We’ve kind of settled into a routine of work, play, cook & explore. Every morning I video call my Thea Joanna to catch up on the previous day’s activities. Thank you Cassandra for purchasing and showing Thea how to use it. She LOVES it! Sometimes we can add others to the call. This is not a good picture, and I probably should have taken a screenshot instead, but here’s Thea with my sister and I. Pretty cool device specifically designed for the older generation to interact with loved ones. All Thea has to do is hit the button when I (or anyone else) call. This particular device can use messenger, skype, zoom, or whatsapp. We use messenger. I can share my screen showing her photos or whatever I have on my computer. The other day I showed her photos of the next airbnb we’re renting in Hawaii.
One of the things we talk about in our calls is food. She tells me what she cooked the day before and I cook the same or similar thing the next day. It’s a mutual love we share of cooking. For instance, I’m not a fan of lentils, but David loves them. When we were in Wellington, Thea made some for David, which he gobbled up. So, in one of our morning talks, she described how she made hers, which I dutifully replicated the next day.
1 package dry lentils, 1 onion chopped, 2-3 cloves of garlic (diced) , 2-3 carrots (chopped), 1 can diced tomatoes (I had italian on hand), fresh parsley, olive oil. I cooked the onions in olive oil, added the garlic just long enough to warm through, then the carrots. Added lots of cumin salt and pepper for seasoning, then the lentils and diced tomatoes. Also added just enough water to cover the lentils. Cook over medium heat until lentils are almost tender, then add the fresh parsley. It turned out delicious and it’s lenten! Served with homemade bread.
So lentils are going into my arsenal of foods I can make.
Usually mid-week we share a meal with Ariel & Francisco. A residual carry-over from her years in Japan is conveyor belt sushi. David and I loved it when we were visiting her in Japan, and there happened to be a restaurant nearby. The place is called “Sushi Zone”. It’s not quite as fancy as the one we visited in Japan, but every bit as good!
Sunday brought us to church. There are three Greek Orthodox Churches in the Seattle area – Holy Apostles GOC in Shoreline (8 min from our airbnb), St. Demetrios GOC, and the Greek Orthodox Church of Assumption, both located in Seattle proper. After tuning in to each church’s YouTube channel, I decided on visiting the Assumption, for two very selfish reasons. One – Assumption is the name of the church I grew up in St. Louis, so I was familiar with the hymn of the church (Ναου), and the chanters sang the byzantine melodies I was familiar with. Therefore, I was able to sing all I wanted from the pews. It was a lovely service and the first time in many years that I was able to sing the Doxology in Greek!
Right after church, we met Ariel and Francisco at a place called Maltby Cafe, located in Maltby, WA, which is northeast of Bothell. It’s a tiny town with a small shopping district, and of course, the Maltby Cafe.
The Maltby Cafe is located in the lower portion of an old schoolhouse which was built in 1937 as the gymnasium and cafeteria for the school next door… which was built in 1907. Noted for its famous cinnamon rolls which were quite tasty! Ariel, Francisco and I had breakfast meals, and David had a club sandwich. It was all we needed for the rest of the day.
With a reduced work load I have much more time to play in the kitchen. However, some meals really don’t take a lot of time to put together. For instance, this one is Ariel’s favorite so far. Just a bunch of veggies w/pasta mixed together. Took like 15 minutes.
While the pasta was boiling, I cut tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, fresh spinach, parsley, mint and feta cheese. Also added sliced cooked chicken. Salt/pepper, bottled italian vinaigrette dressing, mix it all together and you’re done. I let the flavors marry together in the fridge for awhile before serving.
Here’s another one, compliments of my Thea Joanna’s morning conversations. She took all her vegetables that were starting to get old, and cooked them on the stove top, very much like the zucchini stew, with diced tomatoes and spices.
I also had a lot of leftover vegetables, so this was my throw-down: brown onions salt/pepper in olive oil, add garlic just to warm through, then I added sliced carrots, red pepper and zucchini. Added cumin, some leftover tomato paste I had in the fridge, then a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes. I had a bag of orzo in the pantry so I added a cup and enough water for the orzo to cook (about a cup?). Cooked on medium low until the orzo was done, stirring occasionally. When it was almost done I added fresh parsley. David wanted meat so I also added chicken chunks – totally didn’t need the meat though. I added feta cheese on top, but parmesan would be just as good. Served with homemade toasted bread since I didn’t have a crusty baguette option.
I just realized that I didn’t take photos of any of the desserts I put together with some of these meals. Gotta say I’ve put together some really good ones, like a berry trifle, a pineapple dream, coffee mug chocolate chip cakes, and many mixed fruit desserts. The local fruit market here has some wonderful items I’ve never seen, like melons that have either a lemon or orange taste to them. Hopefully I’ll remember to photograph some desserts in the future. Just to be clear, I’m not describing these foods just for this blog, it’s to refresh my memory in the future so I don’t forget!
The one meal I am most fond of, I didn’t take photos of. I made moussaka, horiatiki salata, fresh bread and a berry trifle for dessert. Pretty happy with the results considering I wasn’t working in my own kitchen with all my comfort appliances. Anyway, if you’re looking for an easy moussaka recipe, I recommend Akis Petretzikis’ recipe. Super easy and comes out delicious every time – it’s almost idiot proof, which works for me! I tried this recipe the first time when we were in Rhodes and working under less than desirable conditions as well. You can see Akis’ recipe here.
This is a photo of one I made a few months ago.
Here’s Cassandra showing us her rescue puppies in Knoxville. A two year old golden retriever who was recently rescued and had 9 puppies! I’m loving these video calls!
Breakfasts are either cereal (raisin bran), yogurt, a boiled egg, or something more interesting. This one was a clean out the fridge meal consisting of scrambled eggs, sliced avocado, blackforest ham, leftover homemade rolls and pink grapefruit. Turned out pretty good.