Weekend full of cooking

This weekend I spent what felt like 12 hours of prepping and cooking... which is fine by me. I can cook all day long. It's great! (Does anyone want to pay my mortgage so I can quit my job and go to culinary school? Or maybe Art school? I'll make you creme brulee and sushi throw pillows for life. Kidding!) I was at this bookstore in SF one day and saw a Greek cookbook on sale for $10. Some of you know that I LOVE Greek food so I had to get it. I tried some of the recipes in which I've had at restaurants. The thing with cookbooks is that they all seem to be tweaked so that the recipes don't really turn out the way that it's supposed to. I've learned this by years of trying out recipes that just didn't taste quite right. Also, an executive chef that Raf and I met (we went to his pasta making class) at the Monterey Culinary Institute told us that this is true as well. Btw, he mentioned that Jacques Pepin's cookbooks/recipes are pretty accurate. SCORE! I have his book and tried many recipes that turned out great. So pick up his book! I grew up watching his cooking shows. He's awesome! And so is Lydia's kitchen. Anyway, this weekend I attempted to make:

Tzatziki
Pitta bread
Cauliflower soup w/ Lemon and Egg (Similar to Evvia's Avgolemono Gia Dio)
Half-moon cheese pies
Meatballs
Baked chicken w/ Garlic, lemon, and a Serrano pepper
Side of red/green peppers
Pate a Choux
Chocolat Pots de Creme

Tzatziki turned out pretty good. It's so easy! The recipe asked for two cloves of garlic. No way! I had to add in five. YUMMM.

The pitta bread recipe is really basic. It's so neat to watch them puff up. It's pretty easy, just waiting time for the dough to rise. I still don't have a rolling pin, so I used my handy POM glass. Good thing I didn't throw that out. I'm wondering how to make the softer kinds like they serve in that Greek joint in Santa Cruz.

The Cauliflower soup is really easy as well. Raf is not a big fan of this soup overall as we tried it at Evvia (Avgolemono Gia Dio) but their soup is just with chicken and rice. I just wanted to see if it tasted the same. It's growing on me. I will now never pay $15 for soup (for two people) at Evvia again. haha. Carlo liked this one a lot.

The filling for the cheese pies could have been better. I just put in salt, feta, and dill. I'm wondering if it's the quality of the feta or if I need to add in more stuff? I liked it with the Tzatziki sauce but not sure if that's the proper way to eat it. Oh well, my tummy liked it. heheh. I liked the dough but I think I want to add more salt or sugar next time. Maybe make some dessert pies.

We were happy with the meatballs. They consisted of lean ground beef, onions, dill, eggs, and salt. Yum. Squeeze some lemon on it.

Baked chicken turned out okay as well. I marinated it overnight so you could taste the lemon and garlic. Not overcooked either. The bossman told me the secret to chicken is 375 for 45 minutes, + 7 minutes for each lb. When I threw the chicken in the oven, I put in red/green bellpeppers in the remaining marinade, then stir-fried them.

Pate a Choux (or profiteroles, cream puffs) were surprisingly easy to make. And so fun to see the final product. YUMMMY! It's strange to see cafe's charge a lot for them as they aren't that complicated.

Chocolat Pots de Creme is just like making a creme brulee but you add chocolate into it. YUMMY!

We filled the Pate a Choux with vanilla bean ice cream and the chocolate pots de creme. Delicious. Very rich, I could only eat a couple at most.

My fridge is now filled with leftovers.

I totally forgot to take pictures since this was my Father's Day lunch. DOH!!! I took pictures of the pitta though. Okay, that's it for now.