Lamb Gyros with homemade Tzatziki recipe Yogurt Sauce

I had made a wonderful leg of lamb, quite by accident, since I had left the freezer door open overnight. My being so absent-minded did not impress me, but since the leg of lamb was sill quite semi-frozen, I allowed it to completely thaw in the fridge - then made it up with fresh garlic and rosemary. I think I get better at this dish, with every time I make it (recipe is already posted for Roasted Leg of Lamb). The slow roasting at 300 degrees is really the key to allowing the fat to slowly melt and baste the leg of lamb.

Since this was a big leg, almost 7 pounds, you can just say I had enough to feed a small army. I couldn't have a clue that my next meal the very next night would be as delicious as the leg of lamb out of the oven from the night before.

I asked my fellow foodies at GroupRecipes.com what could I do with so much left over leg of lamb. I really was perplexed - and I wasn't one for casseroles, as least not for tonight. It has been so hot lately in NY this summer. When one foodie mentioned gyros, I was instantly interested (thanks Pointseven). I went off to do some surfing and look up and review several recipes, then came up with my own version.

Since lamb is served best either hot or cold, not in between, I decided to try my hand at making homemade tzatziki sauce which is comprised of a low fat yogurt which has been drained of its liquid along with fresh cucumber. I noticed there were a variety of ways to make this sauce as there are a variety of ways to make so called gyros and even more ways to spell this sauce. So here is my take.

We also ended up inviting friends over for dinner, while one of them is a former NYC Chef, and he said many times over how great the meal was - so enjoy this wonderful summer dinner.

Ingredients:

Large pitas that can be sliced in half and opened to create pockets. Figure one large 6-7inch pita per person or more. (Usually found by the deli section at your grocery store sitting in front of the glass case containing your deli cheeses and meats)
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Sauce:
1 large cucumber - skinned, seeds scooped out with spoon, then diced small
2 - 6oz jars of plain lo fat yogurt
1 - 8 oz jar of low fat sour cream - I think I used a larger container.
Juice and zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons or more fresh minced mint leaves
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt - or more as needed
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
1-2 large cloves of garlic minced super fine.
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For the Platter and Meal:
2 juicy tomatoes diced and salted
1/2 head of lettuce or less shredded
1 large cucumber, peeled leaving a little skin, then sliced thinly, then halved.
Left over leg of lamb, which has been cut into thin strips.
Large platter for serving

Directions:

Prepare tzatziki sauce first, in fact I made mine that afternoon, since you will need the flavors to marry and get to know one another. This could easily be made the night before.
Also this sauce would be perfect will grilled chicken in the pita pockets, or served over poached fish of your choice. This sauce is refreshingly light and quite delicious enough to satisfy carnivores.
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Take either strainer sitting over a bowl or simply a bowl and line it with several layers of cheese cloth (preferred) or clean tea towel (which is what I did).
Pour contents of the containers of plain yogurt and sour cream into the dish towel with is sitting in the bowl, and let sit either in fridge or on your counter for about 1 hour at least. Do not skip this step, let the fluids drain at their own pace.
This allows a lot of the water from the sour cream and the yogurt to be drained creating an extra thick sauce later.
Take to the sink, and with gently squeezing out (like you would with frozen spinach) create a ball with your cheese cloth or dish towel and squeeze out the excess liquid. I even scraped with my fingers on the outside of the 'ball' to get as much as the excess liquid away.
I stopped when little bits of the yogurt seemed to be sneaking through the dish towel.
Using a spatula, scrape out/flip out the contents of the yogurt and sour cream into a bowl.
Rinse your cheese cloth or dish towel to make cleaning it up later a cinch.
To bowl, add all the minced mint, oregano, fresh cracked pepper, salt, lemon juice, minced finely garlic and the skinned, seeds removed diced small cucumber. Stir till the contents are combined. Cover with plastic and put back into fridge to let flavors to become friends.
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To make a pretty platter, make rows of the ingredients. This will allow your guests to create their own pita pockets.
I took a large platter, sliced up farmers market tomatoes and sprinkled them with kosher salt. Letting the cut tomatoes sit for 10 minutes with the salt really gets the juices to flow from the tomatoes and super enhances their flavors.
Make another row of the shredded lettuce and lamb.
The make one last row of thinly sliced and decorated cucumber.
You can either grill your pita bread to make it slightly more pliable, or even sprinkle them with a little water and heat them in the oven for a mere 5 minutes.
I added additional minced mint on top of the lamb on the platter and on top of the zatziki sauce - which really boosted up the viewing factor.
Bring pita, platter and zatziki sauce to the dinner table and serve with fresh seltzer with freshly cut lemons and limes or sangria. We also served up some fresh hummus I has also made (recipe posted) that afternoon.
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To Assemble:
Open pita pocket, take a dollop of tzatziki sauce, then add lamb, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers - and maybe some additional tzatziki sauce and eat up!
Put in serving spoons under rows of ingredients to allow people to easily get their ingredients and place them into their own pita pockets.
Zatziki Sauce lasts at least a week covered in the fridge.

Leahs Rice and Beans with Italian Sausage

I was low in funds, and looked through my cupboards and decided to try my hand at rice and beans. I looked at many recipes, and this is my own spicy version of what I came up with. This can easily be made in a slow cooker/crockpot as well. This made more than I expected, so halve the amount for a family of four. This quite frankly could have fed more than 8 people. Great to use as a hearty side dish too next to say some grilled chicken.

This is a super great dish to serve when you need your food to stretch, I must say. No wonder there are so many variations of this incredibly hearty and comforting dish!

Ingredients:

1 sweet green bell pepper - cut into 1inch chunks
1 jalapeño finely diced
1 large onion, diced
2 cans red kidney beans, rinsed of their canned juices
5 garlic gloves minced
1 Italian dry sausage such as soprasatta, skin removed, sliced thin and halved.
1-1/2 cup rice
3-1/2 cups water/chicken stock
2 tablespoons 'better than bullion-chicken flavored' is using water - which is what I did and prefer than using canned chicken stock.
fresh cracked pepper
olive oil

Directions:

In a large pot, pour enough olive oil to coat the bottom.
On medium heat, add diced onions and sliced sausages. Sautee till onions are wilted and starting to be translucent.
Add both peppers and garlic, let cook one minute.
Add beans and rice.
Add fresh cracked pepper, and additional spices you might like - such as cumin, old bay, hot sauce, etc.
Stir till all ingredients are combined.
Then add water/chicken stock/better than bullion - you might need to add additional water, since you want enough water to be at the same height as all the ingredients in your pot.
Cover with lid and put heat onto high.
Let come to a boil, then put down on lowest setting and cook for 25 minutes or until all water has evaporated.
Serve up with a sprinkling of freshly minced parsley and/or chives. I made an amazing twist of GroupRecipes.com's Foodie: Reciperules' cornbread (link provided) which I used fresh jalapeño versus the chilies and canned corn versus the cream corn as specified in her recipe. It was literally the best tasting corn bread I ever did make.
Photo shown is my dish served along with GR's own Recipesrules' Cornbread Mile High and Moist recipe that I made to go along with the dish: http://www.grouprecipes.com/61838/cornbread-mile-high-and-moist.html

Homemade Lavender Honey Bread

I made up this recipe yesterday, and until I tasted it, it convinced me I had to share this new recipe. Nice twist to your ordinary white loaf, I let my bread machine make the dough, then I let it rise twice...couldn't be easier. The smell in the kitchen and of the bread when baking is amazing and adding edible lavender makes a nice flower touch and look is extra pretty too! Makes a wonderful brunch bread or a twist to french toast!


Ingredients:

• 3-1/2 cups bread flour (though I used unbleached Heckers regular flower with great results)


• 2 teaspoons Rapid-Rise Yeast - its a super active dry yeast (its packaging is bright yellow and pink)


• 2-1/2 tablespoons honey


• 2-1/2 tablespoons olive oil.


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1-1/3 cup warm water (120 degrees)


• 1/2 cup lavender


• Cookie sheet and parchment paper


• Clean dish towel


• Olive oil greased deep bowl

Directions:

1. Prep time is just a guesstimate, since each bread machine takes it's own time to make just the dough - mine takes 1 hr, 20minutes.


2. My bread machine requires the yeast to be added last, if your requires the yeast to added first, then do it in that order then add the flour and lastly the 'wet' ingredients.


3. *********************************************


4. Select the dough cycle on your bread machine.


5. Add warm water, then add honey, olive oil, salt.


6. In separate bowl, measure out flower and add lavender, mix till combined.


7. Add flour with the lavender, then make small well, and add yeast.


8. Turn on bread machine.


9. Be ready once bread machine has finished its dough cycle, turn out dough onto floured surface.


10. Let sit for ten minutes, knead for five minutes then shape into ball and place into greased bowl. Gently grease top of dough ball with additional olive oil.


11. Cover with clean tea towel and let rise until doubled in size in a warm spot on your kitchen.


12. Depending upon temperature in your kitchen, this can take anywhere from 25 minutes to 2 hours.


13. I have gone shopping, do the laundry whatever, Multi-task my foodies, multi-task!


14. If you have a gas stove, you can 'cheat' and place the bowl with the dough in your oven and let it rise there, it will rise more quickly.


15. Once doubled, punch bread and knead two minutes. Stretch or roll out dough slightly to form a rectangle, then roll up into a log.


16. Please bread dough on the diagonal onto parchment paper on the cookie sheet, making sure to tuck ends under and that the bread rolled up has its seam underneath.


17. Put back into oven or in a warm spot in your kitchen to let double in size.


18. Preheat your oven 375 degrees.


19. Place bread into oven to bake for 25-30 minutes.


20. Bread is done when it sounds hollow when knocked on.


21. Let cool before slicing. Enjoy with jam, butter and/or with honey.

I had some this morning, toasted and served it up with butter and raspberry jam - delicious!

Leahs Homemade Lavender Honey Bread @ Group Recipes

Pineapple Mint Julep Recipe

For those who love a nice refreshing beverage, here's a nice cool pineapple one! Put your glasses or mugs into the freezer to really make your drinks make that splash with your guests or family and friends at your house tonight! This is my version of an oldie but goodie recipe!

Ingredients:

6+ sprigs of fresh mint
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
4 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
2 cups ginger ale (diet is fine too, or flavored seltzer)
1 cup Alcohol of your choice - Bourbon is traditional, but I would use vodka or white rum too with super excellent results.
Ice
Pitcher
Wooden spoon or wooden potato masher

Directions:

Put rinsed mint into pitcher, take leaves off their stems.
Add lemon zest.
Add sugar on top of mint and zest.
Mash for at least one or two minutes really well, bruising the mint.
Add lemon juice and let stand for 15 minutes.
This is when you call your GF to come on over for early evening drinks if you already haven't done so.
Add pineapple juice, ginger ale.
***For extra decadence, wet rims of cold glasses with a little of pineapple juice or lemon, then place glass down into small plate with a little sugar so that the rims are covered in sugar.
Put ice into drinks, add alcohol to desired amount, then add mix into drink.
Add fresh sprig of lime.
Makes almost 8 cups, enough for 4 people having two drinks.
Photo from timeinc.com

Remove Water Rings On Wood Furniture Organically

Who knew - the wonder's of mayonnaise - full flavor and all the fat please - but do you have rings on your good furniture - we have used this trick for years - and it really works fantastic...no need to restain your antiques.

Ingredients:

2-3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 or 2 paper towels
6 hours or more needed to let stain be naturally removed... see below

Directions:

Locate ring from leaving your favorite ice tea or other cold drink that has now left a water mark on your Grandmother's passed down antique table top.
Grab full fat mayonnaise (miracle whip ok too here folks)
Spread 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise covering water ring.
Gently place paper towel over water ring and slabbed on mayo- it's more to remind you that the mayonnaise is there than anything else while keeping the area moist.
We used to leave it over night, but by 6 hours, wipe clean and voila, water ring is removed.
Why does this work??? The fat in the mayonnaise gently gets reabsorbed into the water ring mark leaving you and your favorite antique table top looking fantastic...
This is great in the summer when people forget to use coasters under their iced drinks...