Big Fat Greek Night!

Zoie helped us mark Greece off the map.

We may have gone a little longer then a week this time but we are officially back in the swing of things.  Adam and I were seriously considering taking our challenge on a little field trip to My Big Fat Greek restaurant since we sooooo love that place.  But because we learned last week that veal is in fact NOT lamb and I still have this lamb in my freezer we decided to get all 4 of us into the kitchen and cook up some authentic recipes from Greece.  

On the menu:

• Lamb Ragout -Lamb and onions sauteed in tomatoes and Cinnamon.

• Spinach pie  - Spinach, feta, garlic in a filo dough pie crust...Delicious!  
•  Baklava 

Adam rocked the spinach pie, it was amazing!  Fox and I cooked the lamb together, Adam loved it, Fox and I were not so fond.  Baklava seems to be authentic to a few countries, Greece included.  But hey, who wouldn't want to claim layers of buttery pastry filled with sweet honey sauce and toasted nuts?  We certainly enjoyed it!  I think Zoie had a little too much!

FACT:  Every citizen of Greece is required by law to vote.  What a great law!!

It is once again Mr. Ayden Fox's turn to pick the country.   He picked a good one!

AMERICA!

"Austria, well then....."

Adam and Zoie mark Austria off our map! 

You may be wondering how we decide which country to visit each week.  We started by going from youngest to oldest but I think each of  us has a different way that we choose. For Ayden I think he wants the country that is the biggest, smallest, or most oddly shaped, he wants to really study the map before choosing.  I pick countries that I have always thought were interesting or ones that I think would have yummy food.  Adam, well he has an entirely different process, and this is it....

 

I am finding that a lot of the countries we have picked lately eat very similar.  Austria is famous for its wiener schnitzel.  We kind of already did that for German night.  We ended up making something called Zwiebelrostbraten, Ayden and I have fun trying to pronounce that one!  It is made with veal, I have never had veal.  I asked Adam what it was and very matter of factually, he said "oh its lamb".  So after visiting many stores and being unable to find anything named veal I bought some lamb.  I called my personal recipe encyclopedia and the best cook I know, my Grams, she said that veal was VERY different from lamb.  I then googled veal, don't EVER do that. Ever.  Needless to say, we didn't use veal.  I switched up the recipe and made it with chicken and chicken stock.  The best part were the homemade onion rings! 

Of coarse we had to have cheese danish!!

We learned that Hitler, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the inventor of the sewing machine were all from Austria (thanks Aunt Jen!!!)

It's my turn!  It's my turn!  Since I now have lamb in my freezer,  Greece!