A Taste of Greece

Much needed summer memories...

Early November here has brought with it a few unusually sunny, and dare I say "warm", days. The boys have been making a point of playing outside everyday and I've even ventured with the LO for a stroller ride to meet big brothers at school.

Alas, it appears that we are done with the sun for at least a few days as the forecast calls for rain everyday next week. So it is back to reality and I can't help but look back at some cherished summer memories.

This was a wonderful meal. The lamb Souvlaki was not too spicy, just perfect, the tzatziki refreshing and the side of eggplant dip... well let's just say it is Eggplant.

It was a great complement to this:

And this:

Can't wait to go back!

Butter Crescent...

...Or as I call them, Fake Croissants.

The last time I made these was many years ago. I can not figure out why it took me so long to make them again, as they are sooo easy to put together, requiring minimal hands-on time. I doubled the recipe, because, if I am going to have my oven on, might as well make good use of it!

The boys have been eating them for snack as well as breakfast. They are perfect with a cup of Moroccan Mint Tea.

The recipe is from The Great American Home Baking Kitchen Helper

Unfortunately, I do not have all of the recipe sheets for this binder. Come to think of it, I have very few of the many recipe that it comes with.

Butter Crescents

For one dozen:

½ cup Milk

1 Stick butter; softened

⅓ cup Granulated sugar

Salt

1 pack Active dry yeast

½ cup Warm water

1 large Egg; lightly beaten

3.5 - 4 cups All purpose flour

1 large Egg; lightly beaten

Heat milk and add to combined butter, sugar, and salt. Let cool. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until foamy.

Beat yeast mixture and egg into milk mixture. Mix in 2 cups of flour until smooth. Continue beating until thick. Mix in enough remaining flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Knead dough very gently until smooth and elastic, 2 to 3 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough. Divide it in half. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Roll 1 dough half into a 12-inch circle. Cut into 6 wedges. Starting at side opposite point [This is where I added chocolate to some, grape jelly as well as peanut butter Reeses chuncks. It is Halloween after all ;) ], roll up each wedge. Place, point-sides down, on prepared baking sheets. Curve ends to form crescents. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover loosely with a damp cloth; let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, 30 minutes.

Brush crescents with glaze.

Bake at 400F until golden, about 15 minutes. Let cool.

Jacques Pepin's Fast Food

Eggplant, again ;)

LO decided to take a nice nap late afternoon, yesterday. So I decided to cook something that we normally eat raw in the house, lettuce. I have tried it in soup a few times but DH and the boys are not really into soup, unless it is Harira.
I did a quick check to make sure that I had all the ingredients and got to work. I made Jacques Pepin's Rigatoni with Eggplant and Lettuce. It was fast food indeed.

The result was great. Eggplant and lettuce. Who knew?!

I was a little worried that the boys would complaint but they mostly ate it without issues. My oldest actually liked it. Good and healthy. What more can you ask for?

You can find view a YouTube video of the cooking episode featuring the recipe here: Jacques Pepin's Rigatoni with Eggplant and Lettuce.

Update

Lots has been happening in our little corner of the world.

Our family has welcomed a new pair of feet :) so things have been a little crazy here. Sleepless nights and hectics days are the norm these days, leaving little in the way of long hours in the kitchen.

LO has mostly been taking 45 minute naps so that makes things a bit hard, though this past week has been somewhat better. So on Sunday afternoon, after feeding him and entrusting him to DH, I decided to get in the kitchen and make some no knead bread - using my KitchenAid was out of the question as LO was napping.


What was initially going to be a quick in an out in the kitchen turned into a whole afternoon affair. I ended up making some crescents, an apple-pecan pie (I only had to supervise as this was my 11 year old's baby), sauteed some ground beef for tacos later in the week and assisted DH in making a double batch of meatballs to use with store-bough spaghetti sauce.


I now have a couple of almost-ready-to-serve meals. This should make for more relaxing suppers this coming week.


All in all, a very productive - albeit exhausting - Sunday that left the house smelling heavenly.


A couple of recipes to follow, hopefully soon.