Χόρτα βραστά με λεμόνι - Boiled Grass With Lemon

This recipe is included in my Spaghetti Alla Pouttanesca entry but I would like to re-blog it here for search engine reasons. This is a GREAT side dish that you will love. It is very simple to make and you can find this type of grass just about everywhere. If you choose to pick your own grass you must go to a virgin field and not your back yard or a field or a property where people will have added fertilizer or weed killer.

About 23 years ago my parents were visiting from Hellas. My wife and and I had just purchased a nice house in NY and we were trying to make it our home. It was summertime and my wife and I were outside working in the backyard, pulling weeds and putting them in garbage bags. Sometime later I turned and looked towards the house and I saw my parents standing behind the sliding door knocking on the glass trying to get my attention. I knew something was wrong and I ran towards the house to see what was wrong. As soon as I opened the door my parents yelled at me because they couldn't understand why I was pulling the grass from the ground and putting it in plastic garbage bags. To make the long story short, they told me that I was throwing away good food.

Fast forward many years to...yesterday, May 26, 2013, at the farmers' market in Rhinebeck, NY, I purchased two bunches of grass, a.k.a. χόρτα or ραδίκια. From now on I will refer to them as "grass" because it is just a generalization.

Here are the two bunches of grass I purchased. This grass MUST be washed thoroughly because it is just full of dirt.

Voodoo Chicken

Please keep reading to learn why I chose this name.

I have seen in movies how people use voodoo dolls and I wanted to "use voodoo" in order to cook a chicken. The Internet is filled with chicken recipes, grilled and otherwise, but I wanted to give it a different spin, and I chose voodoo.

This is a 7.5 lb chicken and let me tell you that it is big and huge! I bought it on Monday from ShopRite taking advantage of the special they run every week for senior citizens. Yes. I am proud to state that I do have a ShopRite senior discount card. When I qualified for it I went to the counter to ask for it and the person just processed it. When  asked him if he wanted to see proof of age he said that no one asks for this card except...senior citizens.

I took the chicken out of the package, removed the bag with the miscellaneous chicken parts and gave it a good wash. Look at this chicken. look at it, I tell ya. She is a beauty.

Here are the ingredients I will mix together to make my rub. I used a teaspoon of each with the exception of the oregano which is behind the paprika and mustard. I used three tablespoons of oregano.

I placed these ingredients in a bowl and mixed them a little.

Octopus in tomato sauce and pasta

During my last visit to Greece, I went a couple of times to a supermarket to get some type of prepared food for dinner. I had a choice between souvlaki and supermarket food and trust me, the latter was the best choice. The quality of the food was excellent and it was fresh since the ingredients came from the supermarket. Twice, I had a traditional dish of octopus with pasta cooked in tomato sauce. Eating octopus is very common. I remember eating grilled octopus when I was a little kid and I still salivate thinking about it. I got to talk to the person that maintained the hot food counter and he gave me his recipe which turned out to be simple.

I went to ShopRite, our local supermarket, to buy octopus, frozen, of course, and I was told that they carry larger octopus only during the holidays. I failed to ask which holidays but I will ask this question next time. Here are the three small frozen octopi that I purchased.

I removed the octopi from the package and washed it under running water. I cut the tentacles in bite sized pieces and I cut the ink sack in half and washed the inside of it well, even though it appeared to be very clean.

I started to warm up a pan on med-high heat.

Going to purchase my first charcoal grill

After reading many blogs, videos, pages, articles and having endless conversations about charcoal grills I decided to take the plunge and buy one. The grill manufacturer is Weber and it is a very well known grill manufacturer. I went to several brick-and-mortar chain stores, Home Depot, Lowe's, and Sears and visited amazon.com and I narrowed it down to the One-Touch Gold 22.5". Weber offers two other models but the Gold 22.5" was the best fit for me and by barbequing needs. After visiting Lowe's and Home Depot I was very disappointed with the selection and the lack of service I received. Well, I went to our local hardware store where they were able to order it for me for the same price as the large chain stores. Hot dog!

After ordering the Weber I drove to the local apple orchard to buy apple wood for smoking my meats. Normally they sell wood chips for $5 - $8 a small bag. I was able to buy lots more wood for the same price AND I helped a local business. The purchase wasn't huge but you understand my point. Here is a picture of the Wright's store.

As you can see they have a variety of options for apple wood purchases. I, of course, went with the smallest option because I will not use it in my fireplace. Here is an image of the actual wood that I purchased.

Look at the bundle of apple wood placed comfortably in the back of the Toyota matrix. It was placed there because it was the safest area for it. After all I didn't want it to get bruised and have it traumatized. Can you tell I have issues?

Next will be picking up the grill and setting it up.