MAKING THAT BBQ COMPLETE: STRAWBERRY MEYER'S LEMONADE, YOGURT CUCUMBER SALAD AND ROASTED PEPPERS (GF)

Strawberry Meyers Lemonade

Depending on your lemons, you should get about 1 cup from 5 juicy Meyer's Lemons.  The ones I had were huge and full of juice.   The lemons were also way sweeter than regular lemons, so I didn't need to add much sweetener.  The fresh strawberries also helped with sweetness and added a nice pink tinge to the lemonade.

Made with fresh squeezed Meyer's Lemons, Fresh sliced strawberries and Agave nectar

This lemonade is perfect for a picnic or summer barbecue.  If you don't have agave nectar, you could add simple syrup to taste.

By the way readers, I apologize for the long absence between posts!  I have been MIA because my doc has prescribed for me a lifestyle change.  My Hashi's has been causing me to fluctuate from hypo to hyperthyroid these past few months.  I have been feeling kind of weird lately (irritable and emotional) and had been breaking out and getting cystic acne.  He told me that I could alleviate my symptoms by regulating my insulin levels which should help in turn regulate my hormone levels better (thus reducing my acne flareups).

So that means not only am I GF, but he distinctly said No Sugars.  Avoid simple carbs.  Yikes!

Sugar was all I had left!  I think I adapted well to the Gluten Free deal.  Then I held back on the dairy because it contributed to my hormonal acne.  Now he says that I must also ensure I do cardio 3 to 4 times a week.  I admit I fell off the running wagon this year since starting the Grad studies because I had no time.  I have to run at night because that's the only time I have after marking essays, making the kiddies' lunches and snacks and writing my own reflection papers (Grad studies is all over reflecting on your learning it seems).  Sometimes I'm too pooped to stay up late to run on the treadmill.

Well, despite my tiredness, the hardest step towards running is the anticipation of having to do so.  When I'm actually on the treadmill, time flies since I watch Netflix on my computer.  If I'm dead tired, the least I'll do is a brisk walk for the duration of a movie (that's 70 to 90 minutes) and if I'm energetic and/or it's early in the evening, I might alternate between a light jog and walking on the treadmill.  Right now, I have no inclination to run outside because it's too dark.  Maybe in the summer it'll be better.

So I am happy to say that after 2 weeks of doing the prescribed cardio 4 times a week, my cystic acne that was primarily located on my chin, has cleared.  I will need to keep this up for a month to see if it truly is working.  I'll admit I've succumbed to sugar on more than a few occasions.  I haven't baked at all as you can see...but I have these awesome dark chocolate covered dried coconut chunks by True Bliss that I have been addicted to.  First one little square...then another.  Then the rationalization that dark chocolate is good for me...you get the drift.  I've usually downed a handful of little dark chocolate coconut chunks before I'm done.  For sure on those days I do my cardio.  Being dairy-free is tough.  I'm trying to find how much I can get away with ingesting because that can contribute to the acne since there's hormones in milk and it also has a lot of simple sugars. Since the chocolate almond milk I was drinking tasted so good (i.e. had tons of sugar in it), I had to stop drinking it.  I have now switched to unsweetened almond milk (30 calories per cup) and that has been good.  It tastes way better than soy milk, which I shouldn't be drinking anyways because people with autoimmune issues like Hashimoto's should stay away from soy and goitrogenic foods.

So why this recipe for a sugar-laden (albeit agave) strawberry (which is goitrogenic) beverage?  Well, my kiddies and my guests don't have to eat my way.  I think I could make it sugar-free but then I'd have to use Splenda.  I didn't want to do that and agave is easy to use, dissolves readily and you can adjust the sweetness easily.

I am eyeing the Paleo diet and have been thinking about giving it a try to see if it helps all these wacky symptoms of Hashi's.  I think this is something I'll be working on slowly to ensure success as it's really a lifelong lifestyle change.  Paleo is no grains, no legumes and beans, no dairy, no sugar, no processed foods and possibly no fun!  Don't tell me medjool dates used as sweetener is going to help you make a delicious-looking chiffon cake.  I know it won't.  I have a feeling that I'll be making a lot of dense cakes and brownies.  I think the no grains deal is the toughest because before I could still substitute rice, corn, sorghum, tapioca and other flours for wheat and gluten-filled flours.  Now, I'm perplexed.  If I make almond-flour based cakes, my kids can't eat them because they're allergic to nuts.  So if I bake, I'll have to eat it all myself which doesn't really help my health at all.  If I have a treat occasionally, it'll have to be small batch baking for me.  I'll be working on small batch Paleo baking I think.

I've been eyeing a recipe for some Paleo brownies lately and I do have medjool dates (eww!) because my Meyer's Parrot loves those and I always keep them on hand.  I also have coconut flour, which I think will be my buddy from here on.  I'll still be baking tons of regular stuff for my family but I'll try to ease the kiddies from eating normal baked goods to some of the Paleo ones.  I know for sure that I can make everything GF and not have it taste GF.  In fact sometimes it tastes better than the wheat-based baking!  GF is truly not difficult for me anymore.  My Quinoa Chocolate Cupcakes are my go-to recipe.  The challenge now is doing the Paleo diet.   You know I'm gonna cheat on the Paleo like crazy sometimes.  Especially on the weekends when I go out for restaurant food, which has tons of sugar.  And it's so constricting; especially for a baker.  This will certainly be a huge challenge for me balancing the joys of life with quality of life.

Stay tuned for my escapades with dates, coconut and honey!

ahh. refreshing!

Here's the lemonade recipe for your next barbecue:

STRAWBERRY MEYER'S LEMONADE
1 cup freshly squeezed Meyer's Lemons
6 cups cold water
1 small basket hulled, sliced strawberries
1/4 cup agave nectar (or to taste)

1.  Pour the lemon juice into a large (2 litre) pitcher.
2.  Add water and stir well.  Stir in the agave nectar and mix thoroughly.  Taste and adjust if necessary (this depends on the sourness of the lemons you have)
3.  Add the sliced strawberries to the lemonade.  Stir.  Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours to allow the strawberries to macerate and flavour the lemonade.
4.  Serve cold.

Cucumber Salad

CUCUMBER SALAD

2 long English cucumbers 

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup prepared tzatziki or homemade tzatziki 

salt

1.  Chop the cucumbers into large chunks.  Place in a colander or sieve and lightly salt

2.  Allow the cucumbers to drain for about 2 hours in the refrigerator (placed over a bowl)

3.  With paper towels, squeeze gently or blot the cucumbers of any remaining liquid; discard the cucumber liquid at the bottom of the bowl.

4.  Mix sour cream and tzatziki with the cucumbers.

5.  Season with pepper.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

ROASTED PEPPERS

Red and yellow peppers

Olive oil

Salt

1.  Place the whole peppers on the barbecue.  Grill until blackened/charred.

2.  Place the peppers in a large pyrex bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool.

3.  Scrape the charred skin from the peppers.  Slice in large chunks; discarding the seeds, membrane and stem.

4.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Season with salt to taste.  Serve at room temperature

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PLJESKAVICA (GF) AND GIBANICA (CROATIAN MEAT PATTIES AND SAVOURY CHEESE STRUDEL)

Gibanica is sometimes called Burek (cheese pie).

Serve Gibanica (savoury cheese strudel) with roasted peppers, cucumber salad, tomatoes, raw onions if you like 'em and pljeskavica (grilled meat patties)

It was summer.  I was in university and my boyfriend had a Serbo-Croatian next-door neighbour (his dad was Croatian and his mom was Serbian) who was his best friend.  They used to hang out every day and would eat at each other's homes quite often.

Days were spent talking about cars and puttering around his garage as he fixed his old '64 Firebird.  The car was more Bondo than metal.  It was so cool though.  We drove down to Ambleside, cruised down Robson Street and walked along the Stanley Park Seawall during those warm summer nights.  

Layer phyllo sheets with cheese mixture.  Brush with oil or butter

Summers were full of barbecues and inevitably I would be invited to their big parties.  The house was full of people from all generations, chatting, playing pool and helping with making the food.  The tables were loaded with grilled chicken, grilled meat, a savour monkey bread, a cheese strudel, tomatoes, onions, cucumber salad and much more.   Everything was made from scratch.  His mom was the best cook ever.  

I should have used melted butter instead of olive oil.  I also did not butter each phyllo sheet before I layered on the cheese mixture...so it was drier and not as decadent.  It wasn't as rich tasting as I remembered from the past 

The iconic foods that were a mainstay at all the barbecues were the Savoury Cheese Pie (Gibanica [Gee-ban-itsa]) and the Grilled Meat patties (Pljeskavica [Plyess-ka-vee-tsah]).  My boyfriend had once asked his buddy for the recipe, but didn't get a response.  The recipes were well-guarded family secrets passed down through the generations.  I encountered a similar response from my Portuguese girlfriend's family when I inquired about a fried shrimp empanada-like appetizer.   I never bothered asking anyone for their amazing recipes again.  I knew they wouldn't divulge.  I just tucked those tastebud memories away with the faint hope that I might encounter an authentic recipe sometime in the future.

Bake until the bottom and top is golden brown.  

When I got married to my boyfriend, and his best friend became his Best Man, we moved out into our own townhouse and we no longer hung out at his parents' house and I no longer ate the Serbo-Croatian foods that so resonated with me the smells and feelings of summer.

Today, lately since Stomach bought a new barbecue, (Weber!) I have been having nostalgic yearnings for the meat patties and custardy savoury cheese pies of my youth. 

Serve slices of Gibanica with the Pljeskavica.  Leftovers can be refrigerated and you can eat it at room temp or even cold

Though Stomach would often watch his best friend help his mother with the layering of the phyllo for the cheese pie and we would sit at the kitchen table as he helped make the meat patties and then grill them on the bbq, the thought never crossed my mind that I should be taking mental notes.  My bad.

Use a pyrex baking dish to bake the Gibanica so you can check that it is golden brown on the bottom.

From Stomach's recollection, there were 7 different cheeses in that Gibanica (or Burek) dish.  Apparently, the layering of the Gibanica would take a long time and it was his friend's job to do it.   I personally recalled some sort of dehydrated vegetable concoction that was sprinkled into the raw meat patty mixture. 

Pljeskavica (Croatian Grilled Meat Patties)

There are no Croatian or Serbian restaurants around Vancouver that I know of (let me know if there are!) and I suspect this is because the moms know how to cook so well...so why bother?  Other than befriending way more Croatian and Serbian friends in the hopes of being invited to their awesome bbq parties, the only way I figured I'd get to eat these tasty dishes whenever I wanted was to get to work researching and testing recipes.  I realized that I'd have to get going on researching the recipes that I longed for...on the internet.

Ground beef and pork are combined with finely minced onion, garlic and sweet paprika 

Interestingly, none of the recipes I found were exactly as I remembered.  None of the Gibanica recipes called for 7 different cheeses.  The recipes I found had at most 3 different cheeses.  The Pljeskavica recipes were so simple and didn't call for any of those dehydrated veggies...that I wondered if they were truly authentic.  In the end, I found a product called "Vegeta" that was invented in Croatia.  Apparently, it is as ubiquitous as ketchup in North America.  So I suspect that Vegeta (which has an MSG and non-MSG version) is the product that my friend used in his meat patties mixture.  I also think the Vegeta he used had MSG in it because his Pljeskavica were soooo good!

Allow the ground meat mixture to sit covered in refrigerator so flavours will meld.  I did this overnight.

In the end, I cobbled together my own recipe from the myriad of recipes out there.  I used a technique from one recipe and some ingredients from a few other recipes and kind of guessed at the proportions.  

These two super tasty dishes are my faves for barbecues.  The sides will have to wait for another day's post as this one's getting pretty long on its own.

I will be tweaking the recipes this summer until they come out the way I remembered.  The Gibanica was a bit too dry for my liking.  This recipe was very good but not amazing!  I will be trying to make it more rich and custardy as I recalled it (and maybe add a few more cheeses? possibly 4 more? and use butter instead of olive oil).  I think the calorie counts will be going up for the cheese pie.  The meat patties are almost perfect.  I need that Vegeta seasoning mix.   Next time I have to form the patties differently...thinner and indented in the middle. Gotta look around for the Vegeta somewhere.  Doubt Safeway has it!

GIBANICA (BUREK, OR SAVOURY CHEESE STRUDEL)
1 package phyllo dough (defrosted in the refrigerator overnight)
2 eggs [next time I will use way more eggs...maybe 4 or 5 because I didn't think it was rich and custardy enough...also may add some milk]
2 cups feta cheese
1 cup sour cream
1 cup ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons club soda or mineral water
olive oil or melted butter for brushing

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a food processor, pulse the feta until crumbly.  Add the ricotta, sour cream and 2 eggs.   Continue to pulse until the mixture is thoroughly combined.
3. Add the club soda or mineral water.  Pulse again to combine.
4. Butter, oil or spray a large pyrex rectangular baking dish.
5. Save 4 sheets of phyllo; setting it aside for the "lid" of the strudel.  Cover with a towel so it doesn't dry out.
6. Take a sheet of phyllo and place into the baking dish.  Allow the phyllo to overhang the dish.  Brush oil or butter on the phyllo sheet.  
7. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup,  measure out two scoops of the cheese mixture and spread evenly over the phyllo layer.
8. Repeat until you are finished with all the phyllo sheets.
9. Tuck into the dish any of the phyllo overhanging the dish.  Cut the reserved 4 sheets of phyllo to the size of the baking dish.  Layer sheets on top of the pie, brushing with oil or butter.  Finish with a brushing of butter or oil.
10. Have ready some tin foil in case your Gibanica browns too quickly.  Place the pie on middle rack and bake for 25 minutes.  Check to ensure it's not burning.  If it is browning too quickly, you can place the foil on top.    Continue baking for another 15-20 minutes, keeping an eye on the bottom and top.  Take it out of the oven when you see through the pyrex dish that the bottom is golden brown and the top is flaky and golden brown.
11. Cut the cheese pie into squares and serve.  Leftovers can be refrigerated.  Gibanica can be eaten at room temperature or cold and is a delicious accompaniment to grilled meats.

PLJESKAVICA (CROATIAN MEAT PATTIES)
1large onion, finely minced [I used the food processor]
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 1/2 pounds ground pork
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 1/2 tablespoon sweet or hot paprika
[next time I will try and find the seasoning mix,Vegeta to add to the mixture for a more authentic flavour]

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix thoroughly.
2. Cover and refrigerate overnight to allow the flavours to combine.
3. Form the meat into thin patties.  You may want to indent the centres of the patties because they will puff up in the centre when cooked.  
4. Grill the meat patties on the barbecue until done.
5. Serve with Gibanica, roasted peppers, chopped raw red onions, tomato and a Yogurt Cucumber salad (post coming soon!)

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