Pita bread and late summer greek dinner on the deck

Monday evening was the last vestiges of the labour day weekend the traditional end of summer.  The weather was sunny and warm, but there is a feel of fall in the air and we were trying to squeeze one more summer evening meal outside. As I had some fresh local lamb in the fridge (oh happy day) we picked Greek as a theme.  I have never made pita bread before so decided to give a go.

This was a bit of an experiment for me, but actually they turned out rather well I thought. I used a recipe I found on the internet on middle eastern food

1 package of yeast
1/2 cup of warm water
3 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 cup of luke warm water

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy.

Combine flour and salt in large bowl. Make a small depression in the middle of flour and pour yeast water in depression. Add 1 cup of warm water, and stir with wooden spoon or rubber spatula until elastic.

Place dough on floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes. When the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic, it is ready.

Coat large bowl with olive oil and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated.

Nu restaurant

I work on South Granville in Vancouver. There are a plethora of good restaurants for lunch and dinner, from extremely expensive to extremely cheap, of almost every ethnicity that you can think of. Last Tuesday I had an appointment after work, that meant I had to grab a quick bite to eat before going.  I did not want to spend a lot of money or time, so I decided to go to Nu restaurant. This little hole in the wall take out is owned by the same people as the upscale "C" restaurant.

The interior is spare and simple as is the menu. They advertise that they provide modern, authentic homemade Greek food. The choices are basically souvlaki with a choice of several meats and seafood with a selection of 4 salads and 3 dips.

I ordered the lamb souvlaki with chickpea and mint salad along with greek salad.

Light quick greek meal

Saturday last week was even better than Friday, clear blue skies with a fresh breeze.  So when a friend asked if we wanted to go sailing I jumped at the invitation.  It was the first day out with the boat for the season so there was a little deck swabbing and the sails had to be brought out of storage. But we were under sail about lunch time.

It was beautiful, it was one of those quintessential Vancouver days, we could have driven up to Whistler and gone skiing, or stay in the city, enjoy the spring day and go sailing.  We embraced the Spring whilst my friends daughter squeezed one more day of winter out on the ski slopes. Nancy said "you should post a picture of the sailing people will think you live a great life." to which I replied "I do live a great life."

Getting the sails up for the first time this season

We sailed around the bay for a couple of hours had some snacks, a glass of white wine (or beer) and soaked up the sun. We looked forward to the coming spring and upcoming travels, all in all a great day.