Gina's soon-to-be-famous couscous salad

I can't take any of the credit for this one since it is all gina's creation (that's her on the left in the photo, i am on the right). i can say that this is a wonderful summer dish - very light and refreshing. easy too.

• cook couscous according to the package directions (plain couscous) (i made a double batch - 2c ea of water & couscous), set aside & let cool
• cut a zucchini into 4ths and slice it, put it on a baking sheet, spray w/ olive oil pam and fresh ground pepper, cook at 350 degrees just until it is soft (don't cook it all the way, maybe 5-10 mins), set aside and let cool (you can completely forego this step and substitute diced cucumbers - i haven't tried this yet but gina & i think it will be yummy. i will be able to report on this edit after my nexct try as i will use the cucumber next time, just so that i know)
  
• dice 1/4 of each of the following: red, green, yellow & orange peppers; red onion; sweet (vidalia) onion
• slice 1 scallion (the whole thing, white and green parts)
• put all the above ingredients in a big bowl with 1/2 cup crumbled feta; 3-4 tablespoons of good olive oil (please, for the sake of all things good and holy, please do not use spanish oil - greek is preferred, at least by me, but i might be biased :-P ); juice of 1/2 lemon
• mix well and chill for at least 2 hrs
• options prior to serving: mix in freshly sliced tomatoes and greek olives
  
• serve cold in smaller bowls and enjoy!
  

pizza!!!

i found a recipe for tomato-chicken pizza in fitness magazine and just HAD to make it. i love margherita pizza and this was kind of like a margherita with chicken. i added mushrooms to the recipe and made it. it was delicious but then it got my mind working. the next try was a margherita pizza (complete w/ fresh, not shredded mozzarella) which was also spectacular but the most recent one was the best by far. dinner last night (and cold as lunch today) was a chicken-artichoke-mushroom sauceless pizza (sliced roma tomatoes instead of sauce). start with your choice of pizza crust (i have been using boboli wheat crusts), thinly slice some fresh garlic (about 2 cloves) and sprinkle it on the crust, lay tomato slices on top of the garlic, sprinkle chicken (i used the pre-sliced already cooked "shortcuts" chicken), artichoke hearts (get the packed in water ones but you may want to dry them pretty well after draining them before you put them on the pizza) and sliced mushrooms all over the pizza. mozarella on top - your choice. i use thin slices of the ball mozzarella (although i had to supplement it w/ shredded last time). cook according to package directions and enjoy... i didn't think to take the photo of the whole pizza last night, so this is the remaining piece of the chicken-artichoke-mushroom pizza

my pride & joy

hubby comes home one day after a meal out with people (maybe after a conference?) and says that he had some orange-bourbon salmon & it was really good...hint, hint. so i set myself to figuring out how to make this meal he loves so much. i looked online but wasn't very happy with the recipes i found, so i came up with this one pretty much on my own. i didn't take a photo of the 1st attempt, which looked a little better since i was more successful at reducing the sauce but i will redo this one and try to get the sauce right so that i can use my new squeeze bottle to drizzle the reduction rather than just pouring it all over the plate. this is a surprisingly easy sauce too - zest of 2 oranges (reserve zest from one for the end), 1/4 c each of orange juice (fresh squeezed), brown sugar (1/8 if you are using the splenda/brown sugar blend), soy sauce and bourbon (since it is getting cooked not drunk, i use the cheapest swill they have at the store - you just need it for the flavour). marinade the salmon for about 30 mins then put the whole conconction in a pan (sauce and all) and place some slices of orange on top of the salmon and cover the pan with foil. cook at 350 for about 20 mins (this will also depend on the thickness of the salmon). take off the foil and cook a few more mins to get it browned on the top and remove from the oven. if you are adventurous, you can turn the marinade into a reduction - cook on the stovetop over med heat until it reduces to your thickness preference - if need be, you can always add some cornstarch (don't worry about lumps, i learned on GMA that you can just run it through a strainer to get them out and noone will ever know). plate the salmon with a slice or 2 of orange and the reserved zest and either spoon or drizzle the sauce over the top...

omelette

they say that breakfast is the most important part of the day. i disagree, i think any meal that i cook is important. i am just happy that i finally learned how to fold an omelette nicely (i am impresed with my skills sometimes). if i am not mistaken, this is turkey, swiss, spinach, onion and green pepper. veggie sausage patties completed the meal and i have my potatoes to fill in the blanks on the plate. i generally love food prep (especially dicing the veggies) but i despise peeling potatoes (when i am rich & famous and have my sous chef, he or she will definitely be doing all the potato peeling for me) so i am really thankful for those green bags of the already diced potatoes & onions - just add some oregano, salt & paprika & you are good to go :-)

just because

This isn't anything special, just a little appetizer hubby & i put together. i am lucky to have a guy who both appreciates my efforts and tries to do the same. i am just including this because it is pretty (we like coulourful dishes) - i think there are anchovies on here, which will tell me that it was most likely plated by hubby since he is the only one around here who eats those stinky little buggers. can you tell we like cheese in our house though? i think cheese is its own food group :-P

appetizers

one of my favorite parts of working at the museum was the receptions we would have for exhibit openings. in addition to the really cool part of getting to meet some of the artists, i got to do some large scale appetizer experimenting. two of my favorites are cucumber-cream cheese crudite (for lack of a better word) and my turkey-cucumber-gouda sandwiches.

for the crudite, i used crescent rolls (i tried using pizza dough once, but it wasn't as good). they now have crescent roll dogh for recipes so it doesn't have the cuts in it. take a biscuit cutter to it and you are good to go. bake them till they are puffy & golden, then top with garden veggie cream cheese, a cucumber slice (i peeled them, but it is up to you) and a sprinking of dill (since i can be a little lazy when it comes to my spices, i used dried in the jar dill but it still works fine). they are simple but a true crowd pleaser


equally simply are turkey-cucumber-gouda finger sandwiches. to save time, i used packages of cocktail bread (i found it in the deli section of the grocery near the good cheeses) but i don't know if i was too happy with it. it started to curl up after a while so i think that if i do this one again, i might use regular bread or even a loaf of good bread and cut it myself. but it's up to anyone making this. i put a little mayo on the bread more for lubrication that anything else, some turkey ( i got a package of the thicker sliced turkey & cut it to fit the bread - i had to cut off the curved ends, but that just left me with lots of pieces to go into an omelette so it didn't go to waste), the bread was the perfect size for a slice of cucumber and i, of course had to cut the gouda to fit). anyways, it was a pretty nice snack...

spinach & cheese fritatta

I can't take too much responsibility for this recipe as it is a weight watchers one. for the most part, unless something is just really obvious, i tend to follow recipes closely the 1st time and decide from there what needs to be changed. since i have been delinquent in my postings and this is an older dish, i can't remember if it is turkey bacon or fakin' bacon (since we do both around here) but, judging by the curls in it, i think it must be turkey bacon. i wish i had made potatoes this morning since the plate was a little empty (note the grapes - just as in my art, i apparently dislike negative space on my plating as well). anyhow, this dish is not too terribly interesting, but i was pretty proud of how nicely it came out on my 1st try at fritatta so i figured i would post it. although i think my next one will be better because one of the highlights of being without electricity for 7 days is that i am now the proud owner of a cast iron pan so i can properly melt the cheese on the fritatta in the oven.

Aphro Chicken (Koutopoulo tis Aphroditis)

this is one of my famous "adaptations" of a rachael ray recipe. at this point, i have made it my way for so long that i don't even remember what the original was supposed to be like. all i know is that my husband LOVES this dish. note the plating as we believe that presentation is key and if it looks prettier on the plate, it will taste better (this hypothesis has not been scientifically tested or proven, but, whatever)

Did you miss me?

well, since i am done with school and currently not gainfully employed, i can finally take the time to update this blog. at least i have been very dutiful about taking photos of my creations if they have not made it to the blog. but i promise to be better about it now that i have all this free time and, hey, any little bit of procrastination from cleaning will always be welcomed :) anyways, enjoy catching up on the last 6 months in my kitchen...