Prepping for the Big Day

Normally I buy a New Zealand Leg of Lamb and butterfly it open, marinate it in Moroccan spice and grill it. This year I am up to something new. I bought a semi boneless American leg and I plan to slow roast (braise) it in white wine and garlic ala Ina Garten from her recent show. 

Ingredients

1 (6 to 7-pound) leg of lamb (see note)
Good olive oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 (750-ml) bottle dry white wine
2 heads of garlic, broken apart but not peeled
15 large sprigs fresh rosemary
15 large sprigs fresh thyme
6 bay leaves

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Rub the lamb all over with olive oil and season all over with salt and pepper. Heat a very large Dutch oven such as Le Creuset over medium-high heat until its hot. Add the lamb and sear on all sides for about 12 minutes, until its browned all over. Remove the lamb to a plate.

Add the wine and 2 cups of water to the pan and cook for a minute or two, scraping up all the brown bits in the bottom. Add the garlic, rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves and the lamb on top. Place the lid on the pot and bake in the oven for 4 hours, basting occasionally. (If you dont have a lid, you can cover it tightly with 2 layers of aluminum foil.)

After 4 hours, the lamb should be incredibly tender and falling off the bone. Remove the lamb to a plate, cover it tightly with foil and allow it to rest. Strain the sauce into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes to reduce. The lamb will be too tender to slice; serve it warm with spoons and the sauce.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/4-hour-lamb-recipe.html?oc=linkback

And so it begins....The start of Holy Week

Saturday begins the long cycle of services that culminates in Pascha for the Greek Orthodox Church. Lots of tradition and prayer goes along with the marathon of services that we gird ourselves for. This year a decision was made to hold most our beloved Pre Sanctified services as Pan Orthodox. We were unable to attend them as they went very long and we rise early in our house to make it to work. The absence of the services in our lives really deflated the rest of the season for us. I am sure the clergy thought it was in our best interest but frankly the most beautiful service happened to be our first of the season attended by an amazing number of people and our own little choir. After that, they moved all over town and the length became unwieldy and just silly especially after most had fasted all day to take communion.

This Saturday is Lazarus Saturday, a foretelling of the future Resurrection service. That marks the beginning of Palm Sunday, Bridegroom Matins and then a litany of evening prayers and day services that culminates on Sunday morning about 1 a.m.  It's a long haul and we are usually spent at the end of it sometimes even taking Monday off to recover depending on our chosen level of participation.

The icon  above plays predominately in the first few days of Holy Week. It is called The Nymphios or Bridegroom and shows the bound Lord before the Crucifixion. In Orthodox icons, the dramatic flair is downplayed as the icon represents the transfigured character so no blood or agony just a reassuring calmness. This particular icon will be decorated with a floral frame and venerated many, many times before the end of next week. I painted it specifically for the church at this time of the year.

Plaki for 100, Dinner for 2

Yesterday was a busy day with church and a benefit and I had to make the Plaki sauce for Palm Sunday as I would not have much time the rest of the week. So 15 pounds of peeled onions and lots of tears later, I made 5 gallons of sauce in my large pot and packaged it for the church. Meanwhile I have a gallon left over or so so dinner was set and a container or two set aside for friends and Mackenzie.

Psari Plaki  is a traditional Greek way of cooking fish in a tomato based sauce heavy on the onions, celery and garlic, seasoned with Oregano and Basil. Basically I used some great cod we had in the freezer and roasted the fish in the fresh sauce base for about 30 minutes. It is traditionally served over pasta at our church with a sprinkling of Parmesan which always confused me a bit since my more traditional Slav background forbade cheese during Lent (of course, we only fasted for a week, not all of Lent) but when in Greece....

The recipes vary but remains about the same. Onions, lots of onions, celery, tomatoes, garlic and seasonings. I use a bit of lemon also. A firm white fish  (Red Snapper is more traditional) we use Cod.
Elsewhere on the blog you will find the recipe for 100 and a recipe for 8 as Mackenzie occasionally craves the sauce just for fun. I have used the leftover sauce (buzzed it with my hand held blender) for pizza too.

Kali Orexi!

And now....Everything changes

Like every other family we are facing great change. Yesterday,  Ben got great news that he was offered a position at KU as an ICU nurse. He has always wanted the opportunity and now his wish has come true. Nice, but that means in just a few short weeks he will move to Kansas City along with Nicholas, who work on his DNP in Anesthesia at KU and we will no longer have access to them easily.

The kids have been out of the house for several years now and we always dreamed of having those Norman Rockwell Sunday Suppers. It happened on rare occasion but in reality, with work schedules and night hours, it never became a regular event. As a matter of fact, all holidays became logistics nightmares as we tried to accommodate schedules around meal planning and it did not always end up in a great place for any of us.

This will be a major change. I am sure big sister Mackenzie will realize the implications very soon also as the boys will no longer be around for that bail out help they were always grudgingly good for. Especially Ben.  And we are getting older. I feel it everyday, especially the last few months. We will have to hire help for the heavy lifting and the rest of it.  Our dynamic has indeed changed. So we face an uncertain future as most parents and kids do full of fear and trepidation, excitement and exhilaration, pride and prejudice. Our friends, Matt and Lori, faced this when their kids took off to Chicago just as they made the move to Omaha. While they seemed to take it in stride I am sure there were some emotions we were never privy to similar to what we are going though now.

We are actually excited to have an excuse to visit Kansas City once in a while. The boys will do fine regardless. Nicholas is a great student and fantastic guy and will succeed beyond his imagination. Ben needs a change of venue and some time away from the familiar. The change of pace will do him good.  So all in all, its a good thing, but....why do we feel so sad?

Bloody Mary Shrimps

Finding exciting ways to prepare shrimps as we wind down
our Lenten journey has been a challenge. Pinterest has an amazing variety of tastes and levels of skill for cooking. Yesterday I stumbled across this recipe for a spicy version of shrimp that made some sense.

They look tasty don't they? 

Bloody Mary Shrimps:

Marinate a pound of large raw shrimps in

1tbl chili powder

1t garlic powder

1t salt

1/2 t smoked paprika

1/2 t chipotle powder

Pinch of pepper

3 tbl honey

2 tbl vodka

1 tbl ketchup

1 tbl Worcestershire

1/2 tbl Tabasco

2 tbl olive oil

Juice of 1 lime or lemon

Marinate for a few hours. Grill on a hot grill pan till just pink then turn and finish (about 3-4 mins). Remove from pan as not to overcook. Spicy, tangy and delicious. 

Still plugging along....Lenten wise

Not too much to post about with the simple meals we have been eating for Lent lately. Our usual Wednesday Potlucks have been hijacked by the Pan Orthodox celebrations which makes it tough to even post about the Potluck foods. we have not been able to attend most of the Pan Orthodox stuff due to work schedules and I hate to go alone. I rarely know many folks there anymore.

So our diet lately consists of, besides buckets of boiled shrimp, mostly odds and ends. We are odds and ends eaters due to random leftovers and scarcity of foods. Last night I wasn't all that hungry and very tired for some reason, I napped hard. Bread, left over pasta, edamame and a glass of milk was all about I could muster (the milk is not even Lenten). Brenda ate the pasta, I ate the rest. we are at the halfway point though and that makes it easier to see the finish line so sorry about the lack of blog interest but as our diet improves so will the posts....

Boons and Busts

We have been eating a lot of seafood and we are looking for ways to change it up a bit. Last night our usual Salmon was kicked up a notch with the addition of some Dill Sauce. Brenda likes Dill but I am not a huge fan. This recipe brought us together though.

1/2 c mayo (we used light version)
1/2 sour cream (we used light version)
1 Tbl dill weed chopped fine
1 Tbl onion chopped fine
1/4 t garlic salt
1 tsp Horse radish
1 Tbl Lemon juice 

Mix all and allow to sit in the fridge for a bit. Mighty tasty on fresh grill salmon.

For the shrimp I wanted a better cocktail sauce. I watched Heartland Table and found this.

1/2 large sweet onion minced
2 tablespoons of coriander seeds toasted and ground
1 teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/2 t dry

2 cups whole canned Plum tomatoes pulsed in a processor
1 bay leaf
zest of 1/2 lemon and juice
3-4 tablespoons of horseradish
4 shakes of cayenne
4 teaspoons of sugar

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter and saute the onions until coppery brown. Add the ground coriander and thyme and stir. Add the tomatoes and cook uncovered till the tomatoes thicken and darken. Add the lemon juice, zest and horseradish, sugar and cayenne.  Cool to room temperature.

I found this a little blah so we added about 1/4 c Sriacha and some salt. That really brought it.

Prayer Ropes...Spiritual Survivor Bracelets

I have been asked to teach my altar servers how to tie prayer ropes at their retreat this weekend so I have been busy prepping the material and brushing up my knotting skills. We are going to use parachute cord I picked up at the Army Surplus store as it is popular these days to make survivor bracelets out of this material. What better use to employ this material for our spiritual survival?
The boys are ages 10 to 16, eager yet inattentive struggling to stay focused for the services and generally missing nearly every cue for their next task. The are well meaning and this retreat will give me and Fr. Alex a chance to define certain aspects of the service and how he needs them to behave, where to stand and other generalities of altar service. There is no sitting down up there and it can be a bit tedious for them. There is lots of stuff to get them in trouble and things to fuss with including charcoal and smokey incense as well as open flame. The temptation and potential for distraction is great so someone has to keep them in line. Traditionally, fathers would serve and guide the boys but a lot of the converts lack the experience so the role falls to me. A poorly prepared and behaved crew up there makes for a distracting service for all.
So the first order of business will be to teach the prayer used with the ropes. Not nearly as complicated as the rosary in the Western church, the simple Jesus prayer is repeated throughout the process if tying the knots and then using the rope. It goes thus: "O Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
The ropes are a complicated process of finger knitting that produces a round knot of crosses pretty much impossible to untie. Legend has it that an angel taught a monk the knot to confound the Devil who would untie the monk's knots which he used to track his prayer rule. This knot made it impossible for the Devil to undo.
I am hoping the boys won't find this too lame as teenagers are wont to do.

PS

OK,  I wrote this before the retreat. We met on Saturday for what must have been a long time for the boys, about 5 hours. We discovered somethings about them and about us. Father has the patience of Job, I do not. The prayer rope exercise was a disaster and they could not make it through the first few steps and pretty much could have cared less.

We discovered the areas the need to be brought up to speed including the basic terminology of altar objects, that they have no clue as to what the priest is doing pretty much at any given time. It's going to be a while before they come up to speed. I have two new guys, one of them post college who helped me chant the vesper service so he will be a big help. The boys were pretty excited about reading/ chanting the Epistle but none of them tried it on Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed.

Great Lent and eating.....or not eating

Our focus this year has really not been much about food as food is not the focus of Lent but it tends to shadow us a bit as we struggle to maintain our energy for the workday and be spiritual at the same time. Brenda calls it eating "junk" but by that she means healthy tidbits of what's in the fridge that includes a lot of shrimp, asparagus and veggies, humus and baba ganoush.  I have been making a real effort to eat healthy this Lent as well as maintain a low carb, Mediterranean diet as best I can.

Being meatless is hardly noticeable but it is hard not to fill up on carby foods as a substitute and you find yourself with a box of crackers or some other nonsense before you realize.

I bought about 20 pounds of shrimp at Wal-Mart because they had very large shrimp on sale for a very good price. I have boiled them, roasted them and will eventually saute them as I grow weary of the fare. I keep 2 pounds of boiled shrimps in the fridge for easy snacking. They practically have no calories and are low in fat. We also bought Cod which I have added to a large pot of gumbo (a little spicy for the older set, oops.) that went over well at Pre Sanctified liturgy. I also baked a loaf of Prosphora for the service. Its hard to keep that from going in my mouth too.

All in all we had almost finished the second week, I am losing a bit of weight or at least a inch or two around the middle, always a sign of a successful fast.  Time to get some serious recipes out and spice things up a bit so I see some dirty shrimp in our future as well as some pasta. We have been good so far in laying off the stuff but meals are getting tedious so...

Lenten Treat

Looking for things to keep me somewhat sated during this first week of Lent, I found small packs of Edamame that can be nuked at work and eaten. I love these little bean pods but they can be a bit bland so....a sauce is in order.
How about a little treat from Hiro's here in Omaha. They make a great spicy Edamame.

1/4 c soy sauce
1 Tbl brown sugar
1/4 c rice vinegar
healthy squirt of Siracha
1 tbl Garlic chili paste
1 tbl toasted Sesame oil

A short burst in the microwave to melt the sugar and stir it in then I poured a few teaspoons over my hot Edamame.  Hot, sweet, spicy and delicious.  Its pretty close to the original.