Monday, March 25, 2013

Good morning crew,

This weekend I finally did something I wanted to try for a long time...making moussaka.

This is a dish my mother made frequently when I was a kid. It is Mediterranean in origin, Greek or Turkish, or something, involving eggplant and lamb and peppers, but my mother had her own version that she made with potatoes, ground pork and zucchini. This was the dish I tried to duplicate.

I don't mind saying that it turned out pretty good for a first attempt. Although I did make a few rookie mistakes. I didn't have nearly enough zucchini, for example, and I cut it way too thin so it ended up getting soggy. And the whole thing was rather bland and could have used some paprika and garlic.

But the biggest disappointment was the Bechamel sauce. I tried a short cut version using sour cream, eggs and milk which just didn't turn out right. It didn't ruin it, but without a proper Bechamel it just didn't taste like moussaka.

While it was good (and cheap...the ingredients were only about $40), the drawback to this dish was the time involved. It took nearly 3 man-hours to prepare.

My wife's nephew was the biggest critic. She was entertaining him for the afternoon so he ate dinner with us. He meticulously picked out every morsel of meat and zucchini, so basically he ate a plateful of mashed potatoes.

Too bad too, because there was about six pounds of food. That means I need to plow through about four pounds of leftovers in 2 days before we leave for Las Vegas.

I think I can do it.

Laugh it up,

Joe

joe@gophercentral.com

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***
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To our shock and horror, my sister-in-law and I realized we had each been married nearly 30 years. "That's a long time," I observed.

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*-------------- Guaranteed to Roll Your Eyes --------------*
Two fellows stopped into an English pub for a drink. They called the proprietor over and asked him to settle an argument.

"Are there two pints in a quart or four?" asked one.

"There be two pints in a quart," confirmed the proprietor.

They moved back along the bar and soon the barmaid asked for their order.

"Two pints please, miss, and the bartender offered to buy them for us."

The barmaid doubted that her boss would be so generous, so one of the fellows called out to the proprietor at the other end of the bar, "You did say two pints, didn't you?"

"That's right," he called back, "two pints."