I've had a request for our hummus recipe. This is the ONE thing that Jake makes in our house, so here is his recipe. I will say that his version is a little too strong for me, I would use have the garlic and not so much of the spicy spices. But then again, its his recipe that gets all the rave!
Jake's Hummus recipe (adapted from Betty Crocker)
1 15 oz can garbanzo beans (reserve liquid)
3 T. lemon juice
1/2 c. sesame seeds
1 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, cut in half
spices to taste (Jake likes to add a few of the following: cumin, crushed red pepper, tabasco sauce, olives and olive oil; some people enjoy celery salt or worchesire sauce)
Blend seeds, garlic and reserved liquid in blender.
Add everything else and blend again.
Add beans and blend until smooth.
My guys perfer saltines or tortilla chips for dipping!
Also, sesame seeds are expensive unless you buy them in bulk at a health food store. You can also replace the seeds with tahini (sesame seed butter) but we're not cool enough for that.
Ode to Hummus
Imagination Cracker
My husband and my little boy both love hummus. If you aren't familiar with it, hummus is a spread made from chickpeas blended with other things like sesame seeds and garlic. They love it. Little J will also just eat the chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans) straight from the can. Today he was doing just that for lunch when he decided that he would rather have hummus. So I made a little batch for him and he said it wasn't very good (I don't make it as well as daddy, but in my defense, we were out of sesame seeds). He ate some other things and then requested some pudding that we had mixed up to eat tonight. I put the hummus in the fridge and gave him a little bowl of pudding. He later asked for the hummus again, which by the way, looked JUST like vanilla pudding. I thought I would remind him that in this particular bowl, it was hummus, NOT pudding.
Then he picked up a saltine and said, "with this imagination cracker I'll turn it into imagination pudding! Mmmm!"
Big Snow
I want to play in the big snow- Jonah 
Jake shoveling our stairs. We lost track of how many times he had to
dig himself in and out of the driveway!
We don't need sand to use our sand toys!
A Beano Trio
I have an Elem. Education degree and have the certificate and the teaching aids to prove it. And the truth is that I made many of those teaching aids as assingments in one of my classes. Yes, I had to prove I could laminate! Anyway, one such class where I made lots of materials was a math class where the supply list in the syllabus was something like: food coloring, one can spray paint, 1 lb lima beans, 2 bags of pasta- each a different shape... One project that we made with these supplies consisted of spray painting one side of our beans. I think we were in groups of three and one person painted their beans black, one painted theirs red and the other brown. Then we divided these beans up between the three of us so we all had some of each color. Then we took our pound of beans back to our dorm rooms and popped open a new pack of sharpies. We then added details to our one pound of beans- the red became lady bugs, the black penguins, and the brown children. Once these were finished you could use them to teach counting, sorting, graphing, patterns- we were told the world of mathematics could be taught with a ziplock baggie full of lima beans. So today I dug out my beans for my little boy who wanted me to make up a game. I wrote a number on the inside of each cup of an egg carton and asked him to put the right amount of lady bugs in each cup. He didn't get very far but thought maybe we should try the children (the penguins are still MIA). As I was helping him sort I noticed the above trio. Now why would I, an innocent 20 year old future teacher draw a pirate, a beatnik, and a Doobie Brother as teaching aids for elementary school children? And then it came back to me. My future husband, against protest of doing any such crafty education major thing, helped me with these pound-o-beans. I've seen that look of boredom and reluctance often since then (like when I ask him to write copy for my scrapbook pages) but somehow he manages to grit his teeth and make me happy. Is it because of his love for me or is it the chance to sneak in some creative "help" when I'm busy drawing 100 spots on lima bean lady bugs?