California Greek Girl

Greek Deviled Eggs with Feta

by Mary Papoulias-Platis

One appetizer that I can always depend on is my Greek Deviled Eggs with Feta. It’s the first thing I grab when I see them out on a table at a party. I guess they go under the category of “comfort food” for me. One appetizer I have never posted is a deviled egg only because it’s not Greek. So here it is. My take of a traditional American dish with A Greek twist to put out on your appetizer table this holiday season. To start off making this recipe visit my post on How-To Make Hard Boil Eggs. It’s easy and fast with instructions you’ll never forget. It’ s important to get this right because you don’t want to see that green ring around your eggs, from overcooking them. While you are there, don’t forget to check out my tip on how to to peel eggs. So easy. This recipe can be doubled for a large group. A smart tip: Place the eggs on a platter lined with lettuce so they stay put while moving around.

Greek Deviled Eggs with Feta

Try these simply made Greek-inspired deviled eggs at your next party for a California Greek twist!

Course Appetizer

Cuisine California Greek

Keyword deviled eggs, feta, Greek

Servings 6

Author Mary Papoulias-Platis

Ingredients

6 eggs, hard boiled, peeled and cut in half
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
6 Kalamata olives, finely chopped
3 teaspoons fresh dill, finely chopped
3 teaspoons pepperoncini, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons capers, drained
1 1/2 teaspoons of caper juice
1/4 teaspoon pepper
salt if needed
Feta and dill for topping

Instructions

Place the eggs in a pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Once to a boil remove from heat and cover for 20 minutes. Cool. Peel and cut in half.
Remove the yolks from the egg and place in a medium bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
Taste for salt if needed(often Feta is enough).
With a spoon carefully fill each egg white with filling.
Sprinkle with remaining feta and a sprig of dill.
Cover and refrigerate and serve cold.

Here are more quick ideas for making your own deviled eggs

A small dices of red and green peppers, zucchini, eggplant and tomato in olive oil.
Olives, green, black chopped and pitted.
Fresh herbs that are soft, chervil, dill, oregano, basil, parsley, chives
Grated cheese
sun-dried tomatoes
sea salt and freshly cracked pepper

Check out my other dishes with eggs:

Fava Beans and Eggs for Breakfast

Greek Skillet Potatoes with Leeks, Eggs and Myzithra

Fresh Tomato Egg Scramble “Kagiana”

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I’m Thankful for Tom Lamar Papoulias and Mike Balason

by Mary Papoulias-Platis

A wonderful reminder on this Thanksgiving Day to all my family members, that we wouldn’t be here in this Beautiful Country, Living Freedom, with Working Opportunities without these two adventurous men, Tom Lamar Papoulias and Mike Balason. Two very brave men who left Greece at a very young age to have a better life here in America. Today, we have two generations of family members, they brought from Greece to form a community, living out their dreams. Today, I’m thankful for these two incredible and loving men, whom we were all blessed to know!

Tom Lamar Papoulias

Mike Balason

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Sunday’s Snap-toons

by Mary Papoulias-Platis

Sunday’s are a relaxing day for me. You can find me playing in the garden or cooking up a favorite dinner. But I do like going online to catch up a little. This is my idea of scrap-booking my weekly memories without having to step into a Michael’s and buy more stuff.

Many of us are on the computer browsing for the next best video to post, recipes to download, pictures to pin or just catching up with our FB friends. I thought this is a good time to post pictures of my week, so I can share my week and you can view my world for a second or two….enjoy!

San Diego Sharp Women’s Conference

My dear friend and fellow blogger Mimi Avocado won two tickets to the annual Sharp Women’s Conference in San Diego. I was so lucky to be her guest for the day. As we entered we stopped at the photo booth for some fun and crazy pictures. The day started out with a brilliant keynote speaker Rhonda Britten with an energetic talk on “Fearless Living” and I had my wings on before the talk was over. We watched Chef Bernard from the Marine Room, cook up bulgur and poached salmon in olive oil for his presentation on Mediterranean food. And we all listened intensely to Marianne Williamson as she spoke about her life and our everyday stress we develop in our lives today and how to cope with it. Watch for her in the future as she runs for Congress.

Temecula Olive Oil Company

Laura Bashar from (Family Spice), her three children and I took off to our local olive oil farm, Temecula Olive Oil Company, to take pictures of our upcoming olive oil cookbook. Catherine, one of the owners, met us there so we may shoot the many varietals of olives that they grow and process on their farm. We took Laura’s kids who explored the grounds and enjoyed running through the trees. After shooting all the pictures we needed, we headed to downtown Temecula for a quick lunch and a little antiquing at Grandma’s Antiques.

Book signing with Bonnie Manion

My dear friend Bonnie Manion had an author signing of her new book from the Dummies Series, “Gardening with Free-Range Chickens” at the Horticultural Society’s first annual holiday marketplace. I went along to help her. We laughed so hard because by the end of the night, we heard so many chicken stories and from one angry man who is lobbying for residential chickens in Escondido. You can purchase Bonnie’s gardening on her blog at Vintage Garden Girl.

Greek Cooking Class for Gardening Group

I taught a Greek Healthy Cooking class for a garden club in a beautiful home kitchen of a friend of mine. The ladies were lovely and very helpful as they watched me prepare 6, yes 6 meals for them. We were laughing when I couldn’t find the whisk for the garlic potatoes, and the mistake I made when I left out the feta in the spanakopita after preaching to the gals the importance of “mise en place” . A French term used in kitchens for preparing your ingredients ahead of time, so you do not leave out anything in the recipe. Also I forgot to pass out water to the group as they participated in an olive oil tasting with a few of the ladies choking on the fresh olive oil they were sampling. The only thing I could say to them is, ” this is not the Food Network ladies, this is the real thing”, and they understood.

The best part of the class was the garlic sauce, “kordalia” in Greek. The old saying goes when you serve this sauce,” once one person in the room eats this sauce everyone else in the room (really the entire house) must partake!

Meeting George Menzelos

This is George Menzelos from Arianna Trading Company. We met for the first time to discuss his Greek Organic Cold Press extra virgin olive oil and catch up with other news. We have many mutual friends we realized, and we had a great time talking about our trips to Greece. To buy George’s oil go to Arainna Trading Company to place your order.

Like scrap-booking online too, then visit where I played with this at Pic-Monkey. (not an advertisement, just a heck of a lot of fun!)

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How To Roast Fresh Chestnuts

by Mary Papoulias-Platis

My mother-in law always serves her turkey stuffing with fresh roasted chestnuts. This makes her stuffing one step more rich with the earthy roasted flavors of the chestnuts. I do love lots and lots of chestnuts in my stuffing and gravy. So make sure you have several hands ready to do the peeling process. Once they cool, it’s very difficult to get the peel off the nut. If not, work in small batches at a time.

When shopping for chestnuts look for plump and shiny ones. Choose carefully, avoid those with small holes because they can be wormy. Chestnuts can be cooked many different ways. You can roast them in the oven (what I do),over charcoal, or in the fireplace. I once had them on the streets of Greece, roasted and I still dream of those warm toasty chestnuts on that cold day in the city. Once roasted, you can do many things with them. They can be braised, boiled, and pureed.

You can purchase chestnuts dehydrated, but they do not compare to fresh. Just remember, all chestnuts must to be peeled before serving. It’s important to know Chestnuts need to be simmered for 30 minutes in water to become soft for cooking. This step is not necessary if you are adding them gravy or stuffing that will be cooked for longer than 30 minutes. Let’s get started. Step 1. Make a cross-like slice on the flat side of the chestnut. Be careful not to cut yourself. Slice only through the tough skin, not the flesh.

Step 1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees towards the end of the recipe.

Step 2. Place chestnuts on a sheet pan and roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Step 3. While still warm peel the chestnuts. Keep the others under a warm towel. As they cool they become hard to peel.

Step 4. If you cannot peel the chestnuts place them back into the oven for a few minutes to warm up and try again.

Important! Both the outer skin and inner skin need to be peeled. Many chestnuts do not come out easily and will break into pieces. It’s all right to use these in the stuffing.

You may enjoy my other chestnut recipes and posts for the holidays.

Thanksgiving Family Favorites:

Turkey Stuffing

Chestnut Soup Recipe

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Mary!

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Thea Liza’s Spanakopita

by Mary Papoulias-Platis

Thea Liza’s Spanakopita was her prize recipe! But, it was her special touch we all loved about her. She owned a deli with her husband Mike in San Diego in the sixties, on C street around the corner from the old California Theater. People lined up for her food and specials during lunch hour. I did work there many weekends and during the summer. I remember taking the bus from La Mesa to downtown to help out. I guess those skills paid off when we started our business years later.

The Balason Deli in downtown San Diego!

There are so many versions of this spinach pie in Greece. I could have my own web-site on this recipe alone. This spinach feta pie is eaten in all regions of Greece, and the ingredients change depending on what’s in the garden and what cheese is made in town. I’ll never forget going into a local cheese shop in Greece and seeing so many unique varieties of feta, that my head was spinning by the time I left with my selection. Every family member makes this recipe their own, this one is my aunt’s version.

Thea Liza's Spanakopita

My aunt Liza was a great cook and we loved her version of this ever-so popular Greek dish. She welcomed everyone into her home and she leaves us one of her many delicious traditional Greek recipes.

Course Main Dish/Side Dish

Cuisine Greek

Keyword appetizer, dinner, main dish, spinach pie

Servings 12

Author Mary Papoulias-Platis

Ingredients

4-5 bunches of fresh spinach, washed, dried and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
1 pound feta, crumbled
2-3 teaspoons of dried dill or 1/2 bunch fresh
4-5 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
1 pound defrosted phyllo dough
1/2 cup melted butter

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a deep pot saute onions and scallions in olive oil until tender. Add spinach and cook until slightly wilted around 2 minutes. Drain spinach in a colander if too much liquid remains .Cool.
Place spinach mixture in a large bowl and add the feta, dill, eggs, olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix gently but thoroughly.
Place 1/2 of the pound of phyllo in a 9x13 deep large casserole dish, buttering each layer.
Spread the spinach mixture on top.
Place the remaining phyllo sheets on top, buttering each layer.
Score the top layer only of phyllo sheets to desired pieces.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes until golden brown on top.
Let cool for 30 minutes before serving.

I serve this often for dinner so the pieces here are quite large. This is the nice thing about phyllo, cut them in the size you wish.

You may want to try my other phyllo recipes:

Pumpkin and Almond Pie

Greek Pastitsio

Greek Cheese Tiropetes

Enjoy these Dishes,

Mary

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Pumpkin Walnut Tahini Cake

by Mary Papoulias-Platis

Who doesn’t love hummus? If you do, you will love this Pumpkin Walnut Tahini cake made from sesame tahini, created with a fall touch of pumpkin. Originally made in Greece for the Lent season, it has an absence of animal products (eggs and butter) for those participating in the fasting ritual.

For those of you who haven’t worked with tahini, it can be found in a jar in the Middle East cooking section of your grocery or near the nut butters. Tahini is a thick paste made of ground sesame seed. It’s used to flavor various popular dishes. You may want to visit my recipes for Greek Hummus and Falafel Sliders.

I added pumpkin, raisins, nuts, and spices to give it a Fall twist. With the addition of pumpkin it gives the cake a dense thick bar-like texture, so serve small pieces as they go a long way. Serve with a scoop of Greek yogurt, fresh fruit or a dash of powdered sugar. For a larger crowd double this recipe and place in a 9 x 13 baking pan. An unexpected but appealing compliment to your holiday table. This cake can be made without the pumpkin, just use 1 cup of tahini to the recipe.

Here are some fun facts about tahini:

Tahini is made by grinding sesame seeds into a smooth paste. Sometimes the sesame seeds are hulled, sometimes they’re left unhulled; sometimes roasted, sometimes raw.
Tahini can be used as a spread, a dip, a dressing, and serves as a key ingredient in many dishes, including hummus and baba ghanoush.
Tahini is a great source of phosphorus and manganese, both of which play vital roles in bone health. It’s also high in thiamine (vitamin B1) and vitamin B6, which are important for energy production.

Pumpkin Walnut Tahini Cake

This versatile cake can be baked and served with Greek yogurt, fresh fruit and and berries. This cake with it's dense nature goes a long way, so cut the pieces small. For fall treat serve with roasted pears.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Greek

Keyword cake, Greek, pumpkin, tahini

Servings 12

Author Mary Papoulias-Platis

Ingredients

1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 cup orange juice

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat tahini and pumpkin in a blender for 2 minutes then add sugar.
Combine the 2 tablespoons of orange juice and baking soda in a small bowl and add to mixture. Mix in thoroughly.
Sift the flour with cinnamon and add the walnuts and raisins.
Add the flour mixture and orange juice alternately to the tahini batter on low speed or by hand.
Butter a 9x12 inch baking pan and line with buttered parchment/wax paper.
Pour in the batter and bake for 40-45 minutes.
Cool in pan.
Serve with Greek yogurt, fresh fruit, berries or a dusting of powdered sugar.

Recipe Notes

This cake can be made without the pumpkin, just add 1 cup of tahini to the recipe.

Enjoy your cake!

Mary

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How To Make Stuffed Mushrooms

by Mary Papoulias-Platis

The holidays are approaching, and I do get antsy planning out the family dinner. I try to rotate my recipes around the 4-5 traditional dishes everyone expects. My family doesn’t like the menu to be a surprise. They want the smells that are familiar to them and the anticipation of dessert with my freshly baked pumpkin pies.

Here is one my favorite appetizers I make for Thanksgiving, that meets the approval of my family. I do make the filling the night before. Wash and dry the mushrooms and place them in a large plastic bag placed on a paper towel and flat in the refrigerator. Early that morning I take out the mushrooms, fill them, and place them on a cookie sheet and bake into the refrigerator, ready to bake as company arrives.

Start with your pan on medium-low and carefully watch and stir, this will take some time.
This can be done the night before.

Add the ingredients and just continue cooking.

As you can see the onions need to turn medium brown to become caramelized and sweet.
At this point you can transfer them to a bowl and refrigerate for the next day or use later on in the day.

Here are a few tips:

I use a combination of white button mushroom and baby portabello.
Baking the mushrooms for 5 minutes prior to stuffing
will ensure a cooked mushroom.
Do not over- stuff the mushrooms or they will be too are hard to handle.

Caramelized Onions and Fresh Thyme Mushrooms

Perfect recipe for a quick and easy appetizer for any party. Change out the crunch with any nut of your choice, but don't leave it out.

Course Appetizer

Servings 24

Author Mary Papoulias-Platis

Ingredients

24 fresh mushrooms - cremini baby bella or white button mushrooms
6 cups thinly sliced onions
3 tablespoons. butter
1 tablespoon snipped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
¼ cup toasted pine nuts

Instructions

In a large skillet on medium heat add the butter and sliced onions.
Add the thyme, salt and pepper to taste.
Lower the heat to simmer and continue cooking until onions are golden for approximately 20-30 minutes.
While cooking onions, place pine nuts in a small skillet and cook for 4-5 minutes until toasted.
Stir toasted pine nuts into onion mixture.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Rinse and dry the mushrooms.
Remove stems.
Place mushrooms caps, stem-side up on a baking sheet.
Bake for 5 minutes.
Turn mushrooms stem side up.
Divide filling among cups.
Bake 8-10 minutes.

You may also like my spinach-stuffed mushrooms .

Happy Cooking!

Mary

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Warm Feta and Cranberry Sandwich

by Mary Papoulias-Platis

It’s that season again when you start seeing fresh cranberries in the stores . I love making sandwiches with cranberry sauce, and today I decided to make one with feta cheese similar to a grilled cheese. Enjoy this fast and easy fall combination of flavors. You can make your own sauce or buy it ready made.

Select a great artisan bread.

Place the feta slices on one half of the bread and warm up in the oven, microwave or on a panini grill.

Add the cranberry sauce (cold or warm) and orange zest with second half of bread.

You may add turkey, ham, or chicken slices, red onion, greens, apples, or pears.

Warm Feta and Cranberry Sandwich

A simple cranberry sauce for everything. Add pears, apples, onions, greens, turkey, ham, or chicken to make a hearty sandwich.

Course Cranberry Sauce

Author Mary Papoulias-Platis

Ingredients

1 loaf of artisan bread sliced
1/2 pound feta cheese sliced
2 cups cranberry sauce

Cranberry Sauce

1 12 oz. bag of cranberries
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 4 ' cinnamon stick
4 whole cloves
lemon zest for topping optional

Instructions

Assemble the sandwiches using the sliced feta and cranberry sauce and zest.

Cranberry Sauce

Add the first 5 ingredients in a saucepan.
Bring to a boil and reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Cook until sauce thickens. Cool and refrigerate.
Serve warm or cold.

Recipe Notes

Makes 2 cups.

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Honey Cider Vinaigrette

by Mary Papoulias-Platis

One healthy vinaigrette to dress your salad or fresh vegetables, is this homemade Honey-Cider Vinaigrette. This dressing is a good combination of a quality extra-virgin olive oil, apple cider , salt and pepper. It’s important to use fresh quality ingredients since there are so few. The technique is important so your honey cider dressing becomes emulsified, thickened and blended. The oil and acid won’t come together by just stirring. When selecting acids they vary in strengths, so you need to experiment with the proportions.

Apple Cider Benefits

It can improve digestion.
ACV can help fight yeast infections.
It can lower your blood sugar levels and improve insulin sensitivity.
Apple cider vinegar may help people lose weight and reduce belly fat.
It can lower cholesterol and blood pressure.
ACV can improve your heart health.

I prefer using Organic Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar. You can purchase this online at Bragg Live Foods.

Here are ways to vary this sauce:

Acids can include lemons, limes, vinegars, buttermilk
Add shallots, onion, red onion
Add mustards, soy sauce, cheeses, ginger, fresh herbs, anchovies

This recipe is made with basic pantry ingredients.
I keep these on hand for this quick salad dressing.

Whisk the garlic, vinegar, honey and pepper first. Blend well. Slowly add the extra-virgin olive oil as you blend to emulsify it.

Honey Cider Vinaigrette

Our number #1 salad vinaigrette for our salads and vegetables. Make sure you double this for a large crowd or for extra.

Course Salad Vinaigrette

Cuisine Greek

Keyword apple cider, salads, vinaigrette

Author Mary Papoulias-Platis

Ingredients

1-3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons apple-cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
pinch of pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions

In a small bowl add garlic, vinegar, honey and pepper.
Whisk together until blended by hand or in the blender.
Slowly add the olive oil, whisking or blending constantly until the sauce is emulsified.
The oil and other ingredients should be completely blended.

You may enjoy other dressings for your salads:

My Greek Herbal Dressing Ladolemono