Souvlaki

We love gyros. Mike and Tony's on the Southside is our favorite. Obviously I don't have the equipment to make a gyro (nor do I want it). Souvlaki is similar.

I found a recipe and bought lamb for the first time this week. It needs to marinade for a long time but it sure was good. Mike really enjoyed this, Hayden did not. I don't think he liked the marinade. I served this with some warm fry bread,cucumber sauce and some greek roasted potatoes. I would have added feta cheese but I forgot to pick it up at the store.

We bought a piece of lamb and cut into about 1 in pieces.

The recipe called for this marinade:
In a bowl, put 1/2 cup lemon juice, 4 tsp olive oil, 2 Tbsp oregano, and 6 cloves minced garlic. I used less oil.

Marinate it for at least 8 hours.

Cook on the grill.

MMmmmm!


Recipe from here. She has lots of great recipes!

Summer Foods

It has been too hot to cook, and I have been busy with work and soccer, so not much time. I need to get the crockpot out I guess. But I do enjoy some of our "summer" meals...Turkey or Ham Sandwiches, BLT's, grilling up some burgers, etc. Our new summer snack is red pepper hummus. Hayden and I devour it. We also bought a big box of italian ice freeze pops. We get these every summer and now they have new flavors.


This week I decided to change up our sandwiches and make egg salad sandwiches. I guess this isn't really a recipe but a list of ingredients b/c everyone has somewhat different tastes. Mike thinks egg salad is gross so he doesn't eat it. (He doesn't really eat eggs at all). Hayden loves eggs so I packed a small sandwich for his lunch today. My sister said he ate most of it after playing with it.



Here is what I put in mine:

Ingredients:
Hard Boiled Eggs
Mayo -- must be Hellmann's
dried onion flakes
salt/pepper (or onion salt)
dried mustard
garlic powder
dill weed
paprika

That was how I made it the other day. It turned out yummy. Sometimes I put lemon juice in or real mustard. I like mine on toasted bread. Sometimes I put some spinach leaves on. What do you put in yours? My friend likes to cut up pickles and onions in hers. I don't like chunck of anything in my food.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

Currently in our house we have a big tub of sour cream... Don't ask it is a long story. So I have been looking for recipes to get rid of it. I found this cake. It was delicious. The sour cream made the cake so moist. And the icing was just a little different but yummy.

I don't usually have much luck baking cakes from scratch, so I was defintely pleased. I got this recipe from a cookie site. The lady bakes a batch of cookies or baked goods everyday I think. Wow! My kitchen as a disaster after making this so I dont think I could do it. Not to mention I have no self control when it comes to cake or cookies.

Here is the recipe:
Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

2 cups cake flour (8 oz)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 ounces unsalted butter, softened but not too warm
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar (14 oz)
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup water or room temp coffee (divided use)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten in a separate bowl

Sour Cream Frosting
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 oz dark or semi-sweet chocolate
3/4 cup sour cream, room temperature
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons warm water or coffee

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F.

2. Spray two 9 inch round cake pans with flour-added cooking spray, or rub with shortening and dust with cocoa powder.

3. Sift (I actually didn’t sift) the cake flour, baking soda, and salt into bowl of a stand mixer and mix well. Add softened butter to flour mixture and mix on low speed with the paddle until the butter coats the flour. Stop occasionally to scrape sides of bowl. Add the brown sugar, cooled melted chocolate, sour cream, vanilla and *half* of the water. Continue mixing on low speed until well blended, scraping sides of bowl. Then beat on medium speed for about a minute.

4. To the eggs in the separate bowl, add the remaining half cup of water (or coffee) and beat with a fork or whisk. With the mixer on low, gradually pour the egg/water mixture into the batter. Continue running mixer for about 3 minutes on medium speed, scraping sides until you get a smooth, velvety batter.

5. Pour batter into the prepared cake pans and bake on center rack at 350 degrees F for about 35 minutes or until cakes test done. If your pans are black, you might want to use 325 F for 40 minutes.

Sour cream Frosting

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and add chocolate. Stir over low heat or residual heat until chocolate melts. Remove from stove and let cool slightly (about 10 minutes). Stir the sour cream into the chocolate.

2. Sift half of the powdered sugar into bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Add the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and beat mixture until smooth, adding water as needed.

Recipe from here

Tangy Grilled Chicken

This recipe was given to me by a friend this week. It is one of the easiest recipes ever. Great recipe for summer grilling.


Ingredients

* 2/3 cup Ranch salad dressing
* 1/3 cup FRENCH'S® Classic Yellow® or Honey Mustard
* 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
* 4 (5 ounce) boneless skinless chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper

Preparation

* MIX salad dressing, mustard and sugar.
* Pour 2/3 cup mixture over chicken.
* MARINATE chicken in refrigerator 30 min. or up to 3 hours.
* GRILL chicken on greased rack over medium heat for 15 min. or until done.
* Serve chicken with remaining mustard mixture.

Garlic Cheddar Bisquits

We love bread in my family. Mike devours bread when we are at a restaurant. Hayden not so much but that could change. I got this recipe from my mom, who got it from a bisquick box a long time ago. These claim to be similar to the biscuits at Red Lobster. I don't eat there so I wouldn't know. But they are yummy and go great with just about any meal.

CHEDDAR CHEESE BISCUITS

2 cups bisquick baking mix
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Heat oven to 450. Mix baking mix, milk, & cheese until a soft dough forms; beat vigorously for 30 seconds. Drop dough by spoonfuls onto an ungreased cooking sheet. Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Mix butter & garlic powder. Brush garlic mixture over warm biscuits before removing from cookie sheet. Serve warm.

Italain Crockpot Chicken

I found this recipe on a scrapbooking message board a few years ago. This is one of Mike's favorite meals. He likes the sauce that it makes. It is creamy but not heavy like alfredo. (Although it is not any healthier then alfredo). Hayden also eats it so we keep it on rotation (every other month or 2 months).

Recipe:
4-5 pieces of chicken breasts
1 bottle of Italian dressing
8 oz cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp thyme

cook chicken in crockpot with italian dressing on low until done (approx 5 hours). When it is is finished drain most of the liquid and shred the chicken.
Add the rest of the ingredients, stir. Cook on low 1 more hour.
Serve with pasta or rice.

We enjoy it with rice. Sometimes I make broccoli with it also.

Happy Memorial Day... Grilled Corn on the Cob

Happy Memorial Day! Since everyone is usually grilling today here is a yummy simple recipe for corn on the cob. Mike makes this all of the time. We got the recipe from one of Steven Raichlen's books. His books on grilling are the best. He gives step by step directions and has tons of great recipes. He started the beer can chicken craze.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1. 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2. 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (2 ounces)
3. 1 garlic clove, minced
4. Salt and freshly ground pepper
5. 4 ears of corn
6. Vegetable oil, for the grill

Directions

1. Light a grill. In a bowl, mix the butter with the Parmesan and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Strip the husks from each ear of corn and remove the silks. Using kitchen string, tie the husks together at the end of each ear to form a handle.

3. Lightly brush the grate with oil. Grill the corn over a medium-hot fire, turning, until partially cooked, about 5 minutes. Brush the corn with the Parmesan butter and continue grilling, turning frequently and brushing with more butter, until deeply browned and tender, about 5 minutes longer. Serve at once with the remaining Parmesan butter.

Enjoy!