Fabulous Greek Salad Dressing

This dressing is the "secret recipe" from a pizzeria, and it is the best Greek dressing I have ever tasted. The recipe made a huge amount of dressing . . . a gallon to be exact . . . way too much for home use. So I scaled down the recipe to make right around 2 cups. Took some math skills to do this, but fortunately my husband is a math whiz. Turned out great!

¾ cup olive oil

2 tsp (scant) garlic powder

2 tsp (scant) dried oregano

2 tsp (scant) dried basil

1½ tsp ground black pepper

1½ tsp salt

1½  tsp onion powder

1½  tsp Dijon mustard

1 cup red wine vinegar

Mix olive oil with the other ingredients before slowly adding the vinegar, mixing vigorously until well blended. Store tightly covered at room temperature. Best made at least 8 hours ahead, or the day before.

SALAD 

Use the selections of your choice, but this is what I like.

I English cucumber, cut lengthwise, seeded and sliced ¼" thick

1 green pepper, chopped into 1" pieces

2 cups halved cherry tomatoes

5 oz good Feta cheese* (not crumbled) cut into ¼" cubes

⅓ cup thinly sliced red onion**

⅓ to ½ cup Kalamata olives, pitted

⅓ cup fresh mint leaves, optional ***

On a large platter, arrange the cucumber, green pepper, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese. red onions, and olives. Drizzle with the dressing and very gently toss. Sprinkle with a few generous pinches of oregano, and top with cut up mint leaves. Season to taste and serve.

*It is recommended to use feta in brine, but I found a really nice dry traditional Greek FETA called MT VIKOS that I prefer over brined feta. It's expensive, but really worth finding.

**To take the bite out of red onions, I soak them in cold water for an hour, changing the water every 15 minutes. Can be done way in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

***If using, to use spearmint leaves, cut up. They are less pungent. But regular mint is what most people use.

Perfect Blueberry Muffins

Okay, I have a couple really good blueberry muffin recipes, and this is the latest. Very tender and loaded with berries. Like most muffins, they are best the day they are made. I freeze them and take out what we want as needed. But if you want to keep them at room temp, you can split them open on day two, add a pat of butter and pop them under the broiler.

3 Tbs unsalted butter

½ cup sugar

Finely grated zest from half a lemon

¾ cup plain unsweetened yogurt or sour cream

1 extra large egg (I always buy jumbo eggs)

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp fine sea or table salt

1 ½ cups flour

1 ½ cups (heaping) blueberries, fresh or frozen (no need to defrost)

3 Tbs turbinado sugar (raw sugar)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees/ Line a muffin tin with 9 paper liners, or spray each cup with non stick spray. 

Melt butter in the bottom of a large bowl and whisk in the sugar, zest, yogurt, and egg until smooth. Whisk in baking powder, soda, and salt until fully combined. Then lightly fold in flour and berries. Batter will be very thick, like cookie dough. 

Divide between prepared muffin cups, and sprinkle each with 1 tsp turbinado sugar. This may seem over the top, but it is what makes the perfect crunchy lid in the end, so don't omit it.

Bake for right around 25 minutes, depending on the size of your oven, until the tops are lightly golden. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Mexican Crispy Roasted Potatoes

 This was a hit at a Sunday night supper with Tim and Nancy.

1½ pounds petite red potatoes, washed and quartered

2 Tbs olive oil

1½ tsp salt

½ tsp ancho chili powder

½ tsp dried oregano

¼ tsp coriander

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 pinch of cayenne pepper

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

4 Tbs finely chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or spray with non stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, add the olive oil, salt, chili powder, oregano, coriander, garlic powder, black pepper and cayenne. Toss together until potatoes are fully coated with spices. Transfer to the baking sheet, taking care not to overcrowd the potatoes. They need lots of room to brown nicely. If they don't fit on one pan, divide them onto two baking sheets.

Sprinkle the potatoes with Parmesan cheese and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, flip the potatoes over and bake for another 20 minutes, until crispy.

Sprinkle the potatoes with cilantro, more salt if desired, and serve.