When I was a kid, my Dad took over the kitchen on Sundays. He'd make Sunday night dinner, but would also often make hummus from scratch in the food processor, which we'd eat during the week as a snack. By "from scratch", I mean that he'd actually buy dried chickpeas, boil them and go from there. The finished product was always delicious...enjoyed on WASA crisps or with carrot sticks. Yum.

I fell out of the hummus scene a bit after I left home. I didn't own a food processor so just assumed I couldn't make on my own and wasn't very big on paying $4.99 for a tiny tub of pre-made hummus. I guess I consider myself to be somewhat of a hummus snob, having been raised with the homemade kind, and I was certain that nothing else would do.

Hummus has really made a name for itself in the past few years. You can now buy it anywhere, in a multitude of flavors and even I can admit, some of the stuff on the shelves is pretty fantastic. Kurt and I would buy the big containers from Costco and work our way through their garlicky goodness, always vowing to try to make it ourselves sometime. Preferably when we wouldn't have to use a blender. My blender, for the record, hated chickpeas.

When we moved to the island, I started craving some good hummus but you can probably imagine what the price tags on those little containers were. $6.99...not going to happen. So, we decided that now was the time to spread our wings and dive into the world of homemade hummus. Armed with a new cookbook that has a whole section on hummus (about 10 different recipes) and some canned chickpeas, and a hand blender, we fired it up. And let me just say...Oh. My. God.

Our first try at hummus was a chickpea hummus with chipotle peppers and lime. The whole batch lasted for maybe a day because we ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The second time around, we substituted one of the cans of chickpeas with a can of adzuki beans and it just got better. Our third round, last Sunday, involved black beans and orange. We're addicted.

For whatever reason, I had been blind to the hummus possibilities that exist. There are so many recipes for different spice and flavor combinations that it would be impossible to get bored of and it's probably one of the most inexpensive and nutritious snacks that you can make ahead and have on hand for those snacky nights or for weekday lunches. I went from being a fan to being full on obsessed.

For the record, the PC-brand hand-blender is the best $29.00 I have ever spent. It comes with a chopper attachment so you can "process" bread crumbs or whatever, but the blender itself mashes chickpeas and mixes hummus perfectly. It was pretty much the only appliance we kept and brought with us, but it was a great choice.