From black beans to squealing

In my last entry, I mentioned WHFoods.com and how every week, I pick a food item from their list and try to add it to my diet. Last week, I let Sean pick an ingredient for me. He looked at the list and picked black beans because he likes them. Ok, black beans... How can I use black beans without going for the obvious Mexican food? And then it struck me: hummus. Black bean hummus. Oh I could just taste it already; the beans, the soft sweetest of the tahini, the potency of the garlic. Yes, black bean hummus sounded like such a good idea! I quickly Googled it and realized that I was not the first one to think of this brilliant combination. I stumbled upon this recipe and it was love at first sight: the recipe called for cumin. SOLD!

Now, whenever I would buy hummus at the grocery store, I'd also get tzatziki and nacho chips and just have a "dip" kind of a meal. So since I was going to make my own hummus, I might as well make my own tzatziki. I found this nice little video on YouTube by DedeMed. Simple enough!

Now, the chips... I was not going to make nacho chips, especially since I was trying to get away from the Mexican-food idea in the first place. What else could I use to dip into those two delicious mixtures? Toasted pita bread! Could I be adventurous enough to make my own whole-wheat pita bread? According to this recipe, they're simple to make. I guess I can give it a try! I'm not used to baking though, I'll have to be careful with these.

Being a real foodie, I thought about my pita bread, hummus and tzatziki for days. I figured I'd spend my usual food-minded weekend around it. Saturday, I went to the Jean Talon market, the Maisonneuve market and two different grocery stores to pick up the very best ingredients. I went to bed that night with only one thing on my mind... am I being too adventurous? What if I forgot something? What if the pita breads don't puff up?!

Sunday, full of confidence after a life changing weigh in, I put my apron on and got ready to cook.

I started out with the pita since they would take the longest to make, and while the yeast was doing its thing, I worked on the hummus and the tzatziki. I pretty much followed the recipes, with my own Vero-twist of course, like a lot more tahini and lemon juice in my hummus and a ton of fresh mint in my tzatziki. So far, so good. And then it was time to put the pita dough in the oven. I swear, I squealed when I saw the round piece of dough puff up in the oven. I had made pita bread. 

J'étais tellement fière de moi quand j'ai vu mon beau panier, rempli de pain pita au blé entier, de hummus aux fèves noires et de tzatziki. Je suis vraiment une perfectionniste; je réfléchis longtemps avant de faire quelque chose, j'essaies d'anticiper tout ce qui pourrait arriver de "croche", de prévoir toutes les possibilités. Je n'ai pas l'habitude de faire de la patisserie ou de la boulangerie, donc évidemment, j'appréhendais le résultat de mes pitas. Et j'ai réussi mon beau projet. Parfois, il ne suffit que de se faire un petit peu plus confiance qu'à l'habitude et on arrive à faire à peu près tout ce qu'on essaie!