Saturday Night Greek Dinner...Opa!

It's always nice when food brings people together, giving a purpose and making an occasion out of any gathering.  To me, there is no purer pleasure than the feeling I get when I make people happy through food.  Last night, my good friend Sara invited me take over her kitchen so that I could make dinner for her, her husband Anil and our friend Aisha.  Now that is an offer I simply couldn't refuse.

Sara just had a baby, Maya, and is magnificently mastering motherhood.  Every once in a while, I like to head over to her place and help out by making dinner and give her and Anil a nice change of pace.  With Saturday being such a beautiful day, we were all craving a dinner chock full of vegetables.  I thought Greek food would be a great way to go.  To me, Greek food is synonymous with that warm happy weather that you get right before summer comes into full swing.  

I started by making a simple lemon, basil and oregano marinade for chicken breasts and the skewered it in between colorful peppers, onions and mushrooms.  I also made a side of tzatziki (Greek yogurt and cucumber dip) to pour over the kebabs.  Next, I created a simple Greek peasant salad from tomatoes, kalamata olives, cucumbers and slivered red onions.  I dressed the vegetables with a little red wine vinegar, oregano, pepper and then topped it off with feta cheese.  

As a last minute addition, I made what I am now calling "lazy spanikopita" which was sauted spinach tossed in a little bit of chicken broth, olive oil and some feta and served atop toasted garlic-rubbed baguette slices.  It had all the flavors of spanikopita without the hassle of messing around with phyllo dough.  It was a great way to round out the meal.

While I took to the kitchen to get started on dinner, Sara was able to take a break and got some things done around the apartment.  I was lucky enough to have the help from Sous Chef Maya who supplied gurgles and giggles as I chopped away.  We even took a break from our kitchen work to play an exciting game of peek-a-boo.  Isn't she seriously one of the cutest babies you've ever seen?

After Maya went to bed, the four of us tore into dinner while watching the Celtics win (woohoo!).  The dinner was so good.  Very fresh and completely satisfying.  We ended up finishing everything!

BUT, still left room for dessert, which was fresh berries sandwiched between slices of angel food cake and then smothered with Cool Whip.  This was always a summer staple in my house growing up and it was the perfect ending to an excellent evening.