Summer flavors, but it's winter. Oh well, you do what you can.

The Yeti wife was out of town this week which means I usually experiment. I would then normally post results of experiments here. That is the crustimony proceedcake, as my bear friends would say. However, I did not really do any experiments (except for the lamb and beef cheeseburgers, east coast style, but I'll post that some other time). Instead I've opened up the legendary hairy Yeti archives and will share this dish with you. And the snowdogs did get to go somewhere every day this week too, including into the creek at the park even though I told them not to. Silly snowdogs.

I know that this is really a summer dish with the tomatoes and all, but since "bulletproof" tomatoes are available in the market year-round nowadays, this should be possible for people in general to do anytime. The texture of "bulletproof" beefsteak tomatoes are actually well suited for this recipe, but the flavor is lacking as you would expect. I like to use large heirlooms that are often available in late summer. If you want to use vine-ripe or other smaller tomatoes, try using about double the number of tomatoes (8 or so) or you can cut and stuff a bunch of larger cherry tomatoes and substitute feta for the softer chevre goat cheese for appetizers.

Tomatoes stuffed with couscous

4 large tomatoes, preferably nearly ripe, but still with some firmness of body
couscous, about 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup dry instant, or about 1 cup when fully prepared. That would also be about 2/3 cup of Israeli couscous if you wanted to use that. For this I like the texture of the smaller grained couscous.
Some goat cheese, about 4 ounces
Salt and pepper
about 2 tablespoons diced onion
1 clove of garlic, crushed
no more than 1/4 cup of additional herbs and veggies, such as curly parsley, cilantro, dill, diced bell pepper, as desired.

Prepare couscous as you would normally. Mix prepared couscous with the onion, garlic, and optional ingredients and set aside (for at least 20 minutes, this is about as long as it will take you to prepare the tomatoes).

Prepare tomatoes:
Cut off the top of the tomatoes. Taking care not to puncture the sides or bottoms of the tomatoes, remove the core and seeds. I use a melon baller. Season the inside of the tomatoes liberally with salt and pepper and place upside-down (open side down) on a rack above a tray or other container for the tomatoes to drain off excess liquid. You'll want to let the tomatoes drain for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 325F.

After tomatoes are drained, stuff each tomato with 1/4 of the prepared couscous mixture. Place 1/4 (about 1 ounce) of goat cheese on top of the tomatoes. Bake for about 15 minutes, then place under a broiler for about 5 minutes or until the goat cheese is melted and slightly browned.

Serves 2 Yetis, or 4 people as a large side dish. This is great with some garlic bread and broiled fish or fresh green beans.

Will there be posts this week? Maybe. Maybe not. Spinach and phyllo and feta! It must be spanikopita.

Yetis can be awfully busy between the end of November through the beginning of January. It's time to start thinking about harvesting snow for the long summers, the snowdogs come out of their hibernation and want to play, and sometimes there are Yeti relatives that want some Yeti food. And sometimes the Yeti friends come over for a party. Here is a good party dish in small servings, or you can fancy it up and wrap the filling in individual layers of phyllo for some appetizers or small bites.

Easy Spanikopita

3 boxes frozen chopped spinach, thawed and liquid squeezed out or 36 oz fresh spinach, trimmed, washed thoroughly and drained, then chopped just a bit.
1 medium onion, as finely chopped as you like it.
1/2 cup chopped parsley (optional) – I usually don’t do this.
8-10 oz. feta cheese, grated or crumbled
1 egg
2 tbsp olive oil ¼ cup butter (1/2 stick) (or equivalent amount of olive oil – do not use margarine, it won’t work well. Butter works better than olive oil, but olive oil is acceptable)
Salt and pepper
”Enough” phyllo dough – I use store bought dough already in sheets from the freezer section, usually about ½ a package. Also optional – a small amount of grated parmesan cheese (about 1 tablespoon)

Before starting - preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Make sure the phyllo dough is thawed. Pregrease a 9 by 12 inch pan that is at least 1 in deep, or something similar in size, with a light coating of olive oil. Pam or a similar spray would work well.

In a large sauté pan over medium heat, put the 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Start the onions sautéing, and add a 2 small shakes of salt. After the onions start to sweat (become slightly translucent, about 3-5 minutes) add the spinach. Stir until the spinach is wilted and cooked – this will take about 5 more minutes. Set the mixture aside to cool.

Break up the feta in a large mixing bowl. Add the 1 egg and mix thoroughly. When the mixture of spinach and onion is room temperature, combine with the egg and feta mixture. Mix well. Melt the ¼ cup of butter or just use an equivalent of olive oil. Unroll the phyllo dough. Take one sheet of the phyllo dough and brush one side lightly with butter or oil. Place this sheet in the bottom of the baking pan butter side up. Repeat with 3-5 more sheets of phyllo dough, each buttered on 1 side. Take the entire cooled spinach – feta – onion – egg mixture and spread evenly on the top of the phyllo layers. Sprinkle the 1 tablespoon of parmesan cheese over the spinach mixture. Now, layer again with phyllo dough buttered on the top side. Use at least 4 layers more on top of the mixture. Bake the spanakopita for 40-45 minutes. The top layer of phyllo should be golden brown. Wait for 10-15 minutes after removing from the oven to slice and serve. Leftovers should be reheated in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 300F, not in the microwave unless necessary – it will be not as crispy.

Serves about 2 yeti, or 4 people, maybe 6-8 at most with salad or as a side dish. This is pretty filling.

Tomatoes we made last night, but different

Last night my Yeti wife and I had some normal human types over for dinner. I shaved so as not to scare them too much, but the snowdogs were abominable as usual and backed our guests into a corner occasionally. As usual, all they did was drool on them, but that can be scary by itself. There was an appetizer that we made that turned out OK, but I think I have a better version that I'm posting here now. They were cherry stuffed tomatoes and were quite easy. The hardest part was trying to move them to a serving dish after they were made and not have them end up on the floor. Those tomatoes are sure slippery in Yeti hands. We only had 2 losses.

Cherry tomatoes stuffed with dill and feta (you can replace the dill with basil and the feta with fresh mozzarella chopped into small cubes if you want. But I think this version is better.)

18 cherry tomatoes
4 ounces of good plain feta. I like Athenos
3 tablespoons of dried dill, or 1/4 cup of fresh dill, chopped fine
rind of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt
pepper

Crumble the feta into a medium bowl. Add the dill, lemon rind, olive oil, a small pinch of salt, and about 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Stir through and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half through the stem. Using a melon baller, scoop out the insides carefully so as not to damage the outside of the tomato. Lightly sprinkle the inside of the tomatoes with salt and turn them cut side down on a paper towel or tea towel to drain out their water for at least 15 minutes or as long as 30.

After the tomatoes are drained, place about a human thumb full of filling in each tomato half. Sprinkle with extra ground pepper and dill if desired and serve.

Makes 36 tomato halves as long as you don't drop any on the floor like I did. The snowdogs didn't get any though as they don't get any food but their own snowdog food.

Chicken breasts stuffed with feta and spinach

This has been one of the dishes that we serve to first-time visiting monsters from other caves. We often have repeat visitors, but not leftovers.

4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
About 4 tablespoons good feta cheese; reserve a small bit for garnish. I like Athenos brand.
One 10 ounce package of chopped spinach, drained or one bunch of fresh spinach, washed well.
Pepper
Paprika

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a shallow baking dish with a little bit of olive oil.

Drain or wash the spinach as necessary. Crumble the feta and lightly press between 2 pieces of paper towel to remove some of the water. Place the dried feta into a bowl until the chicken is ready to stuff.

Trim the chicken breasts of fat and detritus. Place between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and carefully pound to about a quarter inch thickness. Remove the chicken from the plastic wrap and spread out on a clean surface. Place either a tablespoon of drained chopped spinach or about 4-6 leaves of fresh spinach on the chicken. Top with about 1 tablespoon of the feta. Season the feta and spinach with a small bit of pepper. Carefully wrap the thin chicken around the spinach and feta mixture, taking care not to tear the chicken. Either using your hands or another piece of plastic wrap, form the chicken around the feta spinach stuffing into as tight a ball as possible. Make sure that all the feta and spinach is enclosed by chicken.
Place the stuffed chicken by itself in the baking dish and garnish each with a small amount of feta. Sprinkle each breast with paprika.

Bake in the preheated 375F oven for about 35-40 minutes.

Serve with your favorite side dish. I like roasted new potatoes (another post) or a good pasta or rice dish.

Variations on this theme include replacing the feta and spinach with a slice of sundried tomato, basil, and provolone; or mozzarella, wild rice and mushrooms; or gruyere and a thin piece of honey ham, etc.

Serves about 1 Yeti or 2-4 people.