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Good morning and wishing you a happy weekend and a wonderful summer! The farmers’ market in Nafplion is twice a week, every Wednesday and Saturday. Now that we are just the two of us living here in Assini, we don’t really need to visit the farmers’ market twice a week but I enjoy visiting Nafplion [...]
As I have said in a previous post, Galaktoboureko or galaktomboureko is one of my favourite Greek desserts. There is a place in Southern Attica, specifically in Vari, called Vlahika, where galaktoboureko is famous because it is made with ewe’s milk and ewe’s butter. A few decades ago, this area was full of sheep. As Vari is [...]
In case you have forgotten, tomorrow, 12 May is Mother’s Day. If you think you don’t have enough time left to honour her, you still have time to get Mom a great gift by offering her my Cookbook, at the price of a card or by baking something special for her. Mothers Day Poem A girl writes [...]
We had a wonderful time during Easter. Our children came to Assini from Athens and spent Easter day with our neighbours. We roasted a lamb on the spit, kokoretsi and sheftalia. We Greeks, love offals and cook them in many ways. One of the best ways to try them is grilled over charcoal but a gas [...]
Christos Anesti to all the Orthodox readers of my blog and Chronia Polla to George or Georgia celebrating their name day today. Today is the name day of my eldest son, George and to celebrate, I made this American Cheesecake, which I have been making for many years. As I like making something different each time [...]
I was craving something sweet today but was really busy after coming back from the farmers” market and shopping. I had already bought these beautiful strawberries and since I had a bar of chocolate, I prepared this delectable, but so simple, dessert in no time. It took 5 minutes to melt the chocolate and 10 [...]
Although no animal products, including fish, are not allowed to be eaten during Lent, except for Palm Sunday and Auunciation day, all cephalopods are allowed, as they do not contain blood. The octopus was quite large. I prepared the first step with the whole octopus and part of it was marinated in vinegar and [...]
One of my favourite breads is olive bread. I have lots of recipes on my blog but this time I made it quite different. Now that we are fasting, it’s perfect for any time of the day, for breakfast, as a snack but also in the evening I don’t like eating cooked food, so a [...]
Today is my second son’s Birthday. Happy Birthday Kyriacos! Unfortunately I couldn’t make him a birthday cake as he is in Athens but his sister made one. Yesterday I invited my neighbours to come over for a cup of coffee and as most people are fasting for the Easter period, I made this vegan cake. [...]
Today is Palm Sunday for the Greek Orthodox and just a week before Easter. Althoughit it is a fasting period, which means that for 48 days we should abstain from eating foods derived from animals, containing blood and from animal derived products such as dairy products, this year we did not fast all the period [...]
Greek Orthodox Easter is just a week away, so if you would like to get an idea 0f what to prepare, I have put together some of my Easter recipes and a few ideas of what to do with the leftovers. On Easter day a lot of people celebrate their name days: Lambros – [...]
In my previous post we went to Monastiraki and from there we walked to the Ancient Agora, where we visited the Stoa of Attalus, the Museum and the Temple of Hephaestus. Then we strolled in the Youssourum (flea market). Starting again from Monastiraki, after passing the Mosque and Hadrian’s Library, this time we shall turn [...]
View from Lycabettus It’s been three months since we came back to Athens as our house in Assini does not have any central heating and just the fireplace was not enough to keep the house warm during the winter. We miss Assini and now that the weather is getting warmer, we’ve decided to go back [...]
This is one of my favourite Apple Pies, which I have been making since I was single. I am sure that I have posted this recipet in the past, as the pictures are dated April, 2008 but when I was looking for this post on my blog, to link it to the tart, I don’t [...]
Continuing my older posts with apples, I have two upside down cakes, the first one made with Greek yoghurt and the second one which is more recent was made using cream cheese. The method making the caramel for each cake is different but both are equally tasty. Every bite of these awesome desserts is [...]
A few days ago I made an amazing Apple Tart, which I wanted to post, but looking in «My recipes to post» file, I saw that I had a lot of apple recipes I made using apples, which I did not post. Some of these recipes have been made even four years ago. So, [...]
We visted the First Cemetery of Athens last Monday, on the 25th March, which is a public holiday. Although living in Athens for so many years we had never visited it before although we knew that it has some of the most beautiful nineteenth and twentieth century Greek sculpture. The cemetery is under the Municipality [...]
Yesterday I celebrated my ??? birthday and had a wonderful time with my family who pampered me the whole day. Breakfast was served in bed by my husband who also prepared lunch, the cake was prepared by my daughter, who made everything herself from scratch following my recipes. I was not allowed to see the [...]
How time flies! My little girl is turning 21 today!! Happy Birthday Elia. We celebrated her birthday yesterday, as her younger brother on the left is at work until late in the evening, so we preferred to celebrate it a day earlier when all the family is together. My children love my cakes and [...]The post Strawberry Mud Cake – Happy Birthday Elia appeared first on Kopiaste..to Greek Hospitalit
When cooked, the chicken becomes so juicy and flavourful and because a slit is made in the baby potatoes, all the wonderful flavours of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and rosemary are absorbed by the potatoes, making them irresistible.The post Chicken with Garlic and Rosemary appeared first on Kopiaste..to Greek Hospitality.
I am sure that all of you who love Greek cuisine know what dolmades are and to be frank they are one of many of my all time favourite Greek comfort food. I usually buy a lot of vine leaves during spring when they are tender and store them in the deep freezer to [...]The post Lahanodolmades me Avgolemono (stuffed cabbage leaves) appeared first on Kopiaste..to Greek Hospitality.
Greek pites (pies) with homemade crispy phyllo that you can adapt for your needs, depending on what ingredients you have available. Pita, plural pites (pies) are a staple part of Greek cuisine and the philosophy behind «pites» was that the housewives used whatever leafy greens they produced in their gardens, some cheese and some homemade [...]The post Manitaropita me Piperies (Homemade Greek Mushr
Instead of making risotto using arborio rice (or Carolina rice which we use in Greece), I used kritharaki (orzo) which is a tiny pasta, which looks like rice. In order to make this recipe you need some roasted butternut squash, which adds a sweetness to the pasta and of course Greek feta, which will balance [...]The post Kritharotto (orzo risotto) with Butternut Squash and Feta appeared first on
I have posted many kinds of recipes with olive breads but still I love olives so much that each time I make some new ones. This time, I had a lot of green olives which our relatives sent us from Sparta, so I decided to make these pull-aparts. The recipe was inspired by the Eliopita [...]The post Green Olives and Feta Pull-aparts appeared first on Kopiaste..to Greek Hospitality.
This is my first post for 2013, so even belatedly I wish all of you a Happy New Year. As always I like to start my first post of the year with a sweet recipe, which symbolizes a sweet new year. This carrot cake is delicious! The result in a very moist cake without a [...]The post Ginger Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese & Saffron Frosting appeared first on Kopiaste..to Greek Hospitality.
This year, like every Christmas, I have made some of the traditional Greek desserts I make every year. These melt in your mouth kourabiedes, which are buttery, shortbread cookies, are based on the recipe contained in my cookbook Mint, Cinnamon & Blossom Water, Flavours of Cyprus, Kopiaste! The basic ingredients are the same but this year [...]The post Peanut Butter Cookies and the traditional
Dear Readers and friends, I am ending this year’s post with a Marathon post with Risottos. This post is symbolic and as we through rice at weddings as a symbol of prosperity, I wish that the New Year will bring you and your families Happiness and prosperity to your lives. I make risottos very often [...]The post How to make the perfect Risotto and A Marathon of Risotto Recipes appeared first on
Hello my friends and readers, Hope you had a jolly good time during the Christmas holidays. Our Christmas was not quite the same as other years but I am very grateful for what we had and for spending time here in Athens with all my children. I wouldn’t exchange that with any fancy dinner parties [...]The post Bulgur Pie with Turkey Leftovers and Baby Potatoes with Cheese & Herbs appeared fi
A quick post to announce the winner of the two giveaways: 1. Abhilasha Singh 2. Rosa 3. Maroulla Iossif 4. Clara 5. Lisa H. 6. Helen Dialoumopoulos Vokolou 7. Priya 8. Antigoni 9. Evelina The lucky winner of My Cookbook and My Memories Suit, selected by Random.org is: No. 9 Evelina. Congratulations [...]The post Merry Christmas and the Winner of Two Giveaways isR
The old saying goes…….”We are what we eat”. This means that to remain healthy and fit and active we must eat Healthy! All of us could use a brain boost from time to time. Whether we are in a job that requires us to use our minds for hours on end or we just want [...]The post Dark Chocolate & Other Food for a Mental Boost plus Two Chocolate Recipes: Cookies & Cake appeared f
Every year the economic situation is getting worse , especially here in Greece. We are still grateful to have food on our plates but things are expected to get worse during the new year, as more austerity measures have already been announced. Every year I put a list of holiday food for my readers [...]The post What to eat during the Holidays. Smart Economic Ideas. appeared first on Kopias
To kick off the festive season and to compensate you for not blogging and visiting your blogs, today I have two giveaways. The first one is a crafty giveaway for all of you who love creating scrapbooks. When Liz from My Memories Scrapbook Software contacted me to try out their program, almost two months ago, I was really [...]The post My Memories Suite Review & Giveaway and My Cookbook Givea
My Cookbook Mint, Cinnamon & Blossom Water, Flavours of Cyprus, Kopiaste, has finally been translated into Greek and published on Smashwords. The Greek title of my cookbook is «Kopiaste stin Kouzina mou», which means Welcome to my Kitchen. If you can read Greek or have Greek friends who would like to win it, please leave your comment on [...]
Dear friends and readers of my blog, I wish to apologize for not posting as often as I would like. I also wish to apologize to my blogger friends whom I have not visited for a long time. Life is very difficult after the economic crisis and we hardly make it on our pensions. Since [...]
Summer is officially over, although yesterday there were people still swimming at Assini Beach. Today it is dull, cloudy and it rained for a few minutes in the morning. The temperature has dropped so we will be staying more hours at home, which means that now I have more time for some work to be [...]
If you would like to make something different for Thanksgiving, you should try this Greek Kolokythopita (Pumpkin or Butternut Squash Pie). It may be different from what you are used to but it’s so delicious you will love it. Pumpkin is not as easy to find in Greece as butternut squash, so you can use [...]
As this month is the month of Halloween, Baking Partners chose as there theme to bake Cupcakes or Muffins with pumpkin. We had three choices but I chose to make Pumpkin chocolate chips Muffins from Joy of baking which in its turn was also adapted from Baking from the Heart, a collaborative cookbook with Michael J Rosen, a recipe suggested by Reshmi [...]
What do you do when you have a huge butternut squash around 8 kilos? My neighbour in Assini gave me two huge butternut squashes from her garden the evening before leaving Nafplio. One of it was not ripe yet, so I left it there hoping that by the time I get back it will [...]
Pollo alla cacciatora, translates and hunter’s chicken. I don’t know if game, such as rabbit was originally involved and later on chicken was used to deserve its original name or if whether it is just hunter’s style chicken, the way the hunter cooked his chicken or whether when the hunter came back home from hunting, [...]
Hello from Athens again. I’ve been trying to write a blog post when I was in Assini for over a week unsuccessfully and I haven’t been visiting my friends” blogs for quite a long time. Please forgive me but there are a lot of distractions in the countryside. You can read a post on our [...]
Okra with fish is a specialty of the Greek islands. I remember years ago seeing a Greek cooking show making this recipe and I have been wanting to make it ever since. The recipe used whole fish with the bones, I think it was sea bass, and that was probably what put me off as I hate [...]
Going through my files this morning, I saw this recipe I made before leaving from Athens and thought I should share it while there are still fresh, juicy peaches in the market. If you want to use canned peaches this is fine and it becomes the easiest dessert you can make in less than [...]
Although in my last post I mentioned that it would take a long time to have an internet connection, things turned out much easier than what we were originally expecting and got the telephone line installed a couple of weeks after we arrived. It was a real odyssey to relocate and three weeks later most [...]
The time has finally come and we shall be moving during the weekend. The bad news is that we will be without a land line telephone and consequently no internet for a long time. We applied to the telephone company and although the nearest house with telephone is only 50 metres away, we are required [...]
Can you believe it has been five years since I started blogging? I myself find it hard to believe that I made it so far. I am an Aries and Aries tend to get bored very easily but although there are times that I do feel tired of blogging, I seem to be hooked with [...]
I love to make fruit preserves and at the end when we eat the fruit there’s always some leftover delicious syrup, which has absorbed the flavour of the fruit but also of the ingredients added at the time of preparation. I have been using leftover syrups in my recipes for ages but until recently, [...]
Whenever applying a frosting on my cakes, I used to make a mess on my white platter, so I have prepared a video showing you an easy way not to make such a mess. How to Frost Cakes without making a mess. Cut a large piece of parchment paper. Trace your baking tin with [...]
In Greece we have a local variety of eggplants (aubergines) called Tsakonikes, named after the region they are produced (Tsakonia) Kynouria, a region in Arcadia, Peloponnese. These eggplants are long, thin, seedless and very sweet, so you don’t have to salt them to draw out bitterness. It is a product of protected designation of origin (PDO) [...]
I am really excited to announce that I joined a group of home bakers helping each other to achieve perfection. I saw the announcement at Reeni’s blog and there was no second thought. I never joined the Daring Bakers as I was afraid I could’nt cope but I think I’ve gone a long way since then [...]
