St. Patrick's Day...

...but where's the green?

Hidden, in the spanokopita. The greens in it are not only the traditional spinach, but a bit of last spring's nettles -- all of this, of course, from the magic freezer.

Accompanying it is the last of our previous night's pasta, mixed up with some chunks of the leftover salmon.

Faith and begorrah, RV-style.

Supposedly, a 'day of infamy'

But not around here. Today’s more a 'day of in-family', as December 7th is the day my dad should have been celebrating his birthday.

At least he managed to get in some good travels before he died. One of his favourite destinations was Greece. So in his honour we’re thinking of him tonight by having moussaka, along with homous and Greek salad, as well as baked rounds of eggplant and hot peppers.

I think he would have enjoyed sharing tonight’s supper with us.

Cheers and Opa, JB!

Something to celebrate

Since two of my favourite men have pieces in an art show that's opening tonight, we're celebrating with Greek food at one of our favourite restaurants.

Only as it turns out, in the all the excitement, I didn't take a picture of our supper! Trust me though, it was beautiful -- a tableful of assorted appetizers. There was lots of everybody's favourite, calimari with tzatziki, and much more: chicken livers, fried cheese (saganaki), Greek salad, dolmades, homous and pita bread.

Having a bunch of plates to choose from made it feel like a family supper at home.

At least I got a picture of one of the desserts. The gallery was filled with all kinds of Christmasy treats, including a punchbowl of eggnog someone described (accurately) as 'sinful'. Too many glasses of it would have led to bad driving and maybe even a heart attack. But oh, a single glass, totally worth it!

Something restauranty

It's another of those evening literary readings at our local coffee house. Because of our reno, the kitchen/dining area isn't the best for hosting guests. As a result, I'm taking our author out to a local restaurant of her choice.

Menu and photo will appear post-event.

Not exactly what I'd planned to post. Between ordering and chatting and relaxing, I managed to forget to take a picture of my supper. Trust me, it was good. This bit of homous is all that remains.

Long distance birthday celebrations

Today is the birthday of our friend Kim, or as she's called these days, Chim. She's just back from Greece and seems so heartsick over missing her friends there, we've decided to salute her birthday with our take on Greek food -- even though she's about a province and a half away.

Moussaka (Canadian-style, with buffalo, not lamb), homous, feta, bread and salad. The green olives don't look quite right, but it's all in the spirit of things.

Long life, Chimmy -- Opa!

One pot wonder

Slow cooking for most of the day, tonight's supper is built around a pot of lamb shanks. Late additions to the pot included onions and parsnip and carrots. With a salad, pita, homous, and a hunk of beautifully runny goat cheese, although the lamb's from New Zealand, I'm calling this supper Greek food.

Early birthday celebrations

Tomorrow is the day that's actually the Dear Man's birthday, only he's not going to be home for supper tomorrow night. Instead, he's spending the day doing what's dearest to his heart -- playing golf. He's participating in a tournament and a fancy dinner is part of the event.

I've got heaps to do tomorrow too, so it's just as well to have our celebratory meal tonight. Dear-hearted man that he is, his request was a simple one: he wanted an assortment of takeaway from the local Greek place. Really, how hard was that? It's no wonder he's known as the D.M.

Dessert (not a birthday cake) was also super easy. A couple of pieces of baklava, accompanied by a first-time (for both of us) taste treat, fresh dates. The dates didn't taste anything like what I'd imagined. More like tiny, rather juiceless apples. Still, they went perfectly with the honeyed baklava.

Mediterranean tour

Earlier this summer, friends of ours went on a cruise of the Mediterranean. So tonight we were invited for Mediterranean food and a 'tour' via slides they showed on their tv.

I'd never associate mango with Mediterranean cooking, but I'm ready to become a believer. Marinated chicken breasts were roasted on the barbie, then sliced and tossed with mango, olives, grapes, lemon juice and olive oil -- then the whole dish was finished off with yet another salad dressing/sauce.

Even though we'd already eaten our way through cheesed bread rounds and tapenade, we happily chowed down on the chicken as well as spanakopita and a fabulous Greek salad. We needed to wait a while before the baklava, but that tasted mighty fine too.

The only sad part about our meal was the thought, as we viewed the stunning photos of Greece, that so much of that country is currently in flames.

Can't complain

When the leftovers are this varied, everybody can find what makes them happy. Dolmades, homous, spanakopita, it goes on. How lucky to have all of this birthday Greekness as leftovers to chcoose from. The days of summer -- always the best.

The birthday request

We sure have a lot of birthdays around here. What a lucky thing, as birthday supper is when you get to choose the menu, or at least the theme. This time, the request was for Greek. So, with a few liberties, Greek it was.

The view above is just the condiments on the table: szatziki, homous, the D.M.'s famous eggplant dip, pitas, feta and three kinds of olives.

The mains were broader, with lots of vegie choices, as even the dolmades were meat-free. Spanakopita, tabouli, altogether too many choices!

But yes, the carnivores were happy too. Besides the (not very Greek sausage) and lemon/garlic chicken on the barbie, a leg of lamb had roasted in the oven.

Of course, no birthday would be complete without some sort of celebratory dessert. This time, it was Brenna's famous (and hard to beat) cake.

What's your request?

Nearly a Greek island

Except for the fact that Hornby's in the Pacific and not the Mediterranean, tonight's meal was a pretty fun imitation of what we might have had in Greece.

Local lamb, dolmades, homous, a Greekish sort of salad (with lots of excellent Saltspring feta). I recooked the failed quinoa from last night, then added garlic and lots of basil, plus lemon juice and olive oil -- not quite tabouli, but nicely acceptable.

Still in Greek mode

Only tonight it's moussaka -- Western style, with ground buffalo.
It's a little cool today, so it seemed sane enough to have the oven on while I played around with the strawberries.

Some homous and a funny kind of mixed-up salad. Oh yes, fresh local strawberries for dessert.

Lazy Friday

I was out to a luncheon at a restaurant today. While I was there, I decided to be lazy and order something to take home for supper. An appetizer of calimari sounded like the ticket. A couple of pitas and some satziki even came along with it.

So tonight, while the calimari and pita warmed up in the oven, I made an odd sort of pseudo-Greek salad (blue cheese instead of feta, no olives) and then spooned out some homous.

Sort of Greek, very Friday, very lazy.

I've got Greeky friends...

And, I suppose, a few geeky ones.

Tonight's supper gets bumped up a notch, and has to be called dinner. And more than just dinner, it's a dinner party with Greek food on the menu.

The photo above is only the appetizers. The rest of the meal filled an entire table. There was spanakopita, lemony potatoes, pita and homous, Greek salad, and wonderful skewered things done on the barbecue -- mushrooms and peppers and hunks of sweet chicken.

There were also two choices (nearly all of us took both) of cakes for dessert.

Opa!

Lazy Mediterranean

Ah, if only it had been a lazy Mediterranean day. Instead, it was a plain old work day.

Supper is nice and lazy though. Some chicken thighs baked with olive oil, the last of a hot sauce from yesterday, some chunks of garlic, and the juice of a lemon squeezed over top. A baked potato for sharing, some store-bought dolmades from a tin. Leftover bread and homous.

Sort of a Greek salad -- a tomato, pepper and cuke with feta.

Lazy, and just fine for a demanding Monday.

Saturday a la Greque

Since we pretty much always have homous in the fridge, Greek usually presents itself as an easy option. Tonight is no different. There's lamb on the barbie, lemony potatoes in the oven and a sort-of-Greek salad (as far as I'm concerned, if there's feta in the salad, it's sort-of-Greek). Hard to believe, but even after last night's fondue, there's still a butt of that baguette left. Chunks of it should be fine for lopping on the homous and dipping into the various juices from the rest of the food.

Monday night farewell

I'm leaving tomorrow, at dawn no less, for some lazy time in the sun. Who knows whether I'll be able to keep reporting on what my suppers are. All I can promise is that I'll try.

But tonight, while I'm packing, it's going to be Greek food. I'm heating up the last batch of the summer's lamb dolmades, baking a little lamb rack that had been lolling in the freezer, and rounding it out with some premade (needing only to be baked) calimari.

I added some grated cuke to a bit of store-bought dip and ranch dressing -- not quite tzatziki, but with a sprinkle of dill and some garlic, it will have to do. I did make some fresh homous, so that will help. A salad with feta cheese, and that'll do it. Whew! No wonder I'm going on hols...

Monday night leftovers

What a treat to be able to have such an easy supper! We had such a bunch of leftovers from last night, all I had to do was divide it up and heat it in the oven.

Because I had a few chick peas/garbanzo beans in the fridge, I used them to make a bit of homous to go with the pita breads. I added feta cheese to the salad, and it was all as easy as if we were back at the restaurant.

Okay, there are dishes to wash in the kitchen, but who knows, maybe someone from the restaurant will show up and look after those too??

Birthday goes Opa!

Our Sunday night supper was a birthday party. Because I'd been out at the prison all day again, it meant we had to celebrate at a local restaurant. Although we all shared around, family-style, I ordered a plateful of decadence, calimari. Probably not great on the cholesterol scale, but not something I make at home, so one of those tasty now-and-then treats.

Monday night surprise

This was one of those nights when I had no idea what was going to be for supper. It seemed as though we'd been eating just about everything known to man. Besides, I'd worked all day and didn't feel much like getting creative in the kitchen.

Luckily, last summer saw me filling up the freezer. So tonight I pulled out some lamb dolmades (I'd made them using some of the plentiful supply of grape leaves over the neighbour's fence) and a panful of spanakopita. The meal was rounded out with fresh homous from the weekend, and a salad with some chunks of feta tossed into it.

All in all, not a bad surprise.