FALAFEL

I was intrigued by Keith Petrus' photos and mention of falafel on his Facebook blog, so yesterday I went shopping for dried garbanzo beans and put them on to soak overnight. Strangely, they started clicking and pinging about 5 hours in. That was pretty amusing.

So today, I drained them, and started combining ingredients. I have no idea how I lost my food processor, but I couldn't find it anywhere. But then maybe it has something to do with moving from a four bedroom house to a tiny, tiny one. I even searched through still packed boxes of kitchen stuff, but couldn't find it anywhere. So I was forced to use the blender to try to process the garbanzos, onion and garlic. That was pretty awkward and messy, but eventually I got it done, more or less. Then I added fresh parsley, baking powder, cumin seeds, coriander, salt and pepper, and put little smushed together globs of it on parchment paper covered cookie sheets and baked them at 375* for 40 minutes.

The problem was that I frankensteined several different falafel recipes together AND tripled or quadrupled the recipe(s)...and I tend to 'eyeball' amounts rather than actually measure. I think I got WAY too much cumin in it. Actually, it probably would have been better with fresh cilantro. But overall, I liked it and I will make it again, with a change or two.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE...

I've been busy with other things, and my computer has been having issues for awhile. I am hoping this will publish today, although I don't see some of the options that are supposed to be on this new blogger site. ...So I switched to the old format, and for now it's working... I hope.

Among other things, I've been keeping Lyric 3-4 days a week. We try to go to the library as often as possible, and she loves doing that. She finished the summer reading program and was thrilled to get each prize. In addition to Toddler Story Time on Fridays, lots of educational toys, and computers with children's activities on them, they have a craft table set up with something new each day. That is her absolute favorite thing - making things at the library. We always get our limit of books and the one she is reading to her doll this morning is one of our favorites - Rosie's Walk written and illustrated by Pat Hutchins. A stealthy fox is stalking Rosie the hen, but she is never aware of it. She leads him into one surprising mishap after another before returning safely home. The story is simple, but very engaging, and the illustrations are WONDERFUL. We have read this one many times, and I am not looking forward to having to return it. We'll probably either have to buy our own copy from Amazon or else recheck it from the library often.