Feta

Greek Salad

March 26, 2012 by Charles Leave a Comment

Every so often, I’ll catch myself, and realize that it’s been a few days since I’ve had a good, solid, salad. I may have had some vegetables – I certainly love my sweet potatoes and butternut squash – but for some reason, a head of lettuce is not one of my staple purchases. So, whenever I come to this realization, I go for a Greek Salad.

I think there’s something about the saltiness in the feta that drives my love for the Greek Salad. Or maybe the soft taste of the sliced red onions, given a pickled quality by the vinegar. Or maybe the sharp taste…

Roasted Beet Salad

June 30, 2011 by Charles 3 Comments

It seems like most of the restaurants we’ve been to lately offer a beet salad. And I really like them. There’s just something about the vibrant red colors and that soft, sweet taste that I find mesmerizing. So, as with any good dish I’ve seen on the menu, I asked myself if I could make it at home. The answer, resoundingly, was…

Roasted Carrots with Feta and Parsley

July 28, 2010 by Charles 4 Comments

After making the healthy carrot cake, I had several carrots left over. It didn’t take me long to put them to a suitable use. After a few turns in olive oil and a quick spell in the oven, I had a delicious and colorful side dish. And it was that easy. This dish takes five minutes to prepare, and twenty-five minutes in the oven.

I have a tendency to cover my baking sheets with foil or parchment paper – to help avoid sticking, and for ease of clean-up. But if you really want that nice roasted color for the carrots, it pays to do without.

Finally, my loyal readers may…

Broiled Salmon with Orzo Salad

February 20, 2010 by Charles 8 Comments

When I read the instructions for preparing orzo, I was a little taken aback.

Orzo is sometimes referred to as “Italian rice.” And rice, I know, absorbs the liquid it’s cooked in. So, when the instructions called for 2 quarts of water to cook 1 cup of orzo, I was a little confused. With a water to orzo ratio of 8:1, thoughts of football-size orzo grains popped into my head.

Fortunately, I read the rest of the directions, and noticed …

Spanakopita

October 20, 2009 by Charles 19 Comments

During my senior year of high school, I got my first laptop. By today’s standards, it was slow and it was heavy. It hardly had any memory and it couldn’t even play a movie. But it had an ethernet port, and so, it had potential.

When I got to college, Firestone library was only a few hundred yards from my dorm room. But on a cold, wind-swept winter day, its collection and online database couldn’t have seemed farther. Fortunately, with a few keystrokes, and mouse clicks, its newspaper articles and scholarly journals were within reach. From the university network, I could also stream my Russian language files and download my French politics assignment. Early into freshman year, my laptop had become the epicenter of my college education.

Ten years later, …