I have been so happy to have a kitchen again, and I’ve been cooking up a storm. I thought I’d post about some of the dinners in case you’re wondering what to make tonight!

A few good dishes:

Autumn salad:

Braeburn apples, Bartlett pears, red grapes, sharp cheddar, and a dressing of reduced apple juice, apple cider vinegar, olive oil and pepper.
I made this salad alongside chicken and dumplings, which I didn’t photograph, but was very good.

Chicken and Dumplings (recipe from my mom)

Boil a whole chicken (or pieces if you prefer) until chicken is cooked in a large stockpot with chopped celery, carrot, and onion. Also add 2 bay leaves, 8+ cloves of garlic. Remove chicken (keep cooking liquid!), cool, and shred. At this point, you can strain the broth in your stockpot or you can eat everything but the bay leaves. If you remove the carrots etc. you can now throw in frozen mixed vegetables now. To thicken, I made a roux with about 1/4 cup milk and stirred it into the broth. You can also just add Wondra. Return shredded chicken to the broth and return to a simmer. Mix up a batch of Bisquick mix and place blobs of it on the surface. It will bubble and cook (but remain gooey). Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper into individual bowls. Serve!

For dessert, we had cinnamon sugar pretzels from Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cooking Made Light. They are a lighter take on a Cinnabon-style pretzel, using Brigford frozen bread dough, which is formed, boiled, then brushed with honey and baked. Once browned they are brushed with a cinnamon-powdered sugar glaze.

This is a pretty standard caprese salad, but I made a balsamic reduction sauce.

Balsamic Reduction Sauce:

Bring 2 cups of balsamic vinegar and 1/8 cup brown sugar to a low, rolling boil. Cook until reduced at least in half. You can tell it is thickening by sticking a spoon into the sauce to see how slowly it drips. The process will take at least 30 minutes. Don’t try to cook it with a higher heat; it will burn. Once finished, it’s thick and syrupy like chocolate fudge sauce. You can place it in a plastic squeeze bottle if you have one! I drizzled with a spoon.

Caprese Salad

Slice tomatoes and fresh mozzarella and arrange on plate. Chiffonade* basil and sprinkle over the top. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil (or reduction sauce), freshly ground pepper, and sea salt.

*Chiffonade: roll the leaves lengthwise and slice them from one rolled end to the other to create thin strips.

Quick tomato cream sauce:

Start with our friend, the roux. Add 1/4 cup 1% milk, and 1/8 cup parmesan cheese. Whisk until blended. (This is basically alfredo sauce!) Combine this with store-bought marinara sauce. I also boiled some fresh English peas I found at Trader Joe’s and added them to the sauce.

I also cooked some Greek dishes on Sunday night. I didn’t photograph them, but they all turned out so well, I thought I’d provide the recipes.

I have been craving Skordalia, a Greek dip similar to hummus that I have only ever found in Greektown restaurants in Detroit. Since my dad and brother recently went there, I’ve been thinking about it. It’s a dip of russet potatoes, garlic, almonds, and vinegar pureed and served with pita bread. Mine turned out well, but did not taste the same as I remembered. The recipe was from Food Network and you can find it here.

I also made an improvised Greek rice and a standard Greek salad:

Greek Salad

Dressing:

1/4 cup vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tsp. each dried oregano, basil, and thyme (I used fresh thyme) and minced garlic

1 tsp. Greek seasoning

Salad:

Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, pitted Kalamata olives, Feta cheese

Greek Rice

2 cups cooked white rice

2 tsp. each dried basil, oregano

2 tsp. minced fresh garlic

5 tbl. fresh lemon juice

2 tbl. olive oil

2 tsp. Greek seasoning

2 tsp. fresh thyme

Combine all ingredients and leave to sit for a few hours in the fridge for flavors to marry. Serve hot.

Next I made gyros from Cooking Light. The recipe is here. It includes a recipe for a tzatiki-like sauce, which wasn’t quite on point for me. I added fresh dill and more mint and it got much closer to what I remember.  I also recommend leaving this one in the fridge for the flavors to marry. Additionally, I shredded the red onion with a cheese grater rather than placing large slices into the sauce. It was chunky enough already! The gyros were delicious and the sauce really made it!