It's All Greek

It's 90 today and time to break out the grill. I refuse to cook indoors in this weather. No AC and SUNSHINE in the Northwest; not cooking inside and not heating up my house. It's my own recipes tonight and floating in our kiddie pool.

I have my own chicken souvlaki that I've concocted based on taste tests at my favorite Greek restaurant, Cafe Akroteri in Bellingham, Washington. I start with the dry herbs and I only use whole herbs from my garden when possible. Tarragon is the secret ingredient, oregano, savory hand rubbed. Add fresh ground pepper - lots of it. Fresh ground coriander and this time I'm trying a bit of sumac berry and the slightest amount of cardamom. Last, I add some coarse sea salt. Oh and fresh chopped garlic - one or two cloves. Toss in a little good olive oil and red wine vinegar and the juice of one lemon.

As for the red wine vinegar, I never buy that anymore. I just let part of a bottle of fairly cheap red wine stuff go to vinegar.

I'll let this sit for a while and then cube chicken to marinate for a couple  hours. All this will get skewered and grilled with red onion and green/red/orange peppers. Then we dip it in a cucumber, mint and yogurt sauce.

Side of greek salad. Yum and hello lobster floaty.