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I just wanted to vent a bit about the dinner I made last night. I was so excited for it; I was going to try to make the black eyed pea croquettes. The first issue - I don't have a food processor, so I thought a blender would work.

Wrong.

I ended up have to use my little hand manipulator and "process" small amounts of the beans at a time, which took me almost an hour (because, of course, I kept trying in the blender for at least half of the time.) Well, I don't think I got the correct consistency because when I tried to fry them, they just broke apart. After fishing out all the bits, I checked with my boyfriend, who was over for dinner, about what he thinks I should do. He suggested adding garlic to the mash, frying up some mushrooms and onions and then just adding the mash to the pan to cook (rather than making the small patties). Approximately 2 hours after I started dinner, the mashed bean jumble was cooked.

I made the recommended glaze, too. It seemed problem free. I put it in a bowl, but then, when taking it to the table, I (of course) stumble a bit and end up spilling most of the glaze on the table and the veggie part of the meal. Oh, and also on my thumb, which burned a little.

In the end though, the beans weren't bad at all and tasted a lot like falafel. The veggie rice wraps I made to go along with them tasted good, too (even glazed!). The best part though was that the Boy ate his first vegan meal without "needing" meat on the side. (I think he knew better than to ask me to prepare something extra, since he could see how upset I was that dinner didn't turn out as planned). I just hate when you really want to prepare a nice meal and things don't go as planned.

Anyone else have dinner fiascos to share?

awww joanna - way to persevere! that is one lucky boy you have.

i too struggled with keeping the croquettes together, had to be oh so gentle when i turned them over - but they were pretty tasty, especially with that sauce..yum.

i have so many cooking/baking disasters, i wouldn't even know where to start. however, am grateful for each, cause not only do i have good tales to tell, i also REALLY learn lessons, like make sure you know whether its baking powder or soda your'e adding to your scones - cause they'll flatten out and look like pancakes if you don't.

I think this recipe is cursed! I have tried to make it twice but I haven't even made it past the soaking the beans part! The first time I soaked them overnight but then I didn't end up having time the next day and kinda forgot about them so I just had to throw them out. The second time I put them in to soak before I went to work in the morning but the bowl I used was too small and the beans expanded so much that they pushed the foil off and when I came home there were little fruit flies hanging out in there so those went in the trash too! I bought more but I haven't tried the recipe again yet!

Wow, we must all have been channeling croquettes this weekend. I tried them last night, too, and they were pretty much a disaster for me, too. I had the same problem with consistancy. I have a blender, and it had a hard time pulverizing the beans. I was thinking a little flour mixed in next time might help them be stickier. The first several fell apart in the oil, but I got a few to stick together sort of, and those were mighty tasty.

I too had problems with the croquettes falling apart. I thought it was because I used canned black eyed peas (the grocery was all out of dried) and I didn't have enough safflower oil so i used olive instead. But I guess that wasn't the cause. Has anyone been able to make these successfully?

i ate the "mashed" croquettes anyway and the flavor was great, I just wish I could have kept them together!