Devon's Cooking...Greek Food!

As you can see from my recent blogs, we've been traveling a ton these past few months. Because of all our travels, we haven't been able to do one of our very favorite things-- have a dinner party! In fact, we've been at our new place for over a month without a single thought of a dinner party. So when we realized that Friday was an open night, we didn't hesitate to invite a few people over for some (hopefully) good food and some even better wine and conversation. Making matters even more convenient was the fact that we were going sailing with two of Dave's co-workers and their significant others the following morning... and one of those co-workers was Melissa Stayner (wife of my college roomie, Kev) who lives in Orange County. We figured it would be perfect to have them over Friday night and then all go sailing on Saturday (unfortunately, San Diego was struck yesterday with one of our annual three days of rain and our sailing trip was replaced by mimosas, bloody mary's and breakfast-- oh darn!).

Once the date was established, the next question was what to make for dinner for 8? We decided to cheat a little and make burgers...and we've really been wanting to try these Greek burgers we saw on Food Network. And so the menu was decided-- we were eating Greek food. For apps, I decided on veggies and hummus, as well as homemade(ish) spanakopita (recipe below). The main course were the Greek Burgers with grilled eggplant and homemade tzatziki--yum-- and a Greek salad! And for dessert, we went to our trusty Bon Appetit and tried out the Blueberry Shortcakes with Lemon and Thyme Biscuits recipe. All told, and nine bottles of wine later, it was a wonderful time with wonderful friends.


SPANAKOPITA
Ingredients
2 sheets puff pastry
1 (10 ounce) box frozen chopped spinach (thawed and squeezed to remove all liquid)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups r-f cottage cheese
1/2 lb feta cheese (crumbled)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried dill
nonstick cooking spray
egg wash (optional)

Directions: Preheat oven to 400°F. Gently roll out each sheet of puff pastry to the size of your pan (approximately 9 x 13). Spray pan with spray and place the first sheet of pastry. Making sure that all the liquid has been squeezed and drained from the spinach, mix spinach with the feta, cottage cheese, eggs, pepper and dill. Spread mixture in pan. Top mixture with second sheet of pastry and brush with egg wash (optional). Bake till golden brown, approximately 35 minutes.

GREEK BURGERS
Ingredients
Tzatziki with feta:
• 1 small cucumber
• 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons fresh dill
• r/f 1/2 cup crumbled Greek feta cheese
Grilled Eggplant:
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 large eggplant
Burger:
• 2 pounds ground lamb
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
• Salt and pepper
• Oil, for brushing on the grill rack
• 6 small pita breads
• 3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
Directions
Prepare an open grill for moderate direct-heat cooking.

Tzatziki with feta:
Seed and chop the cucumber. In a medium bowl, stir together the cucumber, yogurt, garlic, dill and feta. Refrigerate and chill for 1 hour.

Grilled Eggplant:
In a small bowl, combine vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper. Whisk in oil until thick and well blended. Cut the eggplant into 1/2-inch rounds. Arrange in a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish; coat well with dressing. Grill eggplant until tender, about 3 minutes each side, keep warm.

Lamb burger:
In a large bowl blend together lamb, mint, cumin, salt and pepper, to taste. Form 6 patties.
Before grilling burgers, brush the grill rack with oil. Place the patties on the rack turning once, 4 minutes each side.
Cut pitas horizontally and lightly toast over indirect heat.
Assemble burgers as follows: pita bottom, lettuce, burger topped generously with tzatziki, a slice of grilled eggplant, and the top of the pita.


GREEK SALAD
Greek Spinach Salad Recipe
Ingredients
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 or 2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cups sliced cucumber (about 1 medium)
1 1/2 cups chopped plum tomato (about 5)
5 cups loosely packed torn spinach
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
Freshly ground black pepper (optional)
Directions: Combine first 5 ingredients, stirring well with a whisk. Combine chickpeas, cucumber, and tomato in a large bowl; add vinegar mixture, tossing well. Add spinach and feta cheese; toss salad gently. Sprinkle salad with pepper, if desired.


BLUEBERRY SHORTCAKES WITH LEMON AND THYME BISCUITS
Ingredients
4 cups blueberries (about 22 oz)
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp water
3/4 cup chilled buttermilk
1 Tbsp grated lemon peel
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (you can also use regular pastry flour or just plain old all-purpose, but the whole wheat was yummy and added some fiber!)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp chilled butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Tbsp raw sugar
Vanilla ice cream

Directions: For the berries, combine berries, powdered sugar and water in large saucepan, stirring over medium heat until berries are slightly softened and syrup coats spoon (about 10 minutes). Berries should be served at room temp. For the biscuits, preheat oven to 425. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix buttermilk, lemon peel and thyme in small bowl. Whisk next 5 ingredients in large bowl to blend, breaking up any large chunks of brown sugar with fingers. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture looks like coarse meal. Add buttermilk mixture and stir with fork just until blended. Transfer dough to lightly floured surface, knead gently just until dough comes together, about 4 to 5 turns (don't overwork). Roll dough out to 3/4-inch thickness and cut with 3-inch diameter cookie cutter dipped in flour. Re-roll out dough scraps as necessary until you have 6 shortcakes. Sprinkle with raw sugar once the shortcakes are on the baking sheet, bake until golden-- about 15 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool. Using serrated knife, slice each biscuit in half. Place bottom half on small plate, top with 1/6 of blueberry mixture, place top half of biscut on top and place a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. Repeat 6 times. Enjoy!

Devon's Cooking... Cheese Enchiladas

Tonight was Thursday and Thursday is easily my favorite night of the week. Why, you ask? Is it because I don't ever work on Fridays (aside from the ten meetings I have every Friday)? Well, that helps... but the real reason I love Thursdays is FBT. I can't take any credit for FBT, I can only enjoy the ritual. Many years ago, when we graduated from UCSB, the girls who moved straight to San Diego (Ronna, Melissa, Anna, Caro, Keli, Jenny and others) started getting together on Thursdays to watch Friends (I said it was Many Years Ago. I wasn't lying.). Everyone would bring food, maybe a little wine (okay, Many Years Ago it would've been Natural Light or, if it were a special night, Keystone Light), funny college stories and friendship-- and, hence, Fat B*^&h (my grandmother reads this blog; I'm keepin' it PG!) Thursday was born.

Tonight I had the girls over for FBT (we're starting to call it Fat Babies Thursday, with guest appearances tonight by the not-fat Owen Lowe and Grady Stephens) and I made a veg dinner (ostensibly for Ronna, our house vegetarian, but also just because the recipe sounded yummy) for everyone to enjoy-- Cheese Enchiladas!

CHEESE ENCHILADAS
Ingredients:
20 oz. frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess water
30 oz. part-skim ricotta
1 cup part-skim mozzarella, shredded
12 medium fat-free flour tortillas
1 cup salsa
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp onion powder
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup shredded 2% cheddar or Mexican-cheese blend

Directions: Preheat oven to 400. Spray 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, oregano, onion powder, garlic, salt and pepper. Spoon 1/12 of mixture into each tortilla, fold in tortilla ends and roll up-- place in baking dish. When all enchiladas are in dish, cover with salsa and sprinkle cheese on top. Cover with foil and bake, covered, for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10-20 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Devon's Cooking...Spicy Pecan-crusted Salmon

We were in Washington, DC this weekend for the most amazing wedding I have ever been to (thanks Slo and thanks Mr. and Mrs. Slo!). We enjoyed delicious food, drinks and stories at the rehearsal dinner... on the rooftop of the Hay-Adams Hotel with an unobstructed view of the White House. On Saturday, we watched one of the coolest wedding ceremonies and then ate duck (this wedding was catered by Obama's caterer!), mini appetizers in front of feminist art and dessert-on-a-stick while listening to an amazing band at the National Museum of Women in the Arts Museum. But the other highlight of the weekend was getting to hang out with Blake's younger (and wiser?) brother, Tommy, and his wonderful girlfriend, Emily. We had mimosas on Tommy's grassy rooftop (which, incidentally, was next door to Ben's Chili Bowl, the site of Dave and I's nitrate-iest meal (after a steak dinner at Morton's 5 hours earlier-- is it any wonder I need to cook healthy food at home?!?!) ever) and Tommy and Emily regaled us with some wonderful tales. And mentioned the dinner of panko-crusted red snapper for dinner that night. Thanks Tommy and Emily-- you inspired us. But Weight Watchers didn't have any recipes with panko and I don't think Dave eats red snapper...and I had 5 minutes to write my grocery list. So we ended up with Pecan-crusted Salmon instead. Luckily, it tasted delicious!


SPICY PECAN-CRUSTED SALMON
Ingredients
1/2 cup old-fashioned, uncooked oats
1/4 cup chopped pecans
2 Tbsp cajun seasoning
1/4 cup fat-free milk
1 egg white, beaten
1 lb. salmon (we used skin-on salmon and it was really moist!)
1 bag fresh baby spinach
1 clove garlic

Directions: In large ziploc bag, mix oats, pecans and Cajun seasoning. In small bowl, beat milk and egg white together. Dip salmon in milk-egg white mix and then place in bag of oats/pecans/seasoning to coat. Place salmon in large Pyrex baking dish (sprayed with Pam), skin side down and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until skin flakes easily when pierced with fork. In the meantime, sautee spinach and garlic in large pan sprayed with Pam until spinach is wilted. Salt to taste. Serve salmon on bed of cooked spinach (and serve with a baked sweet potato if you're hungry!). Enjoy!

Devon's Cooking... Black Bean Burgers

I like to try out many different recipes, as evidenced by the existence of this blog... but Dave and I also have our staples-- you know, the things that you've perfected that one of you craves every once in awhile. Or in the case of these vegetarian black bean burgers, a recipe that one of you craves all the time (guess who the "one of you" is? It's a he, who likes Star Wars, hates pork and just turned 30.) I like to serve these with a green salad with a little goat cheese and toasted almonds on top. And if we're feeling really sassy, I'll make butternut squash fries (SO easy and so good for you-- take one whole butternut squash, cut off rounded base. Peel squash and slice remainder into french-fry looking slices. Toss in large ziploc bag with 1 Tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp chili powder and 1/2 tsp kosher salt. Spray cookie sheet and lay squash fries out in single layer. Bake at 450 for about 20 minutes). Enjoy!

VEGETARIAN BLACK BEAN BURGERS
Ingredients:
15 oz. canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
3 green onions, chopped
1 cup salsa
1 carrot, sliced
1 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 tsp garam masala (if you don't own this spice, you should get it! It's a spice traditionally used with Indian food, with a cinammon aftertaste to it, and it tastes amazing with pretty much everything!)
1/2 tsp cumin
6 small hamburger buns

Directions: Steam sliced carrot until soft. With potato masher, mash steamed carrot and beans thoroughly in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix well, add salt and pepper to taste. Shape into 6 patties. Heat large skillet over medium heat and cook patties on each side, about 5-8 minutes until lightly brown on each side. Serve hot or cold!

Devon's Cooking...Birthday Cannoli

Dave FINALLY turned 30 yesterday-- I've been the "old" one for far too long, so I was very excited to help him ring in a new decade yesterday! Unfortunately for Dave, he was very sick with a bad cold yesterday, but I still did my best to help him celebrate... his favorite-- donuts-- in bed (with Vitamin C-laden orange juice!) and then for dinner we had some amazing cheese from Venissimo, and then some great take-out Chinese from City Wok. Since I was off the hook from cooking all day, I did want to at least make the dessert for his birthday. This year I decided to do something a little differently... I remembered that Dave's favorite dessert is cannoli (you should have seen him in Taormina, Sicily, the home of the cannoli-- he was in heaven!!), and figured it wouldn't be too hard to make. I bought pre-made shells at Mona Lisa-- a great Italian market in Little Italy-- and made these about an hour before serving them. They were DELICIOUS if I do say so myself!

CHOCOLATE-CHIP CANNOLI
6 ready-made cannoli shells
12 oz. ricotta cheese
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 oz. mini chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla extract
a few shakes of cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients (except for the shells) together and refrigerate for about one hour. Right before serving, pipe the ricotta mixture into the cannoli. If desired, melt about 2 oz. chocolate chips in the microwave and drizzle chocolate on top (also, if desired, sift some powdered sugar on top). Enjoy!

Devon's Cooking...Lasagna (vegetarian and carnivorous)

After Brandie and Christian's going away party on Saturday night (at the new Se hotel downtown-- pretty cool pool bar, but they ran out of beer at 9:00 which seems very strange to me), Dave and I were definitely exhausted... but that didn't stop me from getting up early on Sunday morning to put together a Mother's Day feast! Since my sister and my sister-in-law are both Mom's, I decided to take on the main course and the veggie course for a great family dinner celebrating all of the moms and Dave's upcoming 30th birthday! I decided to make a vegetarian lasagna so that I could take home healthy leftovers and a meat-lovers lasagna for everyone else.

SPINACH AND TOFU LASAGNA

Devon's Cooking...Turkey Chili

I'm a little behind on my blog right now as it was a busy weekend... our great friends, Christian and Brandie, sadly left San Diego this weekend for their new digs and new jobs in San Francisco. Christian was our houseguest all last week as he finished up his last week at Proflowers and having a 3rd set of hands here was amazing-- we finally got all of our pictures hung! But I was too busy drinking some of the great Dry Creek Vineyards wine that Dave brought back from Passport in Sonoma and hanging pics to blog. I did, however, have a few minutes to put together a great pot of chili to tide us over last week.

HEARTY TURKEY CHILI

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped

minced garlic (as much as you like-- as always, I used a LOT)

2 medium carrots, thinly sliced into rounds

1 lb. ground turkey

2 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp paprika

1.5 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp ground cumin

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1.5 cups canned tomato sauce

1 cup low-sodium, fat-free chicken broth

1.5 Tbsp Apple Cider vinegar

1.5 cups canned kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 medium green bell pepper, diced

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 cup scallions, chopped

Directions: Coat a large pot with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Saute onion about 5-7 minutes, until soft. Add garlic and carrots; cook an additional minute or so. Add ground turkey, stirring to break up turkey, and brown until it cooks through, about 5-7 minutes. Add all ingredients above through the green pepper and bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serves 6. Top with scallions before serving and serve with a green salad and cornbread muffins. Enjoy!