Melomakarona (honey christmas cookies) during an economic crisis!!

Recipe to survive an economic crisis.

One dose hard work
one dose support from community, friends, family
another dose of humour
big dose of anti-consumerism
a big dose of imagination
an even bigger dose of humour

and for the cooks or wanna be cooks reading this blog..don't buy..COOK!!

Get the kids involved, your house will smell amazing and you will save lots of money, and to top it all off you will be left with a sense of pride, joy, and a sneaky sense of  " If I'm going to go down.... I'm going to go down fighting"....So smile my dear friends and take things literally in your own hands.

After doing some market research here in Maroussi I realized that "melomakarona" are sold for 14-15 euros a kilo..outrageous in my opinion, so I decided to look for the best recipe and start cooking. This is my favorite..and of couse its my recipe. Try it, your house will be filled with an incredible and unforgetable aroma of cinnamon and sugar and spice and everything nice.. Here goes...!!

Melomakarona (honey christmas cookies)

ingredients

2 cups corn oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup fresh orange juice

1/4 cup mixture of black rum and cognac

7 cups all purpose flour

1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon plus 1 teaspoon ground cloves
zest from two oranges
1cup coarsely crushed walnuts

sirop
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 cup honey
1 cinnamon stick
10 cloves
1/2 orange with peel

steps:

mix the oil and sugar until sugar is diluted well
add the cinnamon and clove
stir the soda in the orange juice and add to the mixture (be careful it erupts like a volcanoe..hahaha)
sift flour, mix baking powder and soda in the flour mixture and add to the liquid mixture
add zest
knead just until all the ingredients are incorporated and the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl

form oval shaped cookies and make small holes on the tops with a fork
place non-stick parchment paper on a cookie sheet and place cookies leaving some space between the cookies to allow for any expansion

cook at 180c for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool.

Make the sirup by placing 2 cups sugar, 2cups water, 1 cup honey in a pot. Add one cinnamon stick, 10 whole cloves, and 1/2 orange (with peel) with the cut side facing the bottom of the pot. Please use oranges that are from biological farms and of course still wash the orange very well before you place it in your sirup.

Allow the mixture to boil for 5minutes . When the sirup is ready lower the heat to the lowest setting only to keep the sirup warm and place cookies about 4 at a time in the sirup. Count for about 10 seconds on each side remove and allow to cool. Sprinkle the walnuts over the cookies..and do not..repeat DO NOT think of your diet.

Merry Christmas my dear friends and remember ...be good every day of the year!!

my christmas pledge!!

It's that time of year again, Christmas. This year I am trying to figure out why the holidays are so stressful for so many people. For one thing its the end of another year. Come on now, seriously, how happy can we be that the years are rolling along faster than we ever imagined.

What's worst though is that we all have visions of Christmas filled with family, laughing kids, grandparents that are so sweet, big beautiful houses with fireplaces, snow, and of course joy, endless joy. All of a sudden for one day of the year we all try to be like that,  a perfect, porcelain make-belief family, with no cracks or edges. All my life I coudn't understand why I was so depressed around Christmas...well maybe it was because my family was nothing close to that dream.  My parents argued, my brother and I would pick at each other untill someone ended up crying. The next day, boxing day, everything was over except for the leftovers and the crazy, shopping-madness during the after Christmas sales. That was it.

Another year and NO MAGIC!!.

Then adulthood came with divorce and the joy of sharing your kid on the holidays. Christmas eve with dad....Christmas day with me..and the stress and sadness continued. Except now I had the added stress of trying to create this perfect environment for my son. I had sworn my Christmases would be different, they would be special.

After 50 Christmases under my belt my experience tells me that the dream is only that, a dream that will never be real because its so stupid. We cannot pretend to be something we are not. We are not dolls, we are people with lives that are sometimes painful and hard and sometimes wonderful. Our parents treat us like 10 year olds even if we're 50 but you know what, we love them anyways and to this day I would trade anything in the world to hear my dad's complaints at Christmas just one more time.

My effort to make Christmas special continues basically for my youngest son, but what I pledge to never do again is to try to change all the things and people around me for that one day. I pledge to make things special and childlike everyday of the year. I pledge to love and care about my family and friends every day, and I pledge to teach my children goodness everyday and not only around Christmas.

Having said my peace, now I can cook for my family and friends!!

What a relief!!

My recipees coming soon......

who am I??

I was born and raised in Montreal. If you have ever been there it can easily be called the gourmet capital of Canada. Of course I'm biased but who cares its my blog..and I love Montreal..hahahah!!

 Growing up I remember every Friday my mom would take us shopping on the boulevard. We always stopped at Slovenia or Hoffner Deli for their famous sausage sandwiches. Of course we ate standing up at the counter with the sausages and spiced meats hanging over our heads. It was very cold outside and the
steam and the smell of the sausages warmed us up. I can still remember the aromas.

Chinatown, the bagel shops baking fresh bagels in wood ovens all day and night, the smoked meat. Montreal was great!

My father was  a chef. They called him "Pierre" of course his name was Petros, an immigrant from a small village in Lakonia Greece. He worked his way up from working as a dishwasher to top chef at several restaurants, and finally opened his own restaurant.

My mom's name was"Beba" short for Haralambia. She was a working mother in the garment factories
of the city. She had me prepare dinner every night from 8 years old.

Food has been a big part of my life. Who am I Greek..Canadian..I think a little of both.

My goal real food, spiced from the heart and soul. My journey with food has been a long one that carries with it many memories and emotions and a never ending love for people and cooking.

Come join my journey, in my quest to convince people to cook, sit at the table with family and friends..and bring back what we have lost in the fast way of life we all lead..Stop and smell the roses..or cinnamon!!!

..the unsung heroes

Anywhere you look some celebrity chef  is popping up from nowhere. Cooking is finally glamorous, but what is it that makes it suddenly glamorous? A few decades ago girls refused to learn how to cook so that they wouldn't  turn into boring housewives. If you cooked you were looked at as someone with no Real interests in the world.  You had to have a cook and never cook yourself  !!

So what happened?  Is it all part of the fitness trend?

Can it be that our "watch the world from our couch -reality show" mentality makes it fun to watch other people cook. How many of us are getting on the band wagon and actually changing the way we feed our kids. Figures are not that great about obesity in North America, Europe and yes even in Greece where the Mediterraneam diet supposedly reigns. .

But there are cooks all over the world,  that literally slave everyday to cook good food for their families, their clients in restaurants serving good, honest food. and of course the unsung heroes, the cooks working in the food shelters. Who ever thinks about the many cooks all over the world that cook as volunteers to feed the hungry and homeless everyday with no glamour and no bells. Today I.m thinking of them.

Cooking is very hard work that goes with sore feet, cut fingers, smelly clothes and a bad back. Good things though are hard and take up more of our precious time, just like planting our own vegetables or cooking.

Hopefully this popularity for cooking I mentioned above will give people some ideas and motivation to THINK about what and how we consume...

So for today my heores are all the cooks that make a meal expecting nothing in return ....

"Fakes" or lentil soup....and High School!!

Let's go back to my high school days in Montreal. Those were the days. Noone could pronounce my name..Pa..na...giota..that sounds  Greek to me right! I took the jokes with a grain of salt and actually I also made fun of myself , I loved making people laugh. Needless to say my friends called me Penny, a little more anglosaxon, but I didn't care I wanted to fit in.

One thing though that was impossible to laugh at, was when people asked me about the food we ate at home. Most of the kids squirmed at the thought of......for example...Fakes (lentil soup)..they usually asked " what the f...k are Fakes". How about Octopus with rice, anyone for squid, or how about eating bitter greens (radikia)..you know the kind our moms used to go to the fields and collect in big garbage bags. Do you guys eat lamb, okra, green beans, fish brain....and all in one week!!!! Yes it sounds strange but that it is how we ate in Canada because our sweet,  controlling, traditional Greek moms  always insisted that THIS was the right way to eat.

Then their was the olive oil. Everywhere olive oil!! My dad would pour olive oil on his toast, cook his eggs in olive oil and finally pick up the salad bowl and drink the last drop of oil on the plate so as not to waste any precious bit. I was taught that olive oil is a very special gift from nature and must be treated with respect and never..but absolutely never wasted!!

Guess what, looking back..they were right!!!

If only we had realized sooner that the Mediterranean diet would be so popular to western health fanatics, we could have walked the halls of Dunton High School with our heads held high...and maybe WE could have sold all this knowledge and made a fortune..it was all there..right in our kitchens...

Recipe for Lentil Soup  (Fakes)

500 gr lentils
1 large onion
2 medium size carrots
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 bay leaves
3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon chilli pepper flakes
coarse sea salt and peper to taste

Place the lentils, garlic and bay leaves  in a pot of water (about 2-3 inches over the lentils) and let boil on medium heat until the lentils are half cooked ( about 15minutes).
In the meantime puree in a blender  the onion, carrot and crushed tomatoe. Add this mixture to the boiling lentils, as well as the remaining ingredients and simmer until the water reduces and the lentils are cooked into a creamy soup. (Be careful not to evaporate all the liquid)

* serve with kalamata olives, fresh bread, and marinated anchovies.

Back to Basics....Bread!!

So what is it that most of us would not think of making???? It's too hard ??? Think of coming home and your house is filled with the aroma of fresh bread. You cut a piece while it is still warm, spread some fresh butter ,Cretan thyme honey..or Greek olive oil....and well words are simply too little..

It's gloomy outside, windy and for some strange reason making the most basic food throughout our history is a very satisfying experience, even if you make it only once. It brings you memories of the past and back to a time when we made things with our hands, our hearts, our sweat. The bread will never be good if you skip on the love and patience. The warmth of your hands molds it and patience helps it rise. Relevant don't you think in our times. Then share this bread with your neighbours, your friends, they will be warmly surprised.

recipee

1 kilo all purpose flour

1 tbsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp ground aniseed

2 small packs dry yeast

1/4 cup olive oil

..about 2 glasses of warm water

*add flour and water as needed

 Put all the ingredients in a large bowl then knead very well until you get an elastic dough..guys you need to use a little elbow grease here (strength) and patience it takes some time to get the right consistency...

Cover  up the mixture with a clean dishcloth and a wool blanket. Let the dough stand for about 3 hours..It should become about double its size .

Divide dough and form into the shapes you like and place on a floured baking tray. Cover again..and let the dough rise again for about an hour...

Take a sharp knife and slit the top surface of the bread with small slashes (about 4 per loaf)
spray water on top..sprinkle sesame seeds..and cook at 200c* for about 1 hour.

To check if the bread is ready, you turn the loaf over and tap the bottom with your finger. If it sounds hollow its ready..!
Try it once..you will not regret it!!

* always preheat oven before you place bread...

support local

Most of us live our lives focusing on convenience or rather what we call "one-stop" everything. Super-markets that offer everything under one roof. Malls that offer shopping, dinning and entertainment.Shops are trying to attract busy customers by supplying or better yet squeezing everything into "one-stop". We hire people to babysit our kids, read and play with our kids, all for the sake of "convenience"

When I first moved to Greece I was unemployed and of course this meant I had  lots of time on my hands. So I watched people, the housewives, the grandparents. and what  I observed was that their day was different from what most of us are used to.

By 8am they are already out the door.First stop the bakery for fresh bread, and no they don't buy bread to put in the freezer for a month, they buy fresh bread every morning. Next step the butcher who every day greets his customers with a huge smile and is more than willing to give cooking tips and advice to his customers.Next stop the local grocer, who always puts extra vegetables in your bag just because he likes you, and  if the bags are heavy offers to have them delivered to your home.Last our favourite deli where my youngest son is always encouraged to help himself to kalamata olives or a slice of his favorite salami.

In one morning they have exchanged conversation and human contact with so many people.They say simple words  like  goodmorning....how are you today.....how are your kids..Of course their is.no pressure at the check-out counter (like the supermarket) because there aren't 10 people behind you in a hurry to go somewhere else.....

That is the key..the somewhere else.  Let's go back to basics, let's talk to people, support your local shop even if you pay just a little extra. Don't forget the small shops can't buy the massive quantities a super market can, we have to support the local economy....and above all you can't put a price on human contact..

Say goodmorning to someone today..its so easy!!

...the smell of cinnamon!!!

Cinnamon both bitter and sweet...like women.. The grandfather reveals the secrets of spice and life to Fanis the main character in the film. If any of you have not seen this film I think you are missing one of the best Greek Films. The music by Evanthia Reboutsika...mesmerizing. To this day when I watch this film.....I smell cinnamon!!!

A Touch of Spice or"Politiki Kouzina" written/directed by Tassos Boulmetis

Think of coming home to the aromas of  cinnamon and sugar. Today I woke up with this thought .How can I  fill my house with this wonderful, exotic and sweet smell. Close your eyes , breathe and let your imagination soar......Put some cinnamon in your life!!

..the world we live in !!!

There are a lot of people out there that believe in the concept of real food. Food that is carefully bought or grown, prepared with love and savoured with patience and respect. How many of us sit at the table durng the week as a family to eat supper. Most of us are running between second language classes for the kids, karate, music, gym, etc. etc. etc. The fact is real food is real work, and dinning all together is sometimes more than a challenge..but hey its sooooo worth it.

How many memories do you have that are associated with the aromas and tastes of food. Think about it. Something your mom or dad used to make..your grandma always prepared just for you. Most of us that have these memories are very lucky. We have experienced from childhood the special effect food has on our lives.

But we do take food for granted in Western societies. We have such an abundance of ready made "food" that our taste buds will soon forget what real food tastes like...and of course we waste so much food and yes we all have in the back of our minds that there are people hungry..but do you know someone personally that has no food to eat. Can you put a name to this hunger, unfortunately I now can, and its extremely difficult for me to grasp how someone can spend days with no food. I am struggling for days to understand how we have let this happen, and more so what we can do to alleviate this.

Maybe if we all start respecting and appreciating the food we eat, we can teach our children to waste less.
We can put our minds and hearts together and find new and creative ways to feed the world.