Two Favorite Things This Week

The hubby sent me a link to this oh-so-hipstery vegan recipe website, so I was skimming through some of the recipes the other day. - I stumbled upon a chickpea salad recipe that I decided to experiment with for lunch.  Holy cow, was it good!  The recipe is from Post Punk Kitchen.  I'm not going to list the step by step here, just click the link for the recipe.  And then you can immediately feel less than hip, punk, and vegan after you poke around her site for a few minutes.

Seriously, the chickpea salad was a nice little lunch deviation. - Give it a try if you like chickpeas, you won't be disappointed!  I added some curry when I made it to give it a little more oomph and it turned out yummy.  I read someone else's freestyle version of it in the comments, and they used yogurt and lemon juice instead of mayonnaise.  Good substitution for those non-mayo people out there.  Who I'll never quite get.  No judgement, but mayo is like bacon and cheese - in reasonable quantities it makes everything better! 

I love that wudger face.  That's right, he's a wudger.

Of course, I don't have any pictures of the final product because I didn't realize I was going to blog about it this week.  Oh well.  Here's a lovely picture of Cheety the Wonderpup instead.  Who I'm sure would eagerly partake of some chickpea salad if offered a taste.

Alright, it's radical departure from the subject at hand time.  Ready?  We're jumping from lunch recipes to a book review.  Just keeping you on your toes, plus it's the second part of my two favorite things this week.  I just finished reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette?  by Maria Semple.  It had been on my list of want to reads for a while, and I finally got a hold of it.  Pretty much plowed through that one.  I'll definitely be adding it to the Read These! page of my blog as a must read.  It was completely entertaining, and the format was unique and engaging.  The story is basically told in the form of letters, emails, and faxes to and from each of the characters in the story, and at some points narrated by the daughter character, whose name is Bee.  I love when I'm reading a book and I laugh out loud while I'm reading.  That's when you know it's good writing.

All that chickpea salad is giving me crazy eyes.

So, I don't want to give a blow by blow of the plot, but the gist of it is not surprisingly about the character in the book title, Bernadette.  We'll just say she has issues. I loved the eccentric, off-the-wall personality traits she had.  The plot has some unexpected drama unfold throughout, and it was entertaining to hitch along for the ride.  No doubt a quirky, fun, and very quick read.  Gotta love those books you tear through in no time.

So the message for the week is chickpea salad and Maria Semple.  Give 'em a shot.  You know I have good taste, right?

Ta-ta for now.