Grilled Octopus

Hello World!

Sorry I have been M.I.A. Lots of great and amazing things have been happening but, unfortunately, I haven't had enough time to cook as much as I've wanted too. I will start to post about my other new hobby soon. This will be incorporated into many of these upcoming posts (I hope). :)

When we were in Greece three years ago, I tried octopus for the first time. It didn't look that appetizing as it was hanging to dry. In fact, I was mortified. But I didn't want to disappoint and tried it anyways.

Grilled octopus is now one of my favorites. I love it when it's grilled, with a little olive oil, salt and oregano. Octopus is crunchy on the outside and chewy inside. Trust me, it's very good.

So we tried making it at home.

We bought two baby octopus (already tenderized - be sure to ask your fish market). There are different ways to clean it, but we just kept the tentacles on. Then we boiled it in hot water for about 30 minutes to get it most tender. After, we threw the octopus on the grill, five minutes on each side and tossed it with olive oil, oregano, salt and some lemon. Paired with white wine, we were pretty much in Greece.

Delmonico potatoes

One of the best things about being back home is the home cooking of course! Nothing soothes the soul (or prepares your for childbirth) quite like mom's cooking. What could be more comforting than meatloaf and potatoes? My mom's Delmonico potatoes are comfort food at its finest. They're basically potatoes with mac & cheese sauce. YUM!!



Ingredients:
5-6 potatoes peeled, cooked and diced
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded old cheddar cheese
1/2 package saltine crackers crushed
salt and pepper

Directions
Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat; stir in flour. Cook for 3 minutes, but do not brown. Stir in milk and continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly, until sauce begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.
Combine potatoes, white sauce, salt, and pepper. Pour into a shallow glass baking dish. Sprinkle shredded cheese over potatoes the top with saltine cracker crumbs. Cook at 425° for about 20 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Tomato and Cheese Sandwiches on Olive Bread

I had this sandwich at a baby shower and HAD to make it at home. It is so simple and satisfying!



Ingredients:
Olive bread (I bought mine at Loblaws)
Tomato slices
Buffalo mozzarella cheese, sliced
Pesto
Pizza sauce

Directions
Spread pizza sauce on one slice of bread and top with cheese.
Spread pesto sauce on the other slice of bread and top with tomato slices.
Place in the oven under the broiler until cheese is bubbly and slightly golden.
Assemble sandwich and enjoy.

At the shower, these sandwiches were not melted, but I just can't resist melt-y gooey cheese! This would probably be good grilled in a grill pan as well.

Baking once a week

I have been in a real baking kick lately. I think this was inspired by my recent participation in a bake sale at work. I told the lady to price my cookies significantly lower due to my skills. Shockingly, the cookies sold and I gained some confidence in this.

I love how baking makes the house smell so wonderful and really "homey". Also, there is nothing to get a man's attention like baking. :) Steve loves when I bake, since this is so infrequent.

So in addition to my efforts to be conscious of what we eat, I have decided that I want to make/bake one snack per week.

Last week, I made banana nut muffins and today I made rice krispies squares. I'll feel better about snacks around the house, get extra love and the house will smell great!

Kahlua Cheesecake

I may be 9 months pregnant but it's still hard to keep me out of the kitchen!! For Sharl's and my mom's birthday, I decided to make a cheesecake. It was my first time baking a cheesecake, and I don't know why I was intimidated by it, it was rather easy! I got the recipe from my boss at work who brought this in for a potluck one time. So delicious! The next kitchen item I need to get for my new house is a springform pan!



Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Oreo crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup caramel sauce (I used a jar of the best stuff I could find)
3 pkgs Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature (DO use this brand)
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup Kahlua
6 squares melted Baker's semi-sweet chocolate

Directions
Mix Oreo crumbs with melted butter and press lightly into a 9-inch springform pan. Pour caramel sauce over top.
Beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time and mix until just blended. Stir in chocolate and Kahlua, and pour mixture into crust.
Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350 F or until the cake is set and slightly wobbly in the centre. Cool completely and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Garnish with caramel sauce and whipped cream if you like.

Five ingredients! Tilapia with Cherry Tomatoes and Anchovie Sauce

I would have taken pictures of this dish but it looks much better in person. You'll have to try the recipe and post your pics. :)

This is one of Steve's favourite dishes, is so easy to make and has only 5 ingredients!

You'll need:

• Tilapia fillets
• Anchovies in the oil
• 1 full packet of cherry tomatoes
• 1 to 2 cloves of chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp of olive oil

In a pan over very low heat, pour entire content of anchovies and oil. Let anchovies melt. This should take about 12 minutes or so. If you cook the anchovies at a high heat, it will splatter everywhere. Big mess! Stay low!

Throw in garlic, all cherry tomatoes and olive oil. You can toss these ingredients in while the anchovies are cooking.

Let entire sauce cook for a total of 20 minutes or so.

Put tilapia fillets in sauce and cook for about 10 minutes or until fully cooked through.

Serve cherry tomatoes on top of tilapia fillets. Drizzle with leftover sauce.

Steve loves having this dish with fresh bread to sop up the sauce.

So technically, this dish has six ingredients. :)

Happy Earth Day

2 Ways to celebrate in Toronto:

1. Free coffee at Starbucks if you bring in a travel mug.

2. Beginning at 1pm they are giving away FREE Brita pitchers at Yonge-Dundas Square. Quantities are limited to the first 3600 people.

Woohoo!
They were also handing out pine tree seedlings to pedestrians from Honda.

Happy Greek Easter!

(From top right, dolmades, pork tenderloin, potatoes, spanokopita, lamb and orzo salad)

This Greek Easter, Steve and I worked really hard. We fasted every Wednesday and Friday, no meat or dairy. This proved to be quite the culinary challenge because if you make leftovers with meat on Tuesday, you can't eat it the next day and same deal with Thursday. So you really have to make more proportionate meals on those days as well.

One of the hardest things I found was fasting from dairy. Those ingredients seem to be in everything I eat! Yoghurt, Cheez-it, etc. Towards the end of Lent, I was craving meat like crazy. I wanted a Big Mac so bad. :)

So we had a big feast to celebrate Easter and boy, did I go to town. We went to my sister and brother in laws house. I could smell the lamb as we approached their street. My father and brother in law had prepared the lamb the day before with garlic and cheese. In addition, my mother in law made her wonderful spankopitas (spinach pies) and potatoes. She also made dolmades, which is meat wrapped in grape leaves covered with a creamy egg sauce. We also had salad and made my orzo salad. Dan, my brother in law, grilled sausages and the lamb. Connie, my sister in law made this mouthwatering pork with a meaty gravy. I can't remember even talking during dinner. For dessert, Connie made a chocolate cake with a mocha frosting. This cake was so moist. My mother in law also brought Galaktoboureko, which is a Greek pastry with layers of phyllo and custard. She also made Koulouria, which are Greek butter cookies.

Opa!!!

Scraping the bottom of the pantry

I've been on a bit of a flogging hiatus because I'm in the midst of packing and moving. Since I'm trying to to use up the remaining stuff in the freezer and pantry and not buy any new groceries, my dinners haven't been overly exciting. I just packed up most of my spices, pots and baking supplies, so my kitchen feels really barren right now. Very sad. :(
And of course, with the impending arrival of the baby, I'm not sure how much cooking I'll be up to in the next little while. I'm going to have to rely on Mandy to keep the flog alive for the next month or so. :)

Creamy Scrambled Eggs on English Muffins

Scrambled eggs are probably one of my favourite ways to cook eggs. The perfect scrambled eggs are creamy with large soft curdles and just set. The key to cooking them just right is to not over scramble them and to not overcook them. You can put whatever herbs you like in the egg mixture but I prefer when they're not over seasoned. In this recipe, I used fresh dill. It would have been lovely if I had some smoked salmon to top this with, but smoked salmon is off the list of pregnancy-appropriate foods. I thought this tasted great on its own.



Ingredients
4 large eggs
1 tsp butter
4 tbsp milk
handful fresh dill chopped
cream cheese
2 halved english muffins, toasted

Directions
Melt butter in a skillet on medium/low heat (should not be hot enough to allow the butter brown).
In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and milk until combined. Season with dill, salt and pepper.
Pour egg mixture into skillet, and allow to set for about a minute. Slowly drag your spatula across the bottom of the pan to form soft curdles. Once the eggs are set and done to your liking, divide into four portions and remove from heat.
Spread cream cheese on English muffin halves and top with scrambled eggs.