A Jerusalem Dinner

Last night we had our weekly dinner group...but this week with a twist! Our friend Vladi is going to the BYU Jerusalem Center next semester, and since my roommates Katie and Lindsey spent this past summer there, we decided to throw Vladi a going away Jerusalem dinner! We invited our other friend Michael, who is also planning to go to Jerusalem this coming summer, as well as some of our other friends who have also been to Jerusalem already.

Katie took over most of the cooking. She made falafels. Until yesterday, I had no idea what went into a falafel, but Katie and Lindsey always talked about how delicious they were. As you can tell from the picture, they are basically delicious greasy fried goodness.

Falafels are made with chickpeas, turmeric, cumin, onions, breadcrumbs, flour, and cilantro. Basically we mixed everything together and formed little balls and then deep fried them in a huge pot of oil. Probably not the healthiest option, but delicious nonetheless.

We also made couscous for a side dish and some french fries, which apparently they serve with the falafels in Jerusalem. More healthy goodness.

My roommate Jessi made homemade naan bread too! This is a picture of most of the dinner: pita and naan bread, hummus, tomatoes, falafels, and thousand island dressing. Basically we put the falafels onto the naan or pita bread, smooshed them up and spread them around, and threw everything else on top. It was way good!

My contribution to the dinner...home made cinnamon rolls! The recipe made 40 of these babies, and we still have several sitting in our kitchen, so friends and neighbors, feel free to come get one!

This picture just had to go up. Katie was cutting onions for like a half hour to put in the falafels, and it was doing horrible things to her eyes...so this was her solution. Isn't she totes adorbs? I love my special roommate.