I falafel lazy right now.

I should be reading for politics right now, but I'm in food mode (when am I not?). All photos in the entry, except for the last phone pic I lazily snapped tonight, were shot by the lovely Yoonis. Mad props to her and her never-ending need to take photos.

Sometime during the week, we made tilapia en papillote and pasta with peas. En papillote ("in parchment") is a method of baking/steaming. All you do is place the ingredients on a piece of parchment paper and crimp the parchment edges together to create a neat little parcel.

Sunday evening, to celebrate the Sabbath (SHABBATTTTT!), we made falafel and tzatziki-esque sauce. Some homemade flatbread, local greens from the farmer's mkt, and a fruit platter (yum, thx angela) completed the meal. I really enjoyed this dinner; good food in good company (yoonis, diana, angela :D). I love them girlies!

Our first batch was a delicious failure though. We didn't add enough flour.

Don't mind the ink on my thumb nail. I got bored. Also, I just want to point out to the world that my pinky looks like a nub from this angle. Hehe!

And tonight, we had cupcakes from scratch. This is no easy feat for me, you guys. Like I've mentioned before, I'm REALLY bad at baked desserts. Like, embarrassingly bad, like omg bad enough to go with this valley girl speech impediment. These cupcakes were moist and light. I used this vanilla cupcake recipe as the base, then I added a tsp of pure lemon extract (add 1.5tsp next time) and swirled in about 3 heaping spoonfuls of homemade cranberry sauce (add a lot more next time). Eunice whipped up some cream and folded in more cranberry sauce. So good, I must say!

Random food fact (via wikipedia): "A common misconception about cranberry production is that the beds remain flooded throughout the year. During the growing season, cranberry beds are not flooded, but are irrigated regularly to maintain soil moisture."

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