Yassou Greece!: Greek Salad

 

Since they discovered Hadestown last year, my kids have been very into mythology.  So it only made sense to travel to Ancient Greece.   We began with a toga party made from random sheets we had lying around the house.  Notice Thatkid's "warrior" face in contrast with Thatbaby's "Fashion model" look.

Once again, we were able to find some Greek cuisine in our refrigerator.  Have I mentioned that my kids eat a lot of yogurt?  We go through it.

We played a rousing game of Greek pictionary.  In retrospect, this would have been a better end of the day activity, after the kids were refreshed as to who characters like Poseidon and Hercules were.

Thatkid made us a very easy lunch - Greek salad bites.

Disney provided a recipe for "Creten pies" which were pastries filled with cinnamon, sugar, and myzithra cheese, so after lunch the kids got busy making snack.

We also read some of my favorite Greek myths.  I actually had a version of this book when I was a kid.  I thought I had kept it, but last year when the kids started being interested in Greek mythology, I went looking for it and couldn't find it, so I got Thatkid his very own new and shiny copy.

After reading some myths, we used them as inspiration to create our own mythological monsters.

Thatbaby was in charge of dinner that night.  And despite our lunch, he wanted to make a Greek Salad for dinner.  

My rule on the kids making dinner is that I don't say no to whatever they want to make, so Greek salad it was.  Plus this gave him a chance to work on his knife skills since it required so much slicing and chopping of vegetables, cheese, and olives.

Playlist: Hadestown, Raddish Kids Greek Feasts

Watch: Hercules, Mamma Mia, Jim Henson's The Storyteller Greek Myths

Greek Salad

3 Tbsp red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp confectioner sugar

1/4 tsp oregano

1 lb cherry tomatoes, halved

8 oz Persian cucumbers, sliced

1/2 small red onion, sliced

1/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved

4 oz feta, cubed

1. Whisk the vinegar, oil, and sugar in a bowl.  
2. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Stir in oregano.
4. Arrange tomatoes and cucumbers on a platter.
5. Scatter the onion and olives on top.  
6. Spoon the dressing over the salad.
7. Arrange feta over the dressed salad.

Welcome to the jungle: squash and couscous salad

California is opening up against expert recommendations, so while others venture out, we adventure in!  It'll be a looooong time before we go to the zoo or Safari park, so this past weekend we turned the house into our very own jungle so we could go on a safari here.

Now, realistically we blended the African Savannah with the Asian jungles, in terms of what animals we incorporated, but this is a fake adventure, so lions and tigers and monkeys and giraffes all mingled together.

We started the morning by turning ourselves into animals with masks.

Then gave ourselves some jungle animal tatoos.

Next we made Safari animal pendants.

After that it was time to make our own quicksand.

We took a break for lunch and had chicken and mango skewers with plantain chips.

After nap I hid stuffed animals all around the house and wrote up a scavenger hunt for the kids.

The boys went on safari to try to find the animals.  Thatkid, being older and needing a handicap, had to figure out what animal the clues were referring to.

We finished up our activities by coloring our own animals.

To go along with our theme, we rented Jumanji for the evening and ate our Safari-dinners.  Roast squash and couscous salad.  Sure it's not authentic, but neither is the rest of our day and this seemed like a nice cool way to end a hot day in the jungle.   I even made the kids strawberry banana coconut smoothies to drink out of our non-authentic coconuts.

This salad really does make for a great summer dinner.  I roasted the squash early in the day, because really - no one likes a hot oven heating up their house. You can prep the couscous ahead of time also.  After that, all the ingredients are cool and easy to throw together.  The dressing is really simple, but simple and salads are all I really want as the days get warmer. 

Squash and Couscous Salad

1 butternut squash 

2 1/2 Tbsp olive oil, divided

1 1/2 cups Israeli couscous

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp honey

1/2 red onion, sliced

4 cups baby arugula

1/2 cup toasted almonds

1.  Preheat oven to 450.  Peel the butternut squash and cut into bite sized pieces.  
2. Toss the squash with 1 Tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and arrange on a single layer on a baking sheet.  Roast for 20 minutes, until browned.  Let cool.
3. Cook the couscous according to the package directions.  Let cool.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together remaining olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and honey.  
5. Add sliced onion to the dressing and let sit while putting together the rest of the salad.
6. Toss couscous, arugula, squash, and almonds together.
7. Fold in the onions/dressing mix and serve.

Flower Power: Roasted Broccoli Hero

In all honesty, I don't really mind the rain.  This year I even became accustomed to running in the rain, because it went on forever.  The only thing I really dislike about the rain is when things get cancelled, because I'm not good with scheduling changes.

But it's really hard to complain about the rain when the result is beautiful wildflowers.  Growing up, the saying was always "April showers bring May flowers" but here in California, the more appropriate saying is "Rainy winters bring Superblooms."

2 years ago we had an especially wet winter and the desert paid us back tenfold.  So I was antsy to see what awaited after this winter which was so much wetter and lasted so much longer.

We weren't disappointed.

A drive out to Anza Borrego yielded fields of flowers, growing right out of the sand.  

Thatbaby commandeered my camera and became our little photojournalist.  Unfortunately, his camera skills need a little work, as most of his pictures either featured his thumb, a very blurry image I could tell you was a flower, or the corner of what I could tell you was a flower.

Thatkid defaulted to his favorite flower pasttime - identifying all the different blooms.  We always buy a flower guide for this very purpose.

I'm always impressed with how much my kids love little fieldtrips like these.  I expect them to be bored, or underwhelmed, but they love going.  They get so excited to see the flowers.  And they petitioned for a picnic in the flowers the whole week leading up to it.   I'm always up for a picnic, so I packed up sandwiches and snacks and we hit the road.

The kids went with pretty classic sandwiches - turkey and pb&j.  I knew they wouldn't be interested in ones filled with broccoli.  That's right, broccoli.  I'm always looking for new and interesting sandwiches, so when I saw this one with rave "trust me" reviews by Alton Brown I decided to give it a try.

It is the weirdest combination of sandwich ingredients you can ask for, but they work SO well together.  Sweet, spicy, soft, crispy, salty - it has just about everything.  And it is ridiculously easy to put together when you're gathering water bottles, sunscreen and other supplies for a trip to the desert.

Roasted Broccoli Hero (From Alton Brown)

1/2 cup bread and butter pickles

1/4 cup brine from the pickles

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced

1 Tbsp chili sauce (such as Sambal oelek, sriracha, or to keep in green Trader Joe's green dragon sauce works nicely)

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 head broccoli, chopped into florets.  Trim the stem and slice into thin rounds.

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 french bread rolls, split

2 Tbsp mayonnaise

1/4 cup fried onions

2 oz ricotta salata or feta, shaved

1. Preheat oven to 400. Combine pickles, brine, garlic, ginger, chili sauce, and sesame oil in a small bowl and set aside while you assemble the rest of the sandwich.
2. Toss broccoli with olive oil and salt and spread on pan.  Roast for 15 minutes, then toss and roast an additional 15 minutes.
3. While the broccoli cools slightly, turn on the broiler and broil the rolls for 1-2 minutes.
4. Spread each side of the toasted rolls with mayonnaise.
5. Divide pickles evenly between the two rolls.  Then top with the roast broccoli.
6. Sprinkle onions over the broccoli and then the cheese on top.

Light 'Em Up: Grilled polenta with mushrooms and gorgonzola

When we start the holiday season, we jump right in.  Over the weekend we attended our town's tree lighting.  We went last year and Thatkid had such a great time I knew we had to return again this year.

For one thing, this gave me a chance to introduce Thatbaby to snow!

Which he loved!  Thatkid got cold relatively quickly but Heaty McHotlegs didn't seem to mind it at all. We couldn't get him out of there.

I ended up taking Thatkid to decorate cookies while his brother played in the snow.

After the cookie decorating, both boys sat for a little face painting.

I'm always surprised at how well Thatbaby sits for face painting.  Thatkid decided they both needed snowmen.

And then it was off to watch hula dancers, carolers, and the main event - the tree lighting!

Thatbaby sat transfixed by it all.  He has a thing for both Christmas trees and Christmas lights, so he was as happy as an be.

After the trees were lit, Thatkid decided he wanted to see Santa.  This was a huge deal because Thatkid has been Santa-shy for the past 4 years.  He likes the idea of Santa, but never wanted to be anywhere near the man in red.  In fact, he had specifically told me that he did NOT want to see Santa at the tree lighting.  

I thought Thatbaby might be equally as interested.  He loves looking at pictures of himself with Santa from last year.  And he went right up to this guy and happily took a candy cane.  But when the time came for lap sitting?  Well he was having none of that.  

But hey, one out of two is better odds than I usually get for Santa pictures!

We made one final stop to visit with the reindeer before heading home for the night.

I'm also starting to get ready for holiday get togethers.  Planning appetizers and desserts that please a crowd.  There's something about cheese that really works for appetizers.  You find it on cheese plates, baked brie, or even a great cheesy dip.   This combines two of my favorite appetizer tricks, cheese and polenta.  I love making polenta ahead of time.  You can cut it into rounds or squares and then top with all sorts of goodies - chutney, salsa, salad, or cheese!  This season I'm topping it with gorgonzola and mushrooms which gives it a warm, tangy, earthy flavor.

 Grilled polenta with Mushrooms and Gorgonzola

1 lb polenta

4 Tbsp olive oil

6 shallots, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

10 oz mixed wild mushrooms, sliced

2 sprigs of thyme, chopped

1 cup white wine

1 1/3 cups heavy cream

1 cup gorgonzola, crumbled

1 1/2 cups Parmesan, grated

juice of 1 lemon

1. Prepare polenta according to package directions.  Pour into a greased pie pan and refrigerate 4 hours.
2. Heat a grill pan over medium high heat.  Cut polenta into triangles and and place on hot grill pan for 3-5 minutes, until lightly charred.
3. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over low heat.  Add the shallots and garlic and cook 5 minutes, until translucent.
4. Turn the heat up to high and add the mushrooms.  Cook 4-5 minutes.  
5. Add the thyme and cook for another minute.
6. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 more minutes.
7. Add the wine and reduce cook until it's reduced by two thirds.
8. Add the cream and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until the sauce is reduced by one third.
9. Turn the heat down to low.  Add the gorgonzola, Parmesan, and lemon juice, stirring constantly until the cheeses have melted.  Pour over grilled polenta.