Three Cheese Macaroni

Comfort Food: Lasagna

BBQ Grilled Cheese

Pork Sandwiches

Mezze!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

The February Daring Cooks challenge was a Mezze (pronounced "mez") table.  The requirements were to make Pita bread and homemade Hummus. The recipes as well as other links and information about Mezze can be found here. I chose to make four of the five given recipes for the challenge. The Cucumber Raita, Hummus, Falafels, and Pita bread. My husband and I have been to the Falafel King where we've had similar food to this, but I've never made any of it before. I must say, the Falafels I made, were WAY better. I would make them again.
I had a fun time with the Pita bread. I used to make a lot of bread during my 4-H years. In fact, I had the Champion bread one year - with my honey wheat that I made in a used coffee can. It was really good - and looked super cool. Anyways, kneading and making bread is somewhat therapeutic and by chance, it turned out great. I was able to roll it out easily and it wasn't too dry. (I tend to have trouble with things being too dry ever since I moved out to VT. Maybe it's just me.) The Pita bread didn't bubble up too much, like others did in the challenge. I'm not sure if rolling them out more thin would do the trick?
The Hummus was very simple to make. We were allowed to add our own flavorings - so I tried to think of my favorite kinds that I usually buy. I added cut-up sun-dried tomatoes and some cayenne pepper to the mixture as well as some salt and pepper. If I were to do it again, I would make a spinach and artichoke variety. I noticed some challengers put some olive oil on the top of the Hummus, which made it look more like the stuff you find in the store.
The Cucumber Raita was not good alone - but tasted much better with the Hummus and Pita. It reminded me of a really good gyro at the MN State Fair. I had added too much cayenne pepper and made it too spicy for my liking.

I really enjoyed this challenge, though it took me nearly all day to complete. The nice thing was that we had dinner ready that night.

One thing that was missing was the sliced lamb meat. That would have made it perfect!
In thought of Valentine's Day, I did make a couple heart-shaped Pita bread.

7 comments:

Wic said...

your version of this months challenge looks delicious, love the hummus and adore your little hearts.

February 15, 2010 at 5:00 AM
Anonymous said...

The heart-shaped Pita breads are sooo cute! Good job on the challenge! I enjoyed it a lot, too.

February 15, 2010 at 10:21 AM
Lisa said...

Such cute heart shapped pitas!! Your mezze turned out beautiful and that falafel looks outstanding!! I wish I could try one now! Oh, I totally agree on the Raita..alone NO, with - YES!

February 16, 2010 at 9:49 AM
Lana said...

Good work Alise! The hummus looks great! What did you think of the falafel? I had some at State Fair and DID NOT like it!

February 21, 2010 at 9:13 PM
Andrea Warren said...

Hey dear! My sister Melissa just sent me a link to your blog. This was the inspiration for a big middle eastern meal Eric (husband) and I made tonight. I made pitas for the first time and a couple other things. So fun! Enjoying following your blog.
-Andrea (Weller) Warren
(just making sure you could put it all together as to who this is!)

February 26, 2010 at 9:26 AM
Unknown said...

I really appreciate all of your comments! It's sometimes hard to realize anyone is even looking at my blog. Andrea, I'm so glad Melissa shared my blog with you! How did the pitas turn out? I miss all you girlies!

February 28, 2010 at 9:05 PM
Andrea Warren said...

The pitas were great. We're having a middle eastern meal with some turkish friends this week, and I'm now in charge of both the pitas and hummus!
We have a blog too if you want to check it out: ericandandreawarren.blogspot.com
-A

March 1, 2010 at 9:05 AM

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