Sorry to carry on, but speaking of hummus, I made some today, good for the next 6 days, 7 meals in all. I use two cans of progresso chick peas, rinsed. While rinsing I rub the beans between my hands and the skins peel off. I then dump the water into a strainer sitting over a pot. I do this about 6 times till nearly all the skins are off. Then I put the beans in a pot and simmer them even though they are already cooked.

While the beans are heating I dice up about 6 big cloves of garlic and add them to some salt in a mortar (or is it a pestle?). I go the old fashioned way. It takes about 200 turns of the wrist to grind the garlic into butter. Then I add about 7 tablespoons of tahini to the beans - 2 20 oz cans, 40 oz in all. I stir it till it hardens. Then I add half a lemon and stir some more. Then more lemon. Then some cold water till I get the consistency I want. I then remove the beans from the heat and mash down with a potato masher. Then I removed the mashed beans from the pot and put them on a huge plate and fine mash them with a fork. I put the beans in a rubbermaid container and add the tahini mix spoonful by spoonful till I get the right consistency. I have to admit it, I do make pretty good hummus. Mine is not so much a dip as a meal. Kind of thick. Each day I put some on a plate along with some pre cooked chicken breast from Whole Foods, some oranges and cucumbers cut up along with some cold cooked sweet potatoes surrounded with olives. I eat it with toasted flat bread. It's a great dish if I must say so myself. I don't use much chicken. A half pound will give me 4 or 5 portions when put on a plate with hummus. I also put score the top of the hummus with a fork and drizzle some olive oil onto it along with some cayenne pepper. It's a pain in the butt making it, but once done it's good for 6 days, 7 meals in all, with no work other than slinging the stuff together on a plate. Thanks for bearing with me on this.

TJ