Note: I was sent a copy of The Greek Slow Cooker for review. Opinions are mine alone.
It’s been quite a while since I posted. Since sheltering-in-place became our new normal in Philadelphia, I’ve been cooking a lot of my old recipes, but haven’t had the creativity (or honestly, the energy) to make many new recipes. In the hopes of having some inspiration, I started paging through some of the many cookbooks I have, and came across this recipe for Arnaki Lemonato – Slow Cooker Lamb in a Zesty Lemon Sauce.
Written by Eleni Vonissakou, the cookbook is a great source of Greek dishes adapted for slow cookers and includes 75 different Greek recipes. I adapted the recipe below a bit for what I was able to get through my local grocery delivery options.
Ingredients:
2 lbs baby potatoes (cut the larger ones up so that the sizes of all the potatoes are similar)
2 large carrots, sliced (about 1 cup)
the juice and zest of 2 lemons, divided
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 garlic cloves, pressed in a garlic press, or very finely minced
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried sumac (can omit if you cannot find this spice)
I am very much on the pressure cooker bandwagon. It’s awesome for tough cuts of meat, cooking beans, and other processes that can take forever, but my favorite use is speeding up recipes just enough to make them weeknight friendly!
We don’t actively follow the Mediterranean Diet, but following it can help reduce reduce inflammation, avoid disease, and lose weight, making it popular for anyone looking to live a healthier lifestyle. The Everything Mediterranean Instant Pot Cookbook shows you how to recreate classic Mediterranean meals in under an hour using the much-loved multi-cooker, the Instant Pot. With more than 300 recipes for delicious meals, snacks, and even desserts, you’ll have everything you need to create healthy, fresh, and fast meals every day of the week!
As I mentioned, I’ve already made a few recipes in here, but I wanted to share these recipe for Lemon Orzo with Crab and Herbs, which I’ve slightly adapted from the original in the cookbook.
Ingredients (serves 2):
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium shallot, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 fresh parsley, chopped, plus more for garnish
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped, plus more for garnish
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
2 cups water (or chicken broth for more flavor)
8 oz orzo
8 oz jumbo lump crab meat
the juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for garnish
Note: I was sent samples and giveaway items in order to write this post. Opinions are my own.
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is having a great start to the new year! I wanted to share a fun party idea to keep the merriment going throughout these chilly months: a Bravazzi Hard Italian Soda Bar!
Bravazzi (pronounced “brah-VAH-tsee”) is a hard Italian soda brand with yummy flavors like Clementine, Blood Orange, Lemon, and Grapefruit. Inspired by gourmet Italian sodas, Bravazzi excites the senses with its naturally sweet, fizzy essence and fruity aroma. The sodas are gluten free, contain 4.2% ABV, and are made with simple ingredients like cane sugar and real fruit juice.
The name Bravazzi is derived from the Italian word for good, Brava, and Fizzi, which is the perfect way to describe these hard sodas! The flavors are super tasty and are delicious on their own, but are also great for mixing to make cocktails.
Bravazzi sent me some goodies just before New Year’s Eve, so I decided to make a simple Cocktail Bar. All you need to make a few different cocktails is the Bravazzi Variety Pack, some sparkling wine, Aperol, Gin, Elderflower Liqueur, and Bourbon, and you have a Bravazzi Hard Italian Soda Bar!
Plus, I have some items to give away! Details will be at the end of this post.
As I said, these really are fantastic on their own, but if you have extra champagne (or prosecco) lying around, add one part bubbly and one part the Bravazzi of your choice for a fun and easy champagne cocktail!
For the Clementina, which has the fragrant essence of freshly-peeled citrus with a kiss of subtle sweetness, I suggest the Clementina Aperol Spritz – one part Aperol and three parts Bravazzi Clementina poured over ice, for a taste of summer to keep you warm in these colder months.
More of a lemon fan? The Limonata Fizz is calling your name. Bravazzi’s Limonata has the crisp, clean bite of real lemon with a touch of natural sweetness. Add one part Gin to four parts Bravazzi Limonata in a glass filled with ice for a wonderfully refreshing cocktail.
If you love the flavor of grapefruit, Bravazzi’s invigorating blend of tart and tangy grapefruit is refreshingly bittersweet and going to become a favorite choice. Whip up a Bravazzi Cordial by adding one part elderflower liqueur to three parts Bravazzi Grapefruit over ice.
My favorite is the Blood Orange, a burst of distinctly bold yet delightfully sweet citrus flavor. Enjoy the flavors of an Old Fashioned by mixing one part bourbon with four parts Bravazzi Blood Orange in a glass over ice.
There’s a little bit of something for everyone, don’t you think? Bravazzi has more suggestions on different cocktail combinations on the Bravazzi website, so be sure to check them out. You can also find out where Bravazzi is sold near you!
On to the giveaway! Bravazzi provided me with some fun gear to help one lucky winner set up their own Bravazzi Hard Italian Soda Bar!
Enter to win a Bravazzi metal bucket, two Bravazzi tumblers and a Bravazzi T-shirt below. Good luck!
Tomorrow, March 19th, is the Feast of St. Joseph, an important feast day in Italy or more specifically, Sicily. St. Joseph is particularly important to Sicilians, because he is credited with preventing a famine in Sicily during the Middle Ages through prayer. Each year, a large feast is prepared in his honor. Desserts typically include Zeppoli and Italian Fig Cookies.
Italian Fig Cookies, or Cuccidati, also tend to show up around Christmastime, so they are more of a “celebratory” cookie than linked to any specific holiday.
I wasn’t ready to conquer Zeppoli just yet, so I thought I’d try Italian Fig Cookies! This recipe is based off a recipe from Epicurious.
Note: I was sent a sample of Speck Alto Adige PGI in order to write this post. All opinions are mine alone. #sponsored
During the winter, I cannot get enough comfort food recipes. To me, Italian food is the ultimate comfort food — usually quite simple to make, with a few high quality ingredients that make the meal good enough to share with company.
I wanted to highlight an ingredient that you may not have heard about before: Speck Alto Adige PGI. From the Alto Adige region of Italy, Speck Alto Adige PGI is ham that has been air cured and lightly smoked. It can be used in recipes that call for bacon or prosciutto, and add a nice smoky, herby flavor to the dish. When buying, look for the PGI certification. The PGI certification of Speck Alto Adige means “protected geographical indication” and ensures that you are buying an authentic product made in its area of origin under strict guidelines.
To highlight the uncommon but delicious flavor of Speck Alto Adige PGI, I decided to make a speck and anchovy pasta topped with garlic breadcrumbs.
This recipe for Speck and Anchovy Pasta with Garlic Breadcrumbs is based off an Epicurious recipe and delivers great flavor without a lot of effort. It just so happens to mostly use ingredients that I tend to have around my house, so that was a nice perk too!
I’m trying to do more food prep on weekends for busy weekdays. Breakfasts are relatively easy; I make a batch of muffins and freeze the extras for future weeks, or make overnight oats or chia seed pudding in individual jars. For dinner, I tend to make something in my slow cooker and/or pressure cooker and then buy ingredients for short weeknight-friendly meals for the rest of the week. But lunch can be a bit of a challenge. We make salads from time to time, but I wanted to branch out a bit and make something we could add to a sandwich – shredded chicken salad.
I made this from scratch using my Pressure Cooker, but you could also use shredded rotisserie chicken.
Ingredients (makes 4 servings):
Chicken:
3 pound whole chicken
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
Chicken Salad:
if not making your own chicken: 1 (3 lb) rotisserie chicken
I love the combination of chocolate and pumpkin together. So when I was trying to think of an update to a traditional cookie, my mind went right to these flavors, which brings me to this recipe for Chocolate Pumpkin Rugelach.
Rugelach are the perfect cookies for this combo. Traditional rugelach uses an apricot spread that is sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, walnuts, and raisins, and then rolled into a spiral. The pumpkin butter takes the place of the apricot spread, and mini chocolate chips are substituted in for the walnuts and raisins.
As someone who does her best to cook a bunch of meals over the weekends to eat during the week, my slow cooker is one of my most used appliances. I recently tried to move it into a closet to declutter my kitchen, but I keep asking my husband to help me retrieve it so often that he’s questioning its removal from our counter top.
One of my favorite takeout meals is Butter Chicken, so I wanted to learn how to make a version at home.
I based this recipe off a recipe from NY Times food, but adjusted it for the slow cooker, because we all know how much I love a slow cooker recipe. My version makes about 8 servings.
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups Greek yogurt
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 ½ tablespoons ground turmeric
2 tablespoons garam masala
2 tablespoons ground cumin
3 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
2 onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 cinnamon stick
4 whole tomatoes from a 14oz can of whole tomatoes (~1/2 of the can), chopped
I’ve been trying to think up more bring-to-work lunch ideas recently. We tend to just eat leftovers or traditional salads for lunch, which can get boring quickly.
So when my Hungry Harvest (note: this is a referral link) came with absolutely huge cucumbers, I figured I could make a slightly different lunch (or a make ahead side for dinner) with it!
This dish has chickpeas to make it a bit more hearty, red onions for flavor (and color), and of course, cucumbers. I tossed all of those in a lemony, zesty ranch Greek yogurt mixture.
Ingredients:
1 large (or two medium) cucumber(s), cut into bite sized pieces
One of my favorite new-ish shows is PBS’s No Passport Required with Marcus Samuelsson. Each episode explores the immigrant communities and food within different U.S. cities. There have only been 6 shows, but I’m hooked. Each episode includes Chef Samuelsson meeting, hanging out, and eating with members of the different immigrant communities in Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago, Queens, Miami, and Washington, D.C.
Not only is the show really interesting and informative, it’s difficult to not get hungry while watching,! PBS luckily includes some recipes on their website. But there was one I was hoping they’d post and at least as of this post, it’s not there: Ful Medames from the Washington, D.C. episode which highlighted the Ethiopian community in our nation’s capital.
Ful Medames is a breakfast dish of mashed fava beans, topped with hard boiled eggs, feta cheese, tomato, and jalapeno. I’ve had a bag of dried fava beans sent to me from Bob’s Red Mill in my pantry for a while now, and I knew they were destined for this recipe. Not only does Ful Medames sound fantastic, but my husband is currently training for a marathon, and this sounded like the perfect fuel after a long training run.
Ful Medames gets a lot of its flavor from a spice blend called berbere. Berbere is an Ethiopian spice mixture that usually includes chilies, garlic, ginger, basil, fenugreek, coriander, and cardamom. It is spicy, but I adjusted so this version doesn’t have too much heat. Feel free to add more for spiciness. For my local Philadelphians, I found berbere in The Head Nut in Reading Terminal, but there are recipes online to make your own at home if you don’t live near a spice shop. Penzey’s also has a version of berbere.
My version isn’t terribly authentic, but the general idea is there. I used soft boiled eggs instead, solely because I don’t love hard boiled eggs. Feel free to substitute in hard-boiled.
Note: Before cooking with the fava beans, be sure to soak them overnight.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups dried fava beans, soaked overnight
5 cups water, plus more as needed
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided, plus more for serving
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons berbere, divided
3/4 teaspoon cumin, divided
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 eggs (omit for vegan)
1 tomato (or ~4 oz cherry tomatoes), finely chopped
1 jalapeno, seeds and membranes removed, finely chopped
Note: I was sent Northwest Cherries in order to write this post. All opinions are mine alone.
When it comes to summer get togethers, there tend to be plenty of mouths to feed. So I’m a big fan of crowd recipes that feed multiple people, or allow you to make ahead and portion out as you like!
With cherries in season, there is no better time to make a simple Cherry Slab Pie. Slab pie is just pie made in a sheet pan with sides, which is a great option for making dessert for a bunch of people. It’s a bit more rustic, so you don’t really have to worry about perfecting your pie crust skills (it will still taste awesome!)
Ingredients:
Slab pie (serves 12):
8 cups fresh cherries, destemmed and pitted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
the juice and zest of 1 large lemon
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 store bought refrigerated 9-inch pie crusts (2 packages)
I’ve mentioned before that once warmer weather is here, I make it a priority to use my grill instead of my oven/stovetop whenever I can, like with this recipe for Grilled Lamb Pita Pockets. It keeps the temperature down in my house, and it’s super easy to grill! Plus, who doesn’t love the flavor that grilling adds to food?
I had a craving for lamb this week, so I decided to make grilled lamb pita pockets for dinner one night. I grilled lamb meatballs on skewers and then topped the meatballs with a drizzle of tzatziki and a Greek-inspired pesto sauce with some extra feta and cucumbers for good measure. I unfortunately didn’t have any tomatoes on hand, but would strongly suggest adding chopped tomatoes as well!
Note: I was sent Northwest Cherries in order to write this post. All opinions are mine alone.
July is peak cherry season, which means I have A TON of cherries in my fridge! I was sent quite a few bags of cherries from Northwest Cherry Growers, and had to dive right in to using them! Fun fact: Northwest Cherry Growers is a group of 2,500+ farms that produce at least three-quarters of the nation’s entire sweet cherry crop.
Source: nwcherries.com
Northwest-grown sweet cherries tend to boast the highest fruit sugar content of any cherries. The naturally high sugar content makes them such a yummy snack on their own, or great in baked goods and other recipes. They are also one of the lowest fruits on the glycemic index. (In case you’re wondering, a general rule of thumb is that the darker the cherry, the sweeter it is.)
Cherries are also a superfruit and have been credited with reducing the risk of some serious diseases. Published research points to the health benefits of sweet cherries, including a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The study discovered consuming sweet cherries can help prevent chronic inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis and cancer. These powerful superfruits also contain melatonin, which may increase your quality of sleep and reduce jetlag.
Cherry season is pretty short, from July to mid-August, so I’m excited to have the opportunity to use these beautiful cherries in a bunch of different recipes. Fresh cherries keep for approximately two weeks when refrigerated in a sealed bag or container. If you want to enjoy them year-round, you can also freeze cherries by rinsing, drying, and packing them up in freezer bags.
Source: nwcherries.com
I’m kind of in a canning state of mind after making my Blueberry Chia Seed Jam a few weeks ago, so I wanted to can some of these beautiful cherries. You may have noticed I’m a fan of cocktails, so I just had to make homemade maraschino cherries!
Maraschino cherries are named for the Marasca cherry grown originally in Croatia, which when distilled, produce a liqueur. Whole cherries that are preserved in this liqueur became known as Maraschino Cherries.
These maraschino cherries are not those bright red guys you’ll find in a Shirley Temple. No no, these are the adult, more refined version. There is no artificial coloring, and much less sweetener added. And they are perfect for cocktails and adult ice cream sundaes!
I mentioned in my Blueberry Chia Seed Jam post that you’d see it pop up in a recipe shortly, and here it is! This No Bake Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cake is a great make ahead dessert that’s a beautiful end to a barbecue or summer dinner party.
If you’re not familiar with icebox cakes, they are layered frozen cakes traditionally made with whipped cream and chocolate wafers. This Bon Appetit version incorporates some of my favorite flavors, blueberries and lemon, to create a beautiful Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cake!
This isn’t a cake that involves much precision or patience, and looks pret-ty darn good even when giving off that “homemade” vibe, like mine does. You also don’t need any special tools – just a 9×5 loaf pan, some plastic wrap, and a hand mixer. An offset spatula would also come in handy if you have one.
Ingredients:
1 (8 oz) container mascarpone, at room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
the zest of 1 lemon
2 1/2 cups chilled heavy cream (leave in the fridge until ready to use)
Now that grilling season is in full swing, I am grilling anything and everything I can, and yes, that includes Grilled Clams in Lemon Butter Sauce!
This recipe for grilled clams is SO easy, and can be made completely on your grill (just make sure you have a cast iron or other grill-safe pot for the sauce, if not, you can make it on your stovetop).
It’s an awesome appetizer to share with friends, just don’t forget the crusty bready for dipping!
Ingredients:
3 dozen clams
2 sticks salted butter (1 cup)
the juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, finely minced or pressed through a garlic press
