Over and Out

....well the time has come. the time is here. I'M GOING TO CALIFORNIA BABY! and then I'm coming back. My bags are packed and sitting at the back door waiting to be loaded into our trunk. yes, our trunk. we are driving to California straight through the night. it will take us approximately 31 hours. it really isn't all that bad, trust me. Because.....

1. my cousins are driving with us = double the fun.
2. we drive through the night so that means i'll be sleeping half the time
3. i've seen the most of the country from the backseat of our van, so long trips are no big deal to me
4. it's great family time..even though we do fight sometimes [31 hours stuck sitting next to your siblings will bring that.] 
5. you never know what adventures await. one year we got snowed in in New Mexico. NEW MEXICO!! it never snows in New Mexico.
6. but most of all some of my favorite memories in life are from what happened from point A to point B in our van.

so you see, it really isn't that bad! we will be gone for around 15 days. so that means no blog posts for 15 days. i hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

see you on the flip side. over and out.

Crunchy Falafel Pitas

...a few tuesday nights ago i made Crunchy Falafel Pitas! they were soo good! recently i've been hearing a lot about falafels on several cooking shows, so when i found this recipe at my Aunt Sue's house, it immediately caught my attention. a falafel, turns out, is a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas or fava beans. for my particular recipe i used chickpeas. now i realize that the description of a falafel might not sound the most appetizing, but trust me, they are amazing! This dish is super easy to make, takes no time at all, and doesn't us any "fancy" ingredients, most of which we had at home;  plus, it tastes amazing. how could you go wrong? 

Crunch Falafel Pitas
PREP: 10 min. COOK: 8 min. SERVES: 6
Ingredients: 
Sauce:
1 c. plain yogurt
1 garlic clove [minced]
salt to taste
Falafels:
[2] 15oz. chickpeas [rinsed and drained]
1 1/2 c. plus 2 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. cumin
1 large egg
1/2 small onion [chopped]
1/2 tsp. salt
The rest:
1/4 c. olive oil
6 pita breads [split]
1 c. cherry tomatoes [halved]
1 small head of romaine [chopped]

Directions:
[1] Combine yogurt and garlic in a bowl and season with salt. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

[2] In a food processor, combine chickpeas, 1/2c. flour, cumin, egg, and 1/2 tsp. salt. and process until almost smooth. Add onion and pulse til just combined. Place remaining 2 tbsp. of flour on plate. Form chickpea mixture into 1/2" patties. Dredge with flour.

[3] Warm olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add patties, cook until golden, turning once, about 8 minutes all together. Slide patties into pita. add tomatoes and lettuce, top with reserved yogurt sauce and serve.

the Thanksgiving Adventure!

...sorry for the silence on my blog! after Thanksgiving i was swept up with finishing up school, studying for finals, and getting ready for Christmas! i just love this time of year! anyways, for thanksgiving this year, my family broke our usual tradition for Thanksgiving. normally, my family hosts Thanksgiving at our house and my dad's sister and her family come to our house for the feast; but this year my brother Jesse, the one living down in Kentucky training to be a jockey, couldn't make it up for Thanksgiving. so, we brought Thanksgiving dinner down to him. we did most of the cooking the day before. with our trunk full of luggage and Thanksgiving dinner, we left early thursday morning for Lexington, KY.

    

                                                                     

we stopped for Thanksgiving breakfast at McDonalds

backseat buddies with my cousin Joe!
when we finally reached our hotel in Lexington, we found out that our room only had a stove top and not an oven. we were banking on the oven for re-heating all of our food. my dad went down to the front desk to ask if they had another room with an oven in it that we could switch to. they did not. buuuuuut, the head chef overheard my dad explaining our problem to the person at the front desk and he offered to cook all of our food for us in the hotel ovens! thank you Chef Adam! without him our Thanksgiving adventure would have been a flop!

my mom making the mashed potatoes. (the one thing we could make on the stove top)

 and part of the Thanksgiving food line up:

bread, fruit, relish tray

the sweet potatoes!

and you can't forget the turkey and grandma's 4 stick stuffing!

going through line.

my plate of food! i should say my first plate of food. we stuffed our bellies full and fell into bed satisfied. the next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to

 go watch Jesse exercise horses! The whole weekend was filled with food, family and laughter,

and for me, those are the best kind of memories to look back on.

p.s. stay tuned for an actual food post later this week.
p.p.s if you want to see all the exciting things that have been happening to my brother Jesse in pursing his dream, follow him at www.jessesauder.com.