[Hoot Gibson]

I cooked a French chickpea (a/k/a garbanzo bean) flour pancake called socca (a/k/a farinata in Italy) for lunch, and spread some homemade pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella, and pepperoni on it. It was pretty good for a change, and was quicker to make than a wheat flour pizza dough crust.

My wife is diabetic, so I am trying out some dishes that have a lower glycemic index than what I normally eat. A thin, hot skillet of socca would be great with some hummus or a good Indian chutney. It doesn't taste like cornbread, but its crust has a similar crispy texture when made in a cast iron skillet. Chickpeas contain

I have also been drinking more smoothies lately as a way to get more spinach into my diet. I bought a good immersion blender and I've found that I can throw a big handful of spinach into the smoothies without really changing the taste much. The immersion blender is not as fast as a good jar blender but it makes cleanup so much easier that its worth taking a couple of minutes longer to blend the drink. The blender does a good job blending frozen fruit.

I enjoy cooking but I hate cleaning up the messes that I make. I highly recommend an immersion blender if you don't already own one and don't like KP duty. I was sold on one when I watched a guy open a can of San Marzano tomatoes and make pizza sauce in the can on Youtube. You can also use the blender to puree a pot of soup while it is cooking.