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Before I get started with this week’s French Fridays post, I want to *clap* and *pat* all my fellow Doristas on the back for two solid years of cooking and baking together!! I can’t believe that it has been two years already and we are just beginning our third! We even celebrated hitting 100 recipes out of her (Dorie Greenspan) cookbook, French Fridays with Dorie recently! What an achievement for our group!!

I have only been in the group two years myself and I have really enjoyed it! Not only does everyone in my household look forward to French Fridays, but we all enjoy shopping for new ingredients together and trying the dishes and being really critical about them. Also when we find new favorites, we work them into our dinner rotations and share them with friends!

Over the past two years, we have hooked many a friend on the many delicious recipes housed within this fantastic cookbook and it has been added to their wishlists. I have even had many requests for photocopies of recipes!! I wish that everyone I have shared this with, and anyone that enjoys cooking as much as I do could have this cookbook, so I have decided to give one lucky winner a copy of their very own! (This giveaway is now over)

I hope that the winner can enjoy the recipes out of this book as much as all of the Doristas in the group have, and possibly even join in the fun! All you have to do is cook the recipe for the week and post about your experiences on Friday when we all race to see how our friends liked it! How much fun is that? For most of us, the entire family seems to get involved in these recipes from the hunt for ingredients to the preparation and (always) for the taste-test! What a great way to bring the family together and try something new!

Look to the end of the post to find out what you can do to win a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook, “Around My French Table!“

Alright, now on to this weeks recipe!

This week it was hummus.

And it couldn’t have been timed more perfectly! Auntie Errin and I helped to bake and cook a bunch of treats and savory bites for a Pampered Chef party that we were co-hosting for our British friends (let’s just say they get a GREAT deal by going to our American show and paying in US Dollars… it seems that the economy is helping people out afterall!) and we had been racking our brains all week for a couple of great dips to put out with our veggie try when hummus hit the recipe list for French Fridays.

Perfect!

I had been meaning to make hummus for quite some time now, so I felt like this was meant to be!

Hummus and I have had a rather tumultuous past.

There are some I like and most that I don’t.

Maybe its the texture? Maybe its the idea of chickpeas? Maybe its one too many bad hummus dips that someone bought at the last minute at the grocery store to put out for a party that were either too bland or too spicy?

I just straight didn’t like hummus for a long time, although I always gave it a try when I came across it.

Here in the UK, we come across it a lot with appetizer platters, and with other dips like sundried tomato dips – the two together are great! But on it’s own? Not very fantastic.

So for this recipe, we had just finished making a crockpot dinner with chickpeas and I had an extra can of chickpeas left – can anyone say perfect??!

The tahini was a bit harder to find. I managed to find it wedged between jarred, shredded basil and a jar of German mustard. Nowhere near peanut butter or any other nut items. Weird. But I found it. And I now have enough tahini for a decade – considering I have only used tahini once in over 20 years. Yep. LOTS of tahini!

Does it go bad quickly?

At any rate, we made it fairly more flavorful than other hummus dips that I had and it seemed to go over really well at the party, although it sparked a debate on whether or not dried chickpeas made for a smoother, finer dip? No one knew since anyone that had made hummus only ever bothered with canned chickpeas.

Is there anyone out there that has tried to make hummus with dried chickpeas? Does it whip up any smoother than the consistency you get with canned chickpeas?

Either way, this was a hit for the party and a neutral hit for me. Not the best hummus, but not the worst either. It was just hummus. And I’m not entirely sure that it was very French, nor did it try to mix a flavor in that is pseudo-French or French fusion… but an easy, crowd-pleasing French Fridays dish is always a winner!

Now to find something to do with all that tahini….

To Enter the Giveaway:

Simply answer this question, “What about the Fall season excites you the most?” Is it the colorful leaves? Warm, hearty soups? Going on walks on a brisk, foggy morning? THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW OVER. 

CONGRATULATIONS DESI FROM “STEAK & POTATOES KINDA GIRL.BLOGSPOT.COM”!!

Bonus Entries:

1. Follow A Mama, Baby & Shar-Pei in the Kitchen on Facebook and leave a comment saying you did so.

2. Subscribe to A Mama, Baby & Shar-Pei in the Kitchen’s email updates by clicking on the email subscription button located on the sidebar and leave a comment saying you did so.

3. Follow any or all of my Pinterest boards and leave a comment saying you did so.

4. Pin this giveaway on Pinterest and leave a comment saying you did so.

5. Leave a link to this post on your own Facebook page or your blog’s Facebook page and leave a comment with a link to the post.

6. Leave a comment on my Facebook page! It can be anything you like! A quick hello, the title of your favorite magazine, your favorite joke of the week, … literally anything! Just be sure to leave me a comment saying you did so here!

7. You can get another bonus entry by posting a link to this blog on your twitter page, and letting me know with a comment on this post.

Thats EIGHT chances to win a copy of this fabulous cookbook! Good luck to you all!

PLEASE REMEMBER: Leave a separate comment for EACH of your entries AND bonus entries, or only one entry will be counted.

**If you already follow A Mama, Baby & Shar-pei in the Kitchen on Facebook and/or already subscribe to my blog leave a comment for each since these count as additional entries.**

The giveaway starts on 10/5/2012 and will run until 10/19//2012 at 11:59 pm Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Official Rules: Giveaway is open to U.S., UK & Germany as well as any APO/FPO addresses. To enter leave a comment. One winner with a valid entry will be selected at random using random.org. I will email the winner and they will have up to 3 days to claim their prize or another winner will be selected.  One winner will be selected at random to receive all the items listed above. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.

This sweepstakes is listed on ContestHound.com Sweepstakes Directory
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