In all seriousness...It a little bit bothers me that my brother gets hit on by men more than me.

Lindsey says I am haven't been blogging lately which is mostly true. I have been thinking about it. Dreaming about what I am going to write to you. The skateboarders who barrel down our hill then wipe out. I laugh. The Kiki incident at Safeway in which I am running late and the tranny in front of me at the castro safeway decides to haggle the price of produce, needs her groceries triple bagged and then has a cab called for her only to solicit a $10 ride from the guy parked right next to me preventing me from getting into my car to drive over a cliff. I was going to write about all of these things but life got in the way.

The girls came over for pumpkin carving pre-Halloween and I thought I would make something the night before that I could just heat up. Failure. In that it wasn't ready when anyone showed up. That being said the Squash soup was a great success. So here I will share the recipe with you. It is easy but be warned cuttting an acorn squash with a mediocre knife is not only life threatening but you'll need almost as much patience as if Kiki was in front of you haggling the price of produce...at Safeway.

Squash Soup w/ gryuere croutons and Sage

(Loosely translated from a fine cooking recipe amalgamated with some recipe online) you get the point. This yields 1 large batch of soup to serve 5 people. I had leftover squash so I made an entire second batch but it will depend on the size of your squashes? Squash? Squashi?

1 Acorn Squash - the green one -

1 Butternut Squash - the big yellow oddly shaped one -

1 large onion

4 cloves of garlic

Fresh Sage - 2 to 3 tablespoons

32 ounces of Chicken or vegetable broth (one carton) this can be adjusted for consistency

Salt, pepper, ground ginger to taste

Cream (optional) but recommended

Gruyere (technically optional but how boring are you if you skip the cheese)

Cut squash in halves, peel and cube. Try not to loose a finger. It is not easy. Working in sections should help. Rumor has it you can make this easier by roasting it in half a little bit first but I can't attest to this. I did it the hard way. You need 2 cups of each squash.

Sauté onion and garlic in 1-2 tablespoons olive oil or butter. Add all (4) cups of squash. Add Broth. Add sage. Season as desired. Bring mixture to a boil and let it simmer till the squash is very soft. Turn off the heat and get ready for the messy part. You're going to blend the mixture in the food processor unless you are lucky and have an immersion blender. If you have my medium size Cuisinart this takes about 3 or 4 batches. Transfer blended mixture back into pot. Heat it back up and add cheese and or cream to taste. Et Voila. Croutons and/or crusty bread with melted cheese are highly recommended.

Also I added Chopped up sauteed spicy Italian sausage as a garnish in the second batch. It was delicious. Let me know how it goes or thoughts on whether you think perhaps adding a little wasabi powder to spice it up might be a bad idea? I can't decide.

Peace and gruyere croutons!

Chili Blanco and on my new Tripod Status...Booyeah I'm a Nerd

This should be every indication that I have too much time on my hands. But then again you already knew that and maybe judged me for it. It’s been a great week in which I celebrated my 26^th Birthday on every possible occasion. Homemade sushi, sparkle cupcakes (no really) and also I floated down the river with 17 strangers and several good friends. All of whom were great sports in that they told me it was all in celebration of me and sang me Happy Birthday. Who could be so lucky. Floating the river, as it always is, was messy. Lost sunglasses, wet food and more than a few flipped inner tubes. Just the way it should be. Today I detoxed from it all with laundry and also I cooked, because that’s what you do when you watch the foodnetwork 4 to 5 hours per day. I started to make chili blanco, but half way in realized I didn’t have green chili’s, so abandoned it temporarily and started to make homemade caramel sauce for my Granny Smith’s and then realized I didn’t have brown sugar. So basically total success in that I completely failed. Abandoned all effort at productivity and settled in for my first experience of Jersey Shore. The marathon. And for that I have only three words. Tan. Gym. Laundry. Jersey was just put on my long list of places to visit. Mainly I want to experience a place where fist punching and over groomed men is the typical not the acception. I also feel dumber for watching it. Go Snooki go.

The chili blanco has been made as has the carmel sauce but its too late for me to eat it now. Also I took my Birthday present, my grandfather’s tripod, out to the park by our house and shot the moon. It was difficult getting the focus right, my composition might be muddled because I was like twisted in a knot trying to see into the viewfinder and by the time I finished I was dirty and out of breath but that’s just the altitude people. It was magical and worth every second of frustration. Also I think I need a filter to get the moon right. See Click for the results.

Chili Blanco is delicious, healthy and will feed 5/6 people as a main which means single me will be eating it all week. Or as long as I can make it last anyway! Thanks Murchisons for the recipe!

Chili Blanco Recipe

1 large white onion

3 cloves garlic

1 can each cannelloni beans & white beans

2 cans diced green chili’s

1 can chicken broth

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Salt, Pepper, Red Chili Flakes and Cumin to taste

Garnish with sour cream and cilantro

Optional Jack Cheese for added yum factor

Poach the chicken in a large pot while you chop then sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil in a separate pot. Add the beans, green chili, chicken broth and spices to the sautéed mixture and bring it to simmer for 30 minutes. While that simmers shred or chop the chicken and finally add it to the simmering mixture. The chili is thick with chicken so I suppose you could use less if you wanted. Garnish with cilantro, sour cream and cheese or add it in while it’s still cooking.

In other news I am volunteering at Wanderlust this coming weekend in Squaw Valley. So stay tuned for stories of yogic breakthroughs, and lulu lust. I’ll be wearing my “Spiritual Gangster” tank. I plan on it being a big hit.

The Most Delicious War Ever.

I know, I know you just heard from me. The thing is I was watching the news this morning and only the most amazing of any news story fell upon me. Click on the below link to read all about it!

The Hummus Wars

I've never given you a recipe. I'm not going to turn into a cooking blog. There are others that do it far better than I ever could - read Smitten Kitchen and Pioneer Woman, their links are on the left hand side - but here I will bestow upon you my fathers hummus recipe, greatly modified by me - actually only in the quantities of garlic used. The good thing is most ingredients are simply to your taste.

The Krikorian weakness for garlic is evidenced at every family dinner during my 25 years on earth. You eat Hratch's hummus, delicious and spicy as you inhale it because it is laden with garlic but the whole rest of the night you have to walk around with your hand over your mouth. So beware of the garlic trap, there's a fine line and sometime you need only add an additional half a clove of the blessed stuff.

This will make a generous serving for 10 people as a starter. Or throw it in a tupperware and eat it all week. It's even better the next day.

• 2 16 oz Cans garbanzo beans (same as chickpeas) drained
• 3 to 4 Tablespoons Tahini - which is sesame paste, you can find it at a middle eastern market and actually I have seen it in the grocery stores lately! A small jar will last you a long time. The costco size tub is a lifetime investment -
• 1 Lemon - minimum of half but if you're me or my brother probably the whole thing
• Water for consistency
• 2 1/2 Cloves garlic - or for my Dad's version 4, 5 or 6 Cloves -
• 1 tsp Salt to taste

Throw the beans, tahini and 1/2 a lemon's juice into the cuisinart and blend. Add water until the consistency is as you like. I prefer it a little thicker but don't add more than 1 can of water or you'll have hummus soup (which doesn't sound too bad to me...but I love all things hummus) Throw in the garlic and salt. Start slow, start small and taste often till you get it how you like it. It's never beyond salvaging unless you put too much salt. Mix on medium, scrape the sides because the garlic will hide there. If you want some added deliciousness, my personnel favorite garnish is pinenuts toasted in Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It takes two seconds - don't burn the pinenuts, it is really easy to do. Or instead you can sprinkle Cayenne pepper or just plain olive oil. But the toasted nuts add another dimension and cleverly disguise it as more than a healthy snack.

This could be you. My Dad has the exact same bowl as them in miniature size.

I propose to be their quality control. I mean anyone can fill an enormous plate of hummus full but what does it matter if the Tahini to Garbanzo bean ratio is off?

What they really need is the world largest Cuisanart because you can whip together a batch delicious hummus, twice as good as store bought for half the cost in ten minutes.

It's easy as but good luck anyway and let me know how you go!