I’ve been cleaning and baking and searching out toys.

Going through boxes of books and choosing the most interesting.

Making homemade noodles and preparing falafel and scrubbing out toilets and sinks and bathtubs and sweeping and mopping.

Aidan and his parents are coming for a short visit!

I don’t clean Jordan’s bathroom unless he has to share it.

I’m not sure how often he cleans it, but it gets a thorough job when his brother comes to visit.  (Luke, that is just one more reason why you should come more often!) 

I was going to buy falafel at Alladin’s when Ally and Aiden and I went.

But I had such a good time watching him work on a lemon slice that I forgot to order them until we were almost done eating.  So I figured I’d make them myself.

 

Isn’t this the cutest thing you’ve seen today?! 

But back to the making of falafels.

Because this is some real serious business. 

Lately, all I want to eat are falafels.  I LOVE GARBANZO BEANS!

And so does Aidan- so I’m making the falafel for him!  And me.

I promised you a recipe.  So here goes.

Ingredients:

Chickpeas- (or garbanzo beans) 16 oz. canOR

about 2 cups dried beans that you have soaked overnight.

If you are using the dried beans- you will need to drain them and put into fresh water in a pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for an hour.  Drain and cool for 15 minutes.

Reserve liquid from beans

1 clove garlic -chopped

1 onion-chopped

a handful of fresh parsley, chopped=1/3 cup

1 tsp coriander, ground

1 tsp cumin,ground

2 TBS flour

salt and pepper to taste

oil for frying

Method:

Combine all ingredients, except oil, in food processor.

Process until it is ground fine.

You may need to add a little of the liquid from the beans.  Add 1/4 cup at a time- you don’t want this to be runny- you are looking for a thick paste.

keep processing- not smooth enough.

It should look like this when it is ready to be fried in oil.  I’m sorry – I don’t have a picture of them fried yet!   The batter is sitting in my refrigerator waiting for the hot finale!

BUT- I won’t leave you here, I promise.

Make the batter into ping pong size balls and flatten slightly and then fry in about 2 inches of oil at 350 degrees for 5-7 minutes.

I will post pictures of the finished falafel, if they aren’t eaten up too quickly!

I’ve got to go- I went into the kitchen to grab my list of ingredients and I realized that I went upstairs to get dressed after making whole wheat bread dough and the batter for falafel, and I got distracted into cleaning the bathroom.

My kitchen is a disaster!  Pots and pans and cups and knives all over the place.

So, I’ll try to get up some pictures later.