatery. period. but in this month’s vegetarian times, there was a recipe for making falafel from scratch, and i figured that if there was ever a time to tackle this delicacy, this was it. so i put the ingredients on my grocery list, headed out to the store, and surprisingly quickly and easily blended myself some delicious falafels.
