Greek Tapas

Greek Tapas are smaller dishes like appetizers that together make a meal. We saw many dishes like this when we were in Greece. And we can vouch for the athenticity of the Village Salad with Grilled Pita Bread. This was SO good! The kalamata olives and feta cheese just scream GREEK! The warmed pita was wonderful, too. Such a small step, but it made such a difference! This earned a coveted 5 stars!


3 vine ripe tomatoes, cut in chunks
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 European seedless cucumber, cut into bite-size chunks
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chunked
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chunked
1 cup Kalamata black olives
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (a couple handfuls)
1/2 pound imported Greek feta cheese, sliced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (a couple glugs)
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed in the palm of your hand
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pita breads



Combine vegetables, olives, and parsley in a large bowl. Rest sliced feta cheese on top of the salad. Combine oil, vinegar, and oregano in a small plastic container with a lid. Shake vigorously to combine oil and vinegar and pour over salad and cheese. Season with salt and pepper and let the salad marinate until ready to serve. Serve with pita bread, blistered and warmed on a hot griddle or grill pan.





Baked Gigantes Beans: The picture is not pretty, because the dish was not particularly pretty. And while we tried to like it, because it's Greek, we just didn't. 2 stars.





Grilled Shrimp: Don't go by our recommendation on this. We completely bought the wrong kind of shrimp. And since shrimp is so expensive, we weren't going to fix the mistake. We bought cooked, peeled shrimp, not the uncooked shrimp in shell the recipe called for. Still, we like shrimp, so it was good. If we have time, we'll revisit this recipe to do it justice. 4 stars.





Greek Meatballs in Wine Sauce: Really, it's just Greek Meatballs. First off, ground lamb does not exist in our small town, so we made it with ground beef. The white wine was deleted. We think lamb would have made a nice tasting meatball. As it was, it was still good, if crumbly. 4 stars.

Super Sloppy Joes and Deviled Potato Salad

The Super Sloppy Joes on p. 26 weren't too bad. In fact, we all liked them. My only complaint with them is that they tasted just like any other sloppy joes. They may have been a tad sweeter due to the brown sugar. Natalie liked the addition of the fresh peppers. Overall, we give this dish 3 3/4 stars!


Deviled Potato Salad. This was a pretty good dish. We liked the "deviled egg" ingredients, like paprika, mustard, and cayenne pepper sauce. A nice summer salad. A 4-star dish.



Root Beer Floats!!! 'Nuff said. There's not much that can be done with this recipe. Still, we all love root beer floats, and this dessert came during the hottest week of the year! It was a welcome treat during temps over 100! 4 stars

Banana Raita

Bananas with yogurt and toasted coconut. This was an easy little dessert that we all liked. It just needed a little "something." That something for us turned out to be chocolate chips! Natalie also thought that Nutella would be good in it. We give it 4 stars.

Cheesy Popcorn

Popcorn popped in oil and tossed with parmesan cheese. Not too bad. Not too good. We probably won't make it again. 3 1/2 stars.

Smoky Orange Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches

We are really liking Rachael Ray's sandwiches! This one is very unusual but tasty! The BBQ sauce made from orange and chipotle peppers was good, and wasn't too spicy for me at all (I'm the lightweight when it comes to spicy food). We give it 4 1/2 stars. You can find it on page 70 of "30-Minute Meals 2."

Spinach Artichoke Pasta Salad

We thought this was so-so. Not a lot of flavor for me. However, I've done pasta salads enough to know that they're usually better the next day. So, we'll have to try it tomorrow morning. For now, we give it 3 1/2 stars.

Portobello Burgers with Green Sauce and Smoked Mozzarella

A burger made of a giant mushroom? I have to tell ya, this was something new for my family. And change doesn't come easily. Let's just say, some of us weren't really willing to give this a chance. But, I bullied them into giving this 4 1/2 stars, lol. It was really delicious! The best part was the green sauce -- mmm. It would be awesome on pasta, too. As a side note, it was impossible to find smoked mozzarella in our little town, so we scared up some smoked romano. So, here the recipe for the green sauce, since it received 5 stars by itself.

GREEN SAUCE
1 c. loosely packed basil leaves
1/2 c. fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 T. capers
1/4 c. pine nuts
1 clove garlic
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 c. grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Romano cheese
Combine basil, parsley, capers, pine nuts, garlic, and lemon juice in the food processor. Pulse grine, until finely chopped and scrape into a bowl. Stir in oil, salt, pepper, and cheese. Slather bun tops with this sauce.

August 2, 2010

Grilled Honey Lime Chicken Sandwiches. A tasty surprise! What leftover chicken there was didn't last long.
4 stars

(p.s. This is Natalie now, and the sandwiches were a LOT better than my mom makes them out to be. I loved them! The avocado and grilled chicken together was ah-mazing. I just thought I'd throw in my opinion since mom didn't spare too many words on her review. )


But let's get to my favorite dish of the night! Chili Lime Avocados! OMG -- This is heaven.

Heaven with George Clooney.

With a tub of Moo-llennium Crunch ice cream.

Really, that's how good this is! It's so unusual. Everyone else in the family gave it 4 stars, but I will give it 5 stars for sure. Give it a try!

Chili Lime Avocados - Rachael Ray
2 ripe Haas avocados
the juice of 2 limes
1 t. sugar
1 t. chili powder
1/2 t. salt
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
chopped chives or cilantro for garnish (optional)
Halve the avocados and remove pits. Roll limes or heat in microwave for 10 seconds to get juices flowing. Halve the limes. Rub the avocado halves gently with 1/2 lime (cut side of lime) to prevent browning. Juice limes into small bowl and mix with sugar, chili powder and salt using a fork or small whisk. Add oil in a slow stream while mixing dressing. Pour dressing into the cavities of avocados, distributing it equally, and serve, garnished with chives or cilantro, if you wish. Makes 4 servings.



Here's the last recipe in a busy cooking night. Nothing fancy, but a cute way to serve pineapple.
Ripe Pineapple Wedges
1 whole ripe pineapple
Quarter the pineapple lengthwise leaving the top on. Following the skin of the pineapple, carefully pare the fruit away using your knife, keeping the green tops attached. Next, cut the pineapple into 1/2-inch wedges, arranged alternately to the left, then to the right. Each completed pineapple serving will look like a "boat" filled with the fruit slices. Makes 4 servings.

3 stars