This also makes a lot, but was also very tasty! I couldn't find the ras el hanout in our grocery store, so just didn't add a spice.
4 Tbs olive oil, divided
1 small onion, thinly sliced
3-4 Tbs ras el hanout
2 15-oz cans crushed tomatoes
4 carrots, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 turnip, cut into 1-inch chunks
2 zucchini, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, or 1 15-oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained, divided
1 1/2 cups couscous (plain)
1 tsp salt
Heat 2 Tbs oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, and saute 5 minutes. Add ras el hanout, and saute 1 minutes, or until spices darken. Stir in tomatoes and 3 cups water, and season with salt and pepper, if desired. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and summer 2o minutes. Add carrots and turnip, cover, and cook 10 minutes. Add zucchini and 3/4 cup chickpeas, and cook 5 minutes more.
Puree remaining 3/4 cup chickpeas in food processor until mostly smooth. Stir pureed chickpeas into vegetable mixture, and season with salt and pepper, if desired. Pour vegetable mixture into 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Combine couscous and salt in large heat-proof bowl. Cover with 3 cups boiling water, cover bowl, and let stand 5 minutes, or until all water is absorbed. Fluff with fork, and stir in remaining 2 Tbs oil. Spread couscious over vegetable mixture in baking dish. Bake 30 minutes, or until conscious begins to brown on top. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
Vegetarian Times, January/February 2012
Showing posts with label chickpeas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chickpeas. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Friday, November 13, 2009
Harira!
according to Wikipedia, Harira is the national traditional food of Morocco, and is a traditional break-the-fast food for Ramadan. I've found recipes for Harira in my Jewish cookbooks, and my Mediterannean cookbooks. Somewhat of a hodgepodge stew of chicken, beef, or lamb, it includes north african spices, tomatoes, chickpeas, lentils, noodles, and sometimes hard boiled eggs. We skipped the eggs, but i can't wait to make this again. A super easy one pot dish, you'll wish you had doubled the recipe.
Moroccan Harira
adapted from Mediterranean:a taste of the sun, by Jaqueline Clark
1 lb Chunked chicken, beef, or lamb (we used chicken sausages)
1/2 tsp ground cinamon
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup green or brown lentils
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
small package pearl onions (usually has 12-20 onions in package)
1/2 cup vermicelli or soup noodles
salt & pepper
lemon slices
put meal, cinnamon, butter, coridander, parsley and onions into a large heavy bottomed pan, and cook over medium heat until meat is browned and onions are soft, 5-10 minutes. add the tomatoes, cook another 50 minutes. rinse the lentils under running water, then add them to the pot along with the chickpeas and 3 cups water. bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 45 min or until meat is cooked (if using beef or lamb, you will need to simmer longer).
near the end of this cooking time, prepare the pearl onions - bring a small pot of water to a boil, add onions. let them boil for 2-3 minutes, then remove and put the onions in a bowl of cold water. with a very sharp knife, cut the end off the onion, and push out the insides, and throw away the outer skins.
add the onions to the pot, and simmer uncovered for another 20 min. add noodles, and continue simmering until noodles are cooked, maybe 10 more minutes. season to taste with salt & peper. serve hot, and garnish with lemon slices.
You can control how "stewy" or how "soupy" this is by changing the amount of water added. stewy is nice, but soupy is nice too, because you get more leftovers. with the above recipe, we got about about 6 large servings.
in the last few years, I have truly learned that cinammon and meat is a match made in heaven.
Moroccan Harira
adapted from Mediterranean:a taste of the sun, by Jaqueline Clark
1 lb Chunked chicken, beef, or lamb (we used chicken sausages)
1/2 tsp ground cinamon
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup green or brown lentils
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
small package pearl onions (usually has 12-20 onions in package)
1/2 cup vermicelli or soup noodles
salt & pepper
lemon slices
put meal, cinnamon, butter, coridander, parsley and onions into a large heavy bottomed pan, and cook over medium heat until meat is browned and onions are soft, 5-10 minutes. add the tomatoes, cook another 50 minutes. rinse the lentils under running water, then add them to the pot along with the chickpeas and 3 cups water. bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 45 min or until meat is cooked (if using beef or lamb, you will need to simmer longer).
near the end of this cooking time, prepare the pearl onions - bring a small pot of water to a boil, add onions. let them boil for 2-3 minutes, then remove and put the onions in a bowl of cold water. with a very sharp knife, cut the end off the onion, and push out the insides, and throw away the outer skins.
add the onions to the pot, and simmer uncovered for another 20 min. add noodles, and continue simmering until noodles are cooked, maybe 10 more minutes. season to taste with salt & peper. serve hot, and garnish with lemon slices.
You can control how "stewy" or how "soupy" this is by changing the amount of water added. stewy is nice, but soupy is nice too, because you get more leftovers. with the above recipe, we got about about 6 large servings.
in the last few years, I have truly learned that cinammon and meat is a match made in heaven.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
first bean chop salad of the summer
I make a lot of quickly chopped and bean salads in the summer - veggies, beans, and whatever in the fridge needs to be used up. they are quick and mean i don't have to turn the stove or oven on! they evolved because I love tabbouli, and I love chickpeas, and I would make a chickpea-tabbouli. but it's evolved so much that i can't rightly call it anything related to tabbouli.
first bean salad of the summer:
one can chickpeas, drained
one can red kidney beans, drained
half a cucumber, seeded and chopped
about a 1/2 cup raw zucchini, chopped
2 green onions, minced
2 roma tomatoes, diced
handful parsley leaves, chopped fine
palmful of dried mint
salt & pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
couple tablespoons red wine vineagar
splash lemon juice
a splash of the magic ingerdient: the oil/vinegar based salad dressing of your choice
mix well, refridgerate. serve over lettuce if you want.
first bean salad of the summer:
one can chickpeas, drained
one can red kidney beans, drained
half a cucumber, seeded and chopped
about a 1/2 cup raw zucchini, chopped
2 green onions, minced
2 roma tomatoes, diced
handful parsley leaves, chopped fine
palmful of dried mint
salt & pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
couple tablespoons red wine vineagar
splash lemon juice
a splash of the magic ingerdient: the oil/vinegar based salad dressing of your choice
mix well, refridgerate. serve over lettuce if you want.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Adventures in Hummus, and Fried Turkey. Also, starring hot pepper flakes.
I love chickpeas. delicious hot or cold, they are full of nutrition, easily accessible, and cheap. Right out of the can, or mashed with garlic and salt into hummus, what's not to love?
Since I almost always have a can (ok, maybe a few cans) of chickpeas on hand, this recipe is especially easy. it's saucy, so make some rice or mash potatoes to go with it.
Chicken 'n Chickpeas, adapted from The Joy of Cooking
approx two pounds chicken parts, cut up (chop a thigh in half, or a breast in thirds)
1 tbsp butte
1 small onion, chopped
3-4 green onions, chopped
one 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup water or broth
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp ginger
salt & pepper
heaping 1/4 tsp cinnamon
generous pinch red pepper flakes
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
melt butter in very large skillet (i LOVE my new dutch oven!!). over medium-high heat, brown the chicken quickly on all sides, in multiple batches if you need to. remove the chicken, and add onions and green onions to pan, adding a bit more oil if you need to. cook until onions are tender, then add chickpeas and all spices (not the parsley). stir until well mixed, and add the chicken back in, stirring to coat. bring mixture to a boil, then cover and simmer until chicken is tender, 30-40 minutes. before serving stir in the parsley, and more salt/pepper if needed. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes. Your kitchen will smell like the best North African travel channel show while you are cooking this.
Hubby and I had no idea this dish would be so saucy, so after eating all the chicken and as much chickpeas as he could stomach, we were left with about a cup of sauce. I couldn't let it go to waste, and it did have all the required ingredients for hummus - chickpeas, garlic, oil, some salt, some spice. Into the blender it went!
Lesson learned: sometimes sauces just don't taste good all by themselves. No matter how tasty the bread or crackers or whatever. . . . my improv hummus is still sitting in the fridge, and next time i look at it, it's going in the trash. the hummus disaster was a big gross.
ahh, now on to my husband's favorite food ever: Schnitzel. raise your hand if you, like me, thought that schnitzle was some kind of pastry. Such a long word with so few vowels has got to be some kind of pastry, right? well, maybe it is somewhere, but the kind i'm talking about is made of turkey, and it's breaded, egged, breaded again, and fried. and I make a funky citrus spicy salsa to go with it.
Turkey Schnitzel, adapted from Faye Levy's 1,000 Jewish Recipes
approx 1 1/4 lbs turkey slices, about 1/4" thick (feel free to pound 'em thin)
salt
pepper
paprika
good pinch hot pepper flakes
1 cup matzoh meal (or a little more)
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
Season turkey slices with salt, pepper, paprika and hot pepper flakes. You will need 2 large plates, and one good sized bowl. in the bowl, beat the eggs. On each plate, put about 1/2 cup matzoh meal. for each turkey slice, dip it in the first plate of matzoh meal, pressing so the meal sticks. then dip gently into egg, then dip in the second plate of matzoh meal, again pressing so the meal sticks. after all your slices are prepped, heat the oil in a very large heavy bottomed skillet. you need enough oil to cover the botton of the pan, and slosh around a little. We're not going to deep fry the turkey, but we're not shallow frying it either. somewhere in between. Get the heat cranked up, and very gently slip a few turkey slices into the pan. Fry about 2 minutes each side, or until cooked and golden brown.
While one person is frying, the other person can make this insanely easy crazy sharp relish, also inspired by a recipe from the same cookbook:
Caper Lemon salsa
1 lemon
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 tsp dried oregano
pinch of salt
3 tbsp capers, rinsed
good pinch hot pepper flakes
splash olive oil
few tbsp chopped parsley
peel the lemon, and using a sharp knife, get as much white pith off as you can. Chop the lemon flesh, removing any seeds and stringy pithy bits. Add lemon to bowl with onion. add all other ingrediends, and mix well. let sit 5 or 10 minutes before eating.
sharp as hell on it's own, this salsa went incredibly well with the turkey schnitzel. No clue as to why they played together so well, but they did, and it was awesome.
Since I almost always have a can (ok, maybe a few cans) of chickpeas on hand, this recipe is especially easy. it's saucy, so make some rice or mash potatoes to go with it.
Chicken 'n Chickpeas, adapted from The Joy of Cooking
approx two pounds chicken parts, cut up (chop a thigh in half, or a breast in thirds)
1 tbsp butte
1 small onion, chopped
3-4 green onions, chopped
one 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup water or broth
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp ginger
salt & pepper
heaping 1/4 tsp cinnamon
generous pinch red pepper flakes
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
melt butter in very large skillet (i LOVE my new dutch oven!!). over medium-high heat, brown the chicken quickly on all sides, in multiple batches if you need to. remove the chicken, and add onions and green onions to pan, adding a bit more oil if you need to. cook until onions are tender, then add chickpeas and all spices (not the parsley). stir until well mixed, and add the chicken back in, stirring to coat. bring mixture to a boil, then cover and simmer until chicken is tender, 30-40 minutes. before serving stir in the parsley, and more salt/pepper if needed. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes. Your kitchen will smell like the best North African travel channel show while you are cooking this.
Hubby and I had no idea this dish would be so saucy, so after eating all the chicken and as much chickpeas as he could stomach, we were left with about a cup of sauce. I couldn't let it go to waste, and it did have all the required ingredients for hummus - chickpeas, garlic, oil, some salt, some spice. Into the blender it went!
Lesson learned: sometimes sauces just don't taste good all by themselves. No matter how tasty the bread or crackers or whatever. . . . my improv hummus is still sitting in the fridge, and next time i look at it, it's going in the trash. the hummus disaster was a big gross.
ahh, now on to my husband's favorite food ever: Schnitzel. raise your hand if you, like me, thought that schnitzle was some kind of pastry. Such a long word with so few vowels has got to be some kind of pastry, right? well, maybe it is somewhere, but the kind i'm talking about is made of turkey, and it's breaded, egged, breaded again, and fried. and I make a funky citrus spicy salsa to go with it.
Turkey Schnitzel, adapted from Faye Levy's 1,000 Jewish Recipes
approx 1 1/4 lbs turkey slices, about 1/4" thick (feel free to pound 'em thin)
salt
pepper
paprika
good pinch hot pepper flakes
1 cup matzoh meal (or a little more)
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
Season turkey slices with salt, pepper, paprika and hot pepper flakes. You will need 2 large plates, and one good sized bowl. in the bowl, beat the eggs. On each plate, put about 1/2 cup matzoh meal. for each turkey slice, dip it in the first plate of matzoh meal, pressing so the meal sticks. then dip gently into egg, then dip in the second plate of matzoh meal, again pressing so the meal sticks. after all your slices are prepped, heat the oil in a very large heavy bottomed skillet. you need enough oil to cover the botton of the pan, and slosh around a little. We're not going to deep fry the turkey, but we're not shallow frying it either. somewhere in between. Get the heat cranked up, and very gently slip a few turkey slices into the pan. Fry about 2 minutes each side, or until cooked and golden brown.
While one person is frying, the other person can make this insanely easy crazy sharp relish, also inspired by a recipe from the same cookbook:
Caper Lemon salsa
1 lemon
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 tsp dried oregano
pinch of salt
3 tbsp capers, rinsed
good pinch hot pepper flakes
splash olive oil
few tbsp chopped parsley
peel the lemon, and using a sharp knife, get as much white pith off as you can. Chop the lemon flesh, removing any seeds and stringy pithy bits. Add lemon to bowl with onion. add all other ingrediends, and mix well. let sit 5 or 10 minutes before eating.
sharp as hell on it's own, this salsa went incredibly well with the turkey schnitzel. No clue as to why they played together so well, but they did, and it was awesome.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
we made scones. and i bought too much corn.
I've had plenty of bakery scones over the years. one bite reminds me why I don't buy them that often - they are dry, crumbly, and usually don't taste like anything. then i found this recipe for scones that promised "moist, biscuit-like texture". flour, eggs, cream, dried cherries . . dude, i want some!!
Scones - slightly modified from The Joy of Cooking
makes 12-15 scones
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces
1/2 dried cherries (or other dried fruit. chop it up real small)
1 egg
1/2 cup heavy cream (we used half & half)
1 tsp grated orange zest
a few more tsp cream
cinammon
preheat oven to 425. blend flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. cut in the butter with a pastry blender. keep the butter cold until you are going to use it. the idea is to slice it into smaller and smaller peices that can be coated with the flour mixture, not to smush them together into a greasy paste. gently fold in the dried cherries. now, add the egg, cream and orange zest, and mix with a rubber spatula. you want to moisten all the dry ingredients, but don't overmix.
(this is where the recipe said to knead on a floured surface, but as the dough was the consistency of really wet oatmeal, we actually skipped that step. maybe that's how the bakery scones i've had in the past got all dry and bleh?)
drop onto a greased cookie sheet. you should get 12-15 scones, and they will spread when you bake them, so don't put them too close together. brush the tops with the additional few teaspoons of cream. i was worried the cream would all pool down to the cookie sheet and burn there, but the unbaked scones were all nooked and crannied (like english muffins!), and so the cream didn't go anywhere it wasn't supposed to go. if you want, shake on some cinamon. Bake until the tops are golden brown, 12-15 minutes. cool on a rack. make sure to eat at least one warm, because they are never going to taste this good again.
I dare you to find a more delicious marriage of sconey, biscuity goodness!
Also, sweet corn was on sale at the farmers market. i bought a half dozen ears, and seriously, how much corn on the cob are my husband and i really going to eat? Still not sure what I was going to do with it, i cooked up three ears, then scraped the kernels into two bowls. one was going to end up a salad type thing, the other would become salsa of some kind.
Corn Salsa
1-2 ears corn, removed from ear of corn
3 green onions, chopped small
good pinch hot pepper flakes
1 large tomato, chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
salt & pepper
1 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
in the bottom of a bowl, put the green onions and the hot pepper flakes. pour the lime juice over the top and let marinate a few minutes. then add the corn, tomato and cilantro. season with salt & pepper and enjoy.
Corn Chickpea salad (i loves me chickpeas!!)
1-2 ears corn, removed from ear of corn
1 can chickpeas
1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 cucumber, seeded and chopped
1 green onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp mint
salt and pepper
mix all ingredients in a large bowl, and chill for a few hours. mix well again before serving.
Book News - am working on reviews for Sundiver and Cryptonomicon. If you don't see them soon, feel free to harass me.
Scones - slightly modified from The Joy of Cooking
makes 12-15 scones
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces
1/2 dried cherries (or other dried fruit. chop it up real small)
1 egg
1/2 cup heavy cream (we used half & half)
1 tsp grated orange zest
a few more tsp cream
cinammon
preheat oven to 425. blend flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. cut in the butter with a pastry blender. keep the butter cold until you are going to use it. the idea is to slice it into smaller and smaller peices that can be coated with the flour mixture, not to smush them together into a greasy paste. gently fold in the dried cherries. now, add the egg, cream and orange zest, and mix with a rubber spatula. you want to moisten all the dry ingredients, but don't overmix.
(this is where the recipe said to knead on a floured surface, but as the dough was the consistency of really wet oatmeal, we actually skipped that step. maybe that's how the bakery scones i've had in the past got all dry and bleh?)
drop onto a greased cookie sheet. you should get 12-15 scones, and they will spread when you bake them, so don't put them too close together. brush the tops with the additional few teaspoons of cream. i was worried the cream would all pool down to the cookie sheet and burn there, but the unbaked scones were all nooked and crannied (like english muffins!), and so the cream didn't go anywhere it wasn't supposed to go. if you want, shake on some cinamon. Bake until the tops are golden brown, 12-15 minutes. cool on a rack. make sure to eat at least one warm, because they are never going to taste this good again.
I dare you to find a more delicious marriage of sconey, biscuity goodness!
Also, sweet corn was on sale at the farmers market. i bought a half dozen ears, and seriously, how much corn on the cob are my husband and i really going to eat? Still not sure what I was going to do with it, i cooked up three ears, then scraped the kernels into two bowls. one was going to end up a salad type thing, the other would become salsa of some kind.
Corn Salsa
1-2 ears corn, removed from ear of corn
3 green onions, chopped small
good pinch hot pepper flakes
1 large tomato, chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
salt & pepper
1 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
in the bottom of a bowl, put the green onions and the hot pepper flakes. pour the lime juice over the top and let marinate a few minutes. then add the corn, tomato and cilantro. season with salt & pepper and enjoy.
Corn Chickpea salad (i loves me chickpeas!!)
1-2 ears corn, removed from ear of corn
1 can chickpeas
1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 cucumber, seeded and chopped
1 green onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp mint
salt and pepper
mix all ingredients in a large bowl, and chill for a few hours. mix well again before serving.
Book News - am working on reviews for Sundiver and Cryptonomicon. If you don't see them soon, feel free to harass me.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
I'm not reading Harry Potter.
I'm not reading Harry Potter.
i will, eventually, just not right now. and holy crap it's been three weeks since i posted something. that is totally lame. i know, i'll use the "i was on vacation" excuse! it works everytime!
it's summer. too hot to turn the oven on. but i need something to take to a pot luck. and my friend is vegetarian. a ha! got the perfect thing!
Chickpea Salad
1 large can chickpeas, drained.
3 green onions, chopped
half a cucumber, seeded and chopped
4 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped.
half a bunch of parsley, chopped.
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp mint
2 cloves garlic, minced
pinch of sea salt
black pepper
blend all ingredients, and chill a few hours. taste, and add more salt or pepper as needed. Yes, this is very similar to Tabbouli, but i think it's better.
The super quick version of the last three weeks of my life:
I finished Peter Watt's Blindsight, click there for the review. I finished this book in like 3 days, because it was more addictive than heroin, and really frackin' good. (I was reading this book "under the influence", by the way) It's putting me further and further down the path of jaded, i'm afraid. take for example, The Looking Glass Wars, by Frank Beddor. I have no idea if the book was crap compared to Blindsight, or if it was just crap to begin with (i'm going towards the latter). Beddor said he was aiming for young adult, which is fine, but I just don't know how many 12 year olds these days are familiar with Lewis Carroll. I also received my ARC of Gary Wassner's The Revenge of the Elves. Hokey name, great book. The prose is getting tighter, the stakes are higher. We're in the land of Robert Jordan here, but a quicker and slightly less painful payoff.
The Book of Names by Jill Gregory and Karen Tintori looked like it would be The Davinci Code for Jews. .. you know, fun and fast? It was fast. but it was also insultingly stupid with characters as deep as a dried up puddle. I want my two days back.
DragonHead is a newish manga from Minetaro Mochizuki, about a train full of kids who are in a tunnel when there is a disaster and the tunnel caves in, derailing the train and killing most of the children. It wasn't drawn very well, but the story worked well. and one of those kids is totally creepy. this is a dark psychological thriller. you know those awful made for TV SciFi Channel movies? sometimes they work pretty well in manga. I'll be looking for more of this series.
Et Cetera is a not so newish manga from Tow Nakazaki. Polar opposite of Dragonhead, this is more slapstick western. not one I'll be looking for more of. I've seen funny western done good, and this wasn't it.
what, no token mention of my obsession, Fullmetal Alchemist, and how many volumes I purchased in the last few weeks? If any of you work in a bookstore, you are sure to have seen those abnoxious teenagers who stand in the graphic novel section, reading their favorite manga, then they put it back on the shelf, and walk out of your store without spending any money. I was that kid. . .er, person. i'm actually pretty impressed with myself, that i stood in the same spot for about 3 hours, and caught up with my dear Fullmetal. He's killing humunculous left and right, he's found his dad, he's growing up, and getting into the habit of running around without his shirt on. Nice. when's the next volume come out?
I got some goodies from the library earlier today. stay tuned till next time, for updates on Hal Duncan's Vellum, China Mieville's Un Lun Dun, Cormac McCarthy's The Road (we had it first, Oprah!) and Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora.
and maybe one of these days i'll give up my secret bagel recipe. or maybe not!
i will, eventually, just not right now. and holy crap it's been three weeks since i posted something. that is totally lame. i know, i'll use the "i was on vacation" excuse! it works everytime!
it's summer. too hot to turn the oven on. but i need something to take to a pot luck. and my friend is vegetarian. a ha! got the perfect thing!
Chickpea Salad
1 large can chickpeas, drained.
3 green onions, chopped
half a cucumber, seeded and chopped
4 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped.
half a bunch of parsley, chopped.
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp mint
2 cloves garlic, minced
pinch of sea salt
black pepper
blend all ingredients, and chill a few hours. taste, and add more salt or pepper as needed. Yes, this is very similar to Tabbouli, but i think it's better.
The super quick version of the last three weeks of my life:
I finished Peter Watt's Blindsight, click there for the review. I finished this book in like 3 days, because it was more addictive than heroin, and really frackin' good. (I was reading this book "under the influence", by the way) It's putting me further and further down the path of jaded, i'm afraid. take for example, The Looking Glass Wars, by Frank Beddor. I have no idea if the book was crap compared to Blindsight, or if it was just crap to begin with (i'm going towards the latter). Beddor said he was aiming for young adult, which is fine, but I just don't know how many 12 year olds these days are familiar with Lewis Carroll. I also received my ARC of Gary Wassner's The Revenge of the Elves. Hokey name, great book. The prose is getting tighter, the stakes are higher. We're in the land of Robert Jordan here, but a quicker and slightly less painful payoff.
The Book of Names by Jill Gregory and Karen Tintori looked like it would be The Davinci Code for Jews. .. you know, fun and fast? It was fast. but it was also insultingly stupid with characters as deep as a dried up puddle. I want my two days back.
DragonHead is a newish manga from Minetaro Mochizuki, about a train full of kids who are in a tunnel when there is a disaster and the tunnel caves in, derailing the train and killing most of the children. It wasn't drawn very well, but the story worked well. and one of those kids is totally creepy. this is a dark psychological thriller. you know those awful made for TV SciFi Channel movies? sometimes they work pretty well in manga. I'll be looking for more of this series.
Et Cetera is a not so newish manga from Tow Nakazaki. Polar opposite of Dragonhead, this is more slapstick western. not one I'll be looking for more of. I've seen funny western done good, and this wasn't it.
what, no token mention of my obsession, Fullmetal Alchemist, and how many volumes I purchased in the last few weeks? If any of you work in a bookstore, you are sure to have seen those abnoxious teenagers who stand in the graphic novel section, reading their favorite manga, then they put it back on the shelf, and walk out of your store without spending any money. I was that kid. . .er, person. i'm actually pretty impressed with myself, that i stood in the same spot for about 3 hours, and caught up with my dear Fullmetal. He's killing humunculous left and right, he's found his dad, he's growing up, and getting into the habit of running around without his shirt on. Nice. when's the next volume come out?
I got some goodies from the library earlier today. stay tuned till next time, for updates on Hal Duncan's Vellum, China Mieville's Un Lun Dun, Cormac McCarthy's The Road (we had it first, Oprah!) and Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora.
and maybe one of these days i'll give up my secret bagel recipe. or maybe not!
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