A Bear Thanksgiving

A Bear Thanksgiving!

What is more important than family, traditions, holidays, and Sports! My husband is from Chicago, so we are into all the Chicago teams! This year Thanksgiving came on the same day as the Chicago Bears football game. We all donned ourselves in our favorite Bear attire and ate until our hearts content. We had all of the yummy usual's: Turkey, potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie. My sister thrilled us with a new yummy recipe. I can see myself making that recipe for any occasion!

Cranberry Brie Bites

1 (8 ounce) round Brie cheese, rind removed
Pam cooking spray�1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
1/2 cup cranberry sauce or raspberry jam
1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
sea salt to taste

Directions:

Place Brie cheese in the freezer for 20 minutes. Oil a mini muffin pan with cooking spray.
Roll 1 puff pastry sheet out into a 10x14-inch rectangle. Cut the sheet lengthwise into 4 even strips and crosswise into 6 even strips; there should be 24 squares. Separate and press them gently into the muffin cups.

Cut chilled Brie cheese into 24 pieces approximately 3/4-inch in size. Add 1 teaspoon cranberry sauce to each pastry-lined
muffin cup; press in 1 piece of Brie and top with 1 teaspoon of chopped walnuts. Sprinkle bites with sea salt. Chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Bake bites in the preheated oven
until golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.

After stuffing ourselves with the wonderful meal and watching

the Chicago Bears win., it was fun times of listening to a few

piano recitals and then off outside for a some tag football!

Some people’s Thanksgiving day might be a day of football, or

sharing a huge meal with your family and friends. But most

importantly it is a day of expressing our gratitude to God for His blessings throughout the year.

So from our Hudson and Heart Family to yours,
may your year be filled with love, laughter and good health.

Our Greek Easter

Christos Anesti!

Christ is Risen

My family is Greek if you did not know! So our Hudson and Heart Family celebrate Easter on the Julian calendar and not the Gregorian calendar. It is usually after Western Easter. My grandkids love it, because the Easter bunny comes twice! And for a YiaYia it is awesome, because I get to buy all of the Easter treats after Easter, which means half off for me! I go a little overboard, because of the deals I get. Such as the picture below!

It is a time of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ! We have our family over for much love and of course food! And to start off the fun we have a traditional Easter egg hunt.

Most Greeks serve up lamb on Easter. We did it Oklahoma stye with a southern spin on it this year. We decided to grill outside and one of the most requested sides is my foil potatoes. They are super yummy!

My Love Hate Potatoes Ok how can you love and hate potatoes at the same time. My hate, is how long it takes. My love is that I can make them a day ahead of time and the are the yummiest potatoes you will ever eat! Ingredients 5 lbs of red potatoes 3 onions (white or red) chopped 1/2 package of bacon 1 to 2 jalapeños cleaned and chopped keep 2 seeds or more depending on how much heat you want. 1 bell pepper chopped 5 cloves of garlic Do not mince Pam Butter Flavor Non stick foil 1-2 tablespoons McCormicks Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning Salt and Pepper Directions Cook bacon in a skillet and set to the side on paper towels and crumble. Once cooled dispose of the grease, but do not wash the residue off of the pan. Place the onions, bacon, jalapeños, bell pepper, garlic and Steak seasoning in the pan. Bake until translucent. Set to the side. Peel your potatoes. You can keep a bit of the peel on. Cut into cubes. Mix with the above ingredients. Spray your foil with the Pam and then add single servings of the mixture onto the foil. Salt and Pepper to taste. Wrap the foil around the potatoes. Grill on the top rack for up to 45 min.s You might want to start checking after 30 min.s to see if they are done. After we eat we play a family game. It is the Greek Egg Tapping game! You dye all of the hard boiled eggs red ~ they are supposed to represent the blood of Christ. The Cracking of the egg symbolizes his resurrection from the dead. Everyone chooses an egg and they hit the tip of their opponent’s egg. If your egg breaks, you are out. The one with his or her egg left unbroken is the winner and is said to have good luck the rest of the year!

The rest of the time is about family being together and enjoying each others company!

So if you celebrate Western Easter or Greek Easter, we hope that it was filled with family, love, fun and great FOOD!

A House Divided: Bedlam

There is nothing better than family, friends and football! Especially when it comes to some healthy and fun competition! We had family and friends visit us from Chicago, Naples, Washington DC, and California to attend the Oklahoma State University (OSU)/University of Oklahoma (OU) Bedlam game. We attempt this get together every year.  The majority of us graduated from OSU. Our family fits the saying, “ A house divided!” Ashley went to OU and Lauren went to OSU. 

We all donned ourselves with our collegiate clothing and headed to the game.  Half of the fun, is tailgating.  And OSU knows how to throw the best tailgating parties! There is nothing funner that eating and discussing our thoughts on the game outcome!  

To our misfortune, we(OSU) lost.  But what a game! Exciting in every way!

The next morning we had our Bedlam Brunch.  It was so much fun spending time with everyone! To drown out our tears, we had Mimosas! And a huge spread of food.  The favorite meal hands down was the: Apple Cinnamon French Toast.  There is two reasons I love this recipe, first because it is DELICIOUS, and secondly you make it the night before! 

Apple Cinnamon French Toast

3/4 C melted butter

1 C brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cans apple pie filling

16 slices of raises bread

6-7 eggs depending on the size

1 1/2 C milk

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1/2 C maple syrup

Grease 9x 13 pan.  Mix butter, sugar, & cinnamon.  Spread over pan.  Then spread pie filling over the sugar mixture.  Layer the bread slices 2 layers on top.   Cut the bread to completely fill in.  Press down on the bread.  Mix eggs, milk and vanilla.  Pour over bread. Cover pan with saran wrap and refrigerate over night.

In the morning cover w/ foil bake @350 for 65 to 75 minutes.  Remove foil & drizzle syrup on top. Broil 3-4 minutes. Remove from the oven. Let it sit 10 minutes and cut into squares.

Sadly our time had to end and everyone headed home, but we look forward to next year and a different football outcome!

Opa!

Opa!

At Hudson and Heart, nothing is more important than family!  We were recently blessed to have a visit from my in-laws.  My father-in-law is 87 and my mother-in-law is 86, but to see these two get around you would surely think they were in their 40’s!  We had a party for them when they arrived and also celebrated Leo’s 3rd birthday.  The house was full of family, love and the aromas of Greek cooking.  I failed to mention that my in-laws are Greek.  I married into this family almost 39 years ago.  When I describe my family, I would say Fun and passionate.  They are passionate about their family, their religion and their SPORTS!  They live in Chicago.  If you ever get a chance to go, I would suggest going to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field and going to Greek Town for some delicious food! 

My mother-in-law is a superb cook, so I was planning for sometime on what I was going to make!  I settled on Greek everything! Greek potatoes, Lemon chicken, Greek salad, garlic bread, and spanakopita.  Fortunately everything came out great!  The house was full of their sons, daughter-in-laws, grandchildren and great-children and other family members! They got to meet their newest great grandchild, Lainey, who is only 2 weeks old!  At this point they have 16 Great-grandchildren and their newest one will be here in February!

My father-in-law’s last name, which is mine too, is Christopoulos.  Both of his parents came over from Greece.  His dad came over when he was 16 (by himself) and his mother came when she was 25.  Can you imagine coming to America and not speaking a word of English! They forged through and made a wonderful life for their children.  My mother-in-law’s dad came from Greece.  He too, came by himself when he was 16.  He eventually married his wife, Ruby, from Boston.  They moved to Chicago and Gus Kyriazis, who changed his last name to Mitchell, opened two restaurants!  This is clearly why my mother-in-law is such a great cook!  We named one of our Loveys Mitchell after my mother-in-law.  We love listening to both of them telling their stories of their childhood, how they met and eventually married.  

I have included two of our recipes that are awesome! We hope that you enjoy them as much as we do!

Greek Potatoes

12 servings

Ingredients

6 lb. Yukon gold potatoes

1 C fresh or bottled lemon juice

2/3 C olive oil

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 (29 ounce) Can chicken broth

Peel potatoes and cut into 1/2’s or 1/3rd if they are large potatoes.  Put in cold water until the sauce is mixed.  Drain potatoes and put them in a gallon ziplock baggy.  Then pour in the sauce.  Marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours.  Put Potatoes in casserole pan with juice on top.  Bake at 400 for 1 1/2 hours or more.  Bake until a fork slides easily into the potatoes.

Optional: Serve with lemon slices and sliced feta 

A Little Italy In Oklahoma

Growing up, my family used to visit relatives in Texas. On our way home, my parents would take us to Pete’s Place Restaurant in Krebs, Oklahoma. Krebs is an Italian community. Pietro, his Italian name, worked in the coal mine as a child when he moved to Oklahoma from Italy. Later he changed his name to Pete. There was a horrendous cave-in at the mine that crushed his leg. Because he couldn’t return to the mines, Pete made Choc Beer with the wheat from the Oklahoma Plains. The immigrant miners would come to drink his beer, and from that point Pete started making his visitors Italian food. In 1925, he opened his restaurant and called it Pete’s Place. The original Pete’s Place building was more like a house. We would sit and eat family style. I loved the spaghetti, garlic bread, really vinegary salad dressing, peppers and homemade cheese.

With both of our daughters and all the grandkids, we piled into two cars and set off to newer Pete’s Place in Krebs, Ok. We had a large private room. Except for my husband and brother, we all ate the Italian dinner consisting of spaghetti, meatballs, ravioli, salad, homemade cheese, peppers and garlic bread. We all enjoyed our meals and ate way too much food! They sent us out with tons of leftovers!

Then my brother suggested that we go to Lovera’s that is an Italian grocery store. We bought homemade spaghetti sauce, Italian chocolate and stuffed olives. If we weren’t so full, I am sure we would have stocked up with other scrumptious items.

Next on our list was a drive to the Porter Peach Festival. We had already driven 1 hour and 45 minutes to Krebs, why not an hour to an event that we have never attended. We have always heard of the Peach Festival, so we were super excited to go! Everyone of us had visions of peaches everywhere! When we got there, it was completely different than we expected. There were booths with crafts and locals promoting their businesses, but where were the PEACHES! There were turkey legs and funnel cakes, but no PEACHES. One thing we were all craving was peach ice cream after our lunch in Krebs. The closest thing that we had to that was store bought vanilla ice cream with canned peaches on top. You could imagine what a disappointment that was! After strolling around for a bit, we decided to call it a day and head home.

 Okay as they say, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Our new spin on it. When you don’t get peach ice cream, you go the store and buy Porter peaches, an ice cream maker and do it yourself! And that is what this determined family did! My hubby was bent on doing it the old fashion way with the ice and rock salt. Thank goodness, he didn’t get the old crank ones. Yummy ice cream, but killer on your arms! I got an awesome peach recipe, and we did it ourselves! The grandkids were beyond excited. It was like a science experiment, explaining why rock salt lowers the freezing temperature. Okay, not going to bore you. But the kids loved it and they got to help with our endeavor! We got all of our ingredients in and we had a thirty minute wait. During the wait, the kids swam in the pool! And there it was after thirty minutes, PEACH ICE CREAM! It was soooooo yummy!

So worth it, even with a brain-Freeze for Tatum!

The Porter, Oklahoma trip was not a bomb. It was a springboard! A lesson in trying new things and when you don’t get the results you want, go at it at a different angle! For the grandkids, it is what ice cream can we make next time? For us, what adventure are we on to next?

Peach Ice Cream Recipe
2 1/2 pounds of fresh peaches- peel, take pits out and chop 1/2 C sugar
1/4 salt
1 pint half and half cream
1 (14 ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk 1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 C whole milk
Directions
Puree peaches with sugar and half and half.
Pour in the peaches, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, whole milk and vanilla into ice cream maker and follow the manufacturers directions.