The Service Guy to the rescue

So it's no secret, Salim 'The Service Guy' saved our oven just in time for Grand Final day, the day wouldn't have been the same without good ol' Australian pies!

The pies were perfect, the chops, snags and company was perfect, as was the game (as a spectacle).

Since it was a draw it looks like we're back at my place for yet another BBQ on Saturday and it promises to be just as good a day as it was last week.

The invite for the second Grand Final BBQ:

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Just a quick plug for Service Central, which got me in touch with Salim who quickly and efficiently repaired the over.

My recipes 'll be back!
I promise to be back with some yummo recipes very soon, I’ve actually got a number of them coming, though I just have to re-make a few as I forgot to take photos, (which is very unlike me) so stay tuned =D

Dinner Party Disaster!

So…my better half and I were hosting (on the Saturday just passed) a long awaited dinner party for a bunch of friends; the theme, GREEK!

Count down: 1 week till dinner guests’ arrival
We actually spent a week preparing for this dinner, having even changed the furniture around the house (a little), created a DVD to showcase our recent holiday pics and videos, not to mention the menu I put together for it. Oh, I forgot to mention the week before, we actually trailed all the food to see how it would work and it was perfect.

Count down: 6 hours till dinner guests’ arrival
On the day we were so well prepared, with much of the food having been prepared several hours prior to our guests arriving we were lapping up the free time, if you know what I mean ;)

Count down: 2 hours till dinner guests’ arrival
Placed the tiropitakia (cheese pies) in the oven. They came out looking umm, sort of raw…hmm I thought, that’s never happened before.

Count down: 1 hour till dinner guests’ arrival
Placed the mousaka in the oven and the second round of cheese pies.

Count down: 40 minutes till dinner guests’ arrival
Went to take out the cheese pies and they hadn’t even browned…in fact the oven was still damn cold! The oven just died!

Count down: 38 minutes till dinner guests’ arrival
I notify the boss and in a somewhat reserved fashion, she freaked out.

Count down: 36 minutes till dinner guests’ arrival
I freaked out!...not as reserved.

Count down: 35 minutes till dinner guests’ arrival
Thought of cancelling the night. Opted to call my sister so as to hijack her oven, alas they were out!

Count down: 34 minutes till dinner guests’ arrival
Called mother-in-law and asked her to pre heat the oven, I’ll be over in a jiffy

Count down: 33 minutes till dinner guests’ arrival
We both freaked out heaps at this stage, but I was now on my way to the in-laws.

Count down: 31 minutes till dinner guests’ arrival
Called our guests and asked them to delay 30 or so minutes.

So though we had bought a little time, our panic was going to keep us unsettled for the rest of the night.

I cooked the food and was back at our place only 15 minutes AFTER our guests had arrived…eeek! Basically I didn’t get any sort of a chance to take any photos as I was very much in a state of “this night’ll be much better sitting in the past”.

Now our guests were fantastic and very understanding of everything that had happened and thought the company was (as always) first rate, as hosts, we never really settled and remained anxious.

So much for the chocolate cake I planed on making the next day.

The Menu:

Greek night menu Sept 2010 -

Horiatiki Salata (Greek Salad)

In Greece, this was (as you can imagine) a standard at every meal, not to mention, one of the key aspects to that wonderful Mediterranean diet.
Since my recent return from Greece, the Greek salad or 'horiatiki' as it better known (to the Greeks) has since become a standard at my dinner table as it was, and still is, at my mum's .
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Prep time:  15 minutes

Ingredients:
- 2 large tomatoes chopped into chunks
- 1 cucumber, peeled & sliced
- 1 red onion, sliced into thin rings
- A handful of Kalamata olives, let's say 10 for arguments sake
- About 150g of feta cheese (id recommend Dodoni or Bulgarian)
- 1-3 tablespoon of oregano
- Drizzle extra virgin olive oil to taste
- Drizzle vinegar to taste
- 2 hard boiled eggs (this is an option that I like to include, when the salad is the meal)
- Fresh parsley (chopped)

How to work the magic:

Well this is as you can imagine the easy part. Just how perfectly you cut the ingredients is up to you. Though a well cut Greek salad can look absolutely amazing.

So, cut the tomatoes in quarters, then the quarters in halves, throw them and the sliced cucumbers in a big bowl and put the onion rings in, trying not to break the rings, the olives and parsley are next then (if you’re going to use the eggs, cut them into quarters and put them in here).

The feta can be placed on top in any way you like, my mum say’s that you can tell a person by the way they cut their feta, so on that note, it's up to you. The gorgeous oregano is last of all the ingredients. Dress and mix through only just before serving.
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HINT: Use plenty of oil and vinegar, this way when the salad is all gone you can break off a bit of bread and dip away; this is what my Giagia attests to her, putting on a few extra kilos in her latter years.