i am so excited about this book...

i love eggs, from my head down to my legs.

and would you just look at what i found at the thrift store?


The recipes look so good. this is gonna be fun.

ground turkey, brown rice, and my fresh salsa.

here is my brother's creation. it goes along with the same theme of my last post: easy and healthy. i browned the lean ground turkey in a pan, added steamed brown rice, and covered with some of my avocado salsa. to get the recipe for the salsa, see my last posting.




so flipping good. enjoy.

Salsa.

i made a couple batches of fresh salsa today.

i am trying to stick to my "one recipe per week" thing, but was pretty busy last week trying to make arrangements for a death in the family. so, in the spirit of taking it easy and eating healthy, i made yummy yum yum salsa that makes you feel happy and 50 years younger, which may or may not be a good thing when you're only 24 yrs old.

Step one, ingredients.

i used a standard sized food processor and for one batch i mixed:

*1/3 yellow onion
*1/3 red onion
*1/2 of a bunch of cilantro
*squeeze of lemon
*1 Jalapeno
*3 or 4 cloves of garlic
*6 or 7 tomatoes
(after blending my first batch, i poured half into a bowl and blended the other half with half an avocado. i only blended half a batch with avo because it perishes much quicker)


Step 2: assemble.

Step 3: blend.


Step 4: tastey.

all done. avocado salsa in background. i hate the lighting in this kitchen!



alright, now for some tips from Gina:

*she said to use a variety of produce if you can.
*she likes to add bell peppers, preferably the yellow, orange or red ones. i don't like them in salsa, so i didn't add.
* she also says its best to grill the jalapeno peppers, which makes them even spicier... alas, i have no grill.

i love Gina. i love friends. i love food. i love fresh salsa.

falafel attempt #1

so, i was hanging out with my good girlfriend Charity and her baby girl Moriah the other day (pictured at left). to no one's surprise, food came up in the conversation. we decided to spontaneously make falafel since neither of us had made it from scratch before and had the intense desire to do so. we rushed out to the store and got the ingredients.


for documentation purposes (and because i love pictures)

me assembling the falafel. notice the happy face.

again, the falafel.


putting the falafel in the oil...


and watching it fall apart... i don't know if you can tell, but i'm very sad.


we ended up straining out the pieces of falafel and eating them as is, still VERY yummy.

but... i still don't know what went wrong. my other girlfriend Gina (who still doesn't understand why i didn't call her and ask for help) said she thinks it was because the oil wasn't hot enough. she said she doesn't deep fry the falafel, but pan fries them.
simon from the mediterranean store in roseville (a little plug for the palms mediterranean store on douglas and harding that just opened) said that you don't want the oil to be too hot. his solution was getting his wife to make them the right way for me. well simon, that doesn't solve my problem: i still wouldn't know how to make it. oy!

so i don't know what happened. one thing i do know, charity and i will try again, and this time i will get her in the pictures, getting her hands dirty!

and for the sake of actually getting help, here's the recipe we followed for FALAFEL:

Middle Eastern:
How To Make Falafel

Step 1:

You will need…

• 8 ¾ oz chickpeas
• 3 cloves of garlic , chopped
• 1 handful of parsley , chopped
• 1 handful of coriander , chopped
• 1 chilli , chopped
• 2 tbsp flour
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander seeds , crushed
• 2 1⁄8 pt vegetable oil
• salt
• pepper
• 1 blender or food processor
• 2 bowls
• 1 spoon
• 1 tray
• 1 slotted spoon
• 1 saucepan
• paper towel

Step 2:

Prepare the chickpeas

Take a large bowl and put in the chickpeas. Then, pour over enough water to cover the chickpeas and an additional 2 cm more. Leave to soak overnight. In the morning they will look plump and swollen.

Step 3:

Drain and purée chickpeas

Hold the chickpeas over the sink and drain off the water with your hand over the bowl.

Now spoon the chickpeas into the blender bowl.

Don't overfill the blender! If the blender is small, you will have to do it in batches. If you have a bigger mixer you can do it all at once.

Close the blender and pulse a couple of times, then blend on full power until you create a breadcrumb like mixture. Check the consistency by stirring with a spoon. If necessary, blend again on full power until you create a fine purée. Then transfer into a bowl.

Step 4:

Purée the rest of ingredients

Introduce the parsley, coriander, chilli, garlic along with 2 tablespoons of the puréed chickpeas into the bowl of the blender. Put the lid on and blend until well combined.

Step 5:

Mix and season

Spoon the blended mixture into the bowl of puréed chickpeas. Then add the flour, the cumin, the crushed coriander seeds, the baking soda and about one and a half tablespoons of salt. Finally, add some pepper. Combine it all together thoroughly with a spoon. If it looks too dry, a few drops of water can be added.

Step 6:

Preheat the oil

Place the saucepan on the hob and add the oil. Then heat it up on a medium high setting.

Step 7:

Make the Falafel balls

Take a small amount of the blended mixture in your fingertips and mould into small balls. Then place onto a baking tray.

This amount of ingredients should make around twenty five to thirty balls.

Kept covered, this mixture will keep for one day in the fridge.

Step 8:

Fry the Falafel balls

The oil should now be hot enough to fry. Individually, spoon half the batch of falafel balls into the oil. Allow to fry for 2 minutes until golden brown, stirring with the slotted spoon, so they brown evenly. Then remove and drain on a tray prepared with some kitchen towel. Now repeat the process with the remaining falafel balls.

Step 9:

Serve and enjoy

The falafel balls are now ready! They are usually served inside pitta bread with tahini, humus, or chopped salad.

lemme know your thoughts.

the ponderings behind the idea.

i recently saw a movie that i'm sure many have seen entitled "Julie and Julia." what a lot of people don't know about me is that i have had a long standing love for Julia Child and have been experimenting with cooking new recipes. recently in my young adult years i have started to develop those necessary maternal and spousal instincts while being neither a mother nor a wife.

not that i am anxious to be either: i understand the responsibilities and restrictions of both.

and not that i don't desire those things: i really, really do. in God's perfect timing, of course.

about the cooking part: i want to do one recipe a week. and no, i will not be going through Julia Child's cookbook over the course of a year. i'm sure i will pull from her book at times, though. that would only be appropriate. I will be incorporating recipes from my ethnic backgrounds, but are not limited to, Mediterranean and Italian. there will also be yummy american dishes. basically whatever i feel like.

also, lets talk about basic nutrition. i'm taking a nutrition class right now where i'm learning about all the stuff you should and shouldn't eat and how to eat it. it'll help me retain it by sharing it with you.

this is not primarily a cooking blog. my goal is to encourage people like me with my struggles, thoughts, solutions, and prayers. i want to share some of the WORD with you and help in whatever way i can. i am a christian. it is the most important thing about me, and i won't be able to separate that part of my life from what i talk about here. if you love Jesus, you understand it all melts together.

so what is this blog? ponderings and edible things. self explanatory i think.

lets do this together please. join me.