Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Mother's Day Menu

As the one non-reproducing female old enough to use knives and a stove in the family, I am pretty much stuck with preparing an appropriate Mother's Day celebration. The guys in the family haven't shown great Mother's Day prowess...my brother-in-law favors brunch buffets with remarkable crowds and unremarkable food, and my dad has a bad habit of saying "We'll just go out" without thinking of reservations, meaning we eat at midnight.

So it's up to me. I found my notes from last year and checked with the moms; luckily they don't mind a repeat of the menu. We have a Greek theme going: chicken marinated in retsina, grilled zucchini, orzo, horiatiki salad, and baklava for desert. While shopping today I found jarred dolmades, which I'm not about to make by hand (I'm buying the baklava too, I admit it), so I'm adding that this year.

If I have to do the work, I'm making food I like. I actually considered doing a complete vegetarian dinner, but I didn't feel like listening to the men (besides Victor, of course) complain. Maybe for Father's Day I'll grill them Tofurkey and see if they notice.

When I was a kid I used to whine "When is Children's Day?" (Tha adult answer was inevitably "Every day is children's day.") Now I wanna know: when is umarried oldest daughter/aunt/babysitter/cook/errand-runner day?

Chicken and salad recipes are in the extended entry...

The chicken was inspired by one of Steve Raichlen's beer can chicken recipes. Although Victor does a great beer can chicken, to feed a big group of people, I adapted it a bit.

Greek spice mix:

I mix this up in a jar and use it all the time on chicken, vegetables, french fries, whatever...

2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons dried mint
4 tablespoons black pepper
3 tablespoons salt

Marinade:

1 bottle of white retsina
2 tablespoons of olive oil (I have become very fond of the Greek olive oil from Trader Joe's)
1 white onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 heaping teaspoon of dried oregano

Marinate boneless chicken breasts for at least three hours. Sprinkle chicken with greek spice mix then grill or broil.

Horiatiki salad

1 cucumber, seeded and diced
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
8 ounces kalamata olives, pitted
1 small red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced

I sometimes use green pepper in the salad, but not for family dinners, because my brother-in-law won't eat them.

Toss the vegetables with red wine vinegar and olive oil to taste. (I personally like vinegar a lot, so I use almost a 1:1 oil-vinegar ratio.) Sprinkle with feta cheese before serving.

I sometimes use green pepper in the salad, but not for family dinners, because my brother-in-law won't eat them.

For lunch the next day, I mix what's left of the orzo and what's left of the salad together and eat it stuffed in a pita.

Posted by Nic at May 8, 2004 05:03 PM