Category: Cook

On a rainy day

2/6/2015

Hello my friends! I hope you are all o.k. It's Friday after all! The weather in my town is very "nasty" today. There is a very strong south wind, the sky has the "fifty shades of grey" and looks so amazingly light and heavy at the same time and the rain seems like will never stop….
But, somehow, I feel so great today, as if the sunniest day was sent here on earth! It's one of those wonderful days that you feel just happy with no particular reason. It probably has to do with general gratitude for life itself and the "oh so" desired inner calm that I possess today…. Or maybe it's the magical and therapeutical sound of the rain combined with the peace of the light grey atmosphere….. Oh, and I've heard that it snowed at the mountains! How cheerful and rejuvenating is that!
I captured some moments of my day to share with you via instagram and maybe give you some ideas on what to do on a rainy day like today:

I wrote on my DIY "5 minute a day journal".
I had my morning coffee at bed, reading a little, and….
Dreaming of my next journey….
I warmed up my body and my soul with the most flavorous tea!
I made a mushroom and pepper omelette for breakfast and strength.
I scheduled to organize my closet one day in the near future, just to feel more neat and confident.
I walked on my new treadmill, since that was easier than hitting the road, and felt so wonderful! Back in action again, after a long, long period of hibernation…
I enjoyed a comfort dinner with my love, and last but not least….
I got tons of inspiration by Abraham Linkoln's saying from my "Just for today be happy" book.

MY INSTADAY

Do not worry……

I hope you enjoyed my "instaday" post and I wish you all a fabulous weekend!
Love you,
xoxo, Elena

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Sweet memories of Christmas

1/31/2015

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Hello my friends! Here I am again, with… my last holiday post, just a few moments before January breathe out. That's what we call…. last minute post!!! But that sweet delight was too tempting to wait until next year! After all, it is a wonderful treat to enjoy with your tea or coffee all winter around, not to say…. all year around! It all depends on the appetite….

Well, this very festive biscuit-bar alternative is called "Christmas Rocky Road", is so crunchy and soft and airy at the same time, so sweet and fulfilling, it satisfies many different tastes letting in your mouth wonderful holiday flavors! Who inspired it? The one and only "Christmas Domestic Godess", Nigella Lawson, who's new edition of "Nigella Christmas" cookbook I spent hours leafing and gazing this Christmas… Amazing she is! You can find the recipe here and you have to make it. And guess what? It doesn't have to be Christmas at all!...

As for me, I had this crazy wishfulness to make this delight at Christmas morning and that's when I made it with my lovely husband. First thing at 25th of December, just after we had our morning coffee and a little before we hit he road for my parents in law house, where we had our Christmas dinner. It's so simple and fun to make, as well, with all these festive colors and ingredients combined in a single bowl! We really enjoyed it! Thank you Nigella!

"Christmas Rocky Road", I think you've earned a place at our family holiday traditions! We enjoyed it with our tea and coffee and any time of the day when we had those irresistible "craving something sweet" attacks! Our friends properly honored it, as well!
And with this last holiday post…. I think that the holiday season is officially closed! It wasn't "a little Merry Christmas" at all actually…. it was a rather elongated Christmas time…. as far as blog posts concern.
I wish each one of you to be healthy and happy in 2015 and never stop dreaming for better days and moments in your life to come.
Love you all,
xoxo, Elena

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First Dinner of 2015!

1/27/2015

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Hello my dear friends and a very happy New Year to all of you! Here I am with another, rather late, holiday post, but January hasn't gone yet…., so I guess I'm not totally out of date, right…? I also guess I'm perfect in finding the best excuses to cover my procrastination habit! Since it's January, however, the right time for new beginnings, I hope,…... I'l try,….... I promise,... I will be more consequent this year!… Promise!

For the first dinner of 2015 we had my husband's parents over at our home. I cooked and prepared the salads the day before, so on New Year's first Day we had the time to relax watching the Vienna's New Year's Concert on TV and having our first coffee-brunch
And of course I set the table the night before, as well. I so much enjoyed that part of preparation, I always do! After trying two or three options of setting our table, I came up with the holiday classic red one and I absolutely loved it! And I don't think I was the only one, since my husband and his parents liked it very much, too.
The dinner was very nice, as well. Now, I just realized that I didn't take any photos of our delicious festive dinner! Obviously I was a bit anxious to serve everything right on time and maybe a bit embarrassed to shoot our plates on the table in front of other people, so unfortunately there is no evidence of the tasty food we all very much enjoyed! The only photo is the following one of our salads that I took before anyone arrives….

And just for the records, the following menu was our first dinner of 2015. Delicious, at common concent!… Soooo much regretted I didn't take any photos…. Just use your imagination!

However, I found some images of my traditional "Vasilopita" from past years and present them here for you. It's exactly the same nice and loved "Vasilopita" every single year, after all. So fulfilling and aromatic, it satisfies our senses with the pure aromas of fresh butter and orange peel… it just melts in the mouth. It's a traditional recipe, but I won't keep it a secret if you crave it too much…. (…I am a generous girl!).

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you all had beautiful holidays, too, with the people you love, with cheer, hope and many, many smiles, around a table and every moment of your life! To a happy new year! To 2015! May all your wishes come true!

Love you all,
see you soon,
Elena

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Christmas cake!

12/19/2014

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Hello dear friends! I hope you're all real fine and hanging on with the "Christmasy" madness that's all around us these days.
I haven't trimmed the tree, yet (!!!…..), hopefully I'll give it a try tonight…, but I managed to make a Christmas cake! Yeeaaaah!!!
I've seen this impressive cake at "Nigella's Christmas Kitchen" and desperately wanted to make it this Christmas! That of course meant, that I had to order for the cake tin first… which I did some time ago. You can't find this amazingly beautiful cake tin in any store at Greece, that's why I had to order it online. I purchased mine, after a small research, from Jane Asher and I am very satisfied with my choice! It may be a little pricey, but it is an excellent piece that will beautify your Christmases for a lifetime...

Last night, occupied by the spirit of Christmas, I decided to use my cake tin for the very first time. Actually this cake is all about the cake tin! That's what makes the whole difference and transforms the simplest cake recipe to a Christmas masterpiece!
You can make any recipe you like, but for my first experiment I wanted to try the Nigella's original one using cinnamon and ginger as well instead of vanilla flavor only…. and guess what…. The whole house smelled like Christmas! Such an irresistible kind of smell! I baked my cake late at night, but the baking flavor rewarded me and relaxed me as well…
After almost 50 minutes I decided it was well baked and took it out of the oven patiently waiting for it to cool so that I can turn it out…. That was a bit stressful! What if the cake was stuck in the tin and didn't want to come out….???
Thank God everything went just fine and eight little tiny Christmas trees were proudly standing in front of me on their cake stand!
Happy as a child!

I haven't tasted my Christmas cake yet, but I'm quiet sure it's going to be delicious! As a matter of fact I'm waiting for my mister to come back from work, so that we can enjoy it together with our afternoon coffee. After all, he was my helping hand last night doing all the messy sink washing himself! Love him!

As for me, I'm just having my late morning cup of coffee, photo shooting (…and admiring!) my "Christmas trees cake" in front of my advent calendar… 19th of December already! I'd better hurry and trim that poor tree waiting for me at my living room with only the lights on it!
Bye, bye!
Love you all,
xoxo, Elena

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Birthdays in review

5/19/2014

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Our birthdays were back in the distant March... but since I haven't blogged since then here's my late bithday review!
I've been away from regular blogging at my home page for a long time, not because I've been away from blogging in general, just because I was working on updating some of my other pages, as my Easter page, my cooking page and my fitness page... plus a thousand of other projects and errands I had to run!
Well, here I am back, full of ideas, "older, but wiser!!!", with many-many dreams that I hopefully believe they'll come true!
My birthday is first, 10th of March, I'm a Pisces, the dreamer, arty kind of human being....
My darling hubby gave me some beautiful roses for my birthday and two amazingly delicious rich flavoured double chocolate little cakes with cherries on top and inside. Chocolate perfection!!!

I symbolically lighted four candles, because they looked nice on the cakes, sang the song with my hubby made my wish and blew! It was a mini version of my birthday celebration, just for the two of us! So sweet!!

Eighteen days later, on March 28th, it was my hubby's birthday. He is an Aries, the logical kind of human being, just for equalizing things in everyday life...
In return I baked for him a huge chocolate cake! Impressive, delicious and pretty healthy for a birthday cake!

Four candles as well, just in blue...

Rich chocolate taste, not very sweet, just perfect for us! And it's very, very easy!! I'll definitely do it again!
Best wishes to my man!!

I also cooked one of our favorites for dinner: tagliatelle with spinach, roquefort and bechamel.... simply delicious! Very, very yummy!! Tasty birthday... because: " Love passes through the stomach"! Happy birthday my love!

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The best eggs-spinach recipe ever!

2/2/2014

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Hello world! I hope everyone is having a beautiful weekend.
Today's post is a recipe my family loves. We love food! We love to cook it as much as we love to eat it!
...Well, actually I'm the cooker and my husband is ...the bearer, so it is fair to say that "we" cook, after all we usually decide together what to eat. We try to feed ourselves healthy and I believe we broadly achieve it by following the meditteranean way of eating.
The following recipe is a quick, last minute recipe that I discovered a few summers ago in a greek food magazine while thinking what to eat on a hot, lazy summer noon...We love spinach, we love eggs, too, the recipe was easy, so it seemed the perfect idea!
I gave it a try and it turned out to be one of the hits in our kitchen!
Sooo healthy, light (no carbs at all) and sooo delicious and satisfying at the same time this dish became at once a favorite one!
I cooked it many times since that summer noon and I highly recommend it!

Ingredients for two servings:

3-4 tbs olive oil
3-4 finely chopped spring onions
salt
1/2 kg washed and drained (or frozen) coarsely chopped spinach
150gr greek feta cheese cut into small pieces
1/4 cup finely chopped dill
4 eggs
1/2 tbs butter or margarine
1/2 ts red sweet pepper

Directions

In a large skillet heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot add spring onions and salt and stir fry until onions wilt for about two minutes. Add spinach and saute until almost all of its fluid leave. I use frozen spinach straight from the freezer most of the time, because I find it's convenient, and in that case I cover the skillet over medium heat for about 15-20 minutes, until spinach defrost, then cook for another 5-10 minutes, until all its liquid leave.
Add feta cheese and dill. As soon as feta melts, open small "puddles" in spinach and break the eggs in them. Cover skillet and let it simmer until eggs are done, for about 3-4 minutes, depending on how runny or tight you like your eggs.
Meanwhile, burn the butter. Once it's foaming add red pepper and immediately poor over every egg yolk.
Enjoy with toasted bread!
Bon appétit!

In case you're wondering why I post a recipe today I have two excuses for you:
1)I 've always wanted to do it! I cook a lot , I prepare our family meals myself everyday and not only. I bake delicious cakes and desserts, I even make our own bread (with a little help from my breadmaker to be completely honest...), with great joy and happiness! I love, love, love cooking, I've always did, since I was a little girl sitting in the kitchen and watching my mother while she was doing her own sweet and savory miracles... Many years have passed since then, many recipes have been tried and tasted, and ... hundreds of cooking magazines and cookbooks have been bought! If you follow me on Instagram, you can see some of my proudly shot dishes(...!!!) and hopefully someday I'll find the time to post beloved recipes on my cook page.
2)This post has been written as part of Mama Kat's link party under the writing prompt: "a recipe that everyone in your family loves". ... Well, everyone in my family is just me and my husband (though friends and relatives loved the dish, as well), which means that the most crucial reviewals of the meal, those little, cute, "know all" creatures named ....kids, are missing from the plan and I think this is not exactly the kind of food a kid would adore, but with a little hope and training and lots, lots of luck anything can happen! After all, I loved spinach and eggs as long as I can remember myself! So, it may be in our genes! Anyway, the prompt is about a recipe my family loves and we are the family at the moment, so, I guess it's O.K!