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Food Thread: Hummus! Is There A Pun To Be Made With Humus? No.

Hummus is one of my favorite foods. It's stupidly easy to make a superior version at home, and it is also a fraction of the cost of the commercial stuff. Which I don't eat except on airplanes. That seems to be the snack of choice, and the ones I have tried are...how does one say this politely...sh*t.

Chick peas, lemon juice, tahini* (ground sesame seeds), olive oil, S&P, and maybe some cumin if you like that flavor. I start with dried chick peas, so I use some of the cooking water to punch up the flavor and smooth out the consistency. But you don't have to start with dried; canned is perfectly okay for your first attempts.

Anyway, as I have mentioned in the past, I use a recipe from a wonderful chef who started a tiny take-out joint in NYC that made fantastic felafel and hummus and pita. It's not perfect, but as a base it's pretty damned good. But I always make a half-sized batch...until a few days ago. Yes, I just wasn't thinking, and started with three cups of dried chickpeas, which translates after soaking and cooking into a metric f*ck-ton of hummus.

So I now have about a half gallon of hummus, and that is after serving a bunch of it (with Moki's fresh pita) last night for the Yom Kippur Break Fast.

I might go into business, just to get some room in my refrigerator!

Anyone ever do something like that? Make a monstrous amount of something out of inattention? I like the stuff, but damn! I wonder if I can use it as spackle?

*I pronounce it: "Tahina"

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Only idiots and Democrats don't believe that inflation is out of control, and has not dropped back to manageable levels. Most people don't buy cars and big appliances and houses every few years, but almost everyone buys food...at the supermarket and at restaurants. That's where America sees the failed spending policies of the Democrats in full flower, so the Biden/Harris/Obama junta is frantic to find some other reason for what is glaringly obvious to everyone with two neurons to rub together. That's why this makes me very, very suspicious.

Do I believe that American corporations have, are, and will collude?

Absolutely.

Do I believe that McDonalds is doing the bidding of its Democrat masters by filing this suit and taking the focus away from Democrat failure and placing it squarely on the evil corporations that Chlamydia Harris and the junta has accused of causing inflation?

Absolutely.

McDonald's sues major beef producers for price-fixing

In May, as McDonald’s continued to swat down lingering rumors that the chain was asking an exorbitant $18 for a Big Mac meal at locations across the country, company president Joe Erlinger wrote an open letter to Golden Arches customers, attempting to explain the inflationary pressures contributing to increased prices. He cited rising labor, food and paper costs among the factors affecting the price diners paid for their burgers, fries and sodas.

Erlinger denied that McDonald’s price hikes were double or triple the rate of inflation. But he acknowledged that, from 2019 to 2024, the average price of McDonald’s menu items had gone up 40 percent.

What the executive didn’t mention — but was painstakingly detailed in a lawsuit filed Oct. 4 in a New York federal court — was the company’s allegation that the world’s largest meat processors have been conspiring since at least 2015 to limit beef supplies, leading to elevated prices for the meat they’ve sold to McDonald’s and others.

“The goal of their conspiracy was to fix, raise, stabilize and/or maintain the price of beef sold to Plaintiff and others at supra-competitive levels — that is, prices artificially higher than beef prices would have been in the absence of their conspiracy,” McDonald’s attorneys allege in their complaint. The lawsuit names Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS and National Beef Packing as defendants. Collectively, these companies control 82 percent of the beef market, according to a 2021 brief from the National Economic Council.

In spite of their control of 82% of beef processing in America, beef prices have not been inflated as much as many other foods. Eggs, butter, vegetables, and milk products all have gone up by outrageous amounts, and in my experience are worse than beef.

It's too damned convenient for me to believe it, especially since the CEO of McDonalds is Duke, then Harvard MBA, and the president of McDonald's America is a Georgetown alumnus. Eh...they are playing the elitist game, so I am immediately suspicious of them.

Is that fair? Nope.

But today's insane conspiracy theory is tomorrow's headline.

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OOPS!

That is a tomato and shallot relish that I made for some halibut.

See the problem? Those shallots were lovingly sautéed, then forgotten in the pan until they were a lovely shade of black. I tried to resurrect them with the tomatoes and a fair amount of white wine, but no such luck.

The moral of the story is: PAY F*CKING ATTENTION!

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I'm not sure why they are calling it "Cheaters" BBQ pork. Sure, there is no live fire and no smoke, but BBQ has morphed into many different things, so maybe a more polite term is in order.

Or not. I'm all for rigid definitions of things, because CHESTERTON"S FENCE damn it!

Anyway, it looks tasty, although their ridiculous elevation of plain old caramelized onions into some arcane ritual that requires a special recipe is just silly.

Cheaters Only BBQ Pork

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Here's another bit of evidence that the world is rapidly going into the sh*tter.

Actually, corks are almost always pretty good at what they do, and this was an increasingly rare aberration. But it was also a real mess, and I had to use a low tech corkscrew!

The horror...the horror.

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Yes, it is "Epicurious," and they are post-modern, woke turds. That's why I don't link to them any more. But it's also excellent technique, and it demystifies making pan sauces. So I am torn.

The Best Pork Chop You'll Ever Make

You make the call. Should I violate my rules against linking to leftist sites for an excellent and apolitical video of great cooking?

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We are entering tomato hell, so beware. Broccolini that isn't $6/bunch, garlic...lots of garlic!, well-marbled hanger steaks and elk chops to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Who are those poor deluded soulsWe know who shake their Manhattans! These are the same people who drink fine bourbon with coke, and probably shake red wine with ice too.

And yes, I used to demand fancy bourbon, but let's face it, $1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty of fifty years, but it is worth it!