Tzatziki Recipe

Tzatziki Ingredients
To make the Greek Tzatziki, you need to have:
1/2 a pound of Greek yogurt
2 medium sized Kirby cucumbers
about 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped garlic
1/2 cup of fresh mint
1/2 cup of fresh chopped dill
1/3 of a cup of extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt (2 pinches)
fresh pepper (1 pinch)
Mix the Greek Yogurt and Herbs
You're going to take the yogurt and just put it into the bowl, make sure you have a whisk or some kind of spatula to mix it, add the garlic, and add the fresh chopped mint, and the dill, the olive oil.
Prepare the Cucumber
Just chop the heads of the cucumber, and them I'm taking the skin off and leaving the body skinless. And what I'm going to do next is chop the skin of the cucumber and the cucumber separately. Let's start with the cucumber itself. The cucumber doesn't have so much flavor, it's a lot of water, so its emulsified with the yogurt and the spices, and it creates the body of the Greek Tzatziki. And I'm adding the body of that cucumber into that mix.

Next, I'll do the same with the peel of the cucumber, then chop it nicely, small diced. Its very important that the cucumber will be fresh, and will be a Kirby cucumber, not the wax that you see in the supermarket. It has to be fresh if you want to get a good Greek Tzatziki.
Mix the Tzatziki Ingredients
I'm adding that to the mix. I will season that will a little salt and pepper. Now gently mix everything together, and that's how you make Greek Tzatziki.

Garlic Hummus

1 (15 1/2 ounce) can garbanzo beans (drained, but save the liquid)
6 tablespoons water (from the drained can you reserved)
salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cumin
3-5 tablespoons lemon juice (depending on taste)
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons tahini( if you don't have it you don't need it)
6-8 garlic cloves, minced

Combine all in a food processor until smooth.

Chill in the refrigerator and serve with pita triangles, veggies, crackers, or on a sandwich. Enjoy! We love it with chicken on a pita

Greek Potatoes

I wasn't born Greek--but I sure love their food.

One healthy Greek side dish that is loved the world over is Greek potatoes. It is easy to make and complements just about any meat or vegetable dish. Below are the ingredients you need:

8 large potatoes, peeled and cut into large wedges

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup water heat and mix in 2 Chicken bullion cubes or just use canned chicken bullion

half a cup olive oil

1 tablespoon oregano

1 teaspoon dried dill weed

1/4 cup lemon juice

salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat your oven to 440 degrees F. Mix all the ingredients in a large baking pan, then add salt and black pepper to season. Use a ladle to mix and toss everything in the pan. The garlic mix will permeate the potatoes, adding a nice flavor to them. This will also keep them from getting burned easily. Bake everything for 40 minutes. Check if there is already a nice golden brown color on the side of the potatoes. If so, give them a stir or turn them over to bring the other side up. Season this with a bit more salt and pepper. Add half a cup more chicken bullion if the potatoes are beginning to dry. Put it back in the oven and let the other side of potatoes turn golden brown, after about another 40 minutes. Once the other side has turned golden brown, your potatoes are done. Add a sprinkle of oregano, let cool for a few minutes, then serve.

Classic Layered Salad

Classic Layered Salad

Prep Time: 20 min
Total Time: 3 hr 20 min
Makes: 8 servings, 1 cup each





8 cups chopped iceberg lettuce
3/4 cup sliced red onions (about 1 small)
2 cups frozen peas, thawed (one 10-oz. pkg.)
1 pkg. (6 oz.) OSCAR MAYER Smoked Ham, chopped or crumbled bacon
3/4 cup KRAFT Mayo Real Mayonnaise
1/4 cup KRAFT 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup KRAFT Natural Three Cheese Crumbles
2/3 cup chopped tomatoes (about 2 small)



LAYER lettuce, onions, peas and ham in large straight-sided serving bowl.
MIX mayo, Parmesan cheese and sugar. Spread over salad to seal; cover. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.
TOP with cheese crumbles and tomatoes just before serving; toss gently.

Greek Chef's Secret Family Salad

A friend of ours in Calgary who owns a restaurant made us a wonderful Greek meal. I especially loved the Salad he made--it was simple.

One cucumber diced,
Two tomatoes or a bunch of cherry tomatoes diced,
Four green onions diced,
One can of black olives,


Layer the above ingredients on a plate or shallow pan in the order listed.
Drizzle with a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano.
Crumble Feta Cheese on top.

That's it! Hope you love it as much as me. It is best eaten fresh so only make what you can eat.

boring old choc. chip cookies...

No, not really... these are really good cookies... nice and soft and moist, best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've come across... they're easy, and taste sooo good! And if you can get them to last more than a couple days, they will stay nice and moist, they don't go all nasty and rock hard.

1 + 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (at room temp.)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 cup milk choc. chips

Mix flour, baking soda, salt. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla and egg... add flour mixture, beat together. Stir in choc. chips. Bake at 400 F until edges of cookies are slightly browned. Grease the pan if you like... but baking paper works WAY better :)

A couple of things about this recipe... you need to follow the amounts VERY carefully, no guess-timating... if you add a little too much, or not enough of something, they will NOT work out! And no substituting white sugar for the brown... or you'll be sorry. Bon appetite!

Cabbage Crunch Salad

2 T sesame seed
¼ C slivered almonds, toasted at 350, few mins
1 head shredded Napa cabbage
½ bunch green onions, chopped fine

Mix together with:
1 package chicken ramen, crumbled, add just before serving

Dressing:
2 T sugar
4 T red wine or rice vinegar
¼ t salt and pepper
1/3 C oil
½ package ramen flavor
Combine and pour over salad before serving and toss

Also good with chicken chunks and cubed cheese

Pic coming soon =)

Cinnamon Toast Blinis

1 pkg. (8 oz.) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
12 slices white bread, crusts removed
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix cream cheese, 1/4 cup of the sugar, vanilla, and egg yolk with a wire whisk until well blended. In seperate bowl, mix remaining sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
Flatten each bread slice with rolling pin. Spread 1 side of each slice evenly with 1 rounded Tbsp. cream cheese mixture. Starting at short end, tightly roll up. Brush each roll with butter; roll in reserved cinnamon/sugar mix. Slice each roll into 3 pieces.

Place each piece, seam side down, on baking sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Serve immediatly.

*I served this at a party with lots of other finger foods and it was a real hit. So good!

Easy Pot Pie

1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
Frozen or fresh veggies
Diced turkey or chicken - cooked
Stove Top stuffing mix

Combine can of chicken soup and milk. Mix in veggies of choice and add cooked chicken or turkey. Prepare stove top stuffing mix according to package directions. Spoon over mixture in casserole dish. Cover with tinfoil.

Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Remove cover for last 5 minutes of baking.

*This is a super easy meal when you are in a rush! Enjoy.

What's for supper?

How many times have we heard that before? I usually ask myself that question every other day! I find that coming up with something relatively new for supper each night can get pretty overwhelming. And on top of that, you have to search through tons of recipe books looking for that perfect recipe with in-the-cupboard-already ingredients. And what happens if it's not so great tasting?

This is why I decided to start this recipe blog. In hopes that family and friends can come together and help each other out by posting our tried and true favorite recipes and maybe encourage us to branch out from those to try some new ones!

Those that are participating in adding their recipes: Add a picture if you have one. If you don't, that's okay too! And don't forget to leave a few remarks about what you liked, didn't like or what you tweaked to make it your own!

Grab your recipes and let's get cookin'.

Am I cheesy or what? ;)