Dolmades

Posted on March 28, 2015 Updated on March 28, 2015

One of the things that bring me the greatest joy in life, is cooking, and in particular, trying new recipes.  I especially like to try recipes with ingredients that I’ve never heard of before so that I can learn new tastes and flavor combinations.  What makes me even happier than cooking, is to see people REALLY enjoying what I’ve cooked.

My sweet Father in law is Greek, and I love to try cooking Greek dishes for my Darling – since his Mom used to do that for him.  Today was my first attempt at making Dolmades. If you haven’t had them before, they are a meat mixture (most often lamb or a combination of lamb and beef), wrapped in a grape leaf, steamed and served with an avgolemono (egg-lemon) sauce .

Here’s what I cooked up today, give it a try…

Combine:

1 1/2 lbs ground lamb

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2/3 cup long grain rice

2/3 cup chopped pine nuts

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp chopped mint

1 (8oz) jar grape leaves

1 1/2 cup water

Mix all the ingredients together and place a tablespoon full in the center of each grape leaf.

fold the bottom over the meat, fold in the sides, and roll into a tight cylinder.

Place all your cute little grape leaf cylinders nice and snug together in a skillet – seam side down, and then pour the 1 1/2 cups of water over the top.

Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium low and cover. Simmer for 50-55 minutes.  Check occasionally and add more water if needed.

When they are cooked, serve them with some Avgolemono sauce over the top:

2 eggs separated

1 Tbls water

juice from 3 lemons

broth left from the Dolmades

Beat the egg whites till foamy, add in the yolks, lemon juice, water and then also the broth. Whisk it all up over a little heat, making sure the egg doesn’t get funky on you.

It made me SO happy to see Danny and Hannah’s reaction when they ate it.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

P.S. A couple things I might do differently…I’m going to add a little more mint next time, and less meat on to each grape leaf.  I placed more than a Tbls worth on each leaf, but all that did was not allow you to taste all the flavors in the correct quantities to balance out the amazingness in your mouth.

Layout

Posted on March 28, 2015

Several people have asked for a photo of our boats layout. As you can see, as you enter the main salon area from the stern, the galley is to starboard with salon seating forward.  There is lots of storage under the salon seating. This is also a navigation station starboard of the salon seating.  Going downstairs to port, turning aft there is a head with toilet, sink and shower, and farther aft is the double berth. Moving forward, is another head, (all heads in port and starboard hulls are designed the same), and forward of that is another double berth.  There is a doorway that leads from that double berth to the far forward single berth, which also has hatch access above it.  The starboard hull is the mirror image, except that the single berth in that hull is only accessible from the hatch. That single berth also has a head.

Danny and I are flying out to Panama early on Monday morning, to install the radar system on the boat, and when we get there I will post photos of the boat.

Now it’s time for you all to get your passports so you can come visit us!!

Mycah wins again!

Posted on March 28, 2015

We are so proud of Mycah, who has become such a wonderful athlete. She just won the breaststroke at a swim meet, even though her rotator cuff was aching.  The greatest part about watching her, is witnessing her good sportsmanship. She is so supportive of her team mates, and is friendly and encouraging to her fellow competitors. Great job Goo, keep it up:)