Life’s Little Luxuries, part 1

Have you ever tasted Greek yogurt?  If not, you really, really must. 

I of course first fell in love with Greek yogurt in Greece, imagine that!  It just seemed like the right thing to do each morning -start with a bowl of that thick, creamy plain yogurt, adding that day’s assortment of honey, oats and fruit.  It sure beats an English breakfast of hunk-a-mushy tomato with beans any day!  Of course, my initial enjoyment of Greek yogurt was no doubt heightened by the smell of the ancient ruins in the air or the sight of the Mediterranean from the roof top.

But now my friends, you too can enjoy one of life’s little luxuries by simply heading over to your local Trader Joe’s.  No, they do not carry the odor of the ancients in a bottle or anything like that.  They have Greek yogurt!  They even have options: the expensive stuff or the cheaper stuff, the full-fat stuff or the non-fat stuff, the pre-flavored stuff and the plain stuff.  As much as I like the yogurt, I would never dream of telling you which of these many options you would like best-but I like the plain non-fat (trying to do the South Beach diet demands that I stick to the non-heart stopping non-fat stuff.)

I do dream of telling you that you don’t really appreciate yogurt unless you eat Greek yogurt though…just a thought.

For even more luxury, be sure to whip up some tzatziki:

fold together some Greek yogurt, grated cucumber, minced garlic, s&p and a bit of lemon juice. 

No measurements needed-just put in a good pile of cucumber and enough garlic to give it a kick.  Perfect with so many Greek things, or just regular veggies, bread, pita, or right out of the bowl.

Brunch Food

Here are some recent food finds for all to enjoy.  As I was looking for recipes lately, my goal was to find new recipes for fabulous food that was fast to fix.  I think I did it! 

First, these chicken sausage pattiesare a must make.  Please believe me when I say that they are easy-they are unbelievably easy.  I am able to go down to my wonderful local butcher and have them grind the chicken, so that is a key part to making this easy.  I hate grinding meat!  Go, make these sausages and enjoy a flavorful, non-greasy breakfast patty.

These cupcakesare another new fav-

       

My sister Anna made this salad.  Beet lovers unite!

 

Bread Baking Therapy

I forgot how much I love baking bread and all of the relaxing steps that it entails.  Have you ever made a yeast bread?  I hope so!  I have been thinking about bread for the past two days…

I love the warm aroma as the yeast proofs. 

I love seeing the yeast grow, bubbling and brown; what seemed dead is suddenly full of life.

I love it when a huge pile of dry flour amazingly incorporates with such a relatively small amount of water.

I love to see the gluten develop as I knead the bread.

I love the feel of the flour, water and yeast developing into a smooth, warm mass of dough.

I love to check the dough again and again, watching its gradual, steady rise.

I love to feel the gas pockets deflate as I punch the dough down and knead it and then shape it. 

I love to tease the mass of dough into an even, beautiful ball.

I love that moment, right before it goes into the oven, when I slash the very top of the loaf, just cutting a thin layer of the strong gluten strands.

I love the smell of baking bread-it smells like home.

And I love slicing into a loaf and seeing the crumb of this loaf, seeing the beautiful results of all the yeast’s hard work.

I remember now that I love baking bread and I am going to have to do it more often!

Christmas Eve Tamales

Our family has no long standing food traditions for the Christmas holidays-our meals have included everything from turkey to tenderloin to spaghetti to pizza.  But the tradition of making and enjoying tamales on Christmas Eve keeps popping up, and since we are getting better and better at it, I think this one might stick for awhile.

Everyone joins in on the fun-

Post Christmas Open House Cooking

I love cooking when I have the time and when I have the right inspiration to cook…I’ve gone through many cooking seasons and at least for the time being my days of setting my alarm to keep a new type of bread right on track at 2 am or spending several days making croissants and danishes from scratch are long gone.  These are the days of gourmet in 30 minutes or quick-invent something that everyone will like from the leftovers or make gobs and gobs of food for a party in one day or less.

 Hosting an open house with my sister Erin gave me the chance to cook up a storm.  One little thing about me and cooking is that I can not, never have and probably never will, cook in small quantities.  It kills me.  I have to make more.  I can’t dream of someone not getting enough or of -horrors- of a platter being empty before the party is over.  So what started out small, grew and grew and wonder of wonders-we had plenty of food.  (I panic every single time I host a party…I think it is genetic.  My mom laughs at me when she is not the one responsible, but ha, when she is the hostess, she does the exact same thing.)

So if you need to quick a bunch in a hurry I heartily recommend-

Jalapeno Bacon Thingies from thepioneerwoman.com

Olive Cheese Bread from the Pioneer Woman.com

I also made some great new spreads, and they are winners because they are different and made in the food processor!

Fresh Herb and Walnut Dip

4 oz. cream cheese

3 oz.  feta cheese

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

2 large basil leaves

2 large mint leaves

2 parsley sprigs

2 green onions, chopped

2 Tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Throw all of this in the FP, blend and serve with celery and apples.

Greek Cheese Spread with Roasted Red Peppers

1/2 cup ricotta or cottage cheese

3 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup feta

1 Tbs olive oil

lemon juice to taste (1/2 -1 lemon)

2 garlic cloves

2 chopped green onions

2 parsley sprigs

3/4 cup roasted red bell peppers

Toss everything in the FP, blend and serve with veggies and pita wedges.

Quick and Easy Christmas Treat

I just made a couple dozen of these for some students-

Christmas Reindeer

Lay miny pretzels out on a baking sheet

Top each pretzel with a Hershey’s kiss

Melt in a low oven (about 250 degrees) for about 5 minutes or so…

They should be soft but not melted over everything.

Pull them out of the oven and top each reindeer with an M&M.  Voila-you have yummy Christmas treats!

(at any other time of the year they could also look like Mickey Mouse…)

Postrio and our Girls’ Weekend

Sara, Giselle and I had a wonderful weekend away to San Francisco recently with a great room in Union Square, lots and lots of shopping, and a fantastic dinner at the Postrio restaurant.

We got up there on Saturday night, and in true form, had no set plans for dinner…I had some ideas but was doubtful of our ability to get a table.  After about 5 or 6 calls to some of my top choices, we were looking at the 24 hour diner down the street or dinner at 9:30.  Keep in mind that one of our group was pregnant and all of our group just loves to eat, 9:30 was not an option.

 We could call the concierge. 

How about we just sit there watching TV for another 30 minutes and hope we think of something else?

Why did we hesitate to call the concierge?  Umm, no good reason, but no one wanted to do it.  So finally I buckled and made the call…how embarrassing to admit to a cool city person that you are a tourist and have no plans for dinner and you have some standards for eating and you don’t want to eat at midnight…

He was very kind and withheld all verbal judgement and laughs at our country bumpkin ways.  He punched away at his computer and saved us!  There was a table at Postrio at 7:00.  A table at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant.  We had been saved from eating at the Westfield mall that night.  He did kindly warn us, “You all are in for a treat.  It isn’t a casual dining restaurant though, so is that OK?  Dressing up a bit for the evening?” 

“Oh, of course that’s fine.” as I quickly ran through the 3 clothing items I brought with me, but kept a cool, refined and citified tone to my voice… “Thanks so much for your help!”

Then I had the good news for the gals-a great dinner ladies!  And the dress is elegant casual  (concierge’s words.)  No problem, right? 

Well, as we headed to dinner that night, we had completely convinced ourselves that jeans were elegant enough…that we all possessed an inner elegance that more than equaled the finer duds that others might have.  We were going to pull off sophisticated in our jeans.

We were admittedly a tad under-dressed, the hostess was a bit snobby, but the waiter was gracious and the food was amazing, absolutely, totally worth every bite, wish you had more, but you’re really are full, amazing.

We shared the pomegranate and pear salad and the roasted beet salad. 

Then for dinner I had:GRILLED PAINE RANCH SQUAB
squab mince, wild rice, shaved fennel, Black Mission figs, Bing cherry-veal sauce

It was amazing.

Sara had: CRISPY WOLFE RANCH QUAIL
candied pistachio, heirloom melons, chili glaze

Amazing.

Giselle had: ALASKAN HALIBUT
sweet gulf shrimp, snow peas, baby carrots, tapioca, coconut curry

Amazing. 

We highly recommend each of these dishes.  And mid-way through the dinner, we had lost all pretense of citified behavior.  I was pumping the waiter for any and all details on the food, we were laughing way, way too much, staring at other tables, talking about people…and laughing way, way too much.

Perfect Roasted Chicken

I love roasting birds-turkeys and chickens (who wants to spend time cooking a dove?!?)  I was able to help my not-so little brother learn how to roast a chicken and we used this wonderful stand-by.  Everyone needs a great chicken recipe, so if you don’t already have one, check this out:

Ingredients: 

3 tablespoons minced fresh thyme
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
5 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 7-pound roasting chicken
1 lemon, quartered

1/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup (about) canned low-salt chicken broth
2 teaspoons all purpose flour

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450°F. Mix first 4 ingredients in bowl. Rinse chicken; pat dry. Place chicken in roasting pan. Rub all but 1 tablespoon garlic-thyme oil over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place lemon in cavity of chicken. Tie legs with string.Roast chicken 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Roast chicken until meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of inner thigh registers 180°F, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Lift chicken and tilt slightly, emptying juices from cavity into pan. Transfer chicken to serving platter. Tent chicken with aluminum foil to keep warm.

Pour pan juices into large glass measuring cup. Spoon fat off top. Add wine to pan; place over high heat. Bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits. Pour wine mixture into measuring cup with pan juices (do not clean roasting pan). Add enough chicken broth to cup to measure 1 1/2 cups. Return broth mixture to same roasting pan. Mix flour into reserved 1 tablespoon garlic-thyme oil. Whisk into broth mixture. Boil broth mixture in roasting pan set over 2 burners until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Season pan-juice mixture to taste with salt and pepper. Pour into sauceboat. Serve chicken, passing pan-juice mixture separately.

Jamaican Tacos (or sneaking odd ingredients into your family’s food)

According to Bon Appetite, these are Texas Beef Tacos, but there is nothing about these that even hints at Texas…I think they are far more in the world of Cuba or Jamaica…So, voila-they are now renamed! 

I highly recommend these tacos, whatever you might call them.  In fact I have 2 challenges-

1-if you use packaged taco mix, stop! :)  It is quite simple to make any type of taco without the expensive, preservative riddled packages of mix.

2-if you make your own taco seasoning, shake it up with these.  I have never made tacos with ingredients like this, but we all loved them.  None of the kids knew that there were several secret ingredients in here…

 1 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup pecan pieces
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Just saute the onions, peppers and garlic until soft, then add the cumin and cook for a minute.  Add the beef and cook until browned.  Drain any fat.  Add the tomato sauce, raisins, pecans and s & p.  Finish with cilantro.  You’re finished!

And yes-add the raisins and pecans.  They were luscious additions.

Chicken Kebobs and Chickpea Salad

Tonight’s dinner is my own variation on a dinner from the magazine Real Simple.

I liked the basic idea of this dinner, but I knew it was going to need some major flavor work.

So for a quick dinner-

Chicken Kebobs

Cube up some chicken breasts (I used about 8 )

Marinate these in - (amounts are rough as I didn’t measure)

about 1 cup of yogurt

about 5-8 cloves of minced garlic

about 1 Tb or more…ground cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Allow this to marinate for at least 1 hour or more.  Then skewer and grill.

Chickpea Salad

1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed

1 large tomato, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1/2 cucumber, chopped

1/4 red onion, chopped

feta cheese, crumbled

fresh basil, chopped

Toss all of this together in a bowl and then whisk together-

1 part vinegar

2 parts oil

salt and pepper

Drizzle this over the salad and enjoy!

I decided to serve this over brown rice for some extra fiber goodness, and I served tomato mozzarella salad just because I really, really wanted it.