Falafel with Tahini Sauce, Tabbouleh, & Baklava

When I was 13 years old my father took me to Israel. It was the most amazing place I have ever been in my life. I walked where Jesus walked, I saw thousand year old ruins, it was indescribable. The funny thing is though, one of my favorite memories of that trip was walking around modern Jerusalem with my dad and eating falafel, something I hadn't ever heard of before.

SO, since my mom is out of town, I wanted to have my dad over for dinner and make something fun. So why not go all out!? When in doubt, go all out! That was my theme for dinner. I have never made any kind of Middle Eastern food before, but if your going to fail, fail big.

I found this recipe for Falafel that looked really good and straight forward. Last minute I had to call in some help from a friend. I realized I didn't have enough time in the day to finish everything, so my amazing friend came over to help for several hours!!!

I don't have a food processor, so the whole mixing process was a little difficult. I recommend a food processor, it would have been a lot easier!!

We had to add a lot more flour than the recipe called for, but in the end it worked out great! Just go with the flow!

The cooking process was actually really quick.

All done and ready for the pita!

I wanted to have a salad with dinner as well, but wanted something Middle Eastern as well, so we made Tabbouleh. I was really nervous about making it because it calls for bulgur or quinoa. Quinoa is from the Andes mountains in Peru and is probably the one Peruvian food I hate!!! I can not believe its become this huge thing here! Yes, I understand its super healthy and wonderful and whatever, but its gross!!! Maybe I've never had it cooked right, but I do NOT understand the big deal! Eww. So obviously I made it with bulgur, which is what they use in the Middle East anyway. But since it was compared to quinoa I was nervous, but still willing to try it out.

Here is the salad before the bulgur.

It was surprisingly really good! So very different from anything we normally have, but so good AND healthy! WIN!!

Then I knew exactly what I wanted to make for dessert, but wasn't sure if we could pull it off, Baklava. It was actually really really good and not nearly as hard as I thought! Holy cow, the things you can do if you just try!!!!

Lots and lots of phyllo dough!

Brush on melted butter and add nuts. 

Then more phyllo, butter, nuts and repeat several times!!

Slice up all pretty like and bake for 40-50 minutes. 

While its baking you make the honey glaze that goes on top.

As soon as it comes out of the oven add the glaze. Let cool to room temp.

And DIG in!!!! This is going to sound really crazy, but I don't like nuts...and it was good!!

Here is everything together (minus the baklava and pita). The recipe doesn't call for it, but the way my dad and I ate the falafel was in a pita with tomato, cucumber, feta, and the tahini sauce. So we added those extra few things.

Ummm....yeah.....IT WAS GOOD! 

The food was good and it was super fun to try something not only new, but totally outside the box AND something that reminded me of my childhood with my dad! It was fun to share memories at the table as we ate. Food is good, stories are better, and family is the besets!!