Not yet

I was talking to a friend who is beginning her Christmas baking. She does cookies, which admittedly, take up more oven space than the selection of confections I do. Still, Christmas is more than a month away. I'll wait until it's pretty close. Baked goods are better fresh.

Even so, I ended up in a cooking frenzy in my own kitchen, all in the guise of being organized. First of all, I am going to the big, 6 hour write-in tonight. It's Nashville's own version of the Night of Writing Dangerously, which is in San Francisco. I don't know how they do theirs, but we don't have a food budget. We are all bringing finger foods.

And I never know what to cook for dinner anyway. So Friday, I made a batch of falafel, figuring that we would each eat one patty for dinner, and the rest of the batch would be made into little wraps for The Evening of Scribbling Recklessly.

I have a commercial food processor, and only pull it out when I need it. Since I would be using it for the falafel, it made sense to do my pie dough for Thanksgiving first. And since it's easier to do more at one time, I did the dough for Christmas as well, and put it in the freezer. And while I had it out and already dirty with the right ingredients, I made a streusel topping for 3 fruit pies. And we had been wanting cookies, so I was making chocolate chip cookies at the same time. After all, I was already in the kitchen, and there's no point in waiting idly for cookies to bake.

I started fixing dinner, along with everything else. The oven was hot from the cookies, after all. Perfect for oven fries to go with the falafel.

Then I ran out of space. It's easy to slip into the type of baking I did for years, keeping up to five things going at once, but you can't do that in a home kitchen. It doesn't fit.

I'm home. It's okay to calm down. Being able to multi task like I used to was great time management. I would have each item at a different phase, and I was wonderfully productive. And will be again, when I find a job.

Meanwhile, monotasking is a gift that shouldn't be taken for granted. Life is to be lived, not raced through.

My falafel recipe is not true falafel, in that I don't use chickpea flour. I use chickpeas, soaked overnight, then cooked to death. The first group of ingredients is boiled for about 6 hours. Drain, add the cooked chickpeas to the second group of ingredients and mash into a paste. That's where a food processor comes in handy. Add the breadcrumbs last.

Make into patties and brown in a skillet. These are not deep fried.

Also, cut the recipe in half, or even less. This is restaurant sized.

Falafel

3 c chickpeas

2 T salt

3/8 t cayenne

1T cumin

1 T garlic powder or granulated garlic

1 T onion powder

2 !/2 T lemon juice

3/4 t garlic powder (or granulated)

1 T cumin

1 minced onion

1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped

3/8 c toasted sesame seeds

1/2 T salt

1/4 t pepper

1/2 t coriander

2 c breadcrumbs