Recipe: Tzatziki Sauce

I'm attempting to make falafel for the first time tonight and I needed tzatziki sauce to accompany it. The local market didn't carry it, so I made my first attempt and it came out wonderfully. I'm making dinner for two; I think this makes more sauce than we need, so I'm going to freeze half of it. Hope dinner comes out just as well!

Ingredients:

- 2 cups strained greek yogurt
- 1 large cucumber
- 1 t. minced garlic
- 1 t. dill
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 t. salt
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Peel and half cucumber. Remove the seeds in the center; a serrated spoon works well. Cut up the cucumber. Place in strainer with the teaspoon of salt mixed in. Allow to sit for at least 20 minutes to get the water out of the cucumber. Remove and dry cucumber with a towel.

Place cucumber, garlic, dill and lemon juice in a blender and puree. Add to the greek yogurt. Mix and salt to taste. Allow to sit for a couple hours before serving for best results.

Superbowl Sunday Treat

Superbowl Sunday is the perfect excuse to eat good food and make football-shaped fun treats. This was our idea: chocolate cheerio 'rice krispy treats' with a marshmellow seam. So delicious!!

Go Black and Yellow : )

A Market Like No Other

Really unusual experience today.
For the first time I went to Fairway Market in Stamford. I’d seen the signs for it by the entrance to 95 and someone at work has mentioned it a couple times so I thought I’d take a drive and see what I see. Well, I saw a lot.

First of all, I’m not sure I can write a description that will do it justice. The place is HUGE. The produce section is unreal and I truly appreciate a good produce section. They had an olive oil tasting table where you could literally try 20 different olive oil. It was the largest selection of hummus I have ever encountered in my life. Wegmans has always had a special place in my heart (mostly because of Ithaca) and I appreciate Whole Foods, but this was something else. If you’re thinking of trying it, prepare mentally beforehand.

But what I want to share is that when I was checking out, I noticed that the cashier has charged me wrongly for my tomatoes. It was a ‘by weight’ order and I’d only bought one so it should be less than $1 and it rang out to $3.50 or so. So I told her something wasn’t right and she looked at me pretty confused and just said, well, you are buying tomatoes. …yes, I am, but the price…it isn’t right. Suddenly the man in line behind me sternly told her to ‘take it off her bill!’. She got flustered, naturally. ‘Give it to her for free! I work here and I want her to have a good experience!’ Silence and the exec quickly started motioning for a manager, but the bagger came around to help her take it off my bill. They were successful and I was granted 1 free tomato – thank you much.

Being a store executive in line, sure, it made sense for him to get involved, but his approach wasn’t right at all. He treated the cashier like she was incompetent and frankly he scared the hell out of me. I would be gushing if he had been kind to her and more graciously said he wanted to ensure my experience at the Fairway was a positive one. He had been so demanding; tension rose immediately the moment he said a word. I can think of 15 ways he could have improved my experience, but that wasn’t one of them. There is so much theory on service and no doubt, he has strong ‘textbook’ opinions on it, but I think he’s had very few customer interactions because this one didn’t go well.

Yes, I’ll be coming back, but I’m certain it wasn’t because of the wonderful service recovery exec-in-line provided. I wish him well though; I hope he figures that out soon because he’s working at a great store and they deserve to find loyal customers, maybe even me.

Not the only one

Small highlight of my day. there’s another kindred spirit out there named sarahbeth and actually not far away, in the Bronx. She makes jam and today I saw her line for the first time at Fairway. Pretty stoked to try this strawberry rhubarb jam.

I'm actually a little surprised that I've never googled this before. I want to go visit her kitchen some day...put it on the list : )

www.sarabeth.com

A Strong Affinity for Quiche

My favorite way to use up the food about to expire in my fridge is to make a quiche. Over the past years I’ve developed a great love for the dish - it’s delicious, it’s hard to mess up, and it contains the vegetables I always have in my fridge and am never using up quite fast enough.

There are a few key secrets, but once you have those down, you really can’t screw this one up.

• Use frozen deep pie crust – while there is a lesson in fortitude learned from making your own crust, the frozen ones are pretty fantastic and pretty cheap. So as my old boss always said 'why waste time reinventing the wheel?'
• Pre-bake the crust. Poke holes with a fork in the dough, then 10 minutes on 450F will do the trick.
• Make a simple custard – as I learned from Julia Child’s guidelines, the proportions are 1 large egg and milk to add up to a half cup. For the standard size crust I use, generally 1.5 cups of custard. Whisked with a touch of S&P.
• Sweat your Veggies – use whatever vegetables you love (or are getting a bit mature in your fridge..) and sweat them before putting the baking. Olive oil, S&P in a sauté pan.
• Assembly – cheese first, veggies next, more cheese (if you’re into that) then custard. Don’t fill to the top, it will rise a bit.
• Bake at 375F on a top rack in your oven for about 30 minutes, until firm and golden on top.

Tonight I just finished making one with green peppers, onions, garlic, champagne and parmesan cheese and garlic salsa. I really did not know how the flavors would combine, but it came out beautifully! I especially like the kick the salsa added the otherwise very savory taste – definitely a nice touch I will use again the next time.

Side note: you'll find a lot of recipes tell you that you need a lot of fats when the truth is you don't. You don't need butter, nor do you need cream. While they taste great, so does custard from eggs with skim milk. There are a million other ways to make it more delicious without adding more fat.

It's today

My mum has asked me what I do to pass the time and I’ve found there’s very little I know to share. Obviously running; it’s one of the few things I fight to keep in my weekly routine. Other than that…ummm? I work, but not crazy hours like some. I read, but not that avidly. I spend time with my friends, but doing what? Well, that’s hard to describe. I try to blog, but that’s once a week during a good phase. I see movies, but only once in awhile. I love to cook, but again, only on occasion do I put a lot of effort into my cooking. Well shoot, I don’t really know what I do and that truth scares me… a large quantity.

I’ve heard it said before that how you spend your days is how you live your life. While it at surface may seem apparent, think about it. Do you do the things that you want to be known for? Does the way you spend your time reflect the person you want to be? I’m really not sure.

quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger

I hate bull but sometimes I catch myself spewing it anyhow. Literally I’ll be sitting here writing up a post thinking I have this great idea, this unique perspective, and then I will read what’s on the screen and be disgusted with myself. It’s full of things I don’t actually know to be true, generalizations and probably a few offensive remarks as well.

I’m not one to press the Publish button immediately, but at the same time, I think I could be slower to the draw. Our generation in so many facets has lost its filter; free speech has picked up a distinct stench of entitlement. Yes, I think our opinions and perspectives are invaluable, but I think there’s more. So much to learn, so many ways our education is not complete. What would happen if I read through this a couple times/ thought over this a couple times before I actually put it out there? Well I might be called slow, but at least I’d have a better chance at being wise. Maybe.

As I finished writing this, the source popped into my head -- Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. James 1:19.