Florida trip

Here are some shots from last weekend.  The girls were interested in seeing how the Atlantic Ocean looks from another location on the East coast than Charleston.  They were pleasantly surprised! 
(Click on picture to make it larger.  They are so pretty!)

Mediterranean Omelet

With the abundance of fresh eggs from our happy chickens, we frequently have omelets on the weekends when the kids are here.  They are usually filled with some variation of:

sauteed mushrooms
sauteed onions
ham chunks
bell peppers
American cheese
Cheddar cheese

and we love them. When Bill and I were planning last weekend's menu, we came up with the idea of a Mediterranean-style omelet.  We weren't trying to specifically represent Malta, our country for the week, just the region.   Spinach, Provolone, onions, dried fruit, and pine nuts made an amazing creation.  This was a home run!  Crunchy, creamy, sweet, tangy, earthy -- it was all there.  We are making this again and I recommend anyone reading to give it a try!

Okay, it's technically a folded "frittata" but we call it an "omelet".  A real French-style omelette is rolled around a filling and is made individually very quickly and has no browning.  We put all the eggs in the pan, cook until it's set, then top it, broil, and fold over as the whole thing is slid out of the pan...  omelet it is to us.  ☺ 

Tour of Europe: Malta's meal

The cuisine of Malta shows strong Sicilian and English influences as well as Spanish, French, Maghrebin, Provençal, and other Mediterranean cuisines. Having to import most of its food, being located along important trade routes, and having to cater f Foreign dishes and tastes were absorbed, transformed and adapted.  The traditional Maltese stewed rabbit (fenek) is often identified as the national dish (but we are not having rabbit.)
or the resident foreign powers who ruled the islands, opened Maltese cuisine to outside influences.

During my research on Malta, I kept finding recipes for “marrow” in my search. Well, I’m not too keen on eating the stuff from the inside of a bone, but I wondered … Then I discovered that a “marrow” is a vegetable – also known as courgette (in Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand) or zucchini (in North America, Australia, Germany and Austria). Like courgettes or zucchini, marrows are oblong, green squash, but marrows have a firm rind and a neutral flavor, making them useful as edible casings for mincemeat and other stuffing. Aha!  Stuffed Zucchini! 

Marrows for sale in the U.K.

To be served with Pastizzi, golden pastries that are loved all over the country.  They are a puff pastry that are stuffed with cheese or a curried pea mash.  They are enjoyed at any time of day and found on nearly every corner.  Some say pastizzi is one of those foods that simply says “Malta”.  They are often enjoyed with friends and cup of coffee or tea. 

Imqaret is a remnant of the Arab world which was left behind in Malta. Dates, citrus and spices are encased in a pastry and then deep fried.  Imqaret is derived from the Arabic word for “diamond”. These pastries are usually cut into diamond shapes before deep frying (or baking, in our case) but can also be cut into rectangles.

Malta's meal

Menu:  Qarabaghli Mimli Bl-Irkotta, Pastizzi, Imqaret 

Outcome: Since we could not find marrows here, we had stuffed zucchini and all of us really liked it ... there were NO leftovers!  At first, I thought it was a little odd to put onions and potatoes in the pan, but it made sense later when the zucchini halves had a nice little bed to rest on, and they didn't tip over.  The sauce that everything baked in was quite tasty as well.  We had the pastizzi on the plate and although these were very good on their own, so light and fluffy, they were even better when we used them to sop up the sauce from our plates.  Very delicious stuff.  We talked about making this again later this summer when the zucchini are much larger.  I'm thinking filled with meatloaf mixture, taco meat, or even sloppy joe mixture. Mmm.  
When we made the imqaret, well, we may have cheated a little bit.  The recipe called for making your own dough ... but we already had a can of crescent rolls in the fridge, so ... we used them! The girls wanted to help, and who will ever turn down willing helpers?  They unrolled the crescent roll dough on a cookie sheet, then they pressed the perforations together to make a solid large rectangle of dough, then they spooned the filling down the middle and folded the long sides over the filling.  Then they brushed the loaf with olive oil and we baked it, then cut it into slices (rather than deep frying).  The filling was spiced perfectly -- the girls said it tasted like "Christmas" and "Spring" and I was thinking it was like mincemeat.  Either way, quite tasty.

Next up:  Paula chose England!