Cooking Club #12 -- It's all Greek to Me!

As you might have noticed--I am pretty absent on the blog lately ... and, I have a feeling it might be a permanent thing--this posting few and far between.

I'll still keep posting my Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown tho... and I have about 4 Cooking Club posts to put up and who knows?  I could be back with a vengeance sometime soon. 😁

I LOVE my cooking friends!

That's a given!

My favorite thing to do is to share food with friends.

We share stories about our theme-- I call it going down Memory Lane-- we laugh, we eat, and sometimes we learn something new -- in how we cook a dish, in how we taste a dish and in the traditions of the country we are spotlighting. 

Back in November we got together for Cooking Club after a few months hiatus.

Greek Cooking was our theme--OhPah!

Opa! (Greek: Ώπα), is a common Greek verbal emotional expression used frequently during celebrations or dancing in Greece. In the Greek culture, the expression sometimes accompanies plate smashing (purposeful or unintentional).

I'm going on record here to state: There was no plate smashing-- either unintentional or purposeful.

April had the luck of being in California a few days before we met for cooking club and she visited a Greek Market. She reported that she had the best time discussing appetizers with the owners of the market -- and she came back with a nice little appetizer. 

Oh--did I say Little?

LOOK!  Look at this board of appetizers!!  

Greek Olives 

Fruit

Cheese

Crackers

Nuts

Stuffed pepperoncini

A Hummus dip

Goat Cheese

And the best--Spanakopita! 

(spinach and feta turnovers) with date jam

Did we need more food than this? No, we did not.

And yet...we were still able to partake of more.

April explained how Greeks do appetizers.

Spanakopita! 

(spinach and feta turnovers) with date jam

We did some serious discussion!

Some serious contemplating...

And of course, no one could leave the appetizers alone!

Then we got down to some serious courses!

First course---soup and salad.

Sally and Paul had just gotten back from a Greek Orthodox Wedding where they had this soup at the wedding dinner.

Greek Lemon Chicken Soup.

OMG--it was so good!!

Paul looks kind of mad-- but he isn't. (maybe he was---he wanted to eat, not talk about it!)

Sally also made a Greek Salad which I did not get a better photo of than this.  It had lettuce and tomatoes and purple onion and feta cheese, Kalamata olives.

2nd course--

I whipped out a couple more side dishes --

some chickpea/garbanzo beans with ground lamb  and a orzo pasta with seafood.  Both were a bit spicy.

Lamb is a staple in Greek Cooking and since they are 'islands' Seafood is plentiful. 

The main dish is coming up and Sally looks very excited!  The Handyman?  Not so much--- he is suspicious of the Moussaka.

Paul's just after my seafood orzo. 

The Main Course:

Moussaka!

Moussaka is an eggplant- or potato-based dish, often including ground meat, in the Levant, Middle East, and Balkans, with many local and regional variations.

This one was eggplant-- very traditional -- and very good.

Gina did a great job on creating an international dish!

The Handyman was still suspicious of it tho--- there was eggplant in it after all.

More visiting took place -- and Paul put on some Greek music--just in case anyone wanted to dance and smash some dishes!

As I reported earlier, no one smashed any dishes.

Ahhhh -- the dessert course.

Pumpkin Pie.

BUT---this wasn't just any pumpkin pie.

Debbie cooked a whole pumpkin, pureed it and made it with olive oil.  It tasted really good, but had a very different texture than we were all used to.

Oh...and the crust was a filo dough crust. 

So...there you have it--our Greek Night.

I won't show the pictures of the Toga Party which took place later on in the evening...  Shelly and Lorin were sorely missed for that, as they were absent from this Cooking Club get-together.

Oh...okay, okay... we wouldn't have actually done a Toga-party without them, so that really didn't happen.  (sigh)

But I want to know something--- most of the couples when I said, 'hey I need a photo of each of  us' leaned in towards each other and smiled....

Sally and Paul

Debbie and Charlie

Gina and Mark

But when it comes to these two couples??? 

Myself and the Handyman?

April and Doug?

The Handyman would not smile, so I was going to make him!!

And April and Doug?  I said  "act like you like her" and he said,

"I don't"

I think he's kidding of course!

Cooking Club #12 was the best one yet!

And these cooking club meals were all good too... just click on the link to see.

Cooking Club #1 -Meals your mom used to make

Cooking Club #2- Cajun Cooking

Cooking Club #3 - Let's all go to Hawaii

Cooking Club #4 - American Regional Cooking --Great Lakes Region, featuring: SUPPER CLUBS!

Cooking Club #5 - Famous Chefs  (long post with other stuff mixed in, but just trust me)

Cooking Club #6 -Meatball Madness -- or something round  (long post combined with Famous Chef's.  Scroll thru some stuff to get there)

Cooking Club #7 - Breakfast for dinner

Cooking Club #8 - Slow Cooking

Cooking Club #9 - Mexican Street Food

Cooking Club #10- Your Christmas Cookie Heritage

Cooking Club #11 - Cooking from labels/back of box, can, or carton

Cooking Club #12 - It's all Greek to Me!

Coming Soon -- Christmas Surprise!

Happy Eating Everybody!

See you next time.

Friday Friend Recipe #184 -- Zucchini Brownies

Come with me as I continue to countdown my Friday Friend Cookbook!

What is it, you may ask?

In a nutshell...
About 19 years ago, 50 of my closest friends and family, who had been on an e-mail forum with me, sent in recipes in different categories and we compiled a cookbook.
I decided to count those down!
Why?

Because  one night I was looking thru the cookbook and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog"
The Handyman--who thinks he knows me better than I know myself, said,  "you'll never EVER do that."
Well,  maybe I will!  Maybe I'll show him!

Which brings me to recipe #184

Tracy's Zucchini Brownies

These are so good!  Like a Texas sheet cake kind of good.

You all remember my posts about my friend  Tracy-- she passed away a couple of years ago, so she never got to see herself as a  celebrity chef . HA!  That's what she'd be saying right now...HA! AS IF the Friday Friends Cookbook was famous.

But, this is not so much a Tracy story, but an Evalynn story.

Evalynn is my granddaughter.  She told me last summer that she hated zucchini and would never eat it anyhow, anyway, anytime.

She was 10.

I fooled her!

And she loved it.

I don't know how she felt about being tricked tho.

Actually she's a pretty good sport about being tricked. Game playing is another story.  She's a rule follower. Do not deviate from the rules!

Every summer we have a cousin camp up at our cabin in Oregon.

(photo from last summer---missing a couple of cousins)

Yes, a rule follower.  The previous summer she had a little trouble with the miniature golfing outing and her younger cousins... so this time I told her, *'Ev, play your own game of golf. Just concentrate on you and have fun, because in this group, we have poor sportsmen, cheaters and 2 four year olds---it's not gonna be pretty.  Just play your own game of golf and have fun!'

She tried.  She really did.

It's just so hard when people don't play by the rules!

I think she might have lagged behind and pretended she was with that family--the ones without any other kids.

~grins~

Speaking of any other kids..

this was the night her parents told her she was going to be a big sister.

Zucchini AND having to share your dad from now on?

2 big things for one girl to handle.

She's doing just fine tho....

great big sister and will eat zucchini if it's concealed within brownie batter.

Those cousins tho.... that's another story.

*disclaimer:  the cousins don't actually cheat, they were just learning the rules of the game and she's a bit older than they are...and let me just say, a couple of her uncles (and maybe her dad) aren't out of the realm of trickery or bamboozeling when it comes to game playing!  The cousins learned from the masters!

Who knows how many I have left to go?

I've been on a little Friday Friend Cookbook break for awhile--so much so that a friend on Facebook asked me if I was done posting my stories about what I cook.

See Tracy!!  Famous! You can quit smiling down from heaven about that one!

We are famous, I tell ya!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I did not give up--just forgot

my Disclaimer:

I did not really forget to write this post 2 Saturdays ago--I was in Arizona and then I had grandkids and then the next Saturday I was in Las Vegas, so....this is what you get.  I have one week to read the book, because my opinion is due next Saturday, the last Saturday of the month.  Thank goodness for long months!

 I love joining in a monthly meme hosted by Michelle at  Because Reading is Better than Real Life, in which we put up 3 books on the first Saturday of the month, and then you readers, vote on which one I should read, I read and then I write a blog post on the last Saturday of the month.

Thanks for voting from my TBR list

This is so much fun!

This time the winner was:

The Women in the Castle

by Jessica Shattuck

from Goodreads:

Three women, haunted by the past and the secrets they hold
Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New York Times Notable Book The Hazards of Good Breeding.

Amid the ashes of Nazi Germany s defeat, Marianne von Lingenfels returns to the once-grand castle of her husband s ancestors, an imposing stone fortress now fallen into ruin following years of war. The widow of a resister murdered in the failed July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Marianne plans to uphold the promise she made to her husband s brave conspirators: to find and protect their wives, her fellow resistance widows.

First Marianne rescues six-year-old Martin, the son of her dearest childhood friend, from a Nazi reeducation home. Together, they make their way across the smoldering wreckage of their homeland to Berlin, where Martin s mother, the beautiful and naïve Benita, has fallen into the hands of occupying Red Army soldiers. Then she locates Ania, another resister s wife, and her two boys, now refugees languishing in one of the many camps that house the millions displaced by the war.

As Marianne assembles this makeshift family from the ruins of her husband s resistance movement, she is certain their shared pain and circumstances will hold them together. But she quickly discovers that the black-and-white, highly principled world of her privileged past has become infinitely more complicated, filled with secrets and dark passions that threaten to tear them apart. Eventually, all three women must come to terms with the choices that have defined their lives before, during, and after the war each with their own unique share of challenges.

Written with the devastating emotional power of The Nightingale, Sarah s Key, and The Light Between Oceans, Jessica Shattuck s evocative and utterly enthralling novel offers a fresh perspective on one of the most tumultuous periods in history. Combining piercing social insight and vivid historical atmosphere, The Women in the Castle is a dramatic yet nuanced portrait of war and its repercussions that explores what it means to survive, love, and, ultimately, to forgive in the wake of unimaginable hardship.

I'll be back in 2 weeks to let you know how it is!

Thanks.

Saturday Snapshot - Postal Book Club

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by 

West Metro Mommy Reads 

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post to West Metro Mommy Reads!   Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

I participate in a 'postal book club' which is made from members of the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club, which I am also a member of.  In the postal book club, there are 5 in my group and each of us chose a book and a notebook to send to the next person in the group.  We have two months to read and write and send on....I, of course, will be sending right before the deadline, because that's my MO, so right now I have the book/notebook for the next two months and also the one I'm supposed to be sending by March 30.

It's been so much fun to see what others tastes are and--important to me---what their notebooks look like. I think I agonized over the notebook as much as I did the book. 

Just another old book club photo.

I'll be reading "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight"  in the next few days and mailing it on.

That's my snapshot for today.

The Friday Friend Cookbook

Speaking of the Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown... (I just posted previously today and it had been a very long time since my last one.)  Shelly presented me with the 'hardbound' copy of Volume 4.  I blog 'em, she Shutterflys 'em.

Look at all those fun "Friday Friends" on the cover!  It's great!

Shelly says she has trouble with the Title page so she decided to do a review of my sunglasses thru the ages.

I find it amusing because for at least 2 trips that I've taken with Shelly and April (Wallowa Lake, Boise) I've broken my cheap sunglasses and have had to buy some new ones.

She should start me a sunglasses fund!

Thanks Shelly for a great book!

I love it (them)

And one day I'll be done with this countdown--I promise.