Random recipes

Chickpea patties I'm dusting off a favorite recipe for a Middle Eastern(ish) recipe. I was inspired by a falafel recipe on the side of a bag of chickpea flour. I tried it, and it was really, really bad. The fact that I made several substitutions probably didn't help, but chickpea flour is really dry when mixed with water and pan fried (I draw the line at deep frying things, and when I say pan fried it means a spray of cooking spray, or a little oil drizzled in the bottom of a pan. Never a measurable depth of oil). This recipe was also born out of some nostalgia for eating soy based fake meat. I really liked fake chicken, and I liked soy sausage better than the meat stuff. However, I'm supposed to avoid soy now because I take 2 medications that soy interferes with. Sigh. I guess I have to eat real sausage if I'm craving sausage (I don't because the real stuff is too greasy. We won't even talk about how disgusting real hotdogs are in comparison to veggie ones. E...

Lentil Soup Just as I was finishing up making tea from the Middle East, I happened to go to Half Price Books, and decide to spring for a Middle Eastern cook book. I thought that I could save money and just check one out of the library, but I live in the country, so I don't get to the library as much as I should, and there's something nice about just having the book to browse whenever. I remember my mom's attempt at using lentils for protein in order to stretch our already tight food budget. Brown lentils boiled in water with carrots, celery, and a little onion. I don't remember if the bean water was still on it, but It was definitely not kid friendly. It tasted like boiled lentils. Of course I don't know that this soup is really kid friendly either, but it definitely has more flavor. The lady who wrote the book I got talks a lot about Nazareth, so that is the region I'm thinking this book represents. Apparently this lady runs a restaurant, and raise...