I Falafel for Love

I love Arabic food, plain & simple. I've been lucky enough to be raised in a city where you will find the most authentic Arabic food outside the Middle East. I ain't lying! I searched for a good falafel recipe and after some tweaking here is what I got. Prepare yourself for the magic of amazing falafel!

Falafel Me Crazy:
adapted from Food People Want

• 1 lb dried garbanzo beans, soaked in water overnight
• 1/2 an onion
  
• 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
  
• 1/2 large bunch of parsley
• 1/2 bunch of cilantro
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• Red pepper flakes
  
• Kosher salt & cayenne pepper to taste
  
• Peanut oil for frying

1. Drain the chick peas from their soaking liquid and put them, along with the onion, garlic, parsley, cilantro into a food processor. The rest will be somewhat dry almost meat consistency.
   
2. Add the cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, cayenne and salt to the ground mixture. Stir to distribute the spice and allow the mixture to rest for at least a 1/2 hour at room temperature. Taste a small amount for seasoning and adjust accordingly.
3. With slightly moistened hands, take walnut-sized lumps (about 2 tablespoons) of the rested falafel mixture from the bowl and gently roll into flat, round shapes, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Allow rolled falafel balls to rest at least another 15 minutes at room temperature before frying. I made mine into patties.
   
4. Pour oil into a 4-qt. Dutch oven to a depth of 2″ and heat over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers 350˚. Working in batches, fry the falafel until they are a dark, rich brown color, about 4-5 minutes. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining falafel.
5. Serve the falafel warm or at room temperature.
   

I served mine with rice, garlic dressing & homemade pita bread which you can find the recipe for HERE. Enjoy the delicious-ness!

The Tale of the Bread Penis

For Christmas this year I bought myself a beautiful, apple green, Kitchenaid stand mixer. Not only did I get an amazing deal on it, but it's my favorite color! So my goal is to use it as much as possible, buy some attachments for it & become a master of Lola (she's a feisty temptress). I'm starting a new weekly post in my blog entitled "Let's cook while listening to music that annoys our children" My first go at this didn't turn out as planned but it had a hilarious outcome.

The menu plan was to make homemade, veggie lasagna & french bread while listening to Journey's greatest hits. Jordyn was not pleased with my music selection and even less pleased with my singing abilities. The recipe for the bread is as follows.

Adapted from Katie Kinser's French Bread

1 1/2 Tbsp. or 2 packets (1/4 oz./7 g each) dry active yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp. granulated sugar
2 cups hot water
3 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1/2 cup oil
5 – 6 cups all-purpose flour

1. Dissolve yeast, warm water, and 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar in a small bowl.

2. In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine hot water, 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, salt, and oil. Add 3 cups of flour to the mixture in the large bowl/mixer and mix well. Stir in yeast mixture.

3. Add 2 – 3 cups more flour and mix until well blended. (At this point your dough will still be quite sticky). Leave in bowl and let rise for 1 hour, mixing a few strokes a couple of times during the hour.

4. Divide dough into 2 (or 3 if you want smaller loaves) pieces. Roll out each piece on a floured surface into the length desired then roll up length wise like a jelly roll.

5. Put on a greased cookie sheet, sealed side down, and tuck the ends under. Slash the top diagonally across the top every couple of inches with a sharp knife. Brush with egg white. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Let loaves rise 30 more minutes.

6. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.

So I followed the instructions, step by step.... OOoo baby! But I ran into a snag while rolling the dough. Did I mention rolling pins & I do not get along? Yeah we hate each other. I suck at rolling dough, pie crusts or pizza dough. So I pathetically roll out these loaves and transfer to a greased cookie sheet. When I go to lift the first one it droops a bit making it even longer then it already was. It's too long to fit on the cookie sheet straight so I tuck the extra underneath & pop it in the oven. This is also where I made mistake #2 because I forgot the egg whites on top. Opps! I check on the bread in the oven & it's starting to take an odd shape, similar to a penis. 30 minutes later I have a huge loaf of French bread that looks like a giant penis. What a perfect side for any meal!

You live, you learn, you make penis bread.

Hello Again Friends!

Well it's 2012, Happy New Year! I'm gonna try to get this old girl up & running again! I don't know how many times I've said that, on multiple blogs, but THIS TIME I'm serious! In this post I'm gonna recap my year of 2011 with pictures & captions *a stolen idea from my dear friend "Eleanor Eats" *Here we go!

DISCLAIMER: Most of these pictures are unedited with dull lighting. Pardon me.


January 2011: This face pretty much sums up the year of being 3! Sassy little girl seems to have a toned down her bratty attitude since turning 4 but is channeling her 16 year old future self.


February 2011: The month of love! Look at this face! I'm not a religious person, but thank you God for bringing this sweet cherub into my life. She is such a joy!


March 2011: Our first trip to downtown Baltimore. Free aquarium night! It's a pretty cool city but it reminds me of Detroit, in terms of ghetto.


April 2011: Meet Ryan! This is Jordyn's twin in male form! Of course we meet an amazing family in Delaware right before we move to New York :( April started our long journey to finding a home, living in a hotel & losing my last thread of sanity during it all.


May 2011: My birthday fell on Mother's day this year. Although I had to spend both in a hotel room, at least my dear husband found the time to get me breakfast & beautiful sunflowers!

June 2011: This month is a big one for our family because... we bought our FIRST house! We had the best realtor, mortgage lender & lawyer in town. They put up with so much from me & I appreciate all the hard work they did to get us out of that hotel & into our home as fast as possible! I'm as happy as a tree without eyes!

July 2011: We had our first visitors, the inlaws! And they brought us a lovely housewarming present; a giant swing set for our kiddos!


August 2011: This picture just cracks me up. I didn't take a lot of pictures this month due to the massive amount of work this house needs. Let's face it, when you buy a house from old people it takes awhile to get it up to date & smelling like something other then mothballs.


September 2011: Future crazy couple perhaps? We got a nice visit from our friends this month! Activities included making a movie theater in the basement, a bubble/mud slide, numerous baths & Hill Billy Handfishing marathons.


October 2011: My favorite month of the year! We celebrated Jordyn's 4th birthday & Adalyn's 1st birthday back at home in Michigan. We had a blast & the party was awesome! We had our first Halloween in our new house too! Jordyn was Olivia the pig & Adalyn was an owl.


November 2011: Just another prime example that my children are crazy! This was another month of home improvement so not many pictures were taken. But I got ever closer to finishing the 5 month project of remodeling Jordyn's bedroom!


December 2011: Christmas was a mix of emotions this year. Paul had to stay home due to his new job, so the girls & I traveled by train back to Michigan. We spent 10 days there & got to see a lot of very special people. Never again will I do it alone! The girls got tons of gifts, like always and I got to spend time with my best friends which is rare! All in all it was a good time but we were happy to head home.

Goodbye 2011! To say you were the year of "New" would be an understatement, but for a gypsy family like us, every year is a year of new. After 4 moves from 5 different states in 2 years, I'm happy to no longer be a wandering gypsy... at least for now!