Feeling Like Some Falafel

I love Egyptian food. Hummus, shwarma, tabbouleh, eggplant, tzatziki, pita bread, falafel....yum! There is a great Egyptian food restaurant here in Funky Town, King Tut. I especially love falafel and they have the best! I could eat it everyday. So, I tried making it. The recipe I used was not a traditional falafel recipe but it was still pretty good and the cucumber yogurt that went with it was great! The yogurt makes a lot, but if you want a little snack later, just dip some pita wedges in it. Next time, I am going all out and giving a traditional falafel recipe a try. But, this was tons of fun to make!




Falafel Pitas with Cucumber Yogurt Dressing:

• 1/4 cup minced red onion
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 (15 1/2-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
• 1 (1-ounce) slice whole wheat bread, torn into pieces
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 (6-inch) whole wheat pitas, split
• 1 cup arugula

*Combine first 10 ingredients in a food processor; pulse 6 times or until well blended (mixture will be wet).

*Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Spoon about 1/3 cup chickpea mixture per patty into pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

*Line each pita half with 1/4 cup arugula, add 1 patty to each pita half, and spoon 2 tablespoons Cucumber-Yogurt Dressing into each pita half.

Cucumber Yogurt Dressing:

• 1 cup plain fat-free yogurt
• 1/2 cup diced seedless cucumber
• 1/4 cup minced red onion
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

*Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Cover and chill.

Cheers!

Our Thyme Garden Part 2

On Saturday my mom and I went back to the Thyme Garden open house. They have an open house every six months. We went this past October and it was wonderful. The box lunch this year was a cold cucumber soup, herbed pecans, chicken salad sandwich, and an orange peel sugar cookie. It was fantastic! I was a bad blogger that day because I did not take pictures. While we were there eating a fantastic lunch and wandering through the garden, I got myself some Mexican Marigold (which they put in the chicken salad), Orange Mint, Daisy's, and Rose Geranium. Jeff started working on making a flower bed for me this weekend. I am going to give a go to a veggie garden!

So, with all this herb inspiration, I came home from the Thyme Garden and made cookies!

I used this little spotted egg in the recipe. I thought it was cute so I took a picture. I know, I'm a dork.

I made Lavender cookies and Rosemary, Thyme, Walnut cookies.

This little package of cookies found itself on my parents doorstep yesterday afternoon.

I hope everyone has a good week!

Happy Easter

I hope the Easter Bunny was good to everyone this year. I have very fond memories of Easters past. When I was a child, we would normally celebrate Easter at the Farm. My grandmother would boil like 4 dozen eggs and we would dye eggs all night long while Papa watched western movies. Then we would go to bed and wake up to the most fabulous Easter baskets and hunt for the eggs that we dyed the night before. My mom would always make little Easter bunny paw prints with her fingers and flour that lead to the eggs. It looked so real, so we thought then! We really thought the Easter bunny had been in the farmhouse! Later in the day we would have an Easter egg hunt outside in the orchard and us kids (which usually only consisted of me, my sister, and cousin) would frantically search for the coveted egg with a $20.00 bill in it. Well, at least I remember it being $20.00 but it could have easily been $5.00, who knows. Easter was always so fun and magical at the farm, just like most holidays when I was a kid. It is memories like these that really make me miss the farm. It was so special.

Over the past few years, for Easter, my mom has made hot cross buns. They are fantastic! I found these on my doorstep a few days ago. As you can see, I have already devoured one of them (and Mama, I did not even mind the raisins!)

Yesterday, Jeff and I went to his family reunion/family Easter get together. I brought Spinach Artichoke Dip. This recipe hands down is the best ever! I had the opportunity to use my cute little Pyrex baking dish so I went with it! The dip was a hit, as usual!

Cedella has taken to my little chick-a-dees. I caught her red handed (about 5 times in one hour)! First she bites the poor little chick out.

Then whacks it on the table and off on to the floor.

Mission accomplished!

Cheers!


Oh...I forgot...Easter waffles....

Socks Take Two

I'm done with the second pair and I love them! This is the best sock yarn ever. I am getting more asap!

Cheers!

What A Lazy Day For Me!

I have made a lot of progress on the second pair of socks I am knitting. I spent all day today (again with the all day knitting on Sunday) knitting these socks. Watch out everyone, there are socks for Christmas gifts in your future! I'm thinking that maybe I should try knitting sweaters now! But, maybe I am shooting a bit high with all my sock enthusiasm.

I also made my usual weekend breakfast consisting of eggs. When I asked Jeff this morning if he was hungry for breakfast he quickly answered "are you making eggs?" So, I guess I have gotten a bit predictable. Usually I make eggs and turkey sausage but, to keep things interesting today, I left out the turkey sausage and made a southwestern omelet. When I was mixing the cheese, black beans, salsa, and green onions (those cute little green onions were hand picked out of my garden) I thought all the colors looked so pretty, so...of course I took a picture.

My hollyhock is blooming. This is the first time that it has bloomed since I planted it last October. I never realized how pretty it would be!




I also picked up some basil and parsley at Central Market because this weekend was their herb fest. They had such pretty herbs and I could have bought more but I am trying to save space for the annual Botanic Garden Herb Festival (I know I have mentioned this before but my sister and I are in that picture in the right hand corner. That festival was about 2 years ago.).

Once again, it was another lovely Sunday.

Cheers!

Friends, Fun, And More Fondue!

Well, yesterday evening I was finally able to test out the vintage fondue pot I found months ago at an estate sale. Jeff and I got together with our longtime friends for a fondue night. After spending my birthday at Simply Fondue, we decided that fondue is tons of fun and something that we needed to do ourselves! So we had a sharp cheddar cheese fondue and a blue cheese fondue. Both were fantastic! We had chicken, apples, bell peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, summer sausage, and bread for dipping. Oh, it was yummy. My little fondue pot worked like a champ!

For dessert we had chocolate fondue with homemade marshmallows and coconut macaroons from Central Market and also butter cream cake, pretzels, and graham crackers. The marshmallows and macaroons were so fluffy. I love Central Market.

Jeff and I brought along a bit of Sangria too. Sangria is perfect for this time of year (well, I guess it is perfect really for anytime of year!) Oh, my, we were stuffed by the end of the night but it was worth it! I should have taken more pictures but I was too busy eating!

Good food, good friends, and good fun. Just how a Saturday night should be spent.

Cheers!

The Comfort Of A Sunday...

I think Sunday is probably one of my favorite days. Usually, the house is clean, because I took care of that the day before. All of my errands have been run, because I took care of that the day before too. So, on Sunday, I can just relax! This morning I worked on the new socks I have been knitting. These are turning out rather cute. The colors are so vibrant. My sister gave me this yarn for Christmas, thanks Sissy! To me, there is nothing better than sitting on the couch, kitting something sweet, and sipping coffee while watching No Reservations on a Sunday Morning. I love Anthony Bourdain and I also just discovered his blog today.

I spent the afternoon along the same trend. After shopping for a very needed new pair of shoes at DSW (I actually ended up with 2) I needed a post-shopping snack. So, I had my usual...Quattro Formaggio Triscuits and Laughing Cow herbed cheese, yummy!

Then, I sipped on some hibiscus tea (through a fancy raspberry straw), flipped through the pages of a couple of my favorite magazines, and worked on the socks some more. Unfortunately, the No Reservations marathon was over so I ended up watching the Discovery Channel instead. There was something on Discovery about the Earth narrated by Sigoruney Weaver (I think). That really is Jeff's doing. He must have been watching it before he left for work. We had a meaningful conversation about entomology earlier in the day. He likes that kind of stuff. So, since this show is not something I would usually watch on my own, I guess I kept watching to determine if it really was Sigoruney Weaver narrating. I remember her most from Ghostbusters! "When there's something strange in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!" Um, ok, I am over it. My apologies, got off track with this here blog entry.

Anyhoo, I received another Amazon shipment.

This book is really is great and has some quick and easy sewing projects. I think I want to make one of everything in this book!

My first project from this book will be to make the ironing board cover. My ironing board needs it! And, it will make ironing exciting!

Cheers!