Things That Make Me Happy and a Giveaway

Things that make me happy:

Lillies blooming in my pond make me happy

Feeding the pond fish every morning is nice

Flowers in my garden make me smile

Butterfly Bushes are beautiful

My dog waiting patiently for me and my gardens that have been certified as Wildlife Habitats are a source of joy

A porch with a rocking chair is a good place to rest

My rain barrel makes me and my plants happy

Whimsical Garden Art is fun

Flowers on the steps are cheerful

Carved Wooden Bears are handy hose guides, they keep everything in line.

And FireWire

Wait, what? FireWire? 

YES! FireWire. FireWire is a flexible stainless steel grilling skewer that holds twice as much food as a regular skewer. But that's not the best feature. FireWire is dishwasher safe, won't rust and is reusable. AND you can marinate right on the wire. Just load your FireWire with food, place in a bowl or resealable bag and add marinade. When you are ready to grill, just remove the FireWire and place on the grill. How non-messy is that? 

But since The Best Husband In The World (TBHITW) is the grill master in the house, I handed over my test mitts to him. Here's what TBHITW had to say,

"Some of the best features that I noticed right away:

the tips of the FireWire Skewer remain cool so you can easily move your food around the grill and the food does not "twirl" on the skewer, so there's no battling with it in order to grill it on all sides. I also liked that the FireWire Skewer could hold a lot of food, I wasn't stressed out trying to turn 10 or 12 skewers all at once, trying to keep everything evenly cooked."

"Once the food was cooked, it released easily from the FireWire; no handling hot metal skewers, or worse, splinters in your food from charred, wooden skewers."

Vegetables marinating

We skewered the old way and the new way, with FireWire... TBHITW nominated FireWire as the winner. Since he is the grill master, I bow to his nomination.

The tip of the FireWire remains cool for easy handling

You can grill in a "loop" or in one long line ... 

Dinner is served

Want your own FireWire? 

Tell me what makes you happy in the comment form. 

Two lucky winners, randomly chosen from all comments received by midnight, Saturday, June 12th. 2010 will each receive a set of FireWire Flexible Grilling Skewers, just in time for Father's Day and grilling season! 

So, what makes you happy? I'll post the winners on Sunday, June 13th. along with a list of retailers where you can buy (if you don't win) your very own FireWire.

*I purchased my FireWire a few months ago and was so happy with the results, contacted FireWire and asked them if they would supply me with a few sets for a giveaway for you, my readers. FireWire happily obliged. I have not been compensated for this review, nor am I in any way (other than a happy consumer) affiliated with FireWire or Inno-Labs, makers of FireWire. - Geez.. what I don't go through for you people. 

A Natural Born Diva and Asparagus Pizza

I got an email today from a former student. 

You may remember Abby. 

Abby had a Good Cook birthday party where she, and seven of her BFF's (her words, not mine) made vegetable dip, personal pizzas, cupcakes and taco (waffle) sundays. 

Abby's email was in regards to the recent post I did of Lilyanna, another little girl who recently, with her mom, took one of my cooking lessons. 

Abby wanted to know why there was a picture of "some little girl who isn't me on The Good Cook's Blog? I was the one who had the party"..

Ahh.. a Diva is born.

Abby's mom sent me this recipe to try out. Since I have asparagus and recently made goat cheese (chevre) and pesto I'm going to make it tonight. 

Let's all enjoy Abby's mom's recipe and beware of 7-year old diva's sporting chef hats.

Goat Cheese and Asparagus Pizza

(For a crispier pizza coat the crust with cooking spray before adding the toppings)

 

1/3 cup prepared pesto

1 Boboli pizza crust (Abby's mom used a Boboli whole wheat crust and said it was good)

2-3 plum tomatoes

8 asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces

3/4 cup (3 ounces) crumbled goat cheese

 

Preheat oven to 450. Spread pesto over the pizza crust, and top with tomatoes, asparagus and cheese. (I put my crust on a baking pan but the recipe said to place it directly on oven rack). Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes or until asparagus is crisp tender and cheese melts.

A Cook's Note: I think this would be great on the grill. Simply rub one side of the crust with olive oil and grill lightly (2-3 minutes). Turn over and place your toppings on this side. Then, transfer to grill and grill until toppings are hot and melted. 

If you are using a gas grill. Light the outside burners to medium high. Light the middle burners to low. Place the pizza on the middle burners and close the lid. This should bake and grill the pizza nicely - but watch closely!! 

 

My Big Fat Greek Taco

I have blogged before about the best husband in the world and I being from different parts of the country and how this has affected our pronunciation of certain words. Tamayto - Toemahtoe, here we go again. 

I'm making lamb tonight for dinner. I'm going to marinade it, then skewer it and TBHITW will grill it. Then we'll fill pita breads with lettuce, tomatoe, yogurt cucumber sauce and the grilled lamb. I call this a Gyro (year-ooh). TBHITW calls it a hear-ooh. The kidadults and middles call it a gi-row. 

In the interest of world peace at the local level we have agreed to call it: My Big Fat Greek Taco. 

My apologies to taco (tah-ko) lovers, any ethnic group I may have slighted, and slim Greeks everywhere. 

My Big Fat Greek Taco: (makes 5 or more)

1 1/2 pounds boneless leg of lamb cut into cubes

1 Lemon, juiced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher Salt & Freshly Ground black pepper

Note Added 2 hours after original post:

Just got back from the grocery store and the only lamb they had was a full leg of lamb, on the bone. At $43.00 too rich for my blood and more lamb than I need. But they did have very nice lean ground lamb for $4.49 per pound. No need to rethink dinner and put all my other ingredients back, I'm going to punt. 

2 pounds ground lamb

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium shallot (or small onion) minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small roll ground into fresh bread crumbs

1 egg, beaten with a fork

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced

Zest of one lemon

Salt and pepper

Heat oil in small saute pan. Add onions and sweat until translucent. Add garlic and saute for 1 more minute until garlic is soft and fragrant. Cool.

Place ground lamb in large mixing bowl. Add cooled onion/garlic mixture, bread crumbs, egg, rosemary, lemon zest and salt and pepper. Mix gently to combine. Form around wooden skewers so the lamb looks like a 5 inch hot dog (slightly fatter). Squeeze meat around skewer. Grill about 8 minutes. Voila! Gyro Punting! 

Sauce:

1/2 cup greek style yogurt (if you can't get it in your area, use plain, non-fat)

1/2 medium cucumber, chopped small

1 small bunch (about 1/4 cup chopped) fresh mint

Squeeze of lemon juice

Filling:

2 cups Shredded lettuce

1 medium tomatoe, seeded and chopped

1 medium onion, chopped fine (optional)

5 or 6 loaves pita bread (or Nan, yum!) warmed in microwave or grilled lightly.

The Meat:

Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a sealable ziplock bag. Add lamb and toss around to coat. Marinade in the fridge at least 45 minutes and up to 4 hours.*

When ready, heat grill to medium high. Take lamb out of fridge about 30 minutes before skewering. Skewer lamb on metal skewers (if using wood skewers, soak for 30 minutes in hot water**)

Grill about 8 to 10 minutes for medium, turning often. Let rest 10 minutes on skewers, tented.

The Sauce:

Mix the yogurt, cucumbers, mint and lemon. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Plating:

Give everyone a warm pita. Have them fill it with meat, then lettuce, tomatoe (onion optional) then top with sauce. 

Serve with some fresh fruit on side. Watermelon chunks tossed with Feta cheese is lovely. 

A Cook's Notes:

*Studies have shown that the largest flavor transfer when marinading occurs within the first 45 minutes. Less time with light foods like shrimp and fish fillets. Also, people use WAY too much marinade, you only need 1/4 cup per 1 pound of meat. Don't waste your expensive ingredients with using more. 

**Using HOT water when soaking your wooden skewers opens up the pores in the wood and will insure that more water is absorbed into the wood meaning your skewers are less likely to burn up. 

If you're reading this and there is no picture come back later - I'll have a photograph at dinner time EST! Enjoy