Food Fascination

Rumaki are one of those deceptively simple hors d’oeuvres that take some time and effort to make, but are worth every second. They’re almost guaranteed to disappear as quickly as you can put them out.

You’ll need:
1 pound bacon (the leanest you can find)
2 (8 oz) cans sliced water chestnuts
Plain wooden toothpicks
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups ketchup

Slice bacon horizontally into quarters - you’ll have lots of short strips. Open and drain water chestnuts. Wrap a 1/4 length section of bacon around a single sliced water chestnut, securing by poking a toothpick through the bacon and chestnut. Every once in a while, a water chestnut will split in half - don’t worry about it. It might fall apart, but most likely the bacon will hold it together.

In a bowl, combine sugar and ketchup. Dip each rumaki in the mixture, using a spoon to cover it entirely.

Place on a baking rack over a rimmed baking sheet, or on the top half of a broiler pan. Bake at 300 for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.

It’s best to finish these in the oven as you’re about to serve them. You can, however, pre-wrap them and store them in the fridge for up to 1 day.

Photos coming soon!

I admit it - there are summer days when I just have no motivation to cook - all I want to do is munch on something as we relax in the back yard or in front of the fan. It’s those evenings that I’ll make up a bowl of this dip, set it out with French bread and vegetables and dig in. For more than just hot days, though, this dip is also great for groups of people - one recipe serves 2-3 as dinner with bread and raw vegetables or 8-10 as a appetizer dip. Don’t be afraid to make it ahead and let it sit - it actually gets better the longer flavors meld in the fridge.

You’ll need:
1 small package frozen, chopped spinach, or 4 cups fresh, whole spinach leaves
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 package ranch dressing powder mix
2 cups sour cream

Thaw the frozen, chopped spinach and squeeze out as much of the liquid as possible - or, chop the fresh spinach and wilt in a frying pan over medium heat until it’s limp and soft.

Chop the water chestnuts into small chunks

Combine the spinach, chestnuts, ranch mix, and sour cream in a bowl. Dig in!

This salad is packed with iron, calcium, vitamin C, fiber, everything you’d want for a training regimin. This is another great place to use pre-roasted beets. As with most salad mixes, add whatever you’d like or what you have in your fridge - this is just a suggestion to build off of.

You’ll need:
2 medium beets with greens (and extra greens, if you have them leftover from other cooking adventures. Also, if you can find them, combine red and yellow beets for color variation)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow or red onion, chopped (red has extra bite to it, if you enjoy it)
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1-2 cups spinach
Feta cheese
Dried cranberries
Shredded carrots
Your favorite vinegarette or dressing

Slice the greens off the beet roots, set aside.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. On a large roasting pan covered with foil, roast the beets for 40-70 minutes, or until smooth when poked with a fork. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, then peel and cut into small chunks.

Rinse and pat dry the spinach and beet greens. Roughly chop or rip into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.

In a small frying pan, combine the onions and balsamic vinegar. Cook over medium heat until the onions begin to carmalize (this is easy to do ahead of time in large batches, then store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks). Set the onions aside and take the pan off the heat. Immediately add the greens and allow to wilt in the warm pan.

Combine the greens, onions, beets, cranberries, carrots, and whatever else you’d like. Toss with the dressing and enjoy with a large glass of milk.

Makes 2-3 servings salad

One of those combined-taste, greek-y, spring-is-coming things that I LOVE as a dinner to eat in the sunshine in the back yard (even if I’m still wearing a coat).

It’s also ultra-easy to put together. Use canned or fresh pears - if you use canned, save a little (2-4 tablespoons) or so of the juice. If you use fresh, slice them into 4-6 sections.

You’ll need:
1 can sliced or 3 fresh, sliced pears
1 package crumbled feta cheese
fresh mint leaves (just a few sprigs, depending on your taste)
2-4 tablespoons canned pear juice or 4 tablespoons water and 1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon butter

Cut the tablespoon of butter into small chunks and spread it over the bottom of a small glass baking dish (8×8 or a round pie pan). Spread the pears over the butter and pour the canned juice or water and sugar over the pears.
Arrange the mint leaves around the pears. Sprinkle the feta over the entire conglomeration. Cover with foil.

Bake at 250 for 10-20 minutes, or until pears are warmed through and the feta is beginning to melt.

Serve warm as an appetizer or dessert.

These appetizers, also known as Terapitas, are not “quick, just-throw-them-together” treats. Start to finish time is usually somewhere between 90 minutes and 2 hours. While they are not necessarily difficult, they do take time, concentration, and effort - so I would recommend starting them sometime before your third glass of wine. You can also forgo the wrapping the filling up in phyllo dough, and just use the filling as a veggie dish on top of pasta.

Filling:
1/3 cup olive oil
1 bunch green onions, chopped
Green Onions are also known as “scallions” - you’ll see this name in a lot of Mediterranean cookbooks

2 10-oz. packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
See this post for more info if you’re using your own spinach. To “squeeze dry”, thaw your spinach in low power for 2-5 minutes in the microwave. Then place the spinach on the center a thin, lint-free towel. Gather the four corners of the towel around the spinach, then hold it over the sink and squeeze down. Green water should come pouring out. Do this until it’s reduced down to a drip. This removes all excess water and helps keep your recipe from getting soggy.

1 bunch parsley, chopped
You can pick up parsley in the produce section of just about any grocery store. One “bunch” is usually wrapped up with a rubber band or veggie tie of some sort. If it’s not, anywhere from 10-20 stalks is usually a good estimation. Rinse it, then place small bunches of it on your cutting board and chop using a large cooking knife, in a rocking motion. Don’t worry about getting the pieces tiny - just a rough chop works well here.

1 teaspoon dill weed, chopped
As with parsley, you can pick up dill fresh in the produce section - it’s usually in small plastic packages. If you don’t find any fresh, or have dried dill already in your house, use two teaspoons of the dried herbs. This usually goes for most dried vs. fresh herbs - dried simply isn’t as pungent, so you should use more of it.

1/2 pound feta cheese, crumbled
Most packages of feta no longer come packed in water, so don’t worry about “draining” it if the package you buy doesn’t have much water. If it does, however, don’t forget this step! Feta is very salty, and the water it is packed in will add quite a bit of salt that you don’t necessarily want in your recipe.

Assembly:
3 lightly beaten eggs
Just crack them into a bowl and whip them for a few seconds with a fork. All you need to do here is break the yolks and mix them up a bit.

1 pound unsalted butter
The unsalted here is important. The feta cheese adds plenty of salt - and while the amount of salt in butter is usually negligible, it is noticeable here.

1 pound phyllo pastry
Phyllo is usually right by the frozen pie crusts. Be sure to get the “sheets” of phyllo and not the “shells.” Phyllo is a very very very thin dough that can be a pain in the arse to work with. Buy it a day or two in advance and let it defrost in the freezer. Because the sheets are so thin, they dry out very quickly and rip very easily. The good news is, because you’ll work with several layers at once, a rip or four isn’t that big of a deal. The easiest way to handle phyllo is to unroll it onto a cookie sheet, then cover it with a sheet of plastic wrap and a damp, clean kitchen towel. Get each piece out as you need it, and keep the rest covered. This will help keep it from drying out so quickly, and keep it easier to work with.

Over medium heat, warm the olive oil in a large frying pan and saute the green onions until soft - about 3 minutes. Add the spinach and heat, stirring occasionally, until warmed through. Add remaining the parsley, dill, and feta; blend well. Cool completely.

To assemble: Melt the butter by microwaving for 30 seconds, then stirring until it is almost entirely liquid.

On a cutting board, slice the phyllo into approximately 2-inch wide strips. A pizza cutter works wonderfully for this. Cover the dough with a sheet of plastic wrap and a damp kitchen towel.

Separate one two-inch strip of two layers of dough, and using a new paintbrush or pastry brush, brush the dough with butter. Spoon a small amount of the filling onto the end of the strip. Fold into a triangle like a flag (begin by taking a top corner of the dough and folding it over the filling into a triangle shape. Fold that triangle down, wrapping the filling, and continue until you’ve reached the end of the strip.) Brush with beaten eggs and place on a baking sheet. Once you have a full sheet, bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Can be kept for 2 days in fridge. Or, freeze the unbaked triangles and allow to defrost for 30 minutes at room temperature before baking.

Try this with fresh basil or thyme instead of dill or parsley. Or, replace the frozen spinach with other chopped, frozen leafy greens. The feta can also be switched out, just be sure to use “dry” crumbly cheeses such as Parmesan. Cheddar and other oily cheeses will melt all over your baking pan and soak through the dough - yuck! (I, sadly, speak from experience here.)