Peel the garlic and add it with the jalapenos and lemon juice to your food processor.

Tahini, which is a traditional ingredient, is sometimes hard to find if you do not have a specialty grocery store. Here in Phoenix, where Chris lives, we found it at Sprout’s Farmers Market. If you cannot find it or don’t want to use it, you can sub in cream cheese.

Blend well until the jalapenos finely ground.

Drain the chick peas, put them in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave for 1 minute or until hot. Add the chick peas and salt to the food processor and blend on high until the hummus is a smooth consistent texture.

Put the hummus in a serving bowl and swirl the top to make channels. Uncle Jack uses his finger, you can use a spatula or whatever works for you.

Toast up some pita bread or naan bread and dip away! It’s okay to double dip in this one, it’s that good.

After the water is on to boil, turn on your electric grill (we have a good ol’ George Foreman). If you don’t have one of these, you can put the chicken breast in the broiler instead- or buy a grill below…

Trim the chicken breast and rinse it. Season it with Goya seasoning, salt and pepper and a little olive oil on each side. Grill the chicken for 7-10 minutes, or until it is no longer pink in the center.

Chop it up and put it to the side.

While the chicken is cooking and the water is heating up, chop up the bell pepper, onion and mushrooms. Keep them separate.

Cut the broccoli into equal sized spears and peel the stems so they are tender after cooking.

When the water comes to a rolling boil, put the broccoli in for only about 4 minutes. You just want the broccoli to cook slightly, but still remain somewhat crisp.

While that is cooking, heat up some olive oil in the skillet. Once hot, add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.

***Remember to watch the broccoli. If it is ready before it is time to add it below, just strain it out and put it to the side. Remember to keep the water on the side for the pasta. Once you take out the broccoli, you can bring the water back up to a boil, and once boiling, add the pasta (with plenty of salt) and cook to package directions.

Add the wine to the mushrooms and saute for a few minutes until mushrooms are tender but still firm.

Remove the mushrooms and put them to the side. Add some more olive oil. Once hot again, add the onions and peppers and saute until tender.

Add two cloves of garlic from the garlic press. We add this near the end so it does not burn.

Add the mushrooms, the broccoli (if it’s ready) and the chopped chicken.

Saute for under a minute just to warm everything back up. Season with salt, pepper, more olive oil, and plenty of pecorino romano cheese.

***Remember the pasta! Remove from the water whenever it’s ready…simply pour on a platter and spoon the vegetables and chicken on top.

Serve immediately on a big platter and enjoy!

The first step is to roast the garlic, and this takes a good hour, so make sure you either do this earlier in the day or at least before you start anything else.

Chop the potatoes, keeping the skin on, into small chunks about 1/2-1″ thick. Put to the side.

To prepare the leeks, chop off the root ends. Then chop off the greener top stalks.

I like to chop the leeks first, and then soak them to get out the sand. Mom on the other hand, she’s a little more anal. She likes to scrub the leeks before AND after they’re chopped. Whatever you have time for or prefer.

Chop the leeks in even rings.

Put them all in a bowl of water and agitate, separating the rings to get all the sand out. Strain out the water, and repeat if you like. Leeks tend to be fairly sandy. Put the leeks to the side.

Roughly chop the parsley and set aside.

Place a tbsp of olive oil in either a skillet, or roasting/soup pan and heat it up. We use dutch oven so we can keep all the ingredients in one pan and not lose ANY flavor.

Once the oil is hot (medium heat), put the ham steak in and brown on each side. You don’t want to burn the ham steak, just brown each side and reserve some of the fat in the pan.

Once the ham steak is cooked, take it out and put it to the side to cool a bit. De-glaze your pan with the white wine and scrape up the ham bits to incorporate into the mixture.

Then add the leaks and coat with a little olive oil.

Chop the ham steak and return it to the pan with the leeks.

Add the potatoes, chicken stock, and water.

Turn the heat up to high and simmer the soup for 20 minutes. Add the roasted garlic paste.

Continue to simmer for another 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.

Take the soup off the heat and mash together with a stick blender. If you don’t have this magical appliance, you can use a potato masher or a slotted spoon…OR you could buy a stick blender below…

Add the chopped parsley as a garnish, and enjoy! MMMM.

Delicious!!

Alright, you need a sharp knife. If your knife is dull, even a little bit, TAKE THE TIME TO SHARPEN IT! Alright, take your garlic head, rotate it on its side, and cut it ALMOST in half. You want to be able to open it all the way, but have a sort of paper hinge.

Baste on some olive oil to cover the exposed garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

Close the bulb back up and wrap it up in foil.

Place it in the heated oven for 1 hour.

Take it out, unwrap the foil (careful, it is hot).

Once it has cooled, you can just squirt out the garlic…it’s that easy!

mmmm Roasted Garlic…

Add salt, pepper and Goya powder to the flour to season. Dredge your pork chops through the flour.

Then pat on some chopped parsley.

Heat up some olive oil in the skillet with chopped garlic.

Simply saute your chops for 4-7 minutes on medium-high.

Flip once, your garlic will get crispy and the chops will be a lovely golden color.

Yum, enjoy! Goes great with a light salad.