Leftover lamb!

Easter dinner with lamb and ham means great leftovers. I used up a leg of lamb by making pita sandwiches with Tzatziki sauce. I made up my recipe on the spot, but it's pretty basic (everyone has a similar recipe):

One cup of Greek yogurt (ordinary plain yogurt will do in a pinch)
1 medium cucumber, peeled and seeds removed, chopped, excess liquid squeezed out
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon chopped mint (traditional, but I use basil if I'm out of mint)
Salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together and serve cold. Drizzle on lamb or falafel in pita sandwiches. Yum!

I sliced up the lamb and pan fried it in a bit of olive oil, salt, and lemon juice. When cooked this way and served with the tzatziki in a pita, it tasted just like the gyros from any good Greek/Mediterranean restaurant.

Of course, I made spanakopita this year like always, and as usual, they didn't last long!

This year, I didn't do anything special with the leftover ham. I just fried slices of it and served it with scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast.

Book sale= cooking magazine treasures!

My mom brought home a huge stack of magazines from the library book sale. Many back issues of Cook's Illustrated, Taste of Home, and Cook's Country. I'm having fun going through them all, and finding great recipes to try out.

I have a subscription to Every Day with Rachael Ray now. I love it.

Slow cooker revolution?

I picked up Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook at the library recently. Crock Pot cooking has come a long way from the days of just pot roasts and chili! This book has a ton of recipes- from soups and stews, drinks, appetizers, desserts, entrees...and yes, pot roast and chili. Some recipes I definitely will try out.

A fake recipe and a real one...

This is not a real recipe! I sure wouldn't want to try it! I found this posted on a message board:

Popcorn Dressing:

Turkey Dressing
2 cups dry bread, chunked
l tsp. Sage
¼ tsp. Rosemary (ground or leaves)
l/2 tsp. Pepper
¼ tsp. Salt
2 cups Popcorn (uncooked)

Combine ingredients and place in cavity of
Turkey. Bake in 350 oven, allowing
Approximately 20 min. per pound.
Turkey is done when popcorn
Blows ass off the bird.

For one thing, the oven temperature isn't hot enough to pop the corn. *lol* And the the final line seals it! Though it does sound almost like the "beer in the rear" chicken grills...

Now for a real recipe- today is my nephew's birthday, and he wanted to go to a local French restaurant for lunch. I had to have their onion soup. It was fabulous, and now I want to make my own. So I found a recipe I liked here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/French-Onion-Soup-Gratinee/Detail.aspx

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 large red onions, thinly sliced
2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
1 (48 fluid ounce) can chicken broth
1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
1/2 cup red wine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 sprigs fresh parsley
1 sprig fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 thick slices French or Italian bread
8 slices Gruyere or Swiss cheese slices, room temperature
1/2 cup shredded Asiago or mozzarella cheese, room temperature
4 pinches paprika

Directions:

Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in salt, red onions and sweet onions. Cook 35 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are caramelized and almost syrupy.

Mix chicken broth, beef broth, red wine and Worcestershire sauce into pot. Bundle the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf with twine and place in pot. Simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove and discard the herbs. Reduce the heat to low, mix in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Cover and keep over low heat to stay hot while you prepare the bread.

Preheat oven broiler. Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet and broil 3 minutes, turning once, until well toasted on both sides. Remove from heat; do not turn off broiler.

Arrange 4 large oven safe bowls or crocks on a rimmed baking sheet. Fill each bowl 2/3 full with hot soup. Top each bowl with 1 slice toasted bread, 2 slice Gruyere cheese and 1/4 of the Asiago or mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle a little bit of paprika over the top of each one.

Broil 5 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown. As it softens, the cheese will cascade over the sides of the crock and form a beautifully melted crusty seal. Serve immediately!

I'll give this one a try the next time I want French Onion Soup.

Once again, I've neglected this blog...

And I do have recipes to share, but tonight is Super Bowl Sunday, and I'm otherwise occupied. :p

As I'm watching the game, I've been reading what online friends are having for snacks. One suggestion: Atomic Buffalo Turds.

http://www.bamaque.com/webstat/abts.htm

Merciless gods, they like to use habenera peppers. Otherwise, those sound good...if you like a lot of smoked meat and hot peppers!

From the link:

"ABT's (atomic buffalo turds) are large fresh jalapeño peppers sliced in half lengthwise with the seeds and white membrane removed. Stuffed with cream cheese a little smoky sausage and wrapped with a piece of bacon and held together with a tooth pick while cooking."

I went the boring route and ordered a Hawaiian-style pizza from a local chain.

Tomorrow, I'm sure there will be recipes for fried Cardinal, because that's how the game is going for them....:(

Special candy for Christmas...

No recipe today- just praise of a candy I usually only get at Christmas- Mozart Kugel. I've loved these since a visit to Austria 20 years ago. I love anything with marzipan in it!



I have a tin and a bag of them...and I'm not going to touch them until Christmas morning.

Nowadays, I can easily get them online from amazon.com, but keeping them for Christmas only makes them special.

YUM!!

Tricolor Cookies and Cherry Shortbread!



I've been looking for a good recipe for Tricolor Cookies (also called Rainbow Cookies) for a long time. The Washington Post had one in their food section this week! Here it is:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2008/12/10/tricolor-cookies/

I made a batch, and I'm going to make more. They're unbelievably good. They remind me of the cookies I used to get at Alfonso's Pastry on Staten Island, New York, when I was a kid!

They're still there:

http://www.cannoliexpress.com/index.php

These cookies are hard to find outside of the New York City area.



My kitchen smelled like Alfonso's shop while I was baking. It was the mixture of marzipan and orange zest that did it.


Found this recipe for Cherry Shortbread in Rachael Ray's Everyday Magazine, December 2008:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Cherry-Shortbread-Cookies-336955

Least likely to screw up! It is hard to ruin shortbread. The cherries are a nice addition. Next time, I might drizzle chocolate on them.