A Word on Working in Restaurants

Tip well! My past jobs included being a waitress and a bartender. It is hard work although it may not look like it. After I stopped waitressing I had dreams for months that I had too many tables and couldn't handle it. One time I spilled pork tenderloin and fried shrimp on a pregnant woman. It is stressful. People aren't always nice and they don't all tip well. Working in restaurants is the reason I am a great tipper to this day. Make sure you don't ignore the wait staff when they are talking, be nice, and treat them like a fellow human being. And for God's sake, if you have any decency, do not ask for separate checks! 

Enjoy your food.

Dad's Roasted Garlic Hummus

Middle Eastern appetizers are savory, garlicky, and comforting. This is one of my Dad's many recipes and is different from his regular hummus recipe because the garlic is roasted. The sweet, roasted garlic mellows the intensity of the garlic in the hummus. The first time I ever saw hummus I was in college when a friend of a friend from the Middle East made some of the smoothest and most delicious hummus I've ever had the pleasure to know. Baba ghanoush is another wonderful Middle Eastern appetizer and my recipe for it is here. Toasted pita bread goes well with hummus and baba g.

2 heads garlic, roasted
3 TBSP olive oil, divided

1 15-oz can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
2 TBSP lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

To roast the garlic, slice off the tops of the heads and pour 1 TBSP olive oil over the cut side. Place in a garlic roaster or wrap in foil. Roast for about 45 minutes in a 400 degree oven. With a tiny fork, remove the garlic from the skin covering (or squeeze them out with your fingers).

Place remaining 2 TBSP olive oil and other ingredients in a blender or food processor and mix thoroughly. Serve with crackers or pita chips.

Dad's Greek Salad

My Dad is a gourmet cook and this recipe is from his stash. My Chicago days included a stint as a waitress at a Greek restaurant where I learned to love Greek food. Athenian steaks, feta cheese, Greek salads, cream of chicken soup with rice and lots of lemon, and more. There was also some pouring of ouzo in the back room as I recall. This is my Dad's recipe so I didn't edit it but if I did, I'd leave out the olives. I've just never been fond as described here. Opa!

Dressing:
1/3 c olive oil
1 tsp marjoram
1 garlic clove, minced
1 TBSP red wine vinegar
1 TBSP lemon juice
salt and pepper

Whisk all ingredients together.

Salad:
1 head Romaine lettuce, chopped
1 cucumber (or ½ English cucumber), sliced
½ red onion, sliced thin
½ red bell pepper, cut into strips
2-3 tomatoes, sliced or cut into thin wedges
10 fresh mint leaves
6 oz feta cheese, crumbled
12-16 kalamata olives
4 mild pepperoncini peppers, whole

Combine salad ingredients in a bowl and toss with the dressing. Serves 4.

lizzycooks Red Sauce con Vino Rosso

Variety is the spice of life, so they say. Tomato-based red sauces are like that too. After combining the mandatory base of garlic, onion, tomato sauce and paste, a lot of variety is possible. Some people add meat to their sauce and some don't. Some people add veggies to their sauce beyond the garlic and onion, for example: squash, bell peppers, mushrooms, carrots, and tomatoes. In the summer, it's a real treat to add garden-fresh herbs and veggies to the sauce. This red sauce recipe is meatless and my preference is for a smoother sauce. It's got a tiny kick from the crushed red pepper. Add more if you want more kick. The wine gives this sauce flavor and beautiful color.

I'm excited about a new ingredient in this recipe and am never making red sauce without it again--fennel seed. It was off my radar screen until a friend pointed out it was missing from my red sauce recipe. He also mentioned that the sauce could benefit from wine and crushed tomatoes instead of fresh. These were quality suggestions, so I put this recipe together and dedicated it to my fennel seed-suggesting friend. I did a little reading and made a couple of batches of red sauce with this magical fennel seed. Before adding it to the sauce, use the back of a spoon to crush it up on a small plate to release the flavors. The fennel seed gives the red sauce a lovely, earthy, sweet-ish flavor that's hard to describe, and the house smells wonderful.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6-16 large cloves garlic, minced 
1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped fine

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 28 oz can tomato sauce
1 6 oz can tomato paste

1 cup dry, red wine 

1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

2 teaspoons Kosher salt

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons fennel seed, crushed 

2 teaspoons fresh thyme

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 bay leaf

Heat a 4-quart sauce pan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the olive oil and let it heat up for a minute or two. You want the garlic and onion to sizzle when you add them to the pan. Add the garlic and onion and stir until the onions become transparent, about 5 minutes. Make sure it doesn't burn--easy to do. Add all of the remaining ingredients. Stir until everything is well blended. 

Turn the heat to low and cover the pan. Continue to simmer the sauce for another couple of hours (or more), so that it cooks down. Check on the sauce here and there and stir it. Remove the bay leaf when the sauce is finito. Serve this amazing red sauce over lasagna, spaghetti, manicotti, eggplant parmesan, or some of your favorite dishes. 

First lizzycooks video in a post!

-Dedicated to KF with gratitude