Chickpea salad with parsley, lemon and sun dried tomatoes

Sorry I've been so MIA lately. Sheesh.

My cousin had a dedication party for my nephew Noah two weekends ago. With less than a week to prepare it was a little crazy but we managed.

I was in charge of the cake and making salads. I made a vanilla cake with a cookie dough center and I also made a tortellini salad as well as a chickpea salad and all were a huge hit.

I'll post about the cake another day, this cake came out well but not exactly as planned. Noah's birthday is coming up in a little more than a month and I'll be doing a similar cake but with a twist.

I went and doubled both salads but about half an hour in I'd realized that clearly wasn't enough. Next time I'll have to multiply the ingredient list by probably 4-6 times.

Chickpea salad with parsley, lemon and sun dried tomatoes
(From Bon appétite)

1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbs cumin seeds

2 15.5oz cans chickpeas
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/2 C chopped fresh parsley
1/3 C thinly sliced oil packed sun dried tomatoes (I found them already julienned in a jar)
1/4 C fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper

Combine oil and cumin seeds in a small, heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool completely.

Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Add cumin oil and toss to blend. Season salad with sea salt and pepper to taste.

Best if made the night before. Bring to room temp before serving.

*the next time I make this I'll probably add a little red onion and instead of canned use dried beans that I've prepared in advance.

Twelve days was all it took...

Thanks to the generosity of my friends and Dan's friends we raised enough $ to get my Jeep all fixed. For weeks I haven't been able to drive much and last Friday when we took my truck to the first mechanic his diagnosis was pretty bad.  After getting a "second opinion" from a mechanic friend he deemed her absolutely fixable, we just needed to raise the funds since major repairs were something that was out of our budget.

Today, I was overwhelmed when I got the message about the final donation.  I sat at my desk and cried tears of joy over the amazingly generous donation from an anonymous donor.  My friends have far exceeded the expectations I had when Dan started this.  I thought he was crazy!  Who's going to help me fix this old Jeep? 

My friends, that's who.  My friends who want me to be in a safe car and not have to constantly worry that my truck is going to cause me to get into an accident because my tires are bad, a swaybar link is broken on one side, the Axle needs replacing and the list goes on.  (I'll tell y'all something though, I know way more about this Jeep than I ever thought I'd know about any car in my life, lol)

Now I have the money to get these major repairs done and I can be safely back on the road "Truckin'"  We're getting all the parts together and plan to get her all fixed up in the next two weeks :)

Help us save Chuck the truck