2011.07.14 - Turkey Burger Pitas, Zucchini Carpaccio, Cinnamon Cake

Another July birthday means another cake!  We celebrated C's birthday with a cinnamon cake and a vaguely Mediterranean meal.  This was also M's going away meal.  She moved down to California, like so many people are doing these days.  It seems sometimes that for people in the tech industry, you can only live in Seattle or SF, and SF is winning right now.  Best of luck to M and her husband M!

Turkey Burger Pitas

I love food like this.  It's healthy, gives an excuse to eat tomatoes and fresh herbs, is sandwich-like, and is delicious.  The yogurt tahini sauce is key here -- turkey can sometimes be a little dry, so this offsets that.  This would be even better with real pitas from a gyro place (or homemade pitas!), but I went the healthy route with whole wheat pita pockets.

Modifications: The store had NO ground turkey when I went, so I ended up with pre-formed turkey patties.  Not ideal.  Instead of mixing those up with the seasonings, I just sprinkled some onion powder on before cooking and hoped for the best.  I served the pitas with tomatoes, parsley, and the salad.

Zucchini Carpaccio Salad

Everyone loved this salad.  It had plenty of salt and cheese, which really made it stand out from a typical salad.  I finally found yellow squash in the market, so I used a combination of that and zucchini.  One more successful use of a mandoline without slicing a finger off!

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Snacking Cake

This is definitely more of a breakfast/tea cake than a dessert cake, but I loved the sound of it and had to make it.  I served it with whipped cream to fancy it up, but it was unsweetened (my preferred way to make whipped cream these days) - next time I would sweeten the cream up a bit, and maybe add almond extract.  It doesn't help that I forgot to buy the berries I planned to serve on the side!  I would definitely make this cake again as a breakfast cake.