My Big Fat Greek Dinner

Saturday I worked in the store all day and had a sudden and instantaneous craving for some Greek food. Tzatziki, grape leaves, feta... I quickly hopped into Chowhound and was kinda disappointed in the recommendations I found on the boards. Nothing new or mind blowing. Greek Isles (close to me but expensive), Greek Corner (far from me but good), Steves (average but cheap), Cafe Jaffee (again cheap, but not as cheap as Steves and not quite as good even). I debated all day calling in a take out order over to Steve's and going after work to pick it up.

But as I ended my day, it started to look like rain and I didn't want to get take out food and have it and myself end up being soggy from getting stuck in a downpour. I had to go to the grocery store for ingredients for this month's DBC anyway so I stood in front of the "Greek" aisle of my ghetto Shaws and pondered what I should do. I grabbed some grape leaves, pine nuts and feta. On my way out, I passed by some pita bread and picked that up too, along with some tazaki. I had every intention of making my own yogurt cucumber sauce, but I got really lazy while shopping, plus I had a DBC to get started on that evening.

Once home, I cut up a pita, tossed the pieces in a cake pan with olive oil, Italian seasoning dried mix and a little sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Into the already prepared tzatziki, sauce, I added mint and a squeeze of lemon juice. I had leftover brown rice that I had made earlier in the week and rolled a few of the grape leaves I had purchased earlier around the rice. Once the pita chips were crispy, I topped them with feta, my juiced up tazaki and some pine nuts. On the side I placed my make-shift stuffed grape leaves.

I was pretty pleased with the results. Okay, okay so it wasn't exactly "Greek" food but it was certainly Greek inspired. My grape leave rolling technique definitely left a lot to be desired and I'd like to experiment in the future with actually making true Greek dolmas. But overall, it was a nice, quick easy meal and a fast way for me to ease my craving for Greek food.