We've reached that point in the semester where life is stretched very thin. Writing, giving, and grading the first round of exams for professor Daddy means very late nights for Mama too, and any superfluities that can get trimmed from life are. Eating Greek food is not superfluous! But cooking it might be.
So, we got take-out. And it's good too! For $16 you get pitas, very good and thick tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, feta, a pile of gyro meat, and about two full sliced onions (way more than necessary.) It's enough for our whole family, and we couldn't eat at McDonald's for less.
That said, we did make some extra pita bread to help stretch the meal. I was planning on buying it, but Walmart didn't have any, and running to an extra grocery store with grumpy little girls was more stress than making it at home. The hardest part about making pitas at home is getting the 2-year-old to stop eating the dough while you're rolling it out. I didn't use a recipe from the Internet, but mine is pretty similar to the Pita Bread recipe from King Arthur Flour. My only tip is to make sure you don't roll them too thin - more than the suggested 6" circles and you'll have thin spots that won't puff up to make a pocket. They still taste good, but pocket pitas are more fun. And only about half of mine turned out just right.
I also made a very simple Greek cucumber salad, which doubled as a pita filling. Again, I used a recipe from a cookbook so I can't link you the recipe, but it was pretty simple. One English cucumber, quartered and chopped, one small red onion, sliced in quarter moons, one pint of grape tomatoes, halved, 4 oz of feta cheese, 1/4 c. olive oil, 1 t. oregano, a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Fast, fresh, and the perfect accompaniment to an otherwise fairly brown meal.
Just for fun, we also looked out how to pronounce "gyro". And then tried to say it ourselves. It's not the easiest word for a Midwestern American to say, but it is fun to try.
Along with the gyros, we ordered a couple pieces of baclava for dessert. All day I was fighting the urge to run out and buy some phyllo dough to make our own, but I'm glad I resisted. Sometimes food tastes better when you haven't spent hours cooking it yourself. To borrow a concept from Solomon, "There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven" ...a time to cook, and a time to buy take-out.
Love Ari's here too & your perspective on there's a time for everything. John is very fond of that $16 gyro meal, especially after church on Sundays. And we find it's enough to feed us too, but we do run into the "not enough pitas" issue. And found, like you, no good ones at Walmart. I'd love to know where you found your recipe or get a copy from you. Renee
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