Cooking Musician Interview

I was looking for my hummus prep notes and oddly enough, found an old, short interview online I did in 07, mainly about musicians and cooking. I thought it was worth preserving here, enjoy.
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MusiCulinary Opening Weekend--Featuring THE MUCKRAKERS

MusiCulinary is happy to open a new season with an interview with Brian S. Meurer, bassist for Louisville Kentucky band The Muckrakers. He continues a proud MusiCulinary tradition of bass players having some of the best cooking stories, and provides his recipe for Hummus.

MusiCulinary: What is the one cooking skill you're most proud
of, and how/where did you learn it?

Brian: I'm probably most proud of my knife skills. It's such a great feeling when a well balanced knife quickly dispatches with everything on your cutting board. You've probably heard of people throwing babies in pools to make them learn to swim? That's basically the tactic I took. I'd like to say some well qualified sous chef trained me in the finer arts of using a knife. Actually, I will say that. You can believe that, yes sir. In no way did I almost remove a finger and while cleaning blood from the floor decide to cut cleanly, quickly, and efficiently. Absolutely in no way did I stand up, hold up my fist and say as God as my witness, I'll never go bloody again.

MusiCulinary: Tell us about any new type of cuisine or new recipe
you've recently tried out for the first time...and
tell us if you intend to try it again.

Brian: Recently I've been making a lot of a great hummus recipe a friend passed on to me, as well as, but less frequently, pommes frites, which are thicker and tastier than what we know of as fast-food french fries. The key to the hummus is the draining, rinsing and boiling of the garbanzo beans, as well as the fresh garlic and lemon. The absolute key to the frites is the ice bath immediately after cutting, as well as the two frying times. Although neither the hummus nor frites are a new type of cuisine, they both turn out fantastic, so I return to them often.

MusiCulinary: Describe your most memorable culinary disaster.

Brian: Aside from the bloody nearly-severed finger, the bane of my culinary existence is, sadly, rice. Yeah, rice. I know. But I wanted to do it right, no microwaving something in a box. The first time I made a curry chicken dish, I made a great basmati rice, and I thought that rice is easy, no problem. The second, third, and fourth time of making rice, it basically ruined the meal, each time. I kept trying, kept trying to turn out something edible, something in between mush and tiny oblong rocks. To no avail. You need something with rice? How about we use potatoes or pasta as a side dish instead?

MusiCulinary: Describe a typical dinner you would make for a
quiet evening at home.

Brian: Sauteed garlic chicken, peppercorns, green peppers, onions, olives. French bread. A dry cab-sav or chianti.

MusiCulinary: Complete the sentence: "My listeners would
probably be most surprised that I cook
this:__________________________."

Brian: All day long, all day strong
French Onion Soup