Dinner with Julie

Ghoul’s Night Out

Flew back from Vancouver this afternoon, stopped for coffee and sandwiches at Rosso en route home from the airport, and took W and his friends to Ghoul’s Night Out at Heritage Park. It was fantastic. The best part was when the two six year old girls tried to explain to him what a bride was in the back seat on the way home. That might have been the scariest part, too.

Upon entering the park (and exiting, too) there was dueling, with swords and real armour and knights – likely those same dudes who used to spend their lunch hours playing D&D, having probably more fun than the kids did watching them. Swordfights are cool.

They did a fabulous job of transforming the park into a spooky spectacle, complete with witches and cauldrons, haunted houses, fortune tellers, a full-scale Mad Hatter’s tea party (with the king and queen of hearts, Cheshire cat, White Rabbit and others in attendance) all nestled among awesomely creepy houses, barns and back alleys. There was even an eerie horse-drawn carriage.

And a zombie flashmob. A zombie flashmob! We need to do that in downtown Calgary sometime. Zombie flashmob.

An astounding number of talented and enthusiastic volunteers helped put this together and perform various zombie/ghoul/witch/undertaker roles, manage games, tell stories, sit in pumpkin patches and psych kids up to go inside haunted houses. And put on a monster mash with lights and disco music.

And of course the usual gas station, candy store and bakery (transformed into a boolangerie) and a restaurant in the old barn, if you want to get something to eat and make an evening of it. Although we had no trouble occupying over 2 hours, without even stopping to do any crafts.

I was in no way coerced into writing this – I love to be able to spread the word about events are so well done, appropriate for a wide range of age levels (including grown-up) with great attention to detail and without gratuitous gore. It’s a great way to spend an evening with the kids and celebrate Halloween. Big ghouls (13+) are $10, little ghouls (3-12) are $6 and kids 2 and under are free. The bakery is cheap, too.

If you’d like to bring your little ghouls, you can buy tickets online here.

October 26 2011 | leftovers | 8 Comments »

Roasted Chickpea Hummus

I am rather tardy in getting this to you. It’s something I made for the grand opening of my neighbour’s new shop, Reworks, a completely dreamy store in Inglewood that she talked about for ages and then actually went ahead and opened! I mean, I know people who talk about wanting to open up their own little store. Solita went ahead and did it! Huge kudos.

And so to help celebrate I said I’d take care of the food, and this was on the menu. I got it into my head that roasted chickpeas are fantastic, they could only make hummus more so, right? It was pretty damn tasty, and a little rougher around the edges than the norm.

I’m posting it now because I’m off in Vancouver flogging beans with Sue (so really, the hummus is timely, no?) and yesterday morning’s CBC show happened to be about hummus. I made a recipe shared by CBC’s fabulous Julie Nesrallah, host of Tempo, who likes to chat about food with me on Twitter and who shared her very own mum’s hummus recipe. You’ll find it on the Eyeopener recipe page. (See the little tab at the top? There.) Thanks for sharing, other Julie with the dreamy voice.

Hummus is crazy versatile. I made batches with roasted beets and pumpkin and tandoori spice. You can add caramelized onions or chopped artichokes, olives and/or feta, or fresh peas or parsley or roasted carrots. Hummus gets on well with everyone and everything.

If you want to hear the CBC story, you can hear it here.

Also? Happy birthday Mike. Sorry you have to feed yourself today.

Roasted Chickpea Hummus

canola or olive oil, for cooking
1 small onion, chopped
1 19 oz (540 mL) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1-2 big garlic cloves
juice of a lemon (2-3 Tbsp)
a big spoonful of tahini
a drizzle of sesame oil if you like
a glug of olive oil
a big spoonful of plain yogurt (Greek-style if you have it)
a big pinch of salt

In a large, heavy skillet heat a generous drizzle of oil over medium-high heat. Saute the onion and chickpeas for 5-8 minutes, until the onions are soft and the chickpeas are turning golden. Add the chili powder and cumin. If you want to take the edge off the garlic, add that too and cook for a minute or two.

October 26 2011 | appetizers | 7 Comments »