I'm Back

Wow, where have I been?! I can't believe I've been such a slacker the past couple of months. But I'm back from vacation, holidays, and morning sickness (mostly) so to make up for my MIA status, here are THREE recipes I picked up on my trip. I fell in love with gyros in Greece so I had to find a recipe that could duplicate that experience. These come pretty close. The sauce is the only thing that can be made in under 20 minutes but trust me, the time it takes to put this meal together is worth it!

Tzatziki sauce
This is literally the icing on the cake of a gyro. Slather this on a fresh pita, add gyro meat, diced cucumber, diced tomato, lettuce, kalamata olives, and feta cheese. HEAVENLY! This also makes a great dip for vegetables or pita chips.

Ingredients:
1 lb Greek yoghurt
1 cucumber
4 garlic cloves
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp white vinegar
1-2 sprigs fresh dill
1/2 -1 Tbsp olive oil

Directions:
Mince (use the garlic press) the garlic and mix it with the salt and vinegar. Peel the cucumber and grate it. Place it in a piece of cheese cloth or just a clean kitchen towel and squeeze it until all the water is removed. Mix the yoghurt and the cucumber and then add the garlic/salt/vinegar mixture. Chop the dill and add. Mix well, add oil to desired consistency. Can be served immediately but is better when it is allowed to sit in the fridge for a few hours to let the flavors combine. The garlic flavor gets more pronounced the second day.
Number Of Servings:a lot
Preparation Time:20 minutes

Gyro Meat
This is really just a very flavorful meat loaf, but it uses spices I never would have thought of. I substituted pork and turkey for the lamb and beef and it still tasted very much like what I had in Greece.

Ingredients:
* 1/2 onion, cut into chunks
* 1 pound ground lamb
* 1 pound ground beef
* 1 tablespoon minced garlic
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
* 1 teaspoon ground dried rosemary
* 1 teaspoon ground dried thyme
* 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:
1. Chop the onion. Scoop the onions onto the center of a towel, gather up the ends of the towel, and squeeze out the liquid from the onions. Place the onions into a mixing bowl along with the meat. Season with the garlic, oregano, cumin, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, and salt. Mix well with your hands until well combined. Cover, and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours to allow the flavors to blend.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
3. Place the meat mixture into the food processor, and pulse for about a minute until finely chopped and the mixture feels tacky. Pack the meat mixture into a 7x4 inch loaf pan, making sure there are no air pockets. Line a roasting pan with a damp kitchen towel. Place the loaf pan on the towel, inside the roasting pan, and place into the preheated oven. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the loaf pan.
4. Bake until the gyro meat is no longer pink in the center, and the internal temperature registers 165 degrees F (75 degrees C) on a meat thermometer, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Pour off any accumulated fat, and allow to cool slightly before slicing thinly and serving.
Note: This took about 1.5 hours to cook in CO.
Number Of Servings:8

Pitas
This pita would also be good with falafel (my next adventure). They are awesome cut up and served with hummus dip!

Ingredients:
Pita Bread
3 cups flour (1 cup wheat, 2 cups white is recommended)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons yeast)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil


Directions:
Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon. All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water

Knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. Place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.
Punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes.
While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. Spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before trying again.
Spray a light mist of water onto your baking surface and close the oven for 30 seconds.
Place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes. Experiment with the time a bit. In CO, I think it would be better to let them go for 4-5 minutes, but at sea level, the 3 minutes might be enough.
Number Of Servings: Makes 8 pitas

Pumpkin Dip

Pumpkin Dip:
1 cup solid pack pumpkin
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup Cool Whip, thawed
Chopped pecans - optional
Wedged apples & pears - optional
Combine pumpkin, sour cream, brown sugar & cinnamon in large bowl with Whisk. Fold in Cool whip. Pour mixture into serving bowl and sprinkle with pecans, if desired. Serve with cinnamon chips, and apple or pear wedges.

Autumn Food and Decorating Tips

Here are some fun ideas for your October festivities:

• Mix dry roasted peanuts and candy corn together for a great treat that tastes like salted nut rolls.

• Core out the top of an apple for a candle holder.
  

• Wedge an apple with the Apple Wedger. Spread some peanut butter on 1 side of 2 pieces. Put candy corn on the peanut butter and put pieces together and you have monster teeth.
  

• Using V Shaped Cutter, cut out a Jack O'Lantern face on an orange bell pepper. Sprinkle with cinnamon and add a tea light. It is so cute and tiny---great on a veggie tray or just on the table for a family dinner.
  

• Sprinkle cinnamon inside of the pumpkin after carving... when you light the candle, you will also get a wonderful aroma of warmed pumpkin and cinnamon.
  

• Make a simple potpourri with left over apple peels. Place the peels from 2-3 apples, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 tablespoons cloves, the zest from 1 orange, and 2 cups water in a saucepan. Simmer over low heat for 1 hour. This will fill your house with a delightful fragrance.

• Cut the bottom out of your pumpkin instead of the lid when carving Halloween pumpkins!! Safer and easier to put a votive type candle w/metal container down on steps/walk, etc. and set the cleaned, carved pumpkin over the top of it!

Manicotti Mania

My friend Jenni just made my family the most delicious manicotti and I had to share the tip she gave me. If you are like me, any entree that requires hours of stuffing cheese into slippery, fragile pasta is more than a bit intimidating. But Jenni's process makes it so easy:

1) Undercook the manicotti noodles to a pre-al dante state.

2) Add a little extra grated cheese to the mixture to stiffen it up a bit and then form the cheese mixture into cylinders that can be shoved into the pasta.

She says these two steps cut the prep time a lot and, like I said, it was the best tasting manicotti I've ever eaten!

Pop-tops - Revisited

I have owned the smooth edge can opener for several years and I never could figure out what that flat edged thing on the end of it was for. Thanks to my genius friend Kaylene, I am now enlightened. She sent me this great tip:

"The pop-top cans can be opened with the top edge of our fabulous PC can opener. The flat edge that's on the top goes right under them and pops it up easy as pie. Give it a try. I love my new can opener for many reasons, and that's one of them! :) "

I guess now I can't dislike pop-top cans so much.

What's in My Pocket?

You know that handy-dandy little pocket thermometer that I love for barbecuing and cooking pot roasts? I realized that it's not just for meat!
I was making the Mexican Chicken Lasagna in my new Deep Covered Baker last night. It cooks in the microwave and since it was my first time with the recipe I wasn't sure when it was going to be hot enough in the middle. I was having friends over for dinner (ah, I love guinea pigs in my kitchen!) so I wasn't sure how they'd feel about having my finger stuck in the middle of their food, which is my usual method for testing the internal temperature of casseroles. As I was peeking under the lid, a light went on: use my pocket thermometer to check it. I found this website that tells me a casserole (with all ingredients previously cooked) should reach an internal temp of about 165. Voila! No more sticking my finger in the middle of a casserole to check the temperature and no more burnt fingers! At least not from that cause, I'm sure it won't be the last time I burn my fingers. That would take the fun out of it, right? ;)

A spoonful of sugar

I've raved to many people about my love for the Easy Adjustable Measuring Spoon and Cup.
My friend, Ginger, has just given me another reason to love these fabulous tools. She pointed out how convenient they would be to use for measuring liquid medicine for children. No more digging through the cupboards and drawers for those little plastic cups that (sometimes) come with children's medicines.
I'm almost looking forward to the next fever so I can use my favorite measuring spoon. ;)

Getting out of a "scrape"

I'm sure I'm one of the last ones to think of this, but for those of you who haven't thought of this yet, I thought it would be a very helpful tip to pass along:

I hate pop-top cans. I just bought several cases of canned soup and every single one has those stupid pop top lids that shred my beautiful PC scraper spatulas. I was making dinner the other night and lamenting about the lids on the cans when I had an epiphany. Choirs singing, pillar of light radiating, goose bumps kind of experience (I know, I'm pathetic): I realized I could open the lids with my smooth edge can opener. I don't HAVE to use the pop top. Duh!

I'm very happy about this discovery! This has been one of my top 10 grievances about cooking. Hmmm, I guess I'd better bump up one of the top 20 into the top 10...