Recipes

Horiatiki Salata

August 25, 2009

My salad from my first meal in Greece

Ever since I visited Greece this past March I have frowned upon Greek Salads that are not the traditional Greek Salad. I just don’t understand why we have to Americanize something that is so simple and perfect.

We ordered Greek Salad for every meal and by the time the trip was over I was a little crazy of it but a week after I got back I wanted it again, desperately. I found Sophia’s Greek Pantry in Belmont so I go there and get Feta, Tzatziki, and these amazing imported filled croissants from 7days.

Horiatiki (Greek Salad)

Tomatoes, cut into wedges

Green Pepper, sliced very thin

Red Onion, sliced very thin

Cucumber, peeled, halved, and slice (remove seeds if it is wet/has a lot of seeds)

Olives

Feta Cheese

Dressing: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Red wine vinegar, lemon, S&P

Cut all veggies and add dressing… enjoy

I did not give proportions because I think it all depends on your own taste. I don’t like olives to I leave them out and I really like a lot of onion so I add in more than typical.

Emily’s mom gave us two HUGE tomatoes and a cucumber. I added in some of our yellow pear tomatoes that have finally begun to ripen.

On a sad side note: There are fires in the suburbs of Athens are are causing a lot of destruction. I hope they get them under control quickly!

Orange Poppyseed and Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes

August 17, 2009

I use any excuse to bake. Shakespeare in the Park for The Boston Couples Meetup was a great reason. Cupcakes are my favorite… the perfect portion of cake. Well, I have had Cupcake Heaven by Susannah Blake for awhile and figured now is the time to crack it open and give it a go. I picked her recipe for Orange Poppyseed Cupcakes but made some modifications to it and made a version with lemon (thanks to a suggestion from Ben at work).

Orange/Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1/2 cup of sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

4 tablespoons of orange juice or 3 tablespoons of lemon juice +1 tablespoon vanilla extract

zest of whole orange/lemon

1 cup of self rising flour

1 tablespoon of poppyseeds

Marscapone Frosting

8 oz of marscapone cheese

1 cup of powdered sugar, sifted

juice of orange/lemon

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line a 12 cup cupcake pan with wrappers.

Beat the butter and sugar until creamy and pale. Gently beat in the eggs one at a time. Add in the zest, juice of the citrus, and poppyseeds, then sift in the flour and fold all to combine. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcakes. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until toothpick is inserted and comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack. Once the cupcakes have cooled completely ice them with the frosting. decorate with sections of citrus, sprinkles, or candied citrus.

The frosting is made by combining the mascapone in a bowl with sifted powdered sugar and juice until desired consistency and taste is reached. Mix until smooth.

*There will be a little batter in each wrapper, but it rises substantially to fill the cupcake wrappers

Creaming the butter and sugar

Add in the poppyseeds and zest

Flour has been added

…. almost done!

Marscapone Frosting

Gazpacho and Shakespeare

August 14, 2009

I could never understand gazpacho. It just seemed like people were eating salsa but calling it cold soup, yeah that makes it okay then. Well I finally caved and had it one day and I have been hooked. It just screams summer to me.

I made I big batch to bring to the Couples meetup for our Shakespeare in the Park picnic. For one thing it was fun to watch Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors but it was also great to meet new people and have great food. Who knew that you could have a conversation about Extra Virgin Coconut Oil? Well I have to find some and give it a try.

Gazpacho

1 English Cucumber, Diced

1 red/orange pepper, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 red onion, diced

2 large tomatos, diced or 1 pint of grape tomatos diced

1 1/2 cups of corn, fresh or frozen

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 quart, 14 oz of tomato juice (very large can) *

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lime

Hot Sauce

Salt and Pepper

Dice all vegetables and add to tomato juice. Add in red wine vinegar, olive oil, and lime juice. Add hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy.

*I try to use low sodium so that I can adjust the salt myself

____________________

Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive.

Banana Pecan Muffins

August 5, 2009

The last time I made banana muffins I was doubling the recipe and made a big goof because I did not double the sugar…. I tripled it. In the end I ended up with sugary banana pucks- not dense, just no levening. They were really good, they just gave you a cavity in the process.

Well, I got bananas this past weekend for the purpose of banana muffins- I had been craving them recently. So I got out the mixer and all my ingredients tonight to get some serious banana pecan muffins going.

Banana Muffins with Pecans

18 muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease the muffin tins .

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a small bowl, mash 2 of the bananas with a fork so they still have a bit of texture.

In a large bowl, beat with an electric mixer, the other 2 bananas and sugar together. You want a light and fluffy mixture, approximately 3 minutes. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla; beat well. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula. Divide the batter evenly between 18 muffins.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. You may need to rotate the pan periodically to ensure even browning.

Cool the muffins in the pans for 10 minutes or so, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

I felt like mixing things up a bit and used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour. The muffins had the same great texture and taste but they did not rise much, compared to when I use all purpose flour. No worries, taste is more important than appearance to me. Plus I made 12 muffins and I used the rest for a mini loaf that I am going to take with us when we go camping this weekend.

Bananas, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla have been incorporated at this point

Adding the whole wheat flour.

Ready for the oven.