Vacation

A family reunion is currently claiming my time. My days are filled with grandchildren, nephews, in-laws of all kinds, Virginia sun and wind, and hours in the swimming pool or out on the river in the boat.

Well, and food, of course.

This side of the family is solidly devoted to fake industrial food, but even these people have a special dish that gives them pleasure to prepare and share. Breakfast and lunch are on-your-own affairs, with lots of *shudder* pop tarts, toaster strudels, sliced American cheese, crackers and chips for people to grab whatever they want. Also, sodas and energy drinks galore. On the good side, there's a never-ending bowl of fruit.

Each family takes a turn with dinner, and it's these meals that allow everyone to shine. My father-in-law made his favorite stir-fry, with lots of real vegetables: carrots, onions, cauliflower, snow peas, scallions, and the addition of marinated beef and chicken. All served over homemade fried rice. Yumm.

My step-son and his wife made beautiful shish kebabs packed with bell peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes, and beef.

My daughter-in-law made a great potato salad, with careful attention to the flavorful dressing.






Their  four-year-old daughter, from the first day they arrived, was enamored of the apple tree in the back yard, and picked apples every time she could get someone to lift her up high enough. As soon as her 12 and 15 year old cousins arrived, she had them in the tree, tossing apples into her bucket.

So I made a pie.

For my turn in the kitchen, I made lasagna, easy to use to feed a crowd:

And a salad with radishes, zucchini, and asparagus, a surprising hit:

Our hosts, my sister-in-law and her husband, prepared a southern meal of barbequed spare ribs, corn on the cob, and a colorful pasta salad. Tonight, my other sister-in-law brings out her family's favorite beef tacos, with lots of veggie toppings. Along with Coronas and lime.

The rumor for tomorrow is crab legs and pizza. THAT one will be interesting!

A Cheese Class

My youngest gave me a cool birthday present. A class in cheese-making, followed by wine and cheese tasting! Our class was at the Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills.

Gloria helps shake up the milk. We used non-homogenized milk, so the fat had to be loosened.

Curds and whey after heating the milk, and adding citric acid and rennet.

Our mozzarella balls after shaping the curds and dipping them in HOT water. We decorated them with flower petals or herbs.

Gloria and I pose at the door. We also got to visit the farm's goats!

Wild Alaskan salmon: food politics in action

So who gets the money for all that expensive salmon? Here's another example of Big Ag (in this case, Big Fish) destroying a local economy:

Wild Alaskan salmon: food politics in action

More Greek Weekend

I had more cooking to do on Saturday. Since I made half the recipe for Copenheim, I wanted to use up the rest of the phyllo dough. But the last thing I needed was more sweets.

Which calls for an appetizer. Oooh - vegetables!

Elaine's cookbook has recipes for cheese puffs and spanokopita. My appetizer became a sort of combo, based on what I had in the frig:

A mixture of kale and beet greens, sauteed with onions and garlic:

To this, I added cottage cheese and dill. Are you wrinkling your nose? You might be surprised to know it tasted darn good!

Using oil on the phyllo, I rolled this mixture up into turnovers:

I haven't baked them, yet. I put the pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes, then put the turnovers in a plastic bag for storage. They'll be great to just pop in the oven for a quick dinner or appetizers for guests. Perhaps this weekend, when the R. family comes for dinner.

Ah, but now it was time to prepare the marinade for the Arni Souvlakia, aka, shish kebabs (p. 50).

I had a small leg of lamb and roast in the freezer, so I'd thawed them out and cut them into little pieces. I added quartered onion, cherry tomatoes, and mushroom caps (cremini). The recipe called for bell pepper, but I haven't found any locally grown pepper yet, so I left them out.

Sitting in the marinade







But what did I have left after these preparations? Did you guess a lamb bone? With a little meat still on it? What do you think I did with that?

Yep - lamb stew! An excuse to use more vegetables! Sorry, I didn't get a picture of it, but I've got a nice broth with onion and carrots. I'll finish it today - adding a roux and some fresh peas. Can't wait!

The next day (Sunday), was the crowing touch:

We grilled them, along with some corn, and had a marvelous lunch. We had one skewer left over (go figure), and that became this morning's breakfast, chopped up with some leftover asparagus and scrambled with some eggs. Perfect!

Gloria and Bill have no complaints about Elaine's cookbook! They just want more!

A Report and a Review

Greek Weekend! I finally had company, and took advantage of it to try a couple recipes from Elaine Schmitz's Recipes & Recollections of My Greek American Family.

It was done in my usual of-course-I-messed-with-it way of cooking. This usually happens because I refuse to go out and by an ingredient if I have something else that I need to use up, and that just maybe, could substitute without totally screwing up the recipe.

More often that not, this involves vegetables.

So yesterday, I donned an apron and pulled out the pots and pans. The recipes:

Connie's Arni Souvlakia - Shish Kebab p. 50
Minnie's Copenheim p. 125

Then there were the dishes I had to make up on the spot to deal with leftover ingredients:
Veggie-Cheese Turnovers (a weird version of spanakopita, or perhaps Cheese Puffs)
Lamb Stew (sort of)

First, I made the syrup for the Copenheim:

Sugar, water, & lemon juice, simmered for about 45 minutes.







Then I got busy with the phyllo dough. Being me, I found, and used, whole grain phyllo dough. Every little bit helps.

I should probably remind you that I'm not a patient person. It's rare that I make something both delicious AND attractive. I can live with that.






Then I beat the egg yolks, folded in the walnuts and beaten egg whites, and spread it over the phyllo:

This was topped with more buttered phyllo dough and baked for about an hour. The syrup was poured over the top of it.

You know, sometimes it does turn out looking attractive!

I need to get a picture of the inside. The egg/walnut mixture bakes into a fluffy, cake-like center. I never would have imagined it. This tastes wonderful, too. A great dessert. Even though I cut the recipe in half, there is still a huge amount left, so it was divided between the guests to take to their various places of work on Monday. The whole Bay Area gets to play Greek!

I'll post the other recipes in a separate entry, so I don't overdo the picture fairy. But I should add: this recipe is very easy to do! Don't be afraid to try it - just have plenty of people around to help you eat it!

Cooking Club - the Third Day

Pizza!

That's what we did for our third cooking club meeting. Everyone brought their own toppings, I made the dough. We used my lovely pizza stone and made delicious, crispy pizzas, with highly creative toppings! I was impressed!

First up is Barry, who was a little self-conscious to be the first guy at our meetings. But we were delighted to have him! And his Apple/Dubliner Cheese pizza was amazing:

Here's a better look at the pizza:

Corrine, who comes to us from England, via Houston, made a fabulous southwestern affair. Let's see, it had chipotle-dusted, sauteed chicken breast, fire-roasted tomatoes, roasted vegetables, and cilantro. Marvelous!

See?

I made a more typical pepperoni/mushroom/cheese pizza, with the addition of zucchini. Never pass up an opportunity to add vegetables:

It was good, too!

We need more people! Where is everybody?

Prep Work

What do you do to prepare for an out of town trip? One thing I have to do, is cook!

My weekly box came right on schedule, but we won't be home to eat it.Here's what my kitchen looked like:

Time to get busy! Here's the sauce for a vegetable stew. It used an onion, which was slightly caramelized, along with some broth I had in the freezer, parsley and other herbs.

Here's the stew waiting for it's crusty topping and thirty minutes in the oven. This took care of the asparagus, fennel, garlic, mushrooms, another onion, and more parsley. I had lots of parsley.

This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven:

That's dinner tonight, with a nice Zinfandel. Perfect for the cold, rainy day we had!

But that didn't take care of everything. No, there were still veggies on my counter. So I shelled the fresh English peas (yum!), chopped up another onion, along with a jalapeno, mint, and a tomato, to make Pea Curry:

I'll freeze this and serve it next week with Roti and brown rice. I also blanched a batch of snap peas and tossed them mint leaves. Those are good! I also cooked up another onion (I had a lot of onions), along with lots of garlic, and sauteed them with chard and beet greens. I'll freeze that, and make a main dish out of it by roasting it with white beans and serving it over polenta. I got that idea from the CSA flyer.

Oh, and I roasted the beets. They can go on salads next week.

How about that? I got something done today!