Mpougatsa, the greek custard pie!

Went to Greece for vacations and got addicted to mpougatsa for breakfast? Here's how to make it back home and extend your vacations a bit through food :)

Made with crusty fyllo and filled in with a custard cream made out of semolina is served dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon. It makes the perfect breakfast or anytime snack and why not as a dessert.

Greek filo or fyllo dough for pies

Have you ever tasted spanakopita or spanakotyropita ? Oh my... I have given the recipe long time ago in this blog but using ready made filo. I have never given the recipe for a homemade "filo", the basic ingredient and this is outrageous for someone who comes from Thessaly, the region for traditional greek pies!
I will try to remediate today by dedicating this recipe to my mum, the best ever cooker who abandoned school very early to cook for her family that worked to the fields and who knows how to "open" the thinner ever possible filo. Sorry mum, I cannot compete with you, at least I try :)
Prepare though for quite some work, my moto "simple but delicious" is true only at half !
Attention: You will need a special wooden rounded stick or anything equivalent.
P.S : I have added some heavy cream in the filling of the original recipe today. 

Happy Halloween!

What best to have fun ending of October than celebrating Halloween ?
Cooking, activities, decoration, colors... lots of ideas in the web! Just to keep track of what is in my blog let's recapitulate...


Have fun cooking butternut soups, halloween cookies, mini apple pies, Halloween fingers or just apple pie like this one, this one or this one.

Decorate your house entrance with jack-o-lanterns, following my son's short tutorial in the numbered photos (no1 is missing as it is about choosing your pumkin's face :)

Here's some fun finger food for Halloween: the Halloween fingers!

Or, make fake injuries with makeup and scare your friends (not my favorite though!) like this homemade one from my kids...

Whatever you prefer, just try to get with friends and/or family and have fun and enjoy life!

Milopitakia, greek mini apple pies or cookies

October, the month of apples!

That's why I decided to present you today a recipe that was missing from my blog and that I like a lot: milopitakia!

Milopitakia, in greek, means mini apple pies but they are actually more kind of apple-filled cookies to be more precise.

Whatever you call them, I am sure that you will like them once you taste them, so here it goes in order to have them for real at your place :)

They look gorgeous too, no?

Zucchini and feta tarte

Here's a simple, light and tasty tarte for summer dinners...

Tyropita, the greek feta cheese pie!

Family was asking for tyropita, the Greek feta cheese pie, last week and searching to find the recipe in my blog I realized that it was missing! I had only the spanakotyropita recipe that is even better but more complicated. So, you can imagine the rest... had to take photos on top of cooking :)
I was extremely busy & tired and so was my daughter that I asked to take fast some photos, which explains the low quality of the result. But it's better than nothing,  no?
So, if you like feta cheese, try this recipe and you won't regret it :)
My only regret is that I had to leave immediately after so I tasted it much later at night when I came back... at least family was nice and had left me a few pieces !

Spinach-feta pie (spanakotyropita)

[UPDATED: Check also the alternatives here]
Do you like spinach and cheese? Especially feta cheese? Imagine adding the subtle smell of the dill on top and cover all of them with crunchy layers of a pastry like "filo"... Yummy... We call this "spanakotyropita" in greek and it is a pie that is made with filo and has a filling of spinach and feta.
I come exactly from the region that is known for this and normally, it is even better if we make our own pastry of filo. I will be sincere here, it takes time to make your own filo, so let's use today the ready made one, but of good quality still...

Tyropitakia (Feta cheese pies with yoghurt dough)

I will share today with you, one of my favorite recipes, the "tyropitakia"! "Tyropitakia" are small cheese pies made with feta and there are various recipes to make them. The most known recipe is the one with pastry "fyllo" but today, I will give you the recipe that has a dough made with yoghurt and which is my favorite one.

They are delicious! If you end up falling in love with them like me, double the ingredients to make them last longer as they tend to disappear immediately coming out of the oven :) And if you are lazy, just mix everything and form small feta balls instead! (second photo on top)