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Shopping in my kitchen cupboards

Ever “discover” something you own that’s actually been in your possession for years, but you never got around to using it… then when you finally did dig it out of the cupboards and put it to work, you wondered why you’d waited so long – and also what other fantastic finds might be lurking in the depths?

That happened at our house today.

After several recent visits to local Middle Eastern restaurants, I’ve developed a definite and persistent craving for hummus. I’ve made it at home before, but as we don’t have a food processor, I always found the process of crushing chickpeas and blending the ingredients by hand rather tedious and as a result, rarely bothered.

However, today’s “discovery” has changed everything!

Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered the Cuisinart Mini-Prep lurking somewhere in the back of our cupboards. We received it as a wedding shower gift some thirteen years ago, and while it seemed like a nice idea at the time, it’s been moved, unused, first to our condo downtown, then to our suburban townhome, then across the country to our current house.

I think part of the reason it’s gone largely untouched is because it’s so small, and therefore would be hard-pressed to accommodate the ingredients for most recipes requiring the services of a food processor. But it suddenly dawned on me that even if all I could use it for was to mush up the chickpeas in small batches, I’d be one step ahead of my usual routine.

So I dug out the Mini-Prep, unearthed the manual from the mess that is the pink room (which no, I haven’t tackled yet), and got to work. And as it turned out, I was able to make the entire batch of hummus in my Mini-Prep! Sure, it would have been easier if it had been a full-size food processor… but I was miles ahead of where I’d been when I tried to blend everything by hand.

And the hummus is delicious!

I keep thinking that there must be a deeper lesson here – some wisdom about a strength we may have but never call upon, perhaps, or a person in our life who’s always there but whose presence we take for granted… or the fact that big power may be found in small places, possibly, or maybe just a reminder to think outside our usual habits and boundaries. Who knows? I’m not feeling particularly deep today, though, so for the time being I think I’ll just enjoy some fresh hummus with a nice, warm pita.

Maybe next weekend I’ll dig out the pasta maker.

Laurel Storey, CZT – Certified Zentangle Teacher. Writer, reader, tangler, iPhoneographer, cat herder, learner of French and Italian, crocheter, needle felter, on-and-off politics junkie, 80s music trivia freak, ongoing work in progress.