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! 

Russia, Russia, Russia

This week was a busy one for us so it was hard to find a night that we would all be at home to enjoy Russian night.  We sort of pulled it together last minute.  It wasn't as elaborate as the past few weeks but it was nice to know that we can still mark a country off the map without tons of planning.  Plus, dad got to use his grill and we all got to enjoy the awesome weather we have been having!

Our Menu:

• Kottlety-Pozharskie- Chicken burgers w/tangy coleslaw.  

 

 

We learned that the Russians love their pickles!  It was hard to find a recipe that didn't have pickles!  Pickle soup, fried pickles, even their potato salad is made up of pickles.  Now, we love pickles just as much as the next guy but pickles in a soup or salad just didn't sit right with us.  So we just stuck with the burgers.   We also learned that Russia makes up 1/7 of all land mass.  We are getting so smart!

It's Dad's turn and he picked.....Austria!

Cook like an Egyptian

Egypt...check!  

Our Menu:

• Sambusak- kinda like an Egyptian hot pocket.

• Feta Salad- it had fresh mint and cucumbers and green onion....so good!!

• Basbousa-an Egyptian cake like dessert with lemon sauce.

• "Egyptian Beer"- not really, but I couldn't resist! 

I had the day off yesterday so I spent my day finding all my ingredients for our recipes.  I actually enjoy the hunt.  Grocery shopping might be the lowest form of retail therapy but its still shopping in my book.  I baked the cake and made the salad ahead of time so that when Adam got home we could get cooking.  Adam made the dough for our sambusak and I made the filling, I really love being in the kitchen with him.  He was very serious about his dough and very proud of how it came out.  Adam thought the little sambusaks were great, I thought the salad was great, and we ALL thought the cake was great! 

Zoie loves basbousa!

We learned that the caterpillar was fist discovered in Egypt and that Pharaohs would walk around with naked slaves covered in honey so that flies wouldn't land on them.  How would you like that job?

It's Mr. Fox's turn to pick again and he picked Russia!

Swedish...Sweeedish

Swedish night could not help but remind my hubby and I of that old Tom Green "bum bum" song.  We all know that Tom Green isn't going to win any sort of comedy awards but it was fun to go back and watch that video, especially with an 8 year old.  Here is the video from back when MTV still played a little bit music.

Your welcome!  Okay moving right along.....

Here is our menu:

• Swedish Meatballs (click here to see recipe)
• Swedish Potato Pancakes (click here to see recipe)

Not exactly the healthiest of meals, good 'ol meat and potatoes.  But upon further research it appears that this is exactly how the Swedish eat.  Fruits and Veggies are hard to find and very expensive.  The Swedish are also responsible for bringing us a few musical gems such as Abba and Ace of Base.  Thanks Sweden!

Adam and I cooked this meal together, we were in the kitchen slaving away for 2 hours.  It took a lot of teamwork and I couldn't have done it without him.  I learned that it is wise to give the recipe a good look over before diving right in.  We ended up with a HUGE batch of meatballs, 48 to be exact.   I could have totally cut it in half.  To be perfectly honest, they were okay...Not bad, not great, just okay.  Definitely not worth all the trouble.  The pancakes were good, they sort of tasted like hash browns.  The best part of the night was spending time with my handsome husband and stealing kisses with goopy hands while rolling a gazillion meatballs.

So now it's my turn to pick the country.  I thought about picking some place foolproof and easy that I knew I could cook and I knew would be good like China or Thailand but this is supposed to be a challenge!  So I picked a place that I have always thought was fascinating....

So, with 3 countries marked off of our map, we say good riddance to Sweden and hello to....

EGYPT!

Schadenfreude

We were so excited when our 2 favorite Germans offered to come over and cook authentic Schnitzel for us! It was sooooooo good. What a great way to mark Germany off of our map!

Our family absolutely adores these two girls. Secretly, we are planning and plotting to kidnap them and keep them here in America with us.  Not only are they super sweet and GORGEOUS but these girls can cook! 

On the menu:

• Schnitzel
• Cucumber Salad
• Baked Potatoes with home made garlic butter

We topped the night off by watching Borat. I haven’t seen it in a while, I remembered it being funny but watching it while Sandy did her spot on impressions made it hysterical! Sexy time!

Thank you Sandy and Charlotte for cooking some great food and for making us laugh! 

We love you!

FACT: The Christmas tree was invented in Germany and Germans think David Hasslehoff is ahhhmazing.

Sweden night is….Tonight!

O Canada!

We have a rule in our house.  Ayden always goes first.  Why?  Well, because hes Ayden.  So staying true to form Ayden got to pick the first country.  He could have picked any country in the whole wide world and he went with DRUM ROLL PLEASE....... Canada.  Really?  Adam and I gave each other a mutual "what the hell do they eat in Canada?" look.  But a deal is a deal so Canada it is!

After lots of research and asking around I came up with our menu.

• Donairs(Canadian street food)
• Molson Canadian beer
• Canada Dry ginger ale (Adam's surprise contribution)

For the record, I made the Donairs completely from scratch.  They were good!!  Sort of like a gyro.  Here is the recipe I used

 Oh and by the way, did you know that Canada is the second largest country in the world, behind Russia?  Interesting right?  I can actually feel myself getting smarter ;)

Adam is next up to bat, his choice?  Sweden.  Hmmmm...meatballs?  Stay tuned!