It takes a lot to steer me away from sweets. Once in a while, something so good comes along that I can’t wait to eat it first thing in the morning. One such food is hummus, which I’ve gobbled down at breakfast. It’s so versatile. It can be a dip, sandwich filling, and if thinned out enough, pasta sauce or salad dressing. You don’t even have to stick to the original combo of chickpeas and sesame butter. Cashew butter is an excellent substitute: it makes everything creamy and sweet. (Thanks to Venturesome Vegetarian Cooking for the tip. Full disclosure: I’ve worked with the author before, but this book packs some of the easiest, most delicious vegan recipes ever.)

Since it’s fall, I made pumpkin hummus with cashew butter. I’ve eaten it for breakfast several times, and I hope you do too! The version below can be used for sweet or savory applications. If you want it “sweeter,” add cinnamon. It will taste like pumpkin pie dip but without any added sugar. (Cinnamons and cashews are naturally sweet.) If you’re suffering for more Thanksgiving recipes, give this one a try.

Pumpkin Hummus

1 cup raw cashews
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (canned is fine)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Toast the cashews in a preheated 350F oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Check the nuts halfway through and stir them to ensure even browning.
2. In a food processor, grind the cashews for several minutes and scrape down the bowl occasionally, until they turn into nut butter.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth. If desired, add a couple tablespoons of water to thin the mixture out.
4. Serve with chips, crackers, bread, sliced vegetables or apples.

Variations:
Pumpkin pie: Add 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and omit the paprika.
Savory: Increase the salt to 1/4 teaspoon and add 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin and a dash of cayenne pepper.

Notes:
If you don’t want to toast and grind your cashews, substitute 1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon cashew butter and reduce the salt.

Like a lazy cook, I eyeballed the salt and spices, so you don’t have to follow the amounts above exactly. Just add them to taste.

It’s hard to believe that chocolate can make someone grumpy, but that was the case at New York’s 10th annual Chocolate Show last Friday. The show has declined in recent years, with cheap-o brands slowly taking over the artisan booths. Of course there were stand-outs, but do you really need another cliche “chocolate is delicious” wrap-up? Okay, come back in Part 2 for recommendations. For now, I’m going with the more entertaining (and arguably more useful) Worst in Show.

Greedy if you ask me!

Photo: Niko/Dessert Buzz

When the Chocolate Show first began, it only cost $5 to get in and sample chocolates from all over the world. Two years ago, the admission ballooned to $25, and this year, it again rose to $28. In the words of a fellow chocolate lover: “Greedy if you ask me!” Upon entering, the coat check costs $2 (you can’t really skip out on this in chilly NY), and water costs another $2 (you need something to wash all that chocolate down). You’ve just spent $32 without eating a single piece of chocolate.

Sample Snobbery

A note to the booths: please stop hiding your samples. Visitors have just spent $28 on admission and are entitled to a taste. They don’t enjoy inquiring about a possible sample, hearing a long sales pitch and then getting their requisite treat at the end. Ironically, the more the vendors gushed about their chocolate, the worse the product tended to be.

Photo: Robyn Lee/The Girl Who Ate Everything

Some vendors offered samples up front, but they came with tweezers and little spoons. I understand we’re all concerned about cleanliness, but when there’s 20 people waiting in line, using chopsticks to pick up pebble-sized chocolates is hardly efficient. At the very least, please offer more than one spoon per bowl. And when vendors slice a piece of a truffle and insist on handing it to me, I just think, “I’m perfectly capable of picking up my own chocolate!” True, there are some people who horde samples in plastic containers, but it’s not fair for the rest of us.

Shiki Matcha Crunch truffles, why must I pay $2 to sample you?

The worst policy is not even offering samples at all. I think the chocolates should sell themselves, and if I can’t try them, I won’t buy them.

The Bad and the Irrelevant

This being a chocolate show, you’d think that every booth sold something related to chocolate. Let’s just say that this year’s show offered one-stop shopping, so you could get a Capitol One Visa card, a subscription to the NY Times and book a Marriott vacation.

Photo: Robyn Lee/The Girl Who Ate Everything

Two booths sold cocoa-rolled truffles that were ostensibly from France and had hydrogrenated vegetable oil. The French would roll in their graves if they had to eat these!

Photo: Niko/Dessert Buzz

Mars also had their own booth. Not only were they out of place, but they pretended to be up to par with the prestige chocolatiers. They bragged about selling 100% real chocolate, but did you know that they’re part of the Chocolate Manufacturer’s Association, the same trade group that wanted to replace cacao butter with shortening in chocolate? Last month, Mars turned around and said they’d only sell chocolate with 100% cocoa butter, as they always have. That’s not true. Dove dark chocolate (which I admit tastes pretty good) has milk fat and technically isn’t pure chocolate.

Bueller, Bueller, anyone?

The same chocolate lover above reported that some exhibitors had no idea where their cacao beans came from or whether they were bought for a fair price. Call me a snob, but how and where cacao is grown makes a world of difference in the finished product. When vendors don’t know their product, it’s unattractive to the consumer.

In another puzzling case, Gobo restaurant demoed a vegan chocolate cake, which called for vegan flour and vegan cocoa powder. It pains me to say this, since Gobo and its sister restaurant, Zen Palate, are among my favorites in the city (and the owners are really nice), but I almost laughed at those ingredients. Flour comes from a plant. Cocoa comes from a plant. When are animals involved? If you can find me animal-derived cocoa, I’ll give you a lifetime supply of vegan cocoa as consolation.

For the Chocolate Show highlights, check out back here later or visit Dessert Buzz and NYCnosh.

While the rest of America is planning an over-the-top Thanksgiving, I have this nagging worry in the back of my head: “What about all those turkeys that are dying at once? Isn’t that bad for the ecosystem?”

Apparently, I’m not the only one who struggles with social events and green living. A while back, I was forwarded an e-mail from N.Y. Times writer Alexandra Jacobs:

…what do you do if you go to some party and your host serves beretta freshly FedExed in from Italy…on styrofoam plates! Or..or…or…And hey, what if you’re having people over yourself–what are ways to reduce the gigantic clomping carbon footprint of a big barbecue?

Alexandra’s article, “The Green Party,” ran this week. I’m the unnamed source who served meat (uh oh, I let animals die) at a Mardi Gras-themed party. Geez, they made it seem like I had something to hide by leaving off my name!

How do you feel about throwing parties? Do you not worry about paper plates and all that?

In March, a congressman offered his mother’s homemade fudge on eBay.

Everyone and their grandmother has a recipe for fudge, but the best one comes from a congressman’s mother in York, Penn. Or so says President George W. Bush. In 2003, he was on Air Force One with U.S. Representative Todd Platts, who bragged that his mom made the best fudge in the world.

Bush took him up on the boast and tried the fudge on the eve of the State of the Union address. He liked it so much that he hand wrote a thank-you letter:

Dear Babs,
Thanks for the fudge, it was great. If you see me running mile after mile after television, please know you’re the cause.

Besides being an insider’s secret amongst politicians (like John McCain, the speaker of the house and a local mayor), “Babs” Platts presents her fudge to new neighbors and friends in nursing homes. This March, you could even buy it on eBay when Auction Inn, a local fund raising organization, sold it.

The fudge is coveted by many but obtained by a few. Luckily, I found the recipe in a regional magazine, Susquehanna Style. The secret is Jif peanut butter and marshmallow cream from Weis supermarket. Non-Pennsylvanians will have to make do without that brand of fluff, but I second the Jif recommendation. It’s my favorite commercial brand of peanut butter because of the deep, molasses flavor. I haven’t had a chance to try the recipe yet, so I’m taking all this by faith.

Regardless of how you feel about politics or the election tomorrow, you have to love the homey story behind this fudge. When I spoke to Platts for an AP story about weird foods appearing on eBay, it was clear that he’s a family man. Some people carry pictures of their kids in their wallet; Platts lets his 10-year-old son record his voicemail greeting on his cell phone. It goes something like, “Hi, this is Todd Platts’ son. He’s not here right now, so leave a message.” Even though it’s two years old, Platts won’t dare delete it because he thinks it’s perfect. How cute is that?