When she’s not cooking up creative new recipes for her restaurant on Hough Street, Savory Salads owner and 2004 BHS graduate, Stephanie Jameson Dzugan says it’s all about cooking for family, especially on Sundays! A regular Heinen’s Grocery shopper, Stephanie agreed to share a favorite family meal for this week’s Heinen’s Sunday Supper feature at 365Barrington.com.
Heinen’s gave Stephanie a gift card to purchase groceries for her Sunday Supper this week. She created a menu inspired by her family’s Greek heritage including Grecian Lamb Chops, Spinach & Feta Pinwheels, Tzatziki Sauce, Horiatik Salad (Cucumber & Tomato Salad), Mama Peg’s Rice Pilaf and Peach Melba.
Feeling hungry? Read on for Stephanie’s favorite family recipes…
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For the Love of Family (and Lamb Chops)
by Stephanie Jameson Dzugan, Heinen’s Shopper & Owner at Savory Salads
I come from a big greek family. So greek, we had lamb chops as an appetizer at my wedding this past Valentine’s Day.
Food is incredibly important in a greek household. Everybody has a job for preparing the food, and an opinion on how the food is cooked. When I said I would be making dinner on Sunday I had to have my menu “checked” by every family member so these recipes won’t disappoint!
A big dinner on Sunday has always been the norm in our household, but over the past few years I have realized the beauty and precious value behind these dinners because the food brings the people together. Sunday is a family day, and what better way to stop and share with family than around a beautiful table of delicious food?
Heinen’s has very high quality food. Shopping for this meal was actually pretty fun because Heinen’s has a HUGE selection of imported cheeses, a knowledgable and friendly butcher staff, and they even had a binder that paired different wines with different meats and then were happy to suggest a wine at a reasonable price point! I think the quality of their food really speaks for itself in these pictures!
Grecian Lamb Chops
Remember when I said I had lamb chops at my wedding? I thought I would share the recipe because my dad actually gave the chef the directive on how he wanted those lamb chops made.
Season lamb chops with table salt, black pepper, oregano, lemon juice, and garlic powder.
Seasoned Lamb chops should look like this:
Grill lamb chops until at least medium rare (145 degrees if you are using a thermometer) if you place foil over the chops directly after cooking, they will continue to cook! The finished product should look like this:
Spinach & Feta Pinwheels
These are incredibly simple, and just a beautiful little substitute for a dinner roll!
Ingredients:
Pillsbury Crescent Roll Dough
Feta cheese crumbles
Baby spinach
butter
garlic powder
Directions:
In a sauce pan, begin by adding 1 tablespoon of butter. Wait until butter melts, and then add one large handful of baby spinach. make sure the butter coats all of the baby spinach and sauce spinach until soft. Turn stove off and set aside.
Unravel the crescent roll dough, don’t pull the triangles apart, but rather leave them in a large rectangle. Add sautéed spinach leaves across the entire piece of dough. Add crumbled feta on top of the sautéed spinach. Take the edges of the dough closest to you and roll them up to form a pinwheel shaped log. Slice the log into 1/2”-3/4” slices. Set them on a cookie sheet and bake them at 375 degrees until golden brown. *Don’t place them on the bottom rack, because they tend to burn on the bottom!
Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in the microwave and add garlic powder. Mix the garlic butter mixture and then brush it over the cooked pinwheels.
Tzatziki Sauce
(with a silent T, “Tzatziki Sauce” sounds like “zatziki”)
I found this recipe on greek.food.com and just altered a couple things!
Ingredients:
3 cups of Fage Yogurt-I used strained, and full fat, but you can also use low fat.
3 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1 large garlic clove minced
1 large English Cucumber
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of fresh chopped dill
Directions:
Chop up Cucumbers and place pieces on top of a paper towel. The cover the pieces with another paper towel. Let them sit and dry out for roughly 30 minutes. Try to soak up as much water as you can!
Put Cucumbers, salt, lemon juice, garlic, and dill in a Cuisinart or blender. Pulse the mixture until its chopped into small pieces, but not smooth. Combine the cucumber mixture with the 3 cups of Fage yogurt.
Contemporary Horiatiki Salad (Cucumber Tomato Salad)
When my older sister, cousin and I visited Greece in 2005 we lived on Tzatziki and Horiatiki Salads. I learned two very important things on that trip: how to order food in Greek, and how to dress a Horiatiki Salad.
Ingredients:
2 Pints Heinen’s Heirloom Grape Tomatoes (gorgeous!)
1 Large English Cucumber
1/2 of a Yellow Onion sliced thin
1/2 red pepper sliced
1/2 yellow pepper sliced
1 to 2 avocado (depending on how much you like!)
feta cheese (because I put feta on everything)
Balsamic Vinegar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Directions:
Wash, and cut all the grape tomatoes in half. Put them in a bowl. Chop up the english cucumbers and add to the grape tomatoes. Add 1/2 of the thinly sliced yellow onion, and the red and yellow peppers. Cut and dice the avocados and add to mixture. Add the crumbled feta (as much as you like! Clearly I add more!)
When you have combined all of these ingredients drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the entire salad, coat the salad in the balsamic vinegar. Then add the Extra Virgin Olive oil, coating the components with 1/2 the amount of the balsamic vinegar that you used. Add salt and pepper to taste!
Mama Peg’s Rice Pilaf
I had to ask my mom to make this with me, because somehow if she isn’t there I always manage to make it incorrectly!
One day I’m going to follow her around with a camera and make her cook all day so I can take notes on all of her recipes!
Ingredients:
3 cups Rice
6 tsp. chicken soup base
6 cups of water
6 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon finely diced onions
1 tablespoon finely diced red pepper
1 tablespoon finely diced yellow or orange pepper (only for color)
Directions:
Start by melting the butter in a large pot. Add the onions, red peppers, and yellow peppers. Let the butter coat these and wait until onions are translucent. Follow by adding the rice to the mixture and let it cook with the butter and vegetables until it looks toasted. At this point add the water, and the soup base. Lower to a medium/low heat. Cover pot and let the rice cook down until moisture is absorbed.
When the water is absorbed, take rice off the heat and put paper towels at the top of the pot and place the cover over it, holding the towels in place. Let stand for 20 minutes because the rice will keep cooking and it will turn out perfect!
Peach Melba
Just recently, my husband Sean and I were at a wedding and tried this for the first time. I ate my serving and was trying to convince others, “it wasn’t very good” so I could jump in on their portion! It was to die for! I found the recipe for the peaches on epicurious.com and then made my own strawberry sauce instead of raspberry sauce, because I love strawberries!
Ingredients:
6 peaches
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 dash of vanilla
For Strawberry Sauce:
1 pint of strawberries
white sugar
a splash of white wine
Directions:
Begin with the strawberry sauce. In a cuisinart or blender add the pint of strawberries, the splash of wine and add 1/3 a cup of white sugar. Mix until it makes a liquid form. Taste sauce, if it is not sweet enough, add more white sugar. The sugar depends on the time of year, and sweetness of the strawberries. After it has reached your desired sweetness level it is finished! Put it in a bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
For the peaches, add the water, sugar, and dash of vanilla to a pot. Let it begin to boil. This will be your “peach poaching liquid.” Drop peaches in for 30-40 seconds and immediately remove and put in a bowl of ice water. Transfer the peaches to a cutting board and at this time you can peel the peaches (I didn’t peel the peaches, because I thought it added a little bit of a fresh color to the dish). Take the pit out of the peaches, and slice them. Put the sliced peaches back in the poaching liquid and leave for 5-6 minutes or until the peaches are soft. At this point, turn off the heat and let the peaches cool in this liquid. The recipe I found said to give yourself about 2 hours to cool, but I did use warm peaches and they were delicious so it just depends on your preference!
When serving, simply add the peaches, vanilla ice cream and drizzle the strawberry sauce over the dish!
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You’ll find Stephanie’s restaurant just down Hough Street from Heinen’s Grocery. Located at 215 N. Hough Street, Savory Salads offers fresh sandwiches, salads and soups made from scratch with bread baked on site. Stephanie and her father George Jameson opened Barrington’s Savory Salads in 2012 and are getting ready to open a second location in Arlington Heights this June! Learn more about Savory Salads’ story and find their menus and at SavorySalads.com.
Heinen’s Grocery is located at 500 N. Hough Street, between E. Main Street and Route 14 (next to Meathead’s) in Barrington, Illinois. They’re open 7 days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit Heinens.com.
