Wonderful little pockets of  bread to hold all kinds of good fillings.

The pocket in pita bread is created by steam and when it flattens it leaves a pocket on the inside to hold all kinds of delicious fillings. Grilled veggies are great served in a pita. Or, you can use the pita to make individual pizzas or better yet, make hummus and use the pita for scooping out the dip.

My mother was a really good cook and she of course made homemade breads. She would make wonderful cornbread and the best homemade biscuits and yeast rolls. I remember when she use to make biscuits and my sister and I would beg her to bang the pan on the counter so they would fall (now who in the world would do that — but she did, for us) because her biscuits had a wonderful crunchy bottom and by deflating them, you had a crunchy bottom and top. Over the years I learned to appreciate high fluffy biscuits and feel guilty for taking the air out of my mother’s biscuits. Never had pita as a kid, but I’m sure my mother could have made them.

For years I have bought pita and made pita chips that I brush with cumin, butter and lemon pepper. No, I didn’t buy the pita chips that are already baked and bagged. BUT, I have never made my own pita bread until a recent www.thedaringkitchen.com challenge where we were asked to make pita, hummus and a mezza table full of wonderful Middle Eastern treats.

These were delicious served with a bowl of fresh hummus.

Continue reading »

This past summer when we were visiting my brother in Chicago we decided to stop at a neighborhood restaurant (Northside) for a quick lunch on the patio.  Chicago’s July was much, much better than July in Texas, so we took every chance to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather.  I had a BBQ sandwich served on a pretzel roll, which I had never heard of before. Pretzel roll…yum, BBQ..not so much, way to saucy.   Funny thing, by the end of the weekend I noticed that pretzel rolls were a popular menu item at a lot of the restaurants we visited.  I’ve been thinking about making them ever since.

Besides pizza dough, I’ve never attempted to make bread before.  On Superbowl Sunday and I had high hopes to whip up tons of these babies to bring to a party.  Like with most things I procrastinated and started too late, then tried to rush things.  Not having a thermometer doesn’t help either, I think it is probably crucial to have the exact water temperature when activating yeast.

Continue reading »

The 2010 February Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

Mezze, tapas, muqabbilat, dim sum, hor’devoures, or simply “apps”.

What ever language you may say this word in, “mezze”, tapas, muqabbilat, dim sum, hor d oeuvres, apps, we are talking about small portions of food eaten before a meal or in place of a meal.  Mezze is a selection of Greek and middle-eastern small dishes served in “mezze” portions (like tapas.) Typically a mezze might include things like hummus, baba ganoush, pita, olives, dolmas, maybe some grilled vegetables or a kabob. A mezze table would have several small dishes served all at once. If you love grazing at parties, you will love this style of eating. All kinds of things to nibble on. Try this for your next party, or any get together with friends. Everything can be made in advance, making the party an easy one to put together. All you need to do is open your wine, beer or whatever beverage and enjoy.

My menu for my messe table:

Pita Bread
Hummus
Bacon Wrapped Dates with Blue Cheese
Eggplant Caponata
Spanakopita
Tagine Spiced Grilled Quail
Israeli Cous Cous (I bought this ready made)
Herbed New Potatoes
Chocolava

Continue reading »

I know you may be thinking “she’s crazy for stuffing those tiny little pods”, but they are always a hit a party.

When I started catering 20 years ago it seemed like everything idea I came up with involved a lot of time and handling of food. But, I have to say, those are usually the appetizers people go crazy for. Anyone can throw out a cheese tray or deli tray so I tend to like appetizers that people know you went to a little extra trouble making. I usually cringe when someone calls me and ask me if I do “trays”. What comes to mind when I think “trays” are piles of cheese or little hoagie sandwiches with those frilly little picks sticking out of the top.

I’ve stuffed black olives with pepperoni and then piped in a flavored cream cheese, I have stuffed rigatoni bites, and the Parmesan Bacon Wraps I make are to die for and they take a couple of hours almost in the oven.

This is a great little recipe I first tried about 10 years ago from “Come On In” cookbook. A few years ago I was catering a wedding and I had the menu all prepared for 75 guest. I had planned on doing these snow peas. Normally I would have done 150, which would have been 2 per person. Well, the guest list kept growing and growing and finally ended up at 225.  So the night before the wedding I’m sitting (by myself) stuffing 450 snow peas. I think it took me about 4 hours just to do the peas. After that, I never put them on the menu for 50 or more people — they just takes way too long to do these for large parties.

Continue reading »

So what to do with the fried turkey carcass? You make gumbo!

Well, it was raining today down here in South Texas which pretty much destroyed my plans to play in a golf tournament this morning.  It was not only wet, it was cold too — almost 40 degrees so I really wasn’t too motivated to work in the yard or do anything that was particularly constructive.

Being trapped inside for a day led me to the refrigerator to chow down on some comfort food.  As it turned out, I couldn’t find anything interesting but I did notice a frozen fried turkey carcass in the freezer.  It was left over from Thanksgiving when we deep fried turkeys out in the backyard.

We have fried a ton of turkeys for ourselves and friends for many years. One of my sons and I get up early every Thanksgiving, crack open a bottle of cognac, pour some cotton seed oil in a pot, light up a fire and start frying turkeys. Lots of people use peanut oil for frying but we’re from SE Missouri cotton country and we use cottonseed oil (it burns cleaner and has a high flash point). Sometimes we have two pots going. I generally take a break and run the annual 5 mile turkey trot with our other son, daughter-in-law, daughter and anyone else who feels up to it, then it’s back to turkey frying. Sure helps build an appetite for the rest of the day.

Finished with rice, scallions and file powder.

Continue reading »