For our first meal together our hostesses cooked a greek inspired meal that began with appetizers and drinks (red and white wine, vodka, ice tea and lemonade) out on the patio. The appetizers consisted of homemade hummus served with grilled pita bread and naan, feta cheese and a greek olive mix from Dean and Deluca.
After starting the evening on the patio we moved inside for our meal of grilled oregano shrimp, rice stuffed dolmas, spinach and feta spanikopita and taboula. We then finished the meal outside with mini lemon cupcakes and coffee with Bailey's by the fire. See below for recipes from the evening as well as pictures above for presentation inspiration.
Homemade Hummus:
1 can of garbanzo beans (drained) 2/3 c fresh lemon juice 3/4 c tahini
4 cloves of garlic 1/4 tsp pepper Process all above ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Then add 2 tablespoons of oil and mix.
Dolmas:
This recipe is from Epicurious and can be found here.
Cooks note for this recipe: Garnish the dipping sauce with lemon zest and for a meat version add ground lamb to the rice filling.
Grilled Oregano Shrimp:
Once again, this recipe is from Epicurious and can be found here.
Cooks note for this recipe: Squeeze lemon juice over the shrimp after cooking and add garlic to the marinade for a little extra zest.
Spanikopita:
The spinach and feta spanikopita were bought frozen from Dean and Deluca. They were delicious and made for an easy addition to the meal.
Mini Lemon Cupcakes:
These delightful bite-sized deserts were bought from Cafe Europa.
