"My Big Fat Greek Wedding"

[For about 14 guests, depending on number of children]

**All prepared and catered only by a small business, Greek-American family-owned:

15 cups organic amaranth seeds (Substitute with organic brown basmati rice if not available or affordable. Depending on the altitude, use 15 cups of pre-washed rice grains to 22.5, or twenty-two and a half cups chicken broth at Denver altitude level. One and a half times more broth than grains ratio.)

30 cups organic, fat-free, reduced sodium chicken broth (or substitute with organic, fat-free, reduced sodium chicken bouillon and water)

5 cups organic saffron, freshly and finely ground with a mortar and pestle, mixed in a blender with 5 cups of hot, boiled water, added in last 10 minutes of amaranth seeds or rice cooking (substitute with organic turmeric powder in same quantity if not available/affordable)

4 cups extra-virgin olive oil, from Greece, added only at the end, when you fluff the amaranth seeds or rice

Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 25 to 35 minutes. Best to use a rice steamer.  Finish cooking it the day of the wedding reception, two hours before the meal time.

OR

Use the Colorado Springs Broadmoor Hotel's recipe for "Baked Wild Rice" from the book, "The Best of Colorado's Gourmet Gold," first edition, Nov. 1982.  Try it with organic amaranth seeds instead of rice for extra iron.  Substitute the butter in that recipe with 1/2 Smart Balance, 1/2 extra virgin olive oil.  For the mushrooms, try fresh, cleaned, thinly-sliced organic baby bella ones. Or cleaned, full-sized portabello mushrooms, with the dark brown "dirt"/portion underneath the caps removed.

OR

That same cookbook also has an excellent recipe for "Saffron Rice" by The Copper Kettle in Aspen, Colorado.  Try Louis Jadot unoaked chardonnay for the white wine. It's about $17/bottle.

Entree:

2 whole, organic boer meat goats, 5 months old, from a halal butcher, each cut into twelve equal-sized pieces, heads, legs, and all organs removed (for regular-sized home oven roast, not commercial or industrial-sized cuts)

Order 3 months in advance from halal butcher. Keep on 8 bags of  ice, in insulated ice boxes at pick-up.

Marinate goat meat, refrigerated for 5 days in brining solution:

4 bottles of Colorado's Holy Abbey Cross award-winning merlot

http://www.abbeywinery.com/

Or substitute with Blackstone Merlot if not available or affordable ($10/bottle)

7 cups garlic powder

7 cups onion powder

7 cups salt, sea (finely ground)

7 cups black pepper, coarsely ground

12 cups dried organic rosemary, freshly and finely ground

8 gallons of water, hot, boiled for 10 minutes with brining seasonings

12 cups of extra-virgin olive oil, from Greece

USDA tips for cooking goat meat in link below:

(Use only moist heat cooking, such as braising or stewing, not dry heat methods. Cook it in turkey oven bags, tied, with a few slits cut into it. Create a braising marinade with merlot wine that includes at least six months in new French oak barrels in description, 8 cups of oak-y smelling merlot per oven bag, add coarsely chopped vanilla beans, 3 cups per oven bag, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces, chopped fresh rosemary, 4 cups per oven bag, and diced, fresh shallots, 4 cups per oven bag, to completely cover the goat meat cuts, each inside turkey oven bags, after brining it, refrigerated, for five days. Also, add 2 tbls of finely ground sea salt and 4 tbls coarsely ground black pepper per 4 cups of merlot. If using eight cups of merlot per oven bag, then use 4 level tbl of salt, and 8 level tbl of coarsely ground black pepper. Add this to the merlot first and mix well. You can just tie the oven bags or use cooking twine afterwards.)

http://www.jackmauldin.com/usda_goat_cooking_tips.html

Cook and pre-carve the meat into the size of a deck of cards 24 hours before the wedding ceremony, allowing for reheating via steaming thirty minutes before reception meal.  Precook it to medium rare, so it can be reheated, without ruining the texture.

Greek salad:
Prepare this 24 hours before the wedding ceremony and dress it two hours before the reception meal time.

Fresh, organic, flat-leafed parsley, stems removed, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces, 100 bunches

Organic, vine-ripened, red, heirloom tomatoes, large, 50 qty, washed, de-seeded, chopped into 1/4 inch cubes

10 large onions, Vidalia or Maui, diced

12 English cucumbers, peeled, diced

Seasoned, cooked instant tabbouleh, 12 cups, prepared two hours before reception meal

Dressing:

15 cups organic lemon juice

15 cups extra virgin olive oil, from Greece

Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste: 1 tsp of each per cup of olive oil

Dessert:

Baklava, deep-dish style with organic pistachios, freshly and finely  ground organic coriander seeds, cardamon pods on top, only sweetened with stevia syrup, not honey. Use reduced fat, sugar-free, whole wheat, phyllo pastry dough.

Serve everything with sparkling, sugar-free, stevia-sweetened rose lemonade, organic.

Have a table filled with freshly baked, whole wheat Greek olives and roasted garlic clove bread loaves and triple-cream pasteurized brie (cow, not goat) along with platters of Greek olives: kalamatas, marinated, de-pitted and green olives, de-pitted, marinated, stuffed with garlic. Marinated artichoke hearts, organic also.

Only order the white roses and pale pink peonies for the table centerpieces from a small business, Greek-American family-owned floral shop.  Order 4 months in advance of wedding.