Greek Goulash.

So this past weekend was the huge Cleveland Greek Festival. No we didn’t go to it but it was all over the media as it usually is Memorial Weekend. So that inspired me to make some Greek food for dinner this week (and also I still have a left over eggplant from the weekend with the fam). We love everything about Greek food so I thought Greek Goulash by Rachel Ray would be a great recipe to try out! It is really healthy with all the yummy eggplant and spinach so it definitely compliments our diet. I liked that it has cinnamon in the recipe, which you really taste a hint of when eating this. The toasted pitas are a MUST for this recipe…it really adds a crunch and a salty flavor! I ate the leftovers for lunch yesterday and had it with tortilla chips which tasted great! So if you don't have time for the pita then use tortilla chips!

Some alterations to the recipe:

Orzo - I used spiral pasta noodles instead of orzo. We have TONS of pasta at home and I did not want to buy ANOTHER box of pasta.
Spice - This recipe definitely needs some spice…I added chili powder. Next time I may use Sriracha sauce.
Garlic and Onions - I also added waaay more garlic and onions than the recipe called for because we love the combo of both!
Oregano & Basil – I used fresh Oregano which I should have used more than 2 sprigs. I also threw in some fresh Basil which was great!
Vegetarian alteration – this recipe really doesn’t need any meat, so if you don’t want to throw it in, you don’t need to!

Exhaused and Confused..on Memorial Day...

Akhil was in Vegas this past weekend on his annual guy trip. He came home Sunday night very exhausted as Vegas typically can do that to you. Since we didn’t see each other all weekend he kindly agreed to watch 27 Dresses with me..which I was surprised because he never watches chick flicks with me. So then after the movie we went to bed…late.

So Monday morning the alarm goes off at 5:00 AM and I kinda heard it but I was too tired to really ask why did he set it on his day off. So then in my sleep I heard some rustling around in the bathroom but again was too tired to make sense of anything. Then I fell into a deep sleep and I was awoken by the phone at 8:30 AM and it is Akhil who says “Babe, I accidentally went to work today!” There he gets ready and goes to work on Memorial Day! Haha! His 2 partners who were on the schedule were like what the heck are you doing here??? He was really dumbfounded and confused. The nice husband that I have, decided to help out in the hospital for a few hours and then came home at mid morning. If I were him I would be like screw you all, I am going home!

Alochol + Vegas = Forgetful

Cold Avocado Corn Soup With Cilantro Oil.

So this weekend was pretty beautiful and warm here so I decided to make something to cool us down! We have 3 left over avocados from the past weekend so I decided to try this avocado soup.

This soup was super easy and delicious!!! It is really healthy with all fresh ingredients! It really has a spicy kick with the jalepeno pepper! Yummy!

I found this recipe on Epicurious but in reading the reviews I knew this could turn out great or really bad. I guess it depends on the ripeness of your avocados.

The soup is pretty heavy. I got filled up with 1/2 a bowl. Akhil was starving since he just came home from Vegas so he ate 2 bowl fulls!

There are somethings that I did modify in the recipe.

• I did not use any sour cream because I ran out during brunch; the soup is pretty creamy as it is, so I won't use it next time
• Instead of a serrano chile, I cut up a jalepeno with the seeds. It was spiiicy!!
• I did not make the cilantro oil because I forgot to buy cilantro and I didn't feel like going back to Hienens
• I did not cut up a second avocado for mellon balling. This is purely for a great display and since this was just for us, I didn't want to go through all of that. If I make this for friends then I will definitely do the melon balls.

Change of Topics...

So I was considering take down this blog thing because the only reason I started it was so our families could see pictures on the progress of our house. Before the blog I kept emailing them pictures which became a pain. So now the house is done and I really don’t have much to report on. I don’t think you want to hear about my job. I guess some would find hospital lawsuits and patient incidents interesting or it might just scare you all to death…but if I talked about it on this I would probably get fired. I don’t want to be fired because I like my job.


So in talking with Rachu and Anjali they both agreed they would be very interested in reading about my cooking. So that’s what I have decided to do! I will still entertain you with other things but now you all will know what we are eating!

Chicken Marsala.

So I have TONS of left over veggies from the weekend with the family. I am trying to use them all up before they go bad. The fam helped with washing, cutting, and freezing up as much as they could. There is still a good amount of veggies remaining in the fridge.

So with the left over mushrooms, I decided to make a chicken marsala for dinner tonight. It turned out pretty good. I didn't put any of the butter or all purpose flour as it called for in the recipe. I didn't because I didn't feel like it. I wanted to make a healthier version of this without the bad ingredients!

I have made this before (using a different recipe) with Marsala cooking wine which was in the in the sauces isle of the grocery store. This time I bought actual Marsala wine from the wine store. I think that made a big difference in the taste!

The recipe was adapted from Martha Stewart so if you are interested you can find it there!

Organic??? Jamie & Akhil??? Really???

Three or four months ago I decided that we are going to eat organic foods from now on. Since I love to cook, I thought this maybe a bit tough to find all organic ingredients to things we eat but I have not had any problems! I never noticed how much organic foods our grocery stores have! I also thought that we may end up eating like a rabbit but now we find different types of foods super appetizing now!! We have incorporated a lot more legumes and veggies into our diet. This has been great and we feel so much better!

When I find yummy organic foods or recipes, I will definitely let you know so you can check it out for yourself!

17 House Guests!

This weekend we had a house full of family visiting us! My mom's entire side of the family came in by the car loads to Cleveland! They all stayed at our house for the weekend (even my parents did too)! It was a lot of fun just eating, drinking, watching movies, and playing the wii. We realized this is the first time ever (besides a family wedding) that no one is missing from our little gathering!



Our cute little nephew and niece... Dilan - 4 1/2 years old and Gia 8 1/2 months

Having 17 people in our house for 3 days was not stressful for me at all. Arun and Rachu basically took over my kitchen! Since Arun is such a gourmet chef I assigned him many meals to cook for us. He was excited! After eating these fabulous meals everyone kept thanking ME for the great food! haha! Of course, I accepted the compliments :)
Rachu and my cousin Shreya each got Dilan a kite so he flew them both on Saturday. It was a perfect kite flying day because it was beautiful, sunny, and breezy.
Gia is the most precious little baby girl we all have ever layed eyes on. She is so quite and loves to be held by anyone! We all just loved holding her all weekend long!

Here are more pictures from the weekend.

An Engagement!

Last night Shreem and Praful got engaged! Congrats to you both! Can't wait for the wedding! :)

Akhil is very pleased to have a third brother-in-law! Now he definitely is not outnumbered in the Patel and Bindra households!

Circular Driveway.

They finished our circular driveway last week. It actually makes the front look so much better. Hopefully now semi's and other trucks won't park in our front yard. (The other house's construction workers still do that even after we have moved in!!!)

Before.

After.
The driveway isn't really lopsided. Akhil just took a bad picture.

Stealing Lilacs... Sacrilegious?

I love lilacs! I love how they smell and how they look. There is a church by our house that has rows and rows of lilac bushes. So its been our annual tradition to go there and cut some lilacs off of their bushes! Akhil runs out with the gardening scissors and cuts them off and I sit in the get-away car! I wonder if stealing flowers from a church is sacrilegious...hmmm.

Every year they bring ants in our house though. So I didn't bring them in the house this time. I will probably take them to work and let the ants run around there!

No Assembly Required.

We were looking for barstools for quite sometime. I finally found the barstools that I really liked on overstock.com. So the delivery was scheduled for Friday morning when we both were at work. So Akhil told them to pop the stools in our garage. I came home from work and there were HUGE boxes in our garage. I was certain without getting out of my car that these were not our barstools. As I looked closer it was an antique bedroom set for Hew Hutchinson in Hudson, OH. So I called and they said they have no record of a delivery for a Hew. They said they would come and deliver our stools and that I could keep the wrong delivery too since they have no idea who it is for. I was like...uh no thanks the set on the picture on the box looks ugly..just my barstools please.

They came in the nick of time for our dinner party to deliver our barstools. Akhil was pysched that they finally arrived and that there was no assembly required. (that was key in ordering these stools!)

Cinco de Mayo!

This weekend we had a Cinco de Mayo dinner party at our house. I made tacos, fajitas, enchiladas, and had tons of margaritas and beer! Yummy!

Relief!

We had a bid on our old house this week by some lady with 3 kids who is going through a divorce. The housing market is bad but not that bad that we would take a $20K loss on our house. She bid $20,000 less than what we bought it for 5 years ago! It was a joke and I laughed at the realtor asking her if this offer is for real! I guess she really loved our house and was hoping we were willing to take a loss. Ya Right!!!

So then came along some friends that I sorta know. I have played ulitmate frisbee with them. They are in Cleveland for one more year and so they were looking into renting. They saw our condo and asked if we are willing to rent it out for a year, and so we agreed! This will be interesting because we have no idea on how to be a landlord...and Akhil is clueless when it comes to being a handyman!

I have gotten to know them pretty well this week through discussing the payments and lease agreement. Yesterday, they said that it is evident who makes all the decisions in our household since they have yet to meet Akhil! Haha!