Making Falafel

Last weekend Jeff and Abby visited us. It was incredibly relaxing and refreshing to spend time with "old friends." No demands to do anything special, be witty, etc, etc, etc. I'm sure you all know what I mean. On Friday night we went out for dinner at the little restaurant below our house. We waited about 15 minutes, and then they crammed us onto the benches next to this German family. It was quite obvious that they were getting a kick out of the Americans. One particular moment I noticed this was when I was shoveling salad into my mouth... I had a bit too much on the fork and so half spilled out on the table. The old man had this huge smile on his face, and he was nudging his wife like "hee hee. Look at those silly Americans that can't eat properly!" They also spent most of their meal talking about American cities, like Las Vegas and New York. It was humorous.

Saturday we got up late, walked to our favorite bakery for breakfast, and then strolled around Stuttgart --- doing a bit of sight-seeing and a bit of shopping --- I bought my first European pair of jeans. I love them! Then we drove out to the suburbs to pick up our very own FUTON! Yes, that means that if you come to visit us, you will not be forced to sleep on air mattresses. Unless, of course, you come in a group larger than two. Or three, if you are very small people. We got a pretty good deal on it. A U.S. military guy had been here for only one year, and was selling all of his German furniture for 50% off. So, we got the normally 524 Euro futon for 262 Euro. I digress from the story of our weekend... we then went out to eat at another favorite German restaurant of ours, came back home and relaxed, watched about an hour of a movie, talked, then slept.

Jeff and Abby left on Sunday, but not after we had made some yummy hamburgers and baked French fries. Truly an American weekend.

Onto the title of my post. Falafel. We ate so much junk food on Sunday, that I once again felt guilty and decided that we needed to eat vegetarian on Monday. The last time this happened we ate my delicious "Cabbage and Chick-pea Soup." If you want the recipe, please just e-mail me! [Sidenote: Despite Nate's original displeasure at the ingredients in the soup, it was quite good. His co-worker tried it and asked for the recipe. So THERE!] I am doing a lot of digressing today. Anyhow, so I searched around a vegetarian webpage and stumbled upon a recipe for Falafel and an Organic Portobello Wrap. To make the falafel you were supposed to have a hand mixer. I don't have one yet, so I mashed the chickpeas up by hand. The consistency wasn't perfect, but they did fry up into nice little balls like they were supposed to. The only problem was that the Portobello wraps were done first, and were so incredibly delicious that I wasn't hungry enough to eat the falafel. I'll try it today for lunch, and let you know how good it tastes. I really don't know if it can beat the falafel I ate once at Erika Ridgeway/Johnson's house though.... that stuff was AMAZING!

For all of you people dying to eat your own Organic Portobello Wrap, here's the recipe:


Portobello mushrooms
Paprika
Onions, chopped
Garlic, diced
4 organic tomato-basil wraps
8 oz. hummus
6 oz. rice or soy pepper-jack “cheese”
Organic baby spinach leaves
Organic tomatoes, diced
Organic onions, diced

• Lightly sprinkle the portobello mushrooms with the paprika, onions, and garlic.
• Place the mushrooms on a very hot grill and cook them, top-side down, for 3 minutes. Then turn them over and cook them for 3 minutes on the other side.
• Place the tomato-basil wraps flat on a dish. On each wrap, spread a thin layer of hummus topped lightly with rice or soy pepper-jack “cheese.” Add a few washed baby spinach leaves on top of the “cheese.” Sprinkle the diced organic tomatoes and onions over the spinach, followed by slices of the grilled mushrooms.
• Fold up flaps at opposite ends of each wrap and roll up gently, bake for 5 to 8 minutes at 350ºF until wrap is just slightly brown, remove, cool a bit, and enjoy.

[Note: I did not use the tomato-basil wraps. I went to the Middle-Eastern grocery store around here and bought the big, circular Arabic bread. I don't know the name of it, but if you've ever had good Middle Eastern food, you've probably stumbled upon it. It's incredibly delicious. I also used real cheese. None of that soy stuff for me!]