Greek Shrimp Saganaki

In my forever quest of weekly meal planning and calendar strategy of what to make for dinner, my husband saves the day.  Not only can I not remember what I did two days ago, I certainly cannot remember what I made for dinner a week or a month ago (hence the reason for the meal planning calendar).

Every now and again, my husband will say "What about the dish that....." (and he'll go into his description of how he remembers the meal).  I then have to stop, wait for it....oh yes, my ever flickering light bulb finally goes back on again...and I remember.  

Here is one of those meals that I completely forgot about and he once again reminded me of.  The great thing about this one is you can make it a date night meal for two or have it as an appetizer for a group of family, friends, neighbors, girls night in, book club,...you get the picture.

It looks complicated and fancy, but it truly is super easy and amazing flavors.

Shrimp Saganaki

Adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine, November 2012

Original Recipe By Lord Byron Restaurant, Ios Island, Greece

1 Tablespoon olive oil

4 scallions, white part only, minced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup drained diced canned tomatoes

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/3 cup vegetable or chicken broth

1 teaspoon chopped flat-leaf parsley, plus more for garnish

1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill

pinch of dried oregano

salt and freshly ground black pepper

12 medium shrimp (about 1/2 lb.), peeled, deveined and tails off

1 (4 oz.) block feta cheese

slices of country-style rustic bread, toasted

**I also add:

2 Tablespoons capers, drained

1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted, drained, roughly chopped

Heat oil in a medium heavy skillet over medium-low heat.  Add scallions and garlic; cook, stirring often, until soft, about 3 minutes.  Add tomatoes, (capers and olives) and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced by half, 4-6 minutes.  Remove from heat;  add wine, broth, 1 tsp. parsley, 1 tsp. dill and oregano.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until tomato mixture is reduced by one-third, about 5 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium.  Season shrimp with salt and pepper.  Add shrimp to skillet, arranging around edges.  Place block of feta in center of skillet.  Cover and simmer until shrimp are cooked through and feta is warm, 4-6 minutes.

** We like eating this dish straight out of our cast iron skillet, but you can also transfer the shrimp and feta to a large shallow bowl.

Garnish with parsley.  Serve with toasted rustic bread to scoop up every flavorful bite.  Since I needed white wine for the recipe, we enjoyed the rest of the McManis Chardonnay with our meal. Perfectly paired!

Grilled Halloumi Cheese and Tomato Sandwich

Tonight we come upon two years to the day that we arrived here in Colorado to start our new life with the girls and puppies.  It was quite a journey to get here to say the least, and has been full of so many adventures and growth ever since.

As I took our girls and their friends to the ever anticipated high school homecoming football game tonight, all spirited out in their glitter, beads and hair bows (coordinated in their school colors of course), I realized once again how quickly time is going by, right before our eyes.

As part of our home alone date night, I tried out this new cheese that I have been hearing and reading about everywhere..and I can never get enough of cheese.  It is Halloumi, a Greek cheese which I found at our specialty Cheese Importers store.

Grilled Halloumi Cheese and Tomatoes - Perfect as a sandwich,
appetizer or accompaniment to a salad.

Grilled Halloumi Cheese and Tomato Sandwich

Halloumi Cheese (found in specialty cheese case)
1 Roma Tomato, thinly sliced
Canola Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil
1 loaf of your favorite rustic bread ( I really like a kalamato olive loaf)
Fresh Parsley, chopped
Salt
Pepper

Cut bread in 1/2" slices and lightly toast in toaster or on a grill pan.

Heat 2 teaspoons canola oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add thinly sliced halloumi cheese and sear 2 minutes on each side or until browned.

Add one slice of the grilled halloumi cheese on toasted bread.  Add 2 slices of tomatoes and top with another layer of grilled cheese.  Season with a small bit of salt and pepper.

Drizzle the "sandwich" with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Finish off with a sprinkle of the chopped fresh parsley.

Get a knife and fork and your're ready to enjoy!

* I served this little piece of deliciousness as a side dish with my Bourbon Glazed Grilled Salmon, carmelized onions and Butter Dill Sauce.

Paninis and My Handyman

I married my husband for three reasons: His blue eyes, great sense of humor and his Makita drill set, seriously.  Well, maybe there were a few other reasons too.....

At any rate, he really is quite handy.  I guess being in the construction industry for over 25 years, you tend to pick up a few tricks of the trade.  The problem is I have also been in the same industry for the same amount of time and we are both think we are the Chiefs in the house...neither one of us wants to be the Indian.  Makes for an interesting marriage that's for sure.  That sense of humor on both our parts comes in very handy also.

The Handyman's helpers in training.

Well my husband also has very good (and expensive taste) in washers and dryers.  Laundry is a very big thing to him.  His perfect dream house would have a laundry room bigger than our bedroom, I'm not even kidding here.  He loves to wash, dry and fold laundry, and truth be told he is much better at it than I am.  He says it's a sense of accomplishment to have everything clean and neatly put away in its place.

As you can imagine, we really put our washer and dryer to the test with all our family's laundry.  Recently our appliances were not working up to par, so I called in a reputable appliance company to come out and see what the dryer noise and leaking washer was all about.  Since our appliances are from Sweden, there aren't many companies that can repair them.  I should have kept that in the back of my mind during our "diagnostic appointment."

I will fast forward and spare the details.  The bottom line from them was " It's going to take several hours to take them apart as they are very difficult and timely to replace the dryer drum ball bearing and replace the water pump in the washer", to the tune of nearly $650.00 to fix the problems.

Now mind you, I am just coming off of Christmas and birthday budget$, so needless to say I almost had a breakdown right then.  I said thank you very much for coming out and I would need to discuss it with my husband.  Well, I called him and broke the news....a half hour later he called me back and said he was able to purchase the new ball bearing for $71.00 and the new water pump for $48.00.  Now, I am mad!

My husband assured me, no problem....we can do this.  He Googled instructions on how to replace these pieces and guess what (thank God for Google), there were actual YouTube videos on replacing these items in our exact brand, make and model appliances.

My Makita Man

In less than an hour, we had both parts replaced.  Now I am really, really mad!!!  I cannot believe that a company can get away with that - $650.00 ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? !!

Well once again, God Bless my husband and his Makita.  We were able to conquer corporate America and achieve DIY sucess - Victory Is Sweet !!  It was time to celebrate with his favorite lunch - paninis.

Prosciutto Paninis
Adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis

2 slices of fontina cheese
2 slices of rustic white bread
1 thin slice of red onion
1 thin slice of tomato
1 thin slice of prosciutto
6 fresh baby spinach leaves
freshly ground black peper
2 tsp. olive oil

Place one slice of fontina cheese on 1 slice of bread.  Top with the onion, then the prosciutto, tomato and the spinach.  Sprinkle with the pepper.  Top with the second slice of fontina, then with the second bread slice.  Brush both sides fo the sandwich with the oil.

Preheat panini grill or a ridged grill pan over medium heat.  Grill the sandwich until the bread is golden brown and the cheese melts, pressing down.