End of Year / Going Away Shindig

K2. Is. Leaving. Her husband is graduating and was offered a fantastic job in California (K2's home turf) so they are moving. Sure, I have only known her for a little over one year but in that year we have spent a lot of time together and I grew quite fond of her. After all, I see her and K1 almost as much as I see my family. I am quite sad that I won't have her to chat with each day. I do have a bit of a hold over her for the next few months as we will be watching her cat until they get a home of their own.

Anyway. . . today we had a potluck get together to 'honor' K2 and another coworker that is retiring. Included with the co-op items I received last weekend was Swiss chard. I have never made anything with Swiss chard so when I went searching for a recipe I came across Swiss Chard Tzatziki. I enjoy tzatziki and I thought that my co-workers were the prefect group of people to try it out on.

After getting it assembled this morning I had a small taste and thought it was a bit too tart. I added a little bit of sugar to hopefully counteract the tartness as everything melded together until the shindig.

In the end it came out pretty good. It was not my favorite recipe but I will try it again. Next time I will either purchase the plain yogurt or make sure the yogurt I make is not as tart as it was this time.

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Swiss Chard Tzatziki
from Simply Recipes
Print Recipe

1 cup finely chopped Swiss chard leaves (remove ribs)
1 garlic clove
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup plain yogurt
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
dash of cayenne

Bring a 1 or 2 quart saucepan, half filled with water, to a boil. Add the chopped chard leaves. Cook until tender, about 3-5 minutes. While the chard is cooking, prepare a bowl with ice water for an ice bath. When the chard is cooked, strain through a fine mesh strainer and put into the ice bath to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside. Using mortar and pestle, grind the garlic and salt into a paste. In a medium-sized bowl, stir in the yogurt, chard, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper. Set aside. Serve the tzatziki with the pita wedges.

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