One of my most favorite foods is falafel. It's like a vegetarian version of meatballs made from chickpeas, and I am a sucker for the stuff. If I'm out and about and there's a restaurant serving falafel pita sandwiches, I'm most definitely stopping.

At home I prefer to buy pre-cooked that can be heated up in the oven to crispy perfection. My favorite are from Trader Joe's (you know, the falafel that was recalled because it might have rocks in it!). Yummeh...

But since we don't have a Trader Joe's, I usually end up making them by hand.

Which I don't like to do at all

You have to scoop up the sticky mixture in a spoon, try to shape it into a ball, then fry it up without it falling apart (which it usually does). It makes a huge mess with spattered oil and greasy towels. Not the big fun you'd think it would be. I had bought falafel tools which are supposed to make the job easier, but they are hard to clean and don't work that well.

Safeway grocery delivery keeps saying "out of stock" every time I order it (even though the website says that they are very much in stock), so I thought I'd get me another falafel tool (mine got lost in the move) and start over.

But this time instead of paying $6 I bought a German-engineered $40 tool.

And while the oil spatter and greasy paper towels are still a downer, cooking falafel is SO much easier. PLUS it comes all the way apart for easy cleaning...

Safeway ended up screwing me out of pita POCKETS by substituting pita BREADS but it still tasted fantastic...

And so now I'll probably be making them from scratch again.

At least until I am over to a Trader Joe's when they get rock-free frozen falafel back in stock.