Greek Style Potatoes with Oregano and Lemon

  
These potatoes will knock your socks off! I have always loved the moist lemony/garlicky potatoes you get in the Greek restaurants along the Danforth in Toronto. This recipe will give you a replica of those delectable treats and they are so easy to make and go with many entrees.  If you are bored of baked, mashed, and boiled add these to your potato repertoire!


Ingredients and Preparation: Serves 4
Recipe from The Curious Cook at Home by dee Hobsbawn-Smith

• 1 lb round potatoes (Yukon gold, Russet etc.)
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 4-6 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried oregano (I use more - about 1.5 tbsp)
• 1 lemon, juice only (I use 2 lemons - love the lemony taste!)
• 1 cup water (more as needed)
• Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375F.  Peel potatoes and cut into quarters. Put remaining ingredients in a bowl and whisk.  Toss the potatoes in the liquid mixture. Spread on baking sheet uncovered at 375F until tender about 90 minutes (less time if using convection). Stir often, so that all the potato surfaces are coated. Add more water as needed - there should always be moisture in the pan.

Serve with skewered meat, grilled calamari, braised lamb or what ever is for dinner!

Meatloaf with Oregano & Basil

Until last year, I had never made a meatloaf and as far as I can remember never saw my Mum make one either.  It was not a staple in our family growing up but has definitely become one in the past few months.  My husband and I didn't eat meat for a few years at all and then when we started to incorporate it back into our diet I started buying grass-fed organic beef from a small local farmer. I bought a couple of pounds of the ground beef and asked around on a cooking message board for a good meatloaf recipe.  The following is a compilation of the replies I got as well as a few tweaks here and there of my own. I really prefer the taste of grass fed / organic beef and highly recommend you use it as well. I find it more moist and much more flavourful. 

Ingredients & Preparation: Yields one 9"x5" loaf

• 2 lbs grass fed / organic ground beef
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 3 slices brown or white bread made into crumbs (use a food processor)
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1-2 tbsp dried oregano
• 1-2 tbsp dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/3 cup of ketchup
• 1/3 cup barbecue sauce
• 1-2 tbsp brown sugar, if desired

Pre-heat your oven to 375F.  Put the ground beef in a large bowl. Add in milk, eggs, bread crumbs, mustard, and spices. Use your hands to blend it all together and make sure everything is incorporated evenly.  Add the ketchup and barbecue sauce to the bottom of a loaf pan (9"x5") - sprinkle the brown sugar in if using.  Next, make your ground beef mixture into a loaf shape and put into the pan.   Bake for 40 minutes, or until cooked. Beef should have a minimum internal temperature of 140F for rare and 170F for well done.

Serve with mashed potatoes and peas for a real comfort food meal.

Mashed Potatoes with Leeks & Greek Yogurt

I like to add leeks and plain Greek yogurt to my mashed taters.  It makes then slightly tangy and very flavourful.  Peel and boil your potatoes (4-6 depending on size) as you normally would, then in another pan saute about 4 leeks (only the white & light green part) in some butter until they are translucent. Add a little salt & peppeer plus 1/2 cup of stock (chicken or vegetable). Cook for another 3-4 minutes.  Once your potatoes are done, mash up with some butter, milk, Greek yogurt (about 3/4 cup) and add the leek mixture. Stir to incorporate all the ingredients. Delicious!

Super Bowl Menu: Hash Brown Casserole, 7 Layer Salad & Creamy Dill Ranch Dressing

Well, I have only a couple of hours to finish everything up, pack up the husband, baby & dog and head over to my brother-in-law's house for the game. Football isn't really my thing, but my in laws love it so I go for the socializing. But who's kidding who here? It's really because I like the food. As a non meat eater in a carnivorous family, I like to contribute to the menu so that a) I have something to eat and b) I can see how long it takes my Father-in-law to realize that it's not "real" bacon that he's eating!

While I can't say what everyone else is bringing - here are my contributions:

- 7 Layered Salad with homemade Creamy Dill Ranch Dressing
- Veggie burgers (Yves brand)
- Hash brown Casserole with Faux Bacon, Onions & Cheese
- Brownies (from a box - we all cheat sometimes)

Creamy Dill Ranch Dressing

*try using an old mason or pasta sauce jar to make your dressing in...

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup 2% plain yogurt
• 3/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp green onion or chives, finely chopped
  
• 2-3 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
  
• 1 tbsp fresh tarragon, finely chopped
• salt (to taste)
• white pepper (to taste)

Put the liquid ingredients in your jar first, then the remaining ingredients. Stir up or shake madly. Let the flavours infuse for a few hours or overnight.


The 7 Layer Salad

This was supposed to be a vegetarian Cobb salad - you can see it is not. All I can say is that of the 2 stores and 4 avocados I bought, 0/4 could be used. Instead it became a layered salad made from a variety of ingredients.

From the bottom up...

Iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, chick peas, green leaf lettuce, boiled egg, green onion.

This will be served with the Creamy Dill Ranch Dressing so that will make it much better.


Hash Brown Casserole with Faux Bacon, Onion and Cheese

I pretty much followed this recipe from Cooking Light but used fake bacon (Yves brand) and I eliminated the green onions. I also used 2% plain yogurt instead of sour cream because I had it leftover from the dressing recipe.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1120354

Not better than takeout: Sweet Potato Pie

I followed the instructions. I swear it. Unfortunately, my sweet potato pie (masquerading here as an apple pie) did not turn out as well as I hoped. My butter was too cold and my sweet potatoes were too hard (after 60+ minutes of boiling)and so the whole process went down hill from there*. I ended up almost whipping the filling by the time I had everything mixed in so while it tastes light and airy it certainly does not have a traditional SPP texture. Also, I had an extra pie crust that was very soft by the time I went to use it, so I decided not to waste it and made the lattice. That's the apple pie part.

No recipe or preparation required here folks as this one is not a winner.

*Only 2 sweet potatoes were injured in the making of this pie.