my first blog

wow. my first blog. thank you to my sister in law, lisa, for setting this up for me, and thank you, for my big brother, neil, having a birthday, the reason i flew to boston in the first place.

so, here we are. after two bottles of wine, i mentioned to lisa that i wanted to get web presence to talk about food, and maybe recharge my tv cooking career, and before you know it, i've got a website! how cool is that?

now you may ask, why am i beginning my illustrious (i hope) web career with this particular post? well, there are a few reasons. the first is, that whenever i fly to boston to see the family, i end up cooking, which makes me very happy. the second is, we go to interesting food markets, and i get to be creative..

ok, let's talk about that. neil took us to the deluxe town diner in watertown, ma for brunch. i had the best pancakes i have ever had in my life (this is a big deal). but what is more important, this diner was in the greek/armenian section of town. as soon as i saw the sign in the store window that said "fresh pita", i started fantasizing about tonight's birthday dinner for neil. i insisted we stop at the market next to the diner. the produce was colorful and beautiful, the cheese was fresh and pretty, and the groceries were so cool. i figured we could buy a leg of lamb from somewhere. So i wandered around the store and got funky little cucumbers, onion, tomato, red pepper, and some other stuff. i got feta cheese, greek yogurt, freshly baked pita...

so, all i need now was a leg of lamb. off to Whole Foods..(that's a story for another whole blog entry, how i love that store!)

ok, let's cut to the chase and tell you how dinner came out. i marinated the lamb in olive oil, lemon zest and juice, a little balsamic, some garlic, fresh rosemary, sea salt and freshly ground pepper. made a tzatziki sauce with cucumber, onion, mint, garlic, and greek yogurt.

I grilled baby eggplant, red , yellow and green peppers. I made hummus, a chopped salad with fresh romaine, mint, tomato and basil. Diced bulgarian feta went on top, with a sprinkling of extra virgin olive oil.

then, i grilled the lamb. The pita got thrown on the grill to heat up, and then we were ready.

I wish i had taken pictures of how beautiful the table was..we opened a few bottles of red wine, toasted neil's health and our good fortune to be together, and tucked in to a wonderful meal!

I figure with each of these entries, I'll include a recipe. Most of the time, though, my cooking just evolves from the senses. The colors, the smells, the feel of the ingredients. that's why i say "food happens." so, don't panic if some of my recipes don't have exact measures, and say things like, "a pinch of this" or "a splash of that."

So, here's the recipe for the tzatziki:

2 cups greek yogurt (thankfully found in almost every store these days)
1 small cucumber, peeled and seeded
about a quarter of a white onion (i used a vidalia, it's a little sweeter)
one garlic clove
4 or 5 mint leaves, chopped
a squeeze of lemon juice
salt and freshly ground pepper

• put the cucumber, onion and garlic in a food processor, and pulse until just chopped. 
• remove to a mixing bowl. 
• add the yogurt, lemon juice, chopped mint and season to taste with the salt and pepper.
• put in the refrigerator and allow to sit for about an hour before using, so the flavors can marry.

ok, that's it for now. it's time for the next meal....