Hummus and the Hound

My daughter’s dog Ziggy ate my breakfast yesterday. !@#$%^^&&*

It was yogurt and strawberries and I accidentally left the bowl on a chair outside on the deck while I got up for a few seconds to get something a few feet away. That’s all it takes for this dog. She has a nose for food and will zero in on it in seconds.

Okay, I was almost finished anyway.

Later in the day Ziggy got to the homemade hummus —!@#$%^&* — which unfortunately was in an antique sandwich glass bowl. Not an expensive thing, but it was a good shape and size bowl for hummus, which I make often. Okay, okay, it’s just a thing. But the hummus was really good and it was gone, gone, along with its container.

I had a dog named Rocky when I was about 8. That dog also ate everything in sight and one day it leaped up onto the table and made off with the roast beef my mother just put there for my father to slice.

That was it for my mother who never wanted the dog in the first place. She said we children wouldn’t take care of it (she was right) and that she would wind up with all the work (she was right about that too). The next week Rocky was “living with a nice family on a farm upstate.”

Anyway, if you want a recipe for easy, homemade hummus, here it is. It was good while it lasted:

Lemony Hummus

1 can chickpeas (about one pound)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup tahini

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 large cloves garlic

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

cayenne pepper to taste (I use 1/4 teaspoon)

chopped parsley, optional, about 2-3 tablespoons

zatar, optional

pita bread

Drain the chickpeas but reserve the liquid. Place the chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil, garlic, paprika, cumin, salt and cayenne pepper in a food processor. Process until you reach the texture you like, adding 3-4 tablespoons of the reserved chickpea liquid if you like it smooth. Spoon into a serving bowl. Sprinkle with optional parsley and zatar. Serve with pita bread. Makes about 1-1/2 cups.