Cooking - fried pickles,, gyros, and mushroom tart

It's been a long time since I've been in the mood to cook real meals but feel like I should be. So this week I got on my recipe board on Pinterest and started browsing. No one else was home so it was only my opinion that counted. I picked a couple things that looked good and went shopping.

Here's what I've tried and my reviews of them:

First: Fried Pickles. We tried some fried pickles for the first time on vacation in FL at a bowling alley in Downtown Disney. Everyone that tried them really liked them. They were crunchy and had a nice dill flavor. Since then I've tried them 3-4 other times and most were soggy with no dill flavor. One at a brewery in Omaha came pretty close though. So I decided to try making my own.
This is the recipe I picked because it said crispy.

Recipe photo

My pickles

I bought Vlassen whole dill pickles and cut them myself because I love how crunchy they are.
The result? Hmm. Mixed feelings about this. The breading was one of the better fried batters I've had. It stuck to the pickle nicely, it cooked evenly (no spots of gooey batter left), and was crispy. It could've used a little more salt but the main problem was it clung to the pickles too thickly. It ruined my pickle/batter ratio. Second problem was the pickles lost all their dill flavor in cooking. I'm not sure if this was the type of pickle or if I just needed to cut them thicker. I cut them about the width shown in the picture. I might try again with thicker pickle slices, thinning the batter, or different pickles (or a combination of these).


Next for dinner I picked Gryos for Little Owl. She swears she was Greek in another life. She loves everything Greek. Here is the recipe I used for the chicken/tzatziki and I made homemade pitas with this recipe.


The result? To die for! We all absolutely loved them. The seasoning on the chicken was delicious and blended perfectly with the tzatziki. And the bread, Wow! We will be using these recipes again and again for sure! The pita recipe would be good as a naan substitute or even pizza crust. I'm sorry I have no pictures of my own to share, we were too busy eating.

Mine

Today for lunch I made this mushroom tart for myself.

Recipe photo

I'm sure you'll see there's quite a bit of difference here. First I don't have a tart pan so I couldn't make it that cool shape. Next I didn't put the mushrooms on top to make it pretty. And third, mine isn't as browned. I am glad I pulled it out when I did though because the bottom was getting too dark. I wish I could've cooked it for just a bit longer to really brown the top, maybe next time I'll turn the broiler on at the end for a few seconds. 

Yes, there will be a next time. This is delicious! Creamy, mushroomy, and plenty of wine flavor. I probably won't be hungry for dinner tonight since I have a feeling I'll eat this entire thing by myself! Oh well, good thing I marinated an extra chicken breast last night. Wolf can have that with the tzatziki left overs (there are no pita left overs!). Little Owl will probably be sleeping through dinner since she was up ALL night with a stomach ache, so I won't have to worry about her. I'm happy to just eat my mushroom tart. :)

Tomorrow I'll hope to make one of these:

Indian Butter Chicken

Pad Thai