misora | ...It's that time again!

Without being too TMI, it's the time of month where all I can think about is food/sex/cleaning my apartment, not necessarily in that order. Tonight, having two out of the three already sated, I'm cooking a mediterranean meal: Lamb Gyro with Tzatziki, feta, and chopped onions/tomatoes over pita bread. Because it's so warm this weekend, to drink we have iced mint tea with orange blossom honey, and for dessert we have half of a chilled crenshaw melon. ^^

Courtesy Foodnetwork.com:

Lamb Gyro

1 medium onion, finely chopped or shredded

2 pounds ground lamb

1 tablespoon finely minced garlic

1 tablespoon dried marjoram

1 tablespoon dried ground rosemary

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Process the onion in a food processor for 10 to 15 seconds and turn out into the center of a strong paper or tea towel. Gather up the ends of the towel and squeeze until almost all of the juice is removed. Discard juice. Return the onion to the food processor and add the lamb, garlic, marjoram, rosemary, salt, and pepper and process until it is a fine paste, approximately 1 minute. Stop the processor as needed to scrape down sides of bowl.

There's a couple different ways to cook gyro meat. Over the grill or rotisserie are a couple options, but to cook in the oven as a meatloaf, proceed as follows:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Place the mixture into a loaf pan, making sure to press into the sides of the pan. Place the loaf pan into a water bath and bake for 60 to 75 minutes or until the mixture reaches 165 to 170 degrees F. Remove from the oven and drain off any fat. Place the loaf pan on a cooling rack, and at this point the recipe instructs you to place a brick wrapped in aluminum foil directly on the surface of the meat and allow to sit for 15 to 20 minutes. We found that another small loaf pan with a stack of books equalling a few pounds works just as well. After the meat has been pressed, slice and serve.

Tzatziki Sauce

1 pound (1 pint) plain yogurt (whole milk or low fat)

1 hothouse cucumber, peeled and seeded

1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)

1 tablespoon good olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh dill

Pinch freshly ground black pepper

Place the yogurt in a cheesecloth or paper towel-lined sieve and set it over a bowl. (I didn't actually do this, because I bought Greek-style yogurt that's already pretty thick, but with some types of yogurt you might need to drain it prior to making it into tzatziki.) Grate the cucumber and toss it with 1 tablespoon of kosher salt; place it in another sieve (I have a metal mesh sieve and it works just fine), and set it over another bowl. Place both bowls in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours so the yogurt and cucumber can drain.

Transfer the thickened yogurt to a large bowl. Squeeze as much liquid from the cucumber as you can and add the cucumber to the yogurt. Mix in the sour cream, vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, dill, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper. You can serve it immediately, but I prefer to allow the tzatziki to sit in the refrigerator for a few hours for the flavors to blend. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

And voila! All we're missing is some homemade baklava, which I adore...but alas, I am not that talented with the phyllo dough. Yet. I plan to try it sometime.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

OMG, thank you so much!!! You sound like you know what you're talking about with regard to the tzatziki and the phyllo. I'll take your advice, and I'd love to try to make my own baklava. I think Armenian is even better, you're right. I have some orange blossom honey so I might try it with that.

:)

Armenians actually don't use honey at all. it's like 1.5 cups sugar, 1 cup water and some lemon or orange rind and a squirt of juice to taste, boil for a minute or two longer after the sugar dissolves. The key bit is making sure the syrup is room temp before adding it to hot baklava or it makes the baklava come out like soggy newspaper. And the finely chopped walnuts I just buy in the baking section as is because I'm a lazy son of a bitch

Ohhh I see - it's like a citrus-syrup, like you mentioned. I've made simple syrup for other stuff before (*cough* blueberry mojito, *cough* XD). :D Sounds yummy!

LOL@ chopped walnuts. I'm a penny-pincher, so I buy unchopped everything, even if it only saves me $0.10 (like chopped vs. whole water chestnuts). XD Bad habit, I guess!

So is Sokka/Zuko your OTP now? XDDDD I noticed the new fics on your journal...I still have yet to read the latest one. I have to admit my favorite fics by you are your Jetko ones - you just keep both of them so in-character, it's amazing. ♥ Okay, I just love everything you write with Zuko. Truth.

Whoa! Thanks! I hadn't gotten much feedback prior to this last one so I was worried I had dipped too far into wankery. Your smut is hot as hell and I love the non smut too.

As for the OTP I don't think I have one. I perv on all three- jet, zuko and sokka in any permutation. I just needed some Sokka fun for a bit. And he is fun. Hopefully I'll get the all clear to use a jetko fan art that inspired a kinky bit of j/k/s story that is eating my brain. I'm keeping fingers crossed as I blasted through a rough draft already. I guess I have to be patient but I'm very bad at that. Damn you massive time zone difference as well as the complete inability to speak Chinese!

You've been getting quite inspired by / inspiring that Chinese fanartist....it's been quite fun to watch!!

Wait...j/k/s? Jet/Katara/Sokka?? Oh man, you're quite brave. Watercest is something I just can't bring myself to write. I have, however, started an Ursa/Zuko fic, so I guess it just boils down to personal preference. XDDD

OT3s are fun. I still have a j/z/k story on the backburner that I'm just itching to write.

No. My keyboard is terrible. I meant jet/zuko/sokka. I have dog hair and crumbs that cause funky stuff to happen. I may be a weirdo but not so much on the incest.

LOL!! It's cool. Don't worry - like I said, I've actually written an Ursko fic, so I can't really say anything about people who like Watercest. XDDDD You're not a weirdo! I've seen weirder things, trust me. ^.~

No, I am a weirdo. I've embraced it. It's just the incest thing is not my bag. Even where the dynamic would still be within the realm of canon as it is with Zuko's f'd up family. Everyone's got their thing.

As for the ladies at Jetko, thankfully kyosa is now willing to help as opposed to my use of google translate which was damn awful. She's translated some of my stuff for them as well as drawn stuff herself. Porn could bring about world peace!

I had to have someone read through the j/z/s one (I had to retype that three times) because I hear the characters in my head so I do a terrible job of remembering that the reader may not know who's sticking what where at any given time.

Porn could bring about world peace!

I am fully, 100% convinced of this as well. :D

I'm glad you hear the characters in your head! That means you're getting the characterization right. ^^

And if you're itching to write that J/K/Z story, then scratch that mf'er. If you need some cheerleading to do it then GO TEAM!

...It's that time again!

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