Ok, so homemade hummus- I started from hard chickpeas, cooked 'em, shelled 'em, mashed 'em up with some other stuff. Not great and not worth the effort. I was strongly encouraged to try again starting with canned organic chickpeas/garbanzo beans. Overall thoughts/tips- don't buy the expensive, fancy tahini. Look for the more reasonable stuff in the "international" food isle. I would also suggest using less lemon than recipes call for and roasting your own red pepper- the kind in the jar had a weird taste/smell. I'd also go ahead and cook any garlic you are going to add; raw garlic seems to leave a strange stinging feeling for those who eat it. Honestly, I may dub this one of the few things I think is more worth buying store bought than making your own. I'm not even convinced it is more economical to make your own, especially if you can find store bought on sale. See, I'm so unconvinced this is worth it that I won't even point you to a recipe. Maybe I'll try again in the future.
Pepperjack Potato Salad: one word- awesome. This was so delicious I didn't even want to share. I ate it hot as soon as it was done, I ate it at room temperature when I was putting it away, I ate it cold when we served it up with sandwiches for lunch. The juice from it was so good I dipped my sandwich in it. So yummy and the pepperjack cheese was a bonus for me, but it would still be good w/o if you are not a pepperjack fan. This recipe originally came from my cousin Amanda (not sure where she got it so I can't give further credit), and I tweaked it a bit.
Time: uh...?
Leftovers: This seems delicious hot, warm, and cold. My only concern would be if you added the pepperjack cheese when hot, then served/ate cold. But I would totally use this as a make ahead recipe!
What I used:
12 small red potatoes, washed but not peeled, cut into bite-sized pieces
10-12 slices turkey bacon (I couldn't bring myself to buy the real stuff)
1 small onion, diced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 c. white vinegar
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. white granular sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. parsley flakes (I am shy with parsley, Amanda used 2 tsp. chopped parsley)
2-3 oz. pepperjack diced into very small cubes (like pencil eraser size...I'm so technical)
Prep potatoes, onions, etc. Place potatoes in pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Boil about 10 mins or until potato is slightly tender (not mashed potato tender!) Drain and set aside.
Cook bacon in a large skillet until crispy (I had to do it in a couple batches to make sure all the bacon gets surface space). Remove to paper towel; once cool, crumble. Add olive oil (you won't need this if you use real bacon, just for turkey bacon) and heat, and onions. Continue cooking onions until browned, then add vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil.
Combine cooked potatoes, half of bacon (crumbled), and onion-liquid mixture. Add pepper and parsley. Stir to combine thoroughly. You can do this in the onion-liquid mixture pan if you plan to serve hot. Now I added the pepperjack after everything was cool because I was serving it cool. I suggest adding the pepperjack at the serving temperature because you don't want to add it hot, let it get melty and stringy, then cool everything off and have pepperjack plastic making it hard to scoop out your potatoes. Crumble remaining bacon on top.
May I just say that I have never even been willing to try potato salad because I think it looks so gross all creamy and gloppy, but this was so delicious that I am just trying to figure out when I can make it again. Enjoy!
