Sesame Noodle with Steamed Veggies and Egg

I was hankering for a nice sesame-sauced noodle dish. I googled around and saw that there is a lot of different ways to make sesame sauce. I tried to synthesize my own.
Prepare Sauce:
-Roughly chop a couple hot chilies, 3 cloves of garlic, and a bit of ginger
-Prepare 1 tsp each of olive oil, sesame oil, Chinese 5-Spice, black pepper, red wine, honey, and fresh chives-Prepare about 3 heaping tablespoons of good unsweetened peanut butter and another tablespoon or two of tahini
-Mix all the above in a food processor with about 1/4 cup of warm water
Prepare Dish:
-Soak any sort of noodles that you like in some water or cook them until they are just ready
-Chop/prepare any vegetables that you like steamed. I used broccoli, cauliflower, and bok choy
-Toast a tbsp of sesame seeds on a pan
-Roughly chop some cilantro and chives
-Ready a couple eggs

Cook Dish:
-Steam vegetables (broccoli and cauliflower take longer than bok choy)
-Crack 2 eggs on a warmed pan with olive oil over medium heat, after 1 minute of frying, roughly mix together

-Once vegetables are steamed, mix noodles through and leave for a couple minutes

-Mix in eggs and sauce, sprinkle with cilantro, chives, and sesame seeds

Tips:
-You can change this sauce anyway you see fit. I put in 3 chilies and it had a lovely amount of heat to it. I think next time I may add a bunch of cilantro to the sauce itself to give it a bit of that nice flavour.
-Substituting eggs with tofu or chicken would be a very welcome addition.

Focaccia-based pizza

So I was making my delicious focaccia again and decided to freeze one of them, to see how it would turn out. I took it out of the freezer and waited about 2 hours and then set about making a dynamite pizza. With an easy tasty sauce.
Prepare Sauce:
-In a food processor, mix 3-4tbsp of tomato puree, 1/2 small can of whole peeled tomatoes (with some of the juice), 2 peeled cloves of garlic, a little bit of onion, 1 tsp each of white sugar, dried basil, salt, and oregano.
Prepare Pizza:
-Spread the newly made sauce on the focaccia base
-Put on top your favorite toppings: I think its sinful to have pizza without onion, broccoli, or olives. I also put on zucchini, fresh tomato, and mushroom
-Cover with some freshly shredded cheeses: mozarella and light cheddar work well, I also added a bit of parmesanCook Pizza:
-Preheat oven to around 400F/200C
-Place pizza on a thin pan and put in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until crust gets crispy (depends on thickness of the crust)
-Bon apetit

Creamy Chumus

I'm made hummus before, but it didn't turn out the way I like it: it was good, but didn't have the creaminess of the Israeli chumus that I like so much. My older brother emailed me a recipe for the creamy kind and, while a bit labor-intensive, turned out just how I wanted it.

Prepare:
-Over night, soak 1 cup of dried chickpeas in 4 cups of water and 1tsp baking powder (use a large pot)
-Ready 1/3 cup tahini, 1/2 cup lemon juice (I used the juice of 1 lemon and 1 lime), 3 minced cloves of garlic, 1 tsp coarse salt, 2 tbsp olive oil
-Get out your food processor

Cook:
-Drain water from soaked chickpeas, fill pot back up with 4 cups water and 1/2tsp baking powder - bring to a boil and simmer for about 40 minutes (skimming off some foam from the top), until each chickpea is consistently yellow all the way through (ie they're edible)-Drain (but save water) and cool water and chickpeas down to room temperature and then stick in the freezer for about 30 min (or fridge for 2hrs) until well chilled-Process chickpeas with lemon juice and salt until even and creamy. It should be thick but not too thick. Add 1 or 2 tbsp of the cooking water to thin it out a bit-Add garlic and tahini and process completely
-While processor is still running, drizzle olive oil into it
-Taste and decide how to adjust (add more tahini, lemon juice, salt, garlic, etc)

Tips:
-Well, this turned out how I wanted it. It was a bit plain and so next time I'll go for a garlickier item, or perhaps make it spicy
-Originally, the recipe called for 1/4 cup lemon juice and I added 1/2 by accident and it turned out perfect. Normally I don't like things too sour, too, and I was fine with it
-The recipe called for 1/2 cup tahini but even with 1/3 cup the tahini taste was still quite noticable
-In the recipe, they mention in the stage between lemon juice and tahini to spread chickpeas on a "fine mesh sieve" to get out the peels. I tried with a paper-towel and (obviously) couldn't get anything out, so I just skipped that step and it turned out fine
-My processor was a bit too small for all the stuff, so I separated everything in two and mixed it with half the ingredients, then mixed the stuff back together

Simple Tomato and Basil Sauce

This is a simple and very nice and fresh-tasting tomato sauce that goes great with pasta, gnocchi, and on bread as a pseudo-bruschetta. This makes about 2-3 servings worth
Prepare:
-Seed and dice 3 large tomatoes
-Chop 1 large onion and 4-5 cloves garlic
-Chop up a bunch of basil, at least 1/2 cup worthCook:
-In a small pot, on medium heat, cook tomatoes and 1/4 cup of basil in olive oil-At the same time, in another pot/pan, lightly fry onion and garlic, in olive oil, until fragrant and tender-When tomatoes get soft, add the onion/garlic mixture, turn heat down to low, add salt and cracked black pepper, and about a tsp of brown sugar to offset the acidity; simmer for ~2 hours (you read that correctly), stirring every 10-20 minutes to make sure nothing gets burnt. When you're almost ready to use it, dump the rest of the basil in itTips:
-You could add one or two hot peppers to the tomato if you wanted a sauce with more of a kick
-Adding marjoram, oregano, parsley, or other Italian herbs and spices would be welcome, of course, I just wanted to keep mine simple

Schug (Spicy Cilantro Paste)

This is a purportedly Israeli spicy sauce that my dad would always make. Schug (the 'ch' is the back of the throat, hard sound) is an amazingly delicious paste that works wonders on sandwiches, meats, etc. It's also easy to make and freezes quite well.
Prepare:
-Buy 1-2 bunches of cilantro, chop off only the bottom 1/3 of the stems-Get several spicy peppers. I used Thai chili peppers since that's easiest to find where I live, but a good variety of Thai, Jalapeño, Habanero, etc will add to the depth of the paste, roughly chopped but not seeded (1-4 peppers per bunch of cilantro pending on how spicy you like it)-Peel several cloves of garlic (1 if you don't like garlic, 3-4 if you like the taste)Cook:
-In a food processor, pulse cilantro, garlic, peppers, a bit of olive oil (only enough to make the paste liquidy), and some salt. If it doesn't blend properly, add a bit more olive oil, slowly (you don't want it too oily), taste and adjust pepper or cilantro to taste-Store in a jar and refrigerate/freeze
Tips:
-If you don't like it spicy, make sure to put in some flavorful but not spicy pepper, otherwise the sauce will only be cilantro
-I've never tried this but I reckon a bit of red onion might add to the flavor