Greek Briami - or Roasted vegetables

This dish is one of my favorited vegetable dishes. I got the recipe years ago from my Greek friend Evelyn, who is a fantastic cook.

Briami is something so simple as zucchini and potatoes roasted with herbs and oil in the oven. I sometimes add a fennel if I have some, but the original recipe is also good as it is. I have never had a reason to twist or tweak this recipe.
I serve the Briami with a slice of feta cheese on the top, and a basket of fresh bread on the side. It tastes delicious, and when I close my eyes, I imagine sitting on a Greek island with the Greek sun over my head.


Evelyn's Briami
(serves 6)

Pre-heat oven to 420F

10 good-sized zucchini, washed and scrubbed
and cut crosswise into 1/4 inch slices
7 large-sized potatoes, peeled and cut
crosswise into 1/4 inch slices
5 garlic cloves, sliced thin
2 very large onions,
peeled, cut in half, each half cut into
thirds (large wedges)
3 large tomatoes, peeled and cut into
quarters
1/3 lb of hard cheese (I use Parmesan or Manchego)
3/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons oregano
3 tablespoons cut mint
3 tablespoons cut cilantro (optional)
salt and pepper

Put everything in a very large baking pan.
Pour water, olive oil on top and add herbs.
Season generously. Put your clean hands in
the pan and give all the veggies a toss so
herbs, and oil and salt and pepper go on
everything.
Roast in 420F oven for a couple
of hours, stirring everthing up a couple of
times to allow veggies on bottom to come up
and brown nicely too.

Bummer!!!

I unintentionally ate fish yesterday.

Yes, you read that right.
This is what happened:

I woke up - dead tired as usual because I'm always tired in the morning. I went down to the kitchen and made myself a cup of tea and toasted a bagel.
In the meantime, The Husband cut up some smoked salmon and cut up onion rings.
We brought our breakfast (uhm...brunch) out to the living room and ate while we watched a movie.
Out of habit, I piled smoked salmon and onion rings onto my bagel and ate it!
But the worst is, it didn't hit me until eight hours later that I had actually eaten fish!

I'm shocked. I'm speechless. I have no excuse, but I promise I will do better.
If I am to break my own project rules, it should at least be intentionally, right?

Restaurant food

I had dinner out on Thursday night.
The occasion was a seminar I was at, so the food was pre-ordered for our arrival.
I called in the day before and changed my order to vegetarian, which the restaurant was okay with.
And they did a great job too. I love it when the kitchen makes an effort to make vegetarian dishes tasty and good, like a true food experience.
First, we all got a cup of cauliflower soup as a starter. It was thick and creamy, just like cauliflower soup should be.

While the others got fish, I had pickled mushrooms with cauliflower puree and dill. The sweetness of the puree worked very well with the acidity of the pickled mushrooms. The presentation was nice too:



The main dish this night was grilled eggplant with a sun dried and capers sauce, served with a fondant potato (baked first, then fried in fat).
I ate all the eggplant, but the potato was a little bit too much. Also, I was getting a little full at this point.


I think the chef did a great job. I felt that he (- or she) did make an effort to please me, and I really appreciate that.

No meat so far

I'm almost two weeks into the new year, and I've had no meat so far.
You could say that twoo weeks isn't much to brag about, and so far it's been pretty easy since I've had most meals at home. But it takes more planning since we are one meat eater and one vegetarian in this house. The meat eater has made it very clear that he has no intentions of giving up meat.
Yesterday I had lunch with two co-workers at a restaurant. The menu offered two vegetarian options: Classic french onion soup (au gratin), and a ratatouille on a bed of mushroom risotto. I chose the latter, and it was very good and tasty. But all the other dishes either contained meat, fish or shellfish.

I had completely forgotten that I have a two day seminar coming up. We're starting tomorrow, and we will be staying at a hotel for two days. I called the hotel today and asked if I could pre-order a vegetarian dish for lunch and dinner, and they were very okay with it. That was such a relief. Now I don't have to think about planning any meals for two days. The next meal I need to cook is dinner on Friday. I haven't decided what to make yet, but I have a couple of pounds of red beets in the fridge that I need to use soon. I think I'll start there, and work them into a meal. Somehow! ;-)

New York Mayor wants less salt in restaurant food

First New York City required restaurants to cut out trans fat. Then it made restaurant chains post calorie counts on their menus. Now it wants to protect people from another health scourge: salt.

On Monday, the Bloomberg administration plans to unveil a broad new health initiative aimed at encouraging food manufacturers and restaurant chains across the country to curtail the amount of salt in their products.

The plan, for which the city claims support from health agencies in other cities and states, sets a goal of reducing the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant food by 25 percent over the next five years.

Link to NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/business/11salt.html?hp

Salt has been linked to high blood pressure and obesitry, and I think the new York Mayor is doing everyone a favor by starting this campaign.

“We all consume way too much salt, and most of the salt we consume is in the food when we buy it,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, the city health commissioner, whose department is leading the effort. Eighty percent of the salt in Americans’ diets comes from packaged or restaurant food. Dr. Farley said reducing salt from those sources would save lives.