For Father’s day this year, my whole family was all together. This is unique because my stepsister just moved back from Hawaii, so my stepdad has been without his daughter on Father’s day for a good 15 years or so. I’m sure he’s delighted she’s back in town. Given 1) we live in SoCal, 2) it was blazing hot inland, and 3) my parents are fortunate enough to own a sailboat, we all headed to the docks for a little sipping and sailing. We brought a nice spread of hummus, crackers and charcuterie to accompany our wine. Such a beautiful day on the water. Seals, sailboats, speed boats, cruise ships, and tankers… so many things to see.

One of our favorite things to do is sail through the shipyards, entering on the Long Beach side and exiting on the San Pedro side. Half way through, there is a bridge that needs to be raised so we can fit underneath it. My mom gets excited about the power of stopping traffic. Well, low and behold, they decided to build a concrete bridge… no more raising. George looked up at the new bridge, and the top of his mast, and questioned all of us as to whether we would fit under this new bridge. We all assured him that it was fine. After all, they know this is a major thoroughfare for mariners, don’t they? Why wouldn’t they build a bridge under which an average sailboat could pass? That would be silly, right? We all looked upward as the mast as it approached the new bridge. Yeah, looks fine. Totally clear.

CRUNCH! SCRAPE! Watch out!

Apparently the bridge was NOT built with sailboats in mind. We took out a couple inch chunk of concrete on that brand new bridge, as it pushed the sailboat downward into the water and scraped the mast in a line on the bottom of that new bridge. Small pieces of concrete rained down on our heads. The mast stayed put. It appears more damage was done to that bridge than our sturdy little sailboat, but I suspect the mast warrants further inspection. I looked at my stepdad, then my mom, then back at my stepdad, frowned and said “you’re probably not going to let us go under that bridge any more are you…” You can imagine his response. So, I need to find a favorite new route, my mom needs to find another way to get her power fix, and my stepdad needs to climb a mast to repair a few things. Unable to resolve any of those things at that moment, we went back to the hummus.

White Bean Hummus

• 1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 tsp Aleppo pepper
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp cumin
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 Tbsp tahini
• 1 ½ Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 lemon
• Olive Oil

Using a microplane grater, zest the lemon, then cut in half and juice the lemon. Put the zest and juice into a food processor. Add all other ingredients to the food processor. Pulse until smooth. Place hummus in a serving bowl and drizzle with oil and garnish with a sprinkle of Aleppo pepper.

Serve with pita chips or veggies.

Serves 4-6

White Bean Hummus