Mr. Bijoy Writes

As a lot of you may know, this past Sunday, July 20th, I asked my girlfriend, Sonja,  to marry me. Also, a lot of people have been asking how I did it. So this post is for those folks, haha. About 6 months ago, I decided that I wanted to propose to my girlfriend. But here's the thing, I have no idea how people go about doing that. I've heard a lot of stories, from the morning in bed, rollover and propose, to the Kauai beach proposal and almost every thing in between. So, I started with the one thing I assumed I could do right- The ring. But that part is going to stay out of this story, becasue it's super-boring. A few weeks ago, I gave Sonja's friend Taylor a call. I told her what was up and that I was going to pop the question. She shrieked. I temporarily lost hearing in my right ear. It was glorious. In a really, really weird way. Taylor and I then started planning what was about to go down. I had an idea: scavenger hunt. A scavenger hunt that was awesome! But I h

Falafel started life in Egypt, around the time of the pharaohs (apparently). But enough of the boring stuff. Now found as a staple throughout the Middle East and India, falafel are a staple in many households and street vendors. My mom has a pretty good recipe, but she hasn't chosen to share it yet. I took some advice from some of my chef friends and worked together this recipe for the nights that I really just wanted some happy-food. Let me know what you think! If you need to tweak anything to make it work for you, do it! What ya need: 1 cup of dried chickpeas (15oz can of chickpeas are ok in a pinch) 5 medium cloves of garlic 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped  1/2 cup of fresh parsley, chopped 1 small onion 6 tablespoons of flour 1 teaspoon of baking powder 1 teaspoon of salt 2 teaspoons of cumin 1 teaspoon of coriander 1/2 teaspoon of ground red pepper (cayenne works too) 1-2 cups of frying oil, for frying (I like a vegetable blend for this, but some people like