Building the Recipe Box

The first recipe I would like to share to add to your menu building collection is one of my family's standby's.  Super simple and tasty too!  

Fish Cakes

Serves: 2-4    Time: 30 Minutes or Less  Difficulty:  Easy

Ingredients:

2 cans tuna - drained

1/4-1/2 cup bread crumbs*

1 egg

Onion (chopped dried or minced fresh)

Garlic (powdered or minced fresh)

Oil or butter

Your choice of seasonings (some ideas follow)

Method:

Put tuna, bread crumbs and seasonings in a bowl.  Add egg and mix well.  Heat skillet over medium to medium low heat with about 2 tablespoons of oil or butter in bottom.  Use damp hands to press mix into patties and place in skillet.  Cook for 4-5 minutes on each side or until they brown and crisp a bit on the outside.  May take longer on lower heat, but will ensure that the egg cooks through. 

Seasoning Ideas:

Dill Lemon

Use 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of dried dill, 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest (or you could substitute lemon pepper), salt and pepper, add to fish mixture.  Serve with lemon wedges.

Classic

Use paprika, salt, pepper, thyme - all to taste - add to fish mixture.

Indian Inspired

1/2 to 1 teaspoon prepared curry powder, 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin, salt, pepper, add to fish mixture.  Serve with yogurt sauce.  

Or you can always use the standby Old Bay!  The options are endless! 

*Bread Crumbs

They sell bread crumbs in all grocery stores, as we know.  A trick I use is to keep a storage keeper in my freezer and put heals of bread or leftover bread bits in it.  When I have a fair number of bread bits saved up I crumble them up and let them dry a bit, then pop them in my food processor and whiz up my own batch of bread crumbs.  I then put them in their own container back in the freezer.  Less waste, money saved. 

Variations:

Canned Salmon or any flaky leftover fish can be used to make these patties. 

You can add "goodies" to the mix!  (Just don't get too carried away or your patties will fall apart.)

      minced celery 

      minced sweet peppers

      crushed nuts

      carrot shreds

Serving Suggestions:

Slice tomatoes and fry in the same pan, serve with or over!

Place over seasoned left over rice and add a frozen veggie, now it is a meal!  

 

The "Dreaded Question"

Today, I will finally get to putting up the first of a series of posts that I have been intending for, well, years now.  When I am on top of my week and things go as planned (a rare thing these last several months) I create a Weekly Meal Menu.  This is one of the most useful things I have found to do, it saves time, frustration and money.  I can do all of the weeks shopping in one trip and I never have to deal with the age old question of "what to make for dinner."  There are so many benefits from this simple act, I really want to jump for joy when I keep up with getting it accomplished! 

There are so many benefits it is really astounding! I can plan meals so that they use up the excess ingredients I purchase for a particular meal, which leads to great per serving savings.  My menu can take into account the days when I need a quick meal because we have evening plans or days when it would be beneficial to put together a slow cooker meal, such as days when we are out of doors for the majority of the day and it is a joy to come in to the delicious scent of a meal that has practically prepared itself!  You can even benefit nutritionally from planning your meals ahead of time!  If you only buy the necessary ingredients for that weeks menu, you will have less excess in the house and you can go as far as planning on fitting certain nutritional needs into your menu.  I have found this especially helpful with a toddler that gets their nutritional needs met more on a weekly scale rather than a daily one.  And I have found that it is impossible to mindlessly snack when you literally have no random junk food in the house.  Your shopping is more focused, and so your eating is more focused.  You also tend to stick to the plan better, which means you are spending fewer meals simply grabbing something easy.   So you save on money and nutrition!  The benefits are really quite boggling.

You can make your weekly menu as detailed or as simple as you prefer.  I like to try and plan each meal and snack as best I can, because in my busy world it is helpful to have a plan that lays it out for me, especially on the days when I can't think straight and need a piece of paper to tell me what to do next.  I also tend to find myself in less of a bind when I have preplanned snacks on hand and either the schedule changes or my daughter has an off food day.  I know that whatever she decides to eat that day is going to be healthy and that the plan can easily be switched up or adapted to fit our needs in a mere moment.  I can make a meal earlier or later in the week easily, I have all the ingredients already on hand or I can skip a meal entirely and simply move it to the coming weeks lineup in the event we get a last minute meal invite that we just can't pass up or we have to be elsewhere in an emergency.  I feel more flexible because I have a plan, rather than the chaos and frenzy of the weeks when I don't have a plan.

The coming posts will get down to the nuts and bolts of the meal plan, in that I will be sharing my own tired and true recipes that will help in meal planning.  I will also add tips and ideas as they seem fitting.  My hope is that less and less you will find yourself facing the dreaded question of "what to have for dinner tonight."  Happy eating.

Greek Festival...at Home!

Welcome to my kitchen! Well, as close as it gets right now anyway. Those of you who know me, know what I mean. Anyway, I had some requests for recipes the other day and I decided that I would add a section to my little space here for all things food!

I love cooking. More to the point I love eating! I also love a theme. Wednesdays are not usually the most exciting days of the week but, I see them as an opportunity to add a little energy and refreshment to the week (it helps you get to Friday!) This past Wednesday was Greek Festival Wednesday!

The recipes are not really mine but they are so good I must share them! And the more I cook with my recipes the more they become mine - through the tweaking and such. First, let me layout the Greek Festival Menu.

I decided on a more informal "Greek Platter" format than some of my other Greek endeavors:


The Menu
Gyro Meat
Pitas
Heirloom Lettuce Mix
Farmers Market Tomatoes
Tzatziki Sauce
Feta Cheese
Kalmata Olives

Obviously you don't need recipes for the Lettuce Mix (you may substitute any greens you like - maybe I will blog about my forays into heirloom seeds at some point) or the Tomatoes (I already have a blog about Farmers Market.) Nor do you need them for Feta at this point (though I would love to make it) or the olives.




On to the recipes!

First, the Gyro Meat. This recipe is actually thanks to my favorite TV guy Alton Brown (Good Eats is a must watch!)

GYRO MEAT

1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 lbs. ground lamb
1 Tbsp. garlic, finely minced
1 Tbsp. dried marjoram
1 Tbsp. dried, ground rosemary
2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

In a food processor, process onion. Place onion in a tea towel and squeeze out excess juice, discard juice. Return onion to processor and add lamb, garlic, marjoram, rosemary, salt and pepper. Process all to a fine paste.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Place mix in loaf pan, pressing into sides and corners. Place pan in water bath.

Bake for 60-75 minutes. Or until mix reaches 165-170 degrees F. Remove from oven and drain fat. Place on a cooling rack. Weight meat mix with a brick wrapped in aluminum foil. Let stand as such for 15-20 minutes. The meat will continue to cook to a temperature of 175 degrees F.

My Notes:

You can do this without a food processor, but your texture will be more brittle.

Don't skip squeezing your onions. You really want a little water in this mix as possible.

I use flour sack towels for pretty much everything (such as this squeezing procedure!)

I use sea salt instead of kosher, but I like anything better than table salt for most cooking.

Bricks are actually really useful in the kitchen! I wouldn't skip this step either.

Serving suggestion: Slice meat with a sharp chef knife or bread knife. Then lay flat on a baking sheet. Place on top rack under broiler and broil until brown and crisp. (This sort of simulates the way gyro is usually cooked on a spit and finished at high heat!)




This next recipe is also compliments of Alton Brown and Good Eats!

TZATZIKI

16 oz. plain yogurt
1 med. cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped fine
pinch kosher salt
4 cloves garlic, minced fine
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
5-6 mint leaves, minced fine

Place yogurt in a tea towel or paper towels in a stainer. Place in refrigerator for 2 hours to drain. Squeeze excess water from cucumber using tea towel. Discard liquid.

In a medium bowl, combine yogurt, cucumber, salt, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and mint. Stir to mix.

My Notes:

Draining your yogurt is not totally necessary, but totally worth it. Your tzatziki will be ever so much more creamy.

If you use a paper towel use a good quality one so it neither tears or dissolves.

I like to use flour sack towels.

Same goes for your cucumbers.

You can make this in advance and store in refrigerator (up to one week.)

This is a really intense flavor experience. Go gently if you have never had this before. And whatever you do don't shun it on your first try...it will probably grow on you!



The final recipe I got from my Mom. I don't know where she got it but - Thanks Mom!

PITA BREADS

1 package yeast
1 1/4 cup warm water
3+ cups flour (I use whole wheat)
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add 2 cups flour and stir. Add shortening and salt. Beat to a smooth consistency. Stir in flour as needed to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 3-5 minutes.) Let dough rest 15 minutes. Divide into 12 potions and roll each into a smooth ball. Let these rest 10 minutes. Flatten each ball with heel of hand. And let these rest another 10 minutes. Roll each into a circle turn the dough over only once. Place circles on a baking sheet.

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.

Place baking sheet in oven. Bake for 3 minutes. Turn each and bake for another 2 minutes. You will have to bake the pitas in batches.

My Notes:

If you prefer you could make white flour pitas. Or a combination of wheat and white.

After I bake my pitas I place them in a basket lined with a flour sack towel. Which I fold over the pitas to keep them warm.

You could prepare these before hand and store in plastic. Rewarming when you are going to serve.




Serving Suggestion:

This meal is fun to serve on a big platter with the pitas wrapped in their towel in a basket separately. Pile you meat in the center of a large platter and make a pile of lettuce, a pile of tomatoes, sliced onions if you like. Add a pretty bowl with the tzatziki. Place your cube of feta on with a fork to create chunks. Garnish with olives. Grab plates for each dinner and a fork. It is feast time!

Extra Fun!

Put on Greek music in the back ground.

Use brightly colored linens (such as napkins or a table cloth.)

Grab a bottle of Retsina (wine.)

Add fun extras such as dolmas, hummus and veggies, etc. All stuff you could pick up at your deli.

Finish with little glasses of Ouzo.

For dessert indulge in baklava - make it yourself - or pick it up at you local bakery!

Now this is a real Greek Festival we have going!


*I promise...I will try to remember to take pictures in the future!*