Greek Week Presents... Pastitsio!

so here's what happened... i (the pig) got sick.  drugged up on cold medicine, head-pounding, sinus infection sick.  so greek week, and our birthday celebration, came to an abrupt halt.  the celebration will continue - just slightly delayed...

_______

ok, I should say almost presents.  I am writing this at 10:15 Tues night, and we just put it in the oven.  It bakes 45-60 minutes.  Then it has to sit at least 30 before we can touch it.  And we haven't cleaned the disaster we made in the kitchen or prepared for tomorrow.  So, this post is coming...  we promised you a recipe every day and we will deliver! Just maybe not until like 10 pm tonight.

but i really think it might be the most amazing thing we've ever made.  its like a giant baking sheet of glory.   soon you will see...

Greek Week Presents... Baba Ghanoush!

Whew! What an exhausting day at the Castle Farm! We made pitas, tzatziki, htipiti, hummus, and also baba ghanoush!  We don't necessarily recommend making all of these at the same time.  It's a lot of work for you and your food processor.

Anyway, we picked this baba ghanoush recipe from The Way the Cookie Crumbles because 1) it looked delicious and 2) she described an oven method of roasting the eggplants.  Though we ended up accidentally roasting them differently (we'll explain below).

Greek Week Presents... Hummus

Hummus is one of those things we always think about making and never do.  Since we were planning to make a bunch of dips for Greek Week, we finally had our opportunity to make it.

This recipe is pretty good.  If you like basic-but-good hummus, this is the one for you.  We prefer hummus with added flavors.  We're going to try a garlicky one next time.  Of course, maybe it's just unfair to compare it to all the other dips we made...

Greek Week Presents... Htipiti

What's htipiti?  Greek roasted red pepper and feta dip, of course!

This dip was AMAZING.  Like, we could just eat it by the batch. That probably wouldn't be a good idea though.  Plus, we have three other pretty great dips to eat at the same time.

Greek Week Presents... Tzatziki

Since we just gave you a wonderful pita recipe, it's only fair that we give you a few things to dip them in. No Greek feast would be complete without Tzatziki!

This recipe is a Castle Farm original, created through many test batches to find our favorite blend of seasonings.

Greek Week Presents... Pitas!

Greek Week continues on the Castle Farm Cookbook! To those just joining us, we are having a week long celebration to mark our blog's first birthday.

No Greek feast would be complete without an appetizer of pita and dips. We made pita pocketsa while ago, but we have never shared our favorite pita recipe with you.

Greek Week Presents... Grecian Meatballs!

Welcome to Greek Week!

In honor of our Blog's 1st birthday (they grow up so quickly...) this Saturday, we are sharing recipes of our favorite Greek foods all week!  That way, you can have your own Greek feast to celebrate with us.

Kicking off our Greek week is a simple, Greek-twist on a classic meatball recipe. We've made this many times and always love the result.  It's originally from our Perfect Greek cookbook.

Big Announcement!

I know you've all been super excited all week wondering what our big announcement was going to be! So here it is:

It's Greek Week!!

That's right, all week long we are going to have all new recipes featuring our favorite cuisine! Normally, we only post 2-3 times per week, but we are giving you at least one recipe each day. That way, on our Blog Birthday, Saturday (10/2), you will have all the recipes you need to celebrate with us by having your own Greek feast!

Opa!

Once upon a time there was... a clue...

Hey Castle Farm Cookbook readers, are you excited for our special celebration next week?!?!? Here's a big clue, the recipes will be all about one of our favorite places....

Once upon a time there was... Twice-Baked Potatoes

Last week when we shared our recipe for Scalloped Potatoes, we got a little carried away talking about all the ways to combine potatoes and cheese. The first thing that popped into our heads was Twice-Baked Potatoes. Mooooo. (That's what cows say instead of ooooo. And all the time really.)

This is another recipe that our fancy food processor revolutionized. We used to have to spend a very long time shredded lots of cheese, but now we put it in the top and hit the button and have a giant bowl of perfectly shredded cheese. We probably end up with more cheese in our potatoes this way, since hand shredded tends to lead to lots of eating along the way....

Even with the revolutionary technology of the food processor, this recipe is a nearly 2 hour process. Don't let this scare you! It's easy! But maybe save it for a weekend night.

The Castle Farm recipe does not contain bacon, since Cornelius objects. In fact, the original source at All Recipes includes bacon. So, if you want to add bacon to yours, I won't tell.

Once upon a time there was... Lemon Pasta with Chicken and Pine Nuts

When Cal and I want a quick, weeknight meal, pasta is a good choice. Unfortunately a good recipe is hard to find. Most easy pasta recipes have one of the following problems:

1) they are boring (i.e. spaghetti with sauce from a jar)
2) they are fattening (i.e alfredo, amaretto cream sauce )
3) they require fresh ingredients on hand (i.e penne with fresh pesto, ricotta, and tomatoes)

This recipe is like a magic solution to all of those problems. Just try it. You'll see what we're talking about.

Baltic Cruise

Unlike our other posts this week, this post is not about cheese. It is also not a Blooper. It's not even about food at all! Now you are probably thinking what kind of a food blog is this??? We promise, there is a perfectly good explanation!

We left you all hanging without any new posts for a long time this summer. . . While you were all staring at your computer screens hoping and praying for your favorite food blogging animals to return, we were busy taking vacations. We shared some pictures here and here of our International Tour of America roadtrip, but we did not post pictures of our other summer adventure. So, while we were not sharing delicious recipes with you, here's what we were up to!

toured Copenhagen

standing on either side of the Berlin Wall

Once upon a time there was... Scalloped Potatoes

You might notice a little bit of a theme this week. CHEESE.

We highly recommend putting cheese on as many things as possible. Potatoes, of course, are one of the best pairings for cheese. Twice-baked potatoes, cheese fries, cheesy mashed potatoes... there are so many possibilities when it comes to mixing cheese and potatoes. Today, we will show you how to make just one of them: scalloped potatoes.

Once upon a time there was... Pretzel-Crusted Chicken Breasts with Cheddar-Mustard Sauce

This is one of our all-time favorite recipes. As you may be aware, we really enjoy smothering things in cheese. And it just so happens that this recipe makes a giant pot of cheese that can be used for smothering! Rachael Ray is behind this terrific idea - we've only slightly adapted her recipe.

Blooper Friday! Avocado Soup FAIL!

Even highly skilled cows and pigs fail at cooking sometimes. We thought avocado would make a cool, refreshing summer soup.  Maybe it does.  These avocados did not.  

Once upon a time there was... Watermelon Sherbet

Technically, it's still summer. We realize that school has started and leaves are starting to fall in some places, but it's still summer for another 2 weeks... That means you still have time to make this sherbet! You can still find juicy watermelons in the grocery store and the weather is warm enough to crave an ice cold treat - but only for a few more weeks!

Once upon a time there was... Mac and Two Cheeses with Caramelized Shallots

Alright Castle Farm Cookbook readers, today you are in for a delicious treat.  This macaroni and cheese recipe is pretty much the best thing ever.  Why top your noodles and cheese with dried out bits of stale bread when you could gloriously coat them with buttery caramelized shallots instead?  That's what we thought.

We were originally introduced to this recipe when a friend brought it to us as part of a potluck.  After stealing all of the leftovers for ourselves, we took her recipe, too.  (She found it at Epicurious.)