The Cure For Writer's Block

For the past few weeks Sunday in my house has had the same routine. I sleep until my Pandora alarm wakes me up, I put on my robe and I sit at the kitchen table and I work on my cookbook and proposal. Today I only had 2 sections to complete before finalizing everything and sending off to publishers, the market research and concept synopsis. I really should have started on the creative part first rather than the research. I felt like I was back in college. I was a fact checking, note taking nut basket. Needless to say after about 3 hours of research my brain was fried and I was having the worst time switching my mind back to the creative side. Its a blessing and a curse. So what better way to get back into my creative frame of mind than to cook a new dish.

I had no clue what I was going to cook once I stepped in the kitchen. Yesterday I told Keithon that we were going to make hummus to munch on through out the day but when I got into the kitchen I changed my mind and wanted something new. I remembered that I still had a ton of Bob's Red Mill chickpea flour in the pantry and on the back of the package was a recipe for falafel. Sadly Middle Eastern Food is my weakest area in the kitchen but what better way to get out of the research mode than to work on a new dish.

For the recipe I thought that I would have to use a can of chickpeas along with the flour but the recipe only called for the flour. So I set to work on the recipe but just like many recipes I had to cut the recipe in half because it was too many servings and I don't have time or food to waste. ( this is the main reason for my cookbook, small families need small recipes) Another great thing about the recipe is that the patties are pan fried and not deep fried. This southern is not keen on deep fried foods. I also tried my hand at Tahini Sauce. Keithon didn't complain so I guess I did OK. I definitely will try this recipe again.

After cooking lunch my plan was to watch cartoons on Hulu but I figured to get me back in cookbook mode watching cooking shows would do the trick. The only trick that it did was remind me that I have a trip to Japan coming up so I ended up watching a ton of documentaries on Japan and for the bulk of the afternoon I have been watching this show called Viva! Tokyo. If you can get past the child like narrations and the sexual jokes it has a lot of good info. So of course after hours of Japanese culture of course tonight's dinner was going to be Japanese. Since New Year's Day Keithon has fallen in love with Soba Noodles which does my heart proud because its a great source of protein. So I settled on a Soba Noodle soup using some leftover fried tofu and fresh veggies we have in the fridge.

When ever I make an Asian soup I always but the raw veggies in the bowl and then pour the broth over them, that way they stay extra crispy and retain a lot of the nutritional value. 

I still haven't gotten my creative juices flowing again and the day is winding down so I've decided that I will attempt to finish the final part of my proposal this week and then its off to the publishers for acceptance.