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.

Spaghetti carbonara, excellent for debutant cookers!

Happy bday Carbonara!!! 80 years this year! (rumors say that it was invented in 1944 to use the american bacon) Here's how it is linked to our family history below ;)

When I met hubby, I was impressed; I did not know how to cook and he knew how to cook one recipe: Carbonara! No surprise, ages later, our son, picks up the same recipe to start his cooking career, although he is way more experienced in cooking than we were at his age :) In a busy day like today, he proposed to cook and my, I am soooo grateful!

So, find today the original italian recipe, that is excellent for beginners like students. I cheated adding a bit of cream although he insisted on not adding as in the original recipe, mea culpa ;)

As always, enjoy!  

Schnitzel, the unforgettable :) [2024 UPDATED]

A classic recipe today but again with a personal touch, this time my mother's in law. We are talking for the bread crumbed fried escalopes. These ones have some extra taste as I use cheese also. But not any cheese, my personal touch again here is the reggiano parmiggiano that I just looove :) So, here it goes...

[Original recipe 13/05/2013 10:40PM]

[2024 UPDATE] Hubby invented a faster version  where you mix the cheese with the eggs and save one dish and 1/3 of the time of the preparation!

Vivian's banana bread

Vivian's banana bread

 I am excited to experiment with banana breads lately and after my 

• Vegan Banana Bread-ilicious!  and the Coco-choco Banana Bread, here's my own inspiration that I consider very succesful. Consider this as an elevated version of a banana bread :)

Cooking with a twist!

 

Being inspired everyday is not easy, especially on repetitive tasks like cooking and baking :)

Check my cooking with a twist of today: 

• Focaccia with cherry tomatoes instead of my usual recipe with feta and oregano : just replace feta with cherry tomatos cut in half
• Chocolate cake a la sacher torte (mixing strawberry jam) instead of my usual Chocolate cake recipe : just add spoonfuls of jam on top and twist a fork to mix the jam with the dough
• My usual french brioche bread : this is so perfect that there is no need for twists ;)

Enjoy!

Yummy focaccia (with greek feta and oregano)

My favorite 3 ingredients (dough, feta and oregano) all in one recipe! And who can resist in a good focaccia in any case? If you share the same values ;) go for it! Of course, we are open minded here, feel free to adapt to your own favorites! 

Fresh (not fried) Spring Rolls

Easy, healthy, colorful fresh spring rolls from my daughter.

Just right for the Tet Nguyen Dan, the Vietnamese New Year that is on 10 of February this year. 

Adapt it to your prefernces and Enjoy! 

French chocolate king cake (Galette des rois au chocolat)

You know those days that you have the crave to bake a cake but not enough of an ingredient? 

This is one of those days that I wanted to bake a french king cake (my original recipe) but missing some almond powder. So, the idea to try for once a chocolate version seemed very inspiring and one deeeply appreciated from the youngsters here :) 

I had 100gr of almond powder instead of 140gr, so I replaced the 40gr missing with cocoa powder.

I encourage you to try it!

*Not knowing how it will turn out, I did not use the egg yolk on top, which was not bad either although it was missing some sparkle, so better not to skip :)

Cinnamon Rolls NEW RECIPE

New Year, new recipes :)

Vivian's daughter is cooking too and thanks to her I found a better recipe for Cinnamon Rolls that is a SMASH. What an amazing feeling to be outperformed by your children! To all the ones out there that just cannot resist to anything cinnamon flavored. Enjoy!  

My 2023 Christmas recipes

 Merry Xmas with my recipes! To be shared with your dearest!

Melomakarona, Kourambiedes, Stuffed Turkey, Xmas Swiss roll, Ekmek kadaif, 

Stuffed mushrooms, Mini pasticcios, Pavlova and Xmas pudding. 

Mascarpone - nutella cake

Here's an old recipe updated from a minimalistic cake to a gourmet one:

Chocolate cake with mascarpone & nutella filling

Just double the dose of the filling and use to cover and decorate it. As simple as that.

One of out favorite to celebrate among family new sucesses!

 

Stuffed mushrooms

Stuffed mushrooms!

Here's a nice idea for a starter to serve with some nice wine next to the fireplace. Just replace the wine with some softer non-alcoholic version for me :) like a scented water where you have let infused several citrus fruits (nice idea for a new recipe btw). 

Cookies with white Wine

Have some left over white wine and do not know what to do with? I have you the recipe for!

I have indexed it here as Greek Easter cookies but you can improvise and do what ever you want with it.

Yesterday we went crazy and did a mix of various shapes like Christmas, Halloween and striped ones. We had lots of fun doing them with family, not to mention eating them :) 

PS: Better be a dry white wine though.