Tag Archives: Feta

Lamb Kebabs & Cucumber, Tomato and Feta Salad

lamb kebabs & cucumber saladFirst let me say that I absolutely adore my Sweetie, and for awhile now he has been, hands down, my favorite partner in the kitchen. But a couple weeks ago my kitchen met someone else… actually it met two someone elses’.

And these handsome young gents made quite the lasting impression.

Recently Sweets was in Napa, enjoying the finer things in life for his buddy’s bachelor party, and in my lonesome state I figured I’d invite two young strapping lads over for dinner.

Upon their arrival, I got them situated with coloring books, markers and colored pencils, figuring they’d make some fridge art while I slaved away in the kitchen.

But these two gentlemen would have nothing of the sort!

“Can I help, Auntie Pie?” Isaiah, 9, asked.

“Me too! I’m the best cook ever!” Lukie, 6, followed.

Cutest cooks ever

Sweetest Chefs in the World

And he was, actually they both were. My darling nephews, the best cooks ever.

And no, we didn’t make Macaroni & Cheese, Hot Dogs or Chicken Nuggets.

Although I hear Luke makes a pretty killer Eggs in a Frame.

These kiddos have a pretty sophisticated palate so we decided to make something a bit more high-brow (AND DELICIOUS).

And I think it’s safe to say that the dinner suited the company – which is to say it was amazing.

Lamb Kebabs and Cucumber, Feta & Tomato Salad

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Filed under Healthy, Lamb, mediterranean, Side Dishes

Lemon Chicken Gyros with Ghetto Tzatziki

Chicken Gyro

I can not wait to bite you

The Blog-O-Sphere has done an amazing thing for those of us who enjoy cooking, trying out new recipes and most importantly consuming those new recipes!

Granted, there have always been great cookbooks out there and an array of wonderful food publications. But here on the world-wide-web it’s free, and these days that’s a pretty big selling point.

But I’m not talking so much about mere recipe websites but actual food blogs, where bloggers will actually write about the dish and subsequent recipe. Sometimes it’s a story about the day that led up to the meal, or the inspiration behind the dish and other times its childhood memories of times when that same meal was an plate before them on a dinner table long ago.

So while these bloggers often capture their recipes with pictures which no doubt draws me in, I find it’s usually the story that sells me on the dish.

Recently while browsing the amazing world of food blogs for some new dinner ideas I discovered a great food blog called Can You Stay For Dinner. The writer has a warm, comfortable and witty tone and sometimes even appears to be having tiny little conversations with herself, which I can totally relate to.

She too has a Sweetie, named Daniel, who partakes in the consuming stage of her culinary adventures, which I can also relate to.

Her writing is free of stuffy food connoisseur terminology which keeps us more modest foodies reading (and awake). The food all looks amazing and when you scroll down to find out how to make it – you find the best part… it’s easy… like super duper easy… like I’m making this tomorrow night! Easy.

And as a lover of anything that involves flatbread, feta and yogurt I was sold by the recipe below.

Lemon Chicken Gyros with Ghetto Tzatziki and Feta
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Filed under Chicken, Healthy, mediterranean, Sandwich

Turkey Burger Sliders & Baked (not fried) French Fries

turkey burger sliders

Birthday Dinner Success

Usually I make a pretty big deal out of my birthday… actually it’s more like a “birthmonth” consequently March has basically been “my month” since I was old enough to figure out how to get attention.

But this year I opted to skip the production – take it easy – celebrate with Sweets, good food, tasty wine and hopefully pie.

And that’s exactly what I did and I think it’s fair to say it was one of the best birthdays thus far.

turkey burger sliders28th Birthday Menu:

  • Feta & Sun Dried Tomato Turkey Burger Sliders
  • BBQ Turkey Burger Sliders
  • Baked not fried French Fries
  • Spinach salad
  • Marques de Carceres Rioja Dry White Wine (Review to come)
  • Flying Star Desserts
  • Top Chef
  • Plenty of in between bite/commercial break kisses

Whoever invented sliders was a genius… these tiny little delicious hamburgers make it easy to make 2, 3 or even 4 different variations, eat one of each and not feel like a piglet!

Now what goes better with burgers than fries? Nothing.

And with these recipes you can have your sliders and fries and call it a healthy meal. I don’t think comfort food gets better than that.

I made two different kinds of turkey burger sliders: One was inspired by Picky Palate and the other inspired by my love of BBQ

Feta & Sun Dried Tomato Turkey Burger Sliders, BBQ Turkey Burger Sliders, Baked not fried French Fries.

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Filed under BBQ, Burgers, Healthy, Hearty, Party Dishes, Sandwich, Side Dishes, Turkey Burgers

What the heck am I going to make for dinner?

Bell Pepper & Onion stuffed Chicken

Bell Pepper & Onion stuffed Chicken

As we get older many of us find ourselves wishing for more hours in the day. Although truth be told I think most of us would prefer those hours for sleep… well maybe that’s just me.

Granted my life is pretty simple and self-indulgent compared to all those folks out there living their lives all the while raising kiddos.

But tonight when I finally got home after work and some other me oriented work-out stuff I was pooped and I still had some laundry to do and dinner to make.

And in addition to being pooped I was pretty unmotivated as far as the latter was concerned, especially considering my favorite chopping buddy was at work.

But there was stuff in the fridge that needed to be used and I already ate cereal that morning.

So I opened the fridge, stared at it’s contents and asked myself an age-old question.

What the (insert bad word here) am I going to make for dinner?

Chicken etc

Let's make this stuff into some dinner!

I eyeballed some chicken, an onion, some garlic, a bell pepper that was nearing a ‘use it or throw it’ disposition and some feta.

So I decided to stuff some chicken with the other stuff and call it a meal.

A meal that ended up being really good.

Bell-Pepper & Onion Stuffed Chicken Breast

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Filed under Chicken, Veggies

A beaner at heart <3

Black Bean SoupI LOVE beans.

L-O-V-E

So does Sweets.

Lucky for me but sadly for him… beans affect me ahem shall we say, traditionally? He’s managed to defy that tradition.

When looking to impress another with my awesome domestic abilities, I like to tell the story of how I once made a bag of beans last for TWO weeks!  That’s 14 days.  4 days greater that 10.  You get my point, it’s impressive.

Week One: Crock pot o’ beans complete with Spanish brown rice :)
Week Two (and the point of this blog):

Black Bean Soup

and so it goes….

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Filed under Black Beans, Legumes, Soup, Sunny Mexico

The Morning After Pasta Salad

More likely… the afternoon after… I usually like to make a pasta salad inspired by the one they serve at Relish, a delicious sandwich shop where patience is a virtue to live by.  The sandwiches take a little longer than they should because the staff abides by a strict 420 code (or whatever it is pot heads do) but you wait, patiently, because those little stoners sure do make a hell of a sandwich and in my opinion a pasta salad.

But the above story is totally unrelated because recently I tried something new… the reviews are mixed but lets just say there’s a solution to that.

Mediterranean Orzo Pasta Salad

Orzo is kind of like one of the really pretty trannies people always get tricked by on the Jerry Springer show – it really really REALLY looks like rice, albeit a big-boned rice, but rice nonetheless.  But it’s not.  Orzo is pasta, not rice.

And while it’s big for rice, it’s fairly small for pasta which makes it great for pasta salads if you want to throw in lots of other stuff.

Throwing in too much stuff may have been my downfall in this dish – but I’ll leave you to your own devices.

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Filed under Cold Dishes, mediterranean, Orzo