Month: December 2011

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He eats NO meat? Okay, we have lamb!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PedECrUc3L8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

For those who know our family, nothing is more enjoyable than fixing food. Let’s say, it is very Zen. Whenever we have an excuse, we have ‘Greek Night’, Greek Food , as a general rule, is very natural and clean… and delicious. Last night, we had: a lamb on a spit, Baklava, Dolmades ( rice and meat rolled up with grape leaves and covered in Greek Yogurt), Giant Beans from Greece in Tomato sauce, garlic bread, and Pistitsio (pah-STOO-shio!) is a cheesy noodle dish with a layer of meat sauce.

A collection of my blogs on Lamb on a Spit

I would like to thank American Farms for producing wonderful Lamb. It was a pleasure to travel to Vernon, California and purchase one directly for myself! Also allow me to thank the fellow who made this compact and very functional barbecue and rotisserie… it worked like a charm, which is my highest praise.

Here is a 7 minute slide show of my daughters Karen and Kristin with their mother Laura enjoying the food, culture and the heritage that is Greece!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQV-VUV0h1Q&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

OPA!!

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Christmas Barbecued Ribs

Nothing like taking the extra time, making your own sauce for the perfect BBQ'd rib experience!

 

My family has a pension for ribs. I don’t make them as often as I like, but I do take all the time necessary to make them extraordinary. I went a bit over the top in curing my ribs this year… here’s a post about it I wrote when I checked how they were doing back in October.

Before opening up his rib restaurant, a friend of mine traveled all over the south checking out the many fine techniques before he settled on his own style. Frankly, I thought it was a great excuse to travel and sample the best ribs on the planet. I add a step or two … which I think makes the ribs more flavorful and allows me to utilize a milder and sweeter sauce flavored with brown sugar, whiskey, mustard and a few fun things. The steps involved are: curing the ribs (soaking in beer and spices) for a few months, boiling in similar spices and beer, saucing them and allowing them to absorb the flavorings for a few days, then finally baking or bbq-ing!

Looks good to me already!

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Congratulations Scott & Kristin

Kristin and Scott engaged

My daughter Kristin is now engaged to an old fashioned guy — very much like me. Lucky girl! 😉

We had an opportunity to meet Scott for the first time many moons ago in Orlando — and we were also introduced to his gracious parents at the same time. Kristin asked me later, what I thought and I said I liked his parents very much … which meant that I already found Scott someone I could easily chat with over a barbecue… so he was a keeper. When Scott called to ask for my blessing, I was impressed.

So, Congratulations and I will make the trip down the aisle with pleasure.

 

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Zucchini Cakes with Dill sauce for Lunch!

There are many recipes available for Greek Zucchini Cakes and although I think Chefs all work hard at getting noticed... it is the simplicity of Kokkari's Restaurant in San Francisco that does this best.

In America, there are many substitutions that many chefs employ in order to roust up this wonderful dish and lower costs, but staying true to the original cheeses — for example — makes it wonderful.

  • Monauri rather than a crumbly soft cheese alternative
  • Kefalotiri rather than Parmesan
I am still tweaking it a bit ... but this first attempt was delicious!

After playing with this today… I am not quite ready to post my version…but it made me smile at the chefs and what they failed to tell you … but isn’t that the way it always is? You must experiment and then it becomes your own!