Yum, yum...Savory Chickpea Pancake

This is my favorite dinner recently. It's partially take from a recipe in Italy in Small Bites by Carol Field and partially take from Madhur Jaffrey's version in World Vegetarian. It's so very yummy. You can substitute anything you want for the mushrooms and feta, or take one out completely. I think roasted red peppers would be fabulous...but I haven't tried them yet.



Ingredients:


1 cup besan (chickpea flour)

1.5 cups water

1/2 tsp salt (+ a little to sprinkle on top, if desired...I like salty food)

1/2 tsp thyme

1 portabello mushroom, thinly sliced

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Olive oil for the pan



Whisk the besan into the water, gradually, until it is all well combined. Leave it to sit for a LONG time, at least several hours. I usually make it before I go to work and then make them for dinner. After its done sitting, preheat oven to 500 degrees and skim all the foam off the top of the mixture. Whisk in the salt and thyme. Oil a baking sheet (like for cookies...with rims on all sides) generously. Pour the mixture into the pan (the batter is thin...it will look sort of like whisked eggs), lay the mushrooms into the mixture, sprinkle with crumbled feta and drizzle a little olive oil over the top. Bake at 500 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until the edges and the top are golden. Lightly salt it just as soon as you take it out of the oven. Serve it with some grapes or cherries or whatever and you'll say yumyum!

You silly omnivores...

I've noticed this strange, but consistent occurrence lately. When I tell people that I'm a vegetarian, they almost always then regale me of their favorite meaty recipe (think sirloin here) or the six different kinds of meat they had last night. Why? It doesn't bother me, but in all honesty, I've got nothing to add. So, I just sort of look at them with the only thought in my mind, "Really, is THIS what you need to tell a vegetarian? Do you realize I'm not going to have the same appreciation for your description of bloody rare steak as others might have?"

What is it? Defense? Meaty-confessional? Knee-jerk contrary conversation? Trying to out my hidden lust for meat?


**Mr. Eyes schwooped in to try to kiss me last night. It was unexpected movement so he made VERY brief contact before I flinched away. Eeck. Erck. Oye. So, I said to him, "Seriously, what would you do if you were me??" At which point he came toward me like a vulture. "No, no, no, not if you were me pretending to be YOU. No, if you were really ME." At which point he backed off.

I'm annoyed that he's making it so difficult to keep him in the benign friendly category.

**This part of the post is completely UNRELATED to meat, just in case you were wondering. REALLY, there was NO MEAT INVOLVED, thank you.

Look at the pretty pictures.....

Since I don't seem to be back in full swing blogging mode yet, I present you with a day of pretty pictures. One of these things is not like the other....can you tell which?

The return of the lunches #1



Or breakfast in this case. Egg salad with tiny little toasts, and grape tomatoes. The right side is a fruit salad with clementines, strawberries, and kiwi. I got this nifty little lunch box at a dollar store while in NY. I guess its technically a "tiffin", but I'm no expert as the lunch box classification. All I know...it was ONE dollar and is the perfect size for breakfasts.
The return of the lunches #2

The left is a salad with romaine, snap peas, cucumber, carrots and grape tomatoes. The right is a clementine, almonds, cheddar cheese and parmesean ranch ressing for the salad. I finally got to the farmer's market yesterday and good thing...all that was previously in my fridge was a bendy carrots and some drippy lettuce! Yumyum!

The return of the lunches #3

Little A's lunch which I made in front of her and she was VERY excited about. The left is 2 peanut butter sandwiches on baguette, a little cup of trail mix, a chocolate, and sliced cucumber. That little white thing? A tiny little packet of salt for the cucumbers. The right container is a the same fruit salad as above. Little A was jumping around at the prospect of this lunch.

The coming of the bird...

Isn't this insanely cute? I participated in the B-List Blogger's Ornament exchange organized by Mignon this year. I received this beautiful knitted birdy from Arabella from a frantic USPS man on December 22nd around 4:30pm. Isn't it lovely? Thank you Arabella! I'm sorry I didn't post about it sooner....I suck at blogging lately!

And that's it for today. Stay tuned for more clearing out of the 2006 blogging closet.

My sincere apologies....

To my arse.

I know you did not need this sort of treatment. I know that you had already grown well passed your uh...."potential" and that you did not need further prodding to increase in size.

I know that sugar cookies would've been a better choice as they are not as quick to attack you as the buttery shortbread covered in dark chocolate.

I'm sorry that I blindly ignored the ill effects directed toward you of these festive little nuggets of yumminess. I'm sorry that I was not more attentive to your pleading.

And as if this all wasn't trying enough for you, dear arse, in the end, I was the epitome of cruelty...

and I apologize from the depths of my cookie filled tummy. I know my day of reckoning will soon be upon me as you and my jeans plot to work yourself away in hollow resolutions. Please understand, I am very, very sorry.

But I'm sure a cookie will make me feel better.