Greek Feast

Every time Zach and I cook, we try to cook something we've never attempted before. When we were planning this culinary adventure, Zach had just been to a Greek-Fest in St. Louis, which inspired him to suggest pork souvlaki, to which I added hummus, pita and a Greek-style squash (by no means traditional or authentic, but inspired by traditional Greek flavors).

First, the souvlaki. We used this recipe from Allrecipes.com:

Ingredients


1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 pounds pork tenderloin, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 medium yellow onions, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 green bell peppers, cut into 1 inch pieces
skewers

Directions

In a large glass bowl, mix together lemon juice, olive oil, soy sauce, oregano, and garlic; add pork, onions, and green peppers, and stir to coat. Cover, and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

Preheat grill for medium-high heat. Thread pork, peppers, and onions onto skewers.

Lightly oil grate. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or to desired doneness, turning skewers frequently for even cooking.

 

These turned out GREAT!!!

Next, the pita. We used this recipe from Kitchen 22:

Pita Bread (recipe from Kalofagas)

makes approximately 6 big ones

3 cups plain flour
3/4 cup lukewarm water
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
oil for greasing the pan
flour for dusting
Mix the water, olive oil, yeast, salt and sugar and leave for a few minutes. Add the flour slowly and mix with a wooden spoon until it becomes a dough. When it is too difficult to do it with the spoon, start mixing with your hands. When the flour has been incorporated, knead until the dough looks smooth. Cover with a kitchen towel and leave for half an hour.

Pull pieces off the dough, the size of an orange (although it depends on how big you like your pita!) and roll them out into 1/4 inch thick round sheets. Use a fork to poke holes into the dough, without going all the way through it.

Very much like making tortillas!

Very delicious!

Carianne was cooking the pitas, and she decided not only should you put oil in the pan before you throw the pita in, but it's also better if you brush the other side of the pita with oil as well to prevent it from getting too dry.

The hummus was something I just kind of threw together based upon my preferences on taste and no particular measurements. I used 2 cans of chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil, garlic and salt and just blended everything up until it was smooth, creamy and tasted good!

Served with fresh cut veggies, too!

And finally, the veggie dish. I used a variation on this recipe from Taste of Home (my edits are in parentheses): 

2 small yellow summer squash, thinly sliced

2 small zucchini, thinly sliced (I used 4 big zucchini because I couldn't find any yellow squash that day)
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup pitted ripe olives (I used kalamata)
2 tablespoons chopped green onion (I used yellow onion)
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (I added feta as well)
Directions

Place the yellow squash, zucchini, tomato, olives and onion on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 17 in. x 18 in.). Combine the oil, lemon juice, garlic salt, oregano and pepper; pour over vegetables (I put cheese in at this point instead of waiting until the end). Fold foil around mixture and seal tightly.

Grill, covered, over medium heat for 30-35 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Open foil carefully to allow steam to escape. (My foil pack was SO BIG we had to put it in the oven instead of on the grill because there wasn't enough space with all those skewers, too!)

Transfer vegetables to a serving bowl. Sprinkle with cheese. Yield: 4 servings (Mine made WAY more than 4 servings...6 of us ate and still had leftovers!)

Mmmm...veggies.

And of course there was snacking...

White truffle oil, olive oil and feta

I had no idea exactly how pungent and strong truffle oil was, but mellowed with a bit of EVOO and mixed with some feta, it was a great dip for the pitas!

And there was wine involved, too...followed by Zach being, well, Zach.

Charlotte's Red (L) and Ludmila (R) from Davenport winery.

Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling (center)

Zach + old man sunglasses - one lens = pseudo-pirate

 

This bread is bananas...B-A-N-A-N-A-S

There really is a Facebook group entitled "Gwen Stefani taught me how to spell B-A-N-A-N-A-S"...

I'm not a member, and that song drives me crazy. And I probably just got it stuck in my head after typing that as the title of this post, HOWEVER, something HAD to be done with the over-ripened bananas hanging out on my counter top. Banana bread was the only reasonable solution.

Simply Recipes is one of my favorite food blogs to frequent...I've cooked many recipes that Elise has posted including chile verde (which I absolutely adore), carnitas, and albondigas soup. This was the first time I tried a baking recipe from Elise, and I made a few minor alterations of my own in the interest of my own personal health goals. What follows is Elise's recipe (that she got from a friend) with my deviations in italics.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:
3-4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 c. melted butter - I used Smart Balance
1 c. sugar (can easily be reduced to 3/4 cup) - I did that
1 t. vanilla
1 t. baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered (I sprayed the pan with canola oil) 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

The result:

Hopefully this glorious aroma will linger in my home long enough for the potential buyers coming to see it from 4-5 this afternoon can still smell it!!!!

Taste of Home

So my thought that changing my blog from 101 in 1001 to being about food would make me write more was clearly wrong. Whatever. I'm back.

Thanks to my mother-in-law, I have a subscription to Taste of Home magazine. And thanks to Audrey Kinne from Elkhart, Indiana I had a fabulous recipe to try out for dinner on Sunday night.

(Photo courtesy Taste of Home magazine)

Grilled tomatillo chicken is something Audrey says she invented because her husband's favorite restaurant that served a similar dish was closing. (By the way, don't know if the link will work, b/c according to ToH website, this recipe is marked "subscriber only". But google it and try it out!)

I don't know what that restaurant was or what their version of this dish was like, but hers was AMAZING. Definitely going into the regular rotation.

I have no photos of my journey in making this dish, but they would have been boring anyway because it was so simple and turned out so delicious.

If by any chance you, Audrey Kinne, happen to read my simple little blog, THANKS! My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it! :)

Ponderings on a Snowy Sunday

But not as snowy as it's been in D.C. lately, thank goodness! I am about SICK of snow, so to take my mind off of it I decided to make a delicious batch of one of my favorite soups to take for lunches this week: Tomato Bisque.

I use this recipe from Food Network, and I alter it a bit to improve on the healthiness. I use organic chicken broth, Smart Balance 50/50 butter blend, turkey bacon, and fat free half & half. It's so good. Matt even likes it. When I mentioned to him today that I was making this soup for lunches (for like the 5th time this winter), he said, "Good. We were winning more games when I was eating tomato bisque for lunch." I laughed.

I don't have a pretty picture for this soup, and if I did have a picture, it wouldn't be pretty because this isn't really a pretty soup.

On the menu for this evening: chicken cordon bleu, cheesy corn & mac casserole, and broccoli. This is our Valentine's dinner. This meal has me wondering why it's called cordon bleu but doesn't use bleu cheese. Hmmm...something to ask Google.

I'm doing a baked version for the chicken from All Recipes, linked here. The casserole recipe is one of my grandmother's, which I will post below. It's a family favorite, and we eat it at almost every holiday meal. Again, I'm altering it to make it a tad healthier. Smart Balance butter blend, no salt added canned corn, 2% milk Velveeta, and whole-wheat macaroni.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cheese-Corn-Mac Bake (from Joan Shufelberger, a.k.a. "Gram")

Ingredients:
1 can creamed corn
1 can whole corn & juice
1 cup uncooked macaroni
1 cup cheese cubes (American or Velveeta)
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons minced onion

Method:
Mix together all ingredients and bake in a greased casserole dish for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Can be mixed ahead of time. Refrigerate then bake as needed.

Super Bowl Menu for 2

While I can't say I'm excited about watching the actual game, I am excited about the food! Every year the Super Bowl makes me want to make certain things only because we always did when I was a kid. Mom ALWAYS made guacamole for the big game, even though I can't remember ever really WATCHING the game. It was all about the food.

So, in keeping with tradition, I am going to make guacamole. I've yet to settle on a recipe to go with and at this point I'm thinking I'll just wing it. You know, throw things together on my own based on what I've read in several recipes. I feel quite comfortable doing that especially with guacamole for several reasons: A. I'm Mexican. 2. I've made lots of guacamole before. and D. I've read lots of guacamole recipes. So there.

With that said, I hope it ends up looking like this and tasting fantastic. Here's the recipe for this guac.

In addition to guacamole, since dip does not a dinner make, I'm also making Chile Verde, something my cooking buddy Zach and I made for the first time together using this recipe. Only made perfect by eating it with homemade tortillas, something I learned to do from my Uelita. I will post the recipe, however, it's rather vague because she has it memorized and I just wrote as we went. BTW, I'm only making a half-recipe of the Chile Verde because it makes a TON!

                                              

Homemade Tortillas

Ingredients:

2 heaping cups flour

1 t. salt

1/2 t. baking powder

2 T. oil (I usually use olive or canola)

1 1/2 c. lukewarm water (maybe a little more or less)

Method:

Combine dry ingredients. Add oil and combine (with your fingers if you're brave enough; that's what Uelita does, so that's what I do). Add in 1/2 c. of the water and combine. Add in another 1/2 c. of water and combine. Continue adding water until dough begins to come together and form a large ball. Let dough rest for 10 minutes, covered. Then shape dough into a log and tear dough into small pieces, turning, shaping and flattening each in your hand into a hockey-puck-like shape. One recipe should make about 8-10 dough ball things. Cover dough balls and allow to rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Roll out one dough ball very thin and flat. Place it in the heated skillet and flip immediately. Allow it to cook in the skillet until it starts to bubble slightly. Then remove it to a warm place (preferably a tortilla holder with a towel in it). Continue to roll out dough balls and cook until you've cooked 'em all. If tortillas start to blacken as they cook, lower heat on skillet.

Carianne helped me and Zach cook tortillas when we made fish taco. Pictured: Carianne, tortilla cooking in skillet, tortilla holder with towel. Mandatory for maintaining proper tortilla temp until serving! ;)

                                           

Mine Strone and Onion Rings

First, this post is dedicated to Cryptozoologist Zachary Bass Caby who recently revealed to me that he thought minestrone was prounounced phonetically. I laughed loudly, called him an idiot, then corrected him.

This soup is currently in my crock pot, an appliance I use seldomly apart from a massive batch of cheese dip or some barbecued pulled pork. It's been on high for about 45 minutes and already smells fabulous. Here is the recipe from Robin Miller of Food Network, and my alterations are in italics.

Minestrone Soup
Ingredients:
3 cups reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable broth - I used 32 oz. organic chicken broth
1 (28-oz) can diced tomatoes - I added another 15 oz. since I added extra broth & like soupy soup :)
1 (15-oz) can white (cannellini or navy) beans, drained - and rinsed
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 c. onion, chopped
1 t. dried thyme
1/2 t. dried sage - I didn't have these two alone, so I used some poultry seasoning that had both
2 bay leaves
Salt & pepper
2 c. cooked ditalini pasta - I used whole wheat elbows
1 medium zucchini, chopped
2. c. coarsely chopped fresh or frozen spinach, defrosted
4 T. grated parmesan or Romano cheese
Basil sprigs, garnish, optional -  I opted out

Directions:
In a slow cooker, combine broth, tomatoes, beans, carrots, celery, onion, thyme, sage, bay leaves and 1/2 t. each salt and black pepper. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours. 30 minutes before soup is done, add pasta, spinach and zucchini. Cover and cook 30 more minutes. Remove bay leaves, season to tase with salt and black pepper. Serve soup in bowls garnished with parmesan cheese and basil leaves.

And that's not the end of my cooking for today! I'm making homemade onion rings to have with burgers for dinner. That's right...HOMEMADE. Nothing frozen or from a fast-food joint. I'm using this recipe from Rachael Ray, and after reading some user comments, I'm going to set up a battering station that has 4 dishes instead of 2 to prevent ickiness. Hopefully, they turn out looking like this and tasting delicious.

I Proved Something to Myself

I may actually possess some cooking talent. Sans recipe, I threw together a surprisingly tasty concoction tonight for a dinner for one. The only way I could think to describe it was an accidental chimichurri risotto. But South American and Italian cuisines are NOT two that I would ever thing would go together, which is where the accident comes in.

Here's what I did, but there's no way anyone will be able to replicate it because I don't even know if I could replicate it. Anyway...

I had some long grain brown rice in the cabinet, an onion, some frozen tomato paste, fresh garlic, cilantro and shredded sharp cheddar cheese. So I sauteed the rice and onion in a pan until just toasted, then added in the amount of water called for on the bag of rice, plus some garlic powder, salt, and a blob of tomato paste. Yes, a blob.

I cooked it according to the directions, meanwhile chopping the cilantro and fresh garlic cloves together. When the timer went off, the rice was far from cooked. So I just threw in the mock-chimichurri ingredients (cilantro & garlic), stirred, and re-covered. Once it had soaked up most of the liquid (but not all; it was definitely not dry), I sprinkled some cheese over it and stirred, which created the risotto-like texture.

And it was a shockingly tasty meal! I squeezed some lemon juice on top of the rice in my bowl just to add a little extra something, then adjusted seasonings with S&P. Truly tasty...I just wish I knew what to call it. For now, Chimichurri Risotto (as unappetizing as that sounds) will have to do.