Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

We've had leek pie before in my previous posts. This time we shall add pumpkin and see how it goes. Bear with me...

G iving instructions to an English speaking person  how to make a pumpkin pie, is like telling  an American how to make hamburgers, or an Englishman about steak and kidney pie. But there may be other people out there who may profit from my experience so hold on guys!!...

 L et's face it, we do not know pumpkin in Greece. I know North America has many recipes but I do not seem to find any that excite me personally. Since we are in pumpkin season, we have been looking everywhere for pumpkin recipes and all came out to be for sweets. We wanted a savory recipe. So I put my mind to work for a change and came up with the following...

I have already given a recipe on  shortcrust pastry in my previous posts but this one, due to a mistake of mine, came out faaaaantastic. I put 400 gm of butter instead of 600 I mention in my previous recipe.

I think I may have developed a sweet tooth lately and going ape on sweets. Read an article the other day in a dessert magazine and was inspired to make the following pie:

T he spinach pie in Greece is one of the most common street food you can find. It can be found in every street corner and is considered as a snack for breakfast or lunch up to about 3 pm. After that all the shops making it run out and that's it for the day until 6 a.m. the next day when they start again selling fresh ones. These shops are cafeterias selling other pies as well such as meat pies, cheese pies, sausage pies, little pizzas etc. Today we shall talk about the spinach pie. The spinach pie is divided into two types: with feta cheese or just spinach for those who fast or don't eat cheese for some reason. Today I decided to go ahead and make the simple spinach pie because I am avoiding salty cheeses due to my high blood pressure. Of course using feta, or a mixture of other cheeses is better, tastier, and of course, richer in calories. To make a spinach pie you will need: 2 kg of frozen spinach (leaves or finely cut).  After thawing they have to be very wel...

H ere is another thought for you all out there:

Three Minutes Afte Cake Came Out Of The Oven. Decorated Cake!! T oday is Sunday. A perfect day to bake a cake. I shall share with you one that was  prepared by The Delicious Sophie Dahl in one of her TV shows. Sophie is such a soft spoken person, so romantic during the presentation of her recipies that I am sitting  in front of the TV mesmerized by her fresh and innocent beauty.

L ittle meringues are delicious when you can just put a couple with stuffing in the middle in your mouth without choking! There are many recipes which call for egg yolks so by the end of the day you end up with a bunch of egg whites meaning that you can either make a cholesterol free omelet, increase the quantity of two to three fried whole eggs on corn tortillas "Huevos Rancheros" type breakfast or beat the heck out of them and make small meringues as a sweet. We decided to make small colored meringues and stuff them with cream and chocolate.

I t is very handy to make tartlets to use either for savory or for sweet purposes. The difference is that you may have to add some sugar in the sweet tartlets. A Recipe for tarts and tartlets which always works is as follows: Makes 25 tartlets. -  250 gr all purpose flour. -  110 gr cold butter cut in pieces or "NeoVitam soft" for our Greek friends. -  76 cc. cold water. -  ½ tsp. sugar. Method for the tartlets: -  Heat oven to 200 degrees C. -         -   Add flour, sugar, and butter in a big bowl. -         -  Cut butter into flour until all is grainy       -  Add cold water and mix by hand till a smooth dough is obtained. -         -  Wrap in a plastic film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. -         -  When time is up, flo...

E verybody loves Profiterole .  According to Wikipedia Profiterole is the "cream puff" which has appeared on US restaurant menus since 1851, [9] if not earlier.The record for world's largest cream puff, weighing in at 125.5 pounds, was achieved August 11, 2011 at the Wisconsin State Fair by Dave Schmidt and Team Cream Puff. [10] The Wisconsin State Fair is known for its dairy bakery that has been producing cream puffs during the fair since 1924.  However Profiterole, or the cream puff, or just puff was used in old English and French Cuisine but not as a sweet but as a savory added stuffed in soups.....

Hello again everybody. I am writing this post to apologize for omitting the much needed SYRUP to be poured over the sweet as soon as it comes out of the oven when it is hot. Please go to November 7th 2011 post for the full recipe. I received an anonymous comment (although I would have enjoyed meeting the person) about having forgotten to include the syrup in my recipe. By this I am sure glad that at least somebody is reading these babies! Thanks for your patience Stelio

U nfortunately nobody has invented chickens with 4 legs. Everybody likes to eat the drumstick off the chicken and unfortunately there are only two. So we bought two already nicely packed trays of  five chicken drumsticks each  from the supermarket we trust and kept them for Sunday when we usually have a special lunch whether we have guests or not.....

 C hocolate Chip Cookies are enjoyed by everybody,  kids and grown-ups, that is why I will give you Betty Crocker's recipe I've been using for over 25 years.

I have the luck to speak and read Italian having lived in Milan for many years. I also had the luck to come across a fantastic Italian blog called http://www.giallozafferano.it by Sonia Peronáci but...it is all in Italian. I'm sure there are ways to be able to see the same recipes in English, but since I am here I would love to share this one with all my non Italian friends out there. Having been inspired by Sonia's Recipe, I prepared today the cutest little butter biscuits with Apricot jam in the center using a blender.You could add molten chocolate in the center instead of apricot jam if you wish...

Kayseri or Caesarea is the capital of Cappadocia pronounced (Kappadokia) in Antalia region of Turkey. The word Caesarea comes from the Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, who was born by Caesarian Section (non natural way to deliver a baby). During his reign many areas of the Roman Empire were named after him including Caeserea in Israel. It is known that all that region was once Byzantine, then fell under the Ottoman Empire which later became Turkey. And to think all that all these places might still have been Greek if the Byzantines knew how to take better care of their affairs and not try to stab each others backs as the Greeks do now. Kayseri was well known for its culinary delights such as the Pastirma (dried meat) not Pastrami which is a totally different food, and Socuk (sausage). Today we are going to make a Kayseri Pie similar to the Basterma pie made on August 7th 2011 but with a difference : this one contains tomatoes....

I 've been meaning to make this sweet since Saturday 26th November, my name day. Italians call this tart La Pasta Frolla. Greeks call it Pasta Flora. (Frolla vs. Flora)... God knows why there is this difference.  It is very good for breakfast with coffee, in the afternoon with tea. It is a dry sweet. Basically a shortcrust pastry topped with whatever jam you have....and, by putting your imagination to work,  you can add any liquor you want to the jam. Usually brandy.

Inverted Quince Pie -  Using The Tarte Tatin Method. H ello everybody!! The best of everything to you all for this new day. Just woke up and feel bright eyed and bushy tailed, prepared my coffee a "Starbucks" coffee mug 2 tsp. instant coffee, 2 tsp. Coffee Mate (powdered milk), no sugar. It is clear outside but cold 8 degrees C. Oh by the way did I tell you my Barbara began her own blog as well? The address is http://www.little-miss-cupcakes-art-creations.com. She paints, makes her own jewelery and explains how colors in general have helped her inner self evolve. Take a shoufty (look in Arablish) if you wish.  I have noticed from the statistics of my blog (and thank you Blogger for your help) that the Quince Marmalade recipe of June 8th 2011 is one of the 5 all time favorites since I began on December 16th 2010.  The scope of my post this morning is to remind you all out there, whom I wish I could meet each and everyone of you, that the season for Quince is...