Greek green salad

This is called maroulosalata, which means ... I have no idea. It's from the island of Cos, and we found this in a book called "Real Greek Food." Apparently, there's a restaurant somewhere called Real Greek, and this book has their recipes.

salad:
lettuce shredded very fine - we used Romaine
scallions finely chopped, including the green parts
dillweed

dressing:
150 ml extra virgin olive oil (I have no idea what that measures to - Adam made the dressing and I'm just typing it out of the book)
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
pepper and sea salt

Seems really basic and maybe even a little weird. But I liked it!

traditional Greek Easter dinner

Adam decided we were going to be a bit more adventurous for Easter dinner this year, and found this article the other day on NPR with a number of recipes in it. Adam followed the recipes exactly, since these were all new cooking concepts.

chicken and rice soup - we had this with homemade sour-dough bread. It was the perfect complement to it! The lemon flavor was quite prominent in the soup, but it wasn't overpowering. If you try this, be careful with the eggs so they don't cook up wrong. This was our "first course" which we had for lunch between General Conference sessions, and we had the rest of the dinner after Conference ended.

roasted leg of lamb - this was expensive! 30 bucks for a not-very-large piece of meat! We wondered at first if we'd like it - if not, that was a pretty big waste ... but hey, at least then we'd know to not spend that kind of money again. But it was good! Lots of rosemary and garlic and other herbs in it. Adam is sold - we'll have this maybe once a year just because of the cost.

asparagus with dill and garlic - asparagus was something I never had as a kid, but have liked quite a bit as an adult. It also had melted parmesan cheese over it.

There is also a recipe for an Easter bread (the red eggs on it look kinda yucky, if you ask me). Adam planned to make it but we ran out of time and didn't really need it anyway because we had the sour-dough to go with the soup.

roasted new potatoes with feta cheese - this was not included in the article but Adam found it to be a side to the lamb.

Greek style shrimp

Number 38 of my 50 was Greek style shrimp found here.

We skipped the suggested salad and served it with rice. We also substituted the white wine with white grape juice.

Greek pasta salad

I'm baaack ... back to working on my 50 recipes. Actually, numbers 32, 33, and 34 were made about 2 months ago - I just never got around to posting them even though I've had a note sitting here at the computer all this time. But now I am here, and I will start posting again. And - ahem - I will start cooking again too. I'm really happy I have an awesome husband who lets me have lag times for a few weeks at a time when I just can't wrap my brain around cooking, and he takes over.

For 32, I got this Greek pasta salad here on AllRecipes - I did NOT make the dressing that they have listed with the recipe, so I can't vouch for that part of it and you'll have to click on the link to get that part of their recipe. I used the Greek vinaigrette I already had from the Greek quesadillas. It's a totally different dressing - it has spicy mustard in it. Yum!

cooked spiral pasta (penne would work too)
mushrooms, sliced
cherry tomatoes, halved
red bell pepper, chopped
crumbled feta cheese
scallions, chopped
Kalamata or some other Greek olives

Mix together, toss with the dressing, chill, eat!

The recipe also called for pepperoni sausage, cut into chunks. I don't think I added that because we don't usually have that around.

Greek vinaigrette

#29 - used on the Greek quesadillas, and from Recipezaar.

2 tbl. red wine vinegar
2 tbl. lemon juice
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

Put everything except the olive oil into the blender, and mix it up a little bit.

Take the opening out of the lid of the blender, and while the blender is turned on, pour the oil slowly into the mix. (You'll want to block the opening with your hand, or you'll get splattered.) Keep the blender running until it's completely blended.

Greek quesadillas

Number 28! We had this for dinner with homemade Greek vinaigrette dressing (which is number 29 and will be posted in a sec), and YUM! I'm not a huge fan of cucumbers, and Greek recipes tend to have a lot of cucumber. I'm okay with them if they're chopped small ... but wow, they just fit right in with all of this! The original recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens. I just did a Google search for a Greek dressing, since this called for a store-bought dressing. I didn't think we'd eat enough to justify having a whole bottle of it around.

flour tortillas (or you could use pita bread for this salad mix as well

• grilled chicken - I did 2 chicken breasts on our little Foreman grill, and then shredded it
• feta cheese
• red onion - thin slices
• cucumber - chopped fairly small
• tomato - either cherry tomatoes cut in half or small dice of a larger tomato
• Greek olives - the recipe called for kalamata olives which were pretty expensive at the store, so I just got black Greek olives. I had to pit them, but it was fine.
• parsley and oregano - I used regular dried stuff, and just sprinkled it on.
• Greek vinaigrette dressing

Spray one side of a tortilla with cooking spray, and then flip it so it's spray-side down. Put all the ingredients on one half of the tortilla, then fold it over. Cook it in a skillet until it's a little browned and the edges turn crispy. Then cut it into 3 pieces and eat.

Yum yum yum! This is definitely on the repeat list!