Day Twenty-three--Greek Salad

Sorry that I'm posting a day late. I was beat after dinner last night. Actually, I was in bed most of the day yesterday because I felt pretty darn crappy. I'm pleased that I was still able to get out of bed and make dinner. I have Tim to thank for help though. He went out and got a loaf of ciabatta bread and toasted it up for croûtons.


Greek salad

This dinner was tasty! I wasn't sure how it was going to taste as I was putting it together. This recipe (do you really need a recipe for a salad?!) was from my Jamie Oliver 20Minute Meal app. It was several stages and I kept asking Tim "But when does the lettuce come into play?" The dressing was olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and oregano. He also says to slice a red onion and pour a splash of red wine vinegar over the slices for a little bit. This made the onions taste fantastic. The only thing I didn't like, and will leave out next time, are the avocados. It called for 2 avocados and I only used one and I didn't feel like it went well with the salad. The lettuce and onions and everything were crisp and crunchy and then I would get a bite of avocado and nearly gag. I've made another salad of his with avocado in and loved it...just not this one.

The kids didn't really like this recipe. Connor and Aidan ate the croûtons, and a couple of bites of the lettuce but they really didn't like it. Tim and I really enjoyed it. It was nice to have something really light for a change. Tim was also joking that we had Mexican on Cinco de Mayo and that we were having Greek salad to commemorate the collapse of the Greek financial status. He's a riot, no?

Well, I hope I'm able to get more accomplished today. I am going to go start a loaf of bread and I need to start pizza dough this afternoon for tonight's dinner. I'll try and post tonight. Until then, happy cooking!

Day Eighteen--Burgers!

This will likely be a short post because, well, I'm tired and cranky. I'm trying to cool off too. It's hard to believe two days ago it was a high of 49 and I had the heat running and today it was 92 out while we were out shopping. Not a happy camper.

I didn't put up a post last night because we were at a fantastic presentation by a friend of mine. Pizza was served after the presentation. I had one piece of it and then had to come home and suck on the Pepto bottle. Yes, I drink it straight out of the bottle. After that we went back over to another friends house and hung out until almost 11, drinking margaritas and just chit chatting under the stars. It was fun. I didn't feel the need to post the dinner because it wasn't home made and it was most certainly not good for us.

Tonight though, we are back on track. I knew that I wanted to do something on the grill because it was supposed to be nice out. I just didn't realize it would be that hot. Tim did the actual grilling and it only took him a couple of minutes, so I say I had the worst end of the stick. I had to make a Mississippi Mud cake for Connor. That was his choice for his 10th birthday. It's funny, because it's the third year in a row he has chosen this as what he wants for his cake. Thankfully, we only make it once a year. It is crazy sweet. It's good, but almost too sweet, and I'm a sweet eater. So, I made the cake, I made potato salad for dinner, and I made burger buns from scratch. I was in the kitchen all afternoon and it was hot.

That leads us to dinner:

Burgers, grilled asparagus, and potato salad

The asparagus was easy. I just used a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper on them and threw them in a grill basket and Tim threw it on the grill for a couple of minutes. Some of them got a little crispy because he made himself a martini while they were grilling. The potato salad is just a typical potato salad with potatoes, eggs, mayo, mustard, salt and pepper. I didn't put any onions or celery into it because of Aidan. He did eat the asparagus. He had a few pieces and then said he wasn't sure he liked it or not. I was cool with it because he had already had a bunch before he came to that realization.

I think that is all I had for now. I want to rant about my shopping for groceries today but I will save that for tomorrow. I'm not sure how tomorrow's night dinner is going to get pulled off. We will be spending the day in Syracuse with some friends, going to the zoo. I have do it yourself pizza planned, but I don't think I have the gumption to go make the dough right now. I suppose I'll have to wait and see what time we get home in the afternoon and if I'll have two hours to spare for the process.

Ok, now I'm done. Happy cooking everyone. I'll leave you with a picture of Connor's cake.

Mississippi Mud Cake