blue artichoke

Thanks for the suggestions on how to use up my tahini. Alas, I have no chickpeas or pita bread, so hummus is a no go. I found the recipe mentioned by Red Momo, for tahini cookies with almonds and cherries and happened to have everything (or good substitutions) on hand: almond paste, almond meal, orange juice, tahini... I used Bran Flakes for the "multigrain flake cereal," though I saw afterwards that it was supposed to be a multigrain hot cereal, like oatmeal (but multigrain). Whoops. Bran Flakes taste good and give a nice crunch. I also subbed dried cranberries for the cherries and regular sugar for the turbinado sugar. I didn't have high hopes for these cookies, but they are excellent! They taste sort of peanut-buttery and sweet and tart and smooth all at once. Good suggestion, Red Momo. However, as cookies are the enemy of the snackdown fitness challenge, I ate two and packaged the rest to send in to work tomorrow with Gentleman Caller.

Just in case anyone else has this same odd assortment of ingredients stashed away in their cupboards, here's the recipe:

Tahini Almond Cherry Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup roasted tahini
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 cup almond paste
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange juice 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup multigrain flake cereal
2/3 cup dried sour cherries
3 tablespoons turbinado sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets, or line with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, tahini, brown sugar, 3/4 cup of turbinado sugar, and almond paste until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla and orange juice. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, almond meal, and cinnamon; stir into the batter until well blended. Mix in the cereal and sour cherries.
3. Drop dough by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle the remaining 3 tablespoons of turbinado sugar over the tops.
4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden at the edges. Cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe from Allrecipes.com

I still have some tahini left. I'm becoming obsessed with tahini. Not eating it, but getting it out of my kitchen. When looking for the cookie recipe, I found a recipe for a tahini chicken salad. I'm roasting a chicken tonight, so I'll use the leftovers for a chicken salad.

Dinner tonight: Roast Chicken Provencal; leftover baked potato and onion casserole; corn