Tzatziki

Every night in Greece we have a little cocktail hour when we snack on tzatziki, carrots, pita, olives... and drink some cheap but pretty good white jug wine while the sun goes down (not too bad, right?). Maria, the Greek woman who takes care of the house and speaks zero English, taught me to make authentic tzatziki about eight years ago. It's very simple and incredibly good - creamy, refreshing, with a great garlic zestiness. It's a wonderful hors d'oeuvres to have out at a party. This version is very simple, and I like it a lot more than those that add sour cream or dill etc, and it brings back great memories of watching the sun set!

Ingredients:
1 hot house cucumber
1-2 cups Greek yogurt (full fat is better, but you can use the low fat versions)

2 garlic cloves, peeled but not crushed
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste (probably about a teaspoon)

Directions:
Grate the cucumber on the largest gauge on a box grater. The most important part is squeezing out the juice of the cucumber. With clean hands, squeeze the grated cucumber over the sink (you can also reserve the juice for a refreshing addition to water or a cocktail) until you've gotten out all of the water you can. Put the gratings in a bowl. Grate the garlic on the same wide gauge of the grater into the bowl with the cucumber. Add the yogurt and olive oil and mix thoroughly. Add salt to taste and you're done! Feel free to add more garlic or yogurt to make it stronger or weaker - I'm a garlic fiend, and lucky for me, so is Jamie.

Serve with toasted pita, carrots, or whatever else you like for dips!