Greek Green Peas with Dill (Arakas me Anitho)

[Updated 18/03/2025]

This traditional Greek vegetarian dish transforms simple green peas into a fragrant and flavorful meal. With the freshness of dill and the heartiness of potatoes, it’s a recipe even kids will love!

French toast, the fast and great breakfast!

What do you do if you want a homemade breakfast and do not have much time to prepare it? And on top, you are puzzled between salty and sweet? Do you have eggs and some bread from yesterday? Make a french toast! Lots of us have memories from this from our youth, but very often we forget about it... Let's keep a trace in this blog and pay tribute to it :)



Ingredients

2 eggs
slices of bread (leftovers from yesterday, or toast bread)
some milk
salt
olive oil

Procedure

Warm some olive oil in a frying pan. Beat in a bowl the eggs as for the omelet, adding some milk and some salt.

Dip one by one the slices of bread in the mixture.

Fry them to get on both sides a nice golden crust.








Serve hot. You can add on top something sweet like simple sugar or fruit jam or for the salty-type just add next to them some crispy fried bacon. Your breakfast is ready! It takes less that 5 min!   

Tiramisu of Vivian, no coffee, no alcohol!

Tiramisu is one of my favorite pastries. BUT I do not like coffee and I do not like alcohol! How can it be then my favorite? Just because, I invented my own recipe that fits my taste, it's perfect for kids (real and young at heart like me :) and you won't believe it! It's DELICIOUS! It's not me that says it, but all my friends that tried it and ask me how do I make such a success :) Find here, the original tiramisu of Vivian but please, if you copy this recipe, mention my blog :) Yes, this is a recipe with a copyright ;) I have to thank of course, the mother of my dear friend Carla, that years ago, gave me the original recipe of italian tiramisu! Sorry for replacing the coffee... Especially for my friend Lydwine today ...

Mini pasticcios, finally! The pasticcio muffins :)

Mini pasticcios, finally! The pasticcio muffins :)

Pasticcio is a great greek dish, together with moussaka. So, what could it be better ? Mini pasticcios! When I give a party, and want to prepare finger food to be easy and practical to eat in a buffet, I include them in my list. They are not easy to make, as they take time, so I make them when I have very good friends invited. One thing is sure, they will surely appreciate the effort!
They look like muffins, the salty-type :) For Carla and Alberto, dear friends, special dedication of this recipe!

Ingredients

Same (but only half) with pasticcio
2 parts of ready-made puff pastry (pate feuilletee in french)

Procedure

To make mini pasticcios you will need to do exactly what we do for pasticcio, it's only the assembling part that is different. 

Use a round cutter and cut circles of the pastry enough to put the in your 12 muffin-dish as in photo.

Put then a spoon full of the cooked meat sauce in each one. Sprinkle some cheese.

Cover with bechamel sauce (white sauce). Sprinkle again some cheese on top.

 Put in the oven for about 20 min or until they get a nice golden crust (180 degrees of Celsius with air). Enjoy!







TIP : You can cook the full pasticcio recipe instead of half and with the rest of the cooked ingredients you can make a pasticcio in a smaller dish. That way, you can indulge your family some other day. If it's the next day, you can keep it in the fridge either before or after the cooking. If you want to eat it some other day, just put it uncooked in the freezer. Like that, you can just unfreeze it and cook it in the oven. It would be a great surprise for everyone out of the blue :)  

May, let's celebrate spring!

May, let's celebrate spring!

Let's change from cooking today :) Or let's say, a different way of cooking, the way kids like...
It's May and in my country we celebrate spring by making flower compositions. We use wild flowers that we find in the fields.
I share today the composition that my children did this year on 1st of May.
Actually, my kids like to do often such compositions, especially my daughter. Often, they do this while I am cooking, and it is their way of cooking in the garden ! Soon, I will add more of their compositions in a special part of this blog...

Crepes, the best way to start your day !

Crepes(= the french pancakes), the best way to start your day!

When I have some more time to prepare the breakfast, like on weekends, one of my favorite ideas is to make crepes. Of course, no need to say, kids love them, and not only... There are many recipes out there for crepes, but I will give you here the recipe that I chose among them. The "magic" ingredient that makes for me this recipe interesting is the corn flour. The recipe that I will give you is from the box of the corn flour, that I tried once and I adopted it. These crepes are melting in the mouth, "moelleux" as french call them.

Ingredients

200 gr flour or (100gr flour and 100gr corn flour)
500ml of milk 

2 eggs
vanilla

Procedure

Put in a bowl the milk and add both types of flour and vanilla. Whisk well. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs as for omelette and add them to the rest ingredients. Mix well together. If you have time it is better to leave the mixture to rest for about 30 min. In my case, I use the mixture immediately and still the result is very good as you can see :)

Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over high heat. Pour enough of the mixture to cover the bottom and tilt the frying pan, in a circular way, to spread it homogeneously. Leave it for about 2 min to be done.

Then, turn it using a spatula and leave it for about a min. Your crepe is ready! Cover each crepe according to your preferences, here today is nutella.

Giouvetsi (Meat with orzo/kritharaki)

[Updated on 26/02/2025]

Giouvetsi is a classic Greek dish made with tender meat (usually veal or lamb) slow-cooked with orzo pasta in a rich tomato-based sauce. Traditionally baked in a clay pot, it’s a hearty and flavorful meal, perfect for a Sunday family lunch. This version stays true to the original but includes a small personal touch—eggplant for extra depth of flavor and a pressure cooker for ease.

My son asked me to write here that it is DIVINE :)

Homeburgers (Greek-Style Burgers – Biftekia)

[Updated 18/03/2025]

These juicy Greek-style burgers, or biftekia, are packed with Mediterranean flavors. Perfect for a homemade meal, they can be grilled, pan-fried, or baked for an easy and delicious dish.

Fresh green salad!

Fresh green salad!

Find today how to prepare an easy fresh green salad as a starter. My husband tried this combination, that makes this simple salad tasteful and I adopted it immediately! The small secret is the mustard with seeds that he uses combined with the lemon juice, so if you want the same strong taste, use the same type of mustard.

Zucchini balls (kolokythokeftedes)

Zucchini balls (kolokythokeftedes)

Discover a delicious starter/appetizer to change from the classic meatballs. They smell dill and with feta inside you won't resist...

Greek pizza with feta!

Greek pizza with feta!

For the fans of feta, today, a greek version of pizza! I call it greek just because I use feta cheese instead of mozzarella cheese. I like mozzarella and I have lots of dear friends from Italy that have persuaded me that real pizza is with mozzarella cheese. But it's a nice change from time to time to use feta. In my case it's even practical, as feta cheese is always present in our fridge :) But believe me, the combination of bread, tomato, cheese and oregano is F A N T A S T I C...

Ingredients
Dough (for 2 pizzas or a big one)

500gr of flour (Type 00 special pizza)
10gr of active dry yeast (or the equivalent of dry one)
300ml of warm water
10gr of salt, 

1 spoon of olive oil

Topping
tomato sauce
salt, pepper, oregano, olive oil
slices of ham
1 cup feta cheese
some grated emmental cheese
olives
frankfurt sausages
mushrooms

Procedure

Preheat the oven at 250 degrees of Celsius in grill mode. 

Dissolve the yeast in the water. 

In a big bowl, put the rest of the ingredients and pour the water/yeast mix and make a nice dough by mixing with your hands. 

Cover with a towel and leave the dough to rest in a warm place, until the dough gets double in volume (time will vary depending on the temperature of the room, around 1-2h). If you want to accelerate the time, warm the oven at 50 degrees of Celsius, turn it off and put the bowl with the dough in. the oven.

When dough has doubled, knead it again for a minute and put it in a floured surface.

 Flatten the dough as shown in the photo, to make the base of the pizza.

 Make a tomato sauce by mixing some crushed canned tomatoes, salt, pepper, olive oil and oregano. Cover the base of the pizza with this sauce. On top, put the ham, then the feta cheese in pieces,and sprinkle some grated emmental cheese all over. Add olives, sliced mushrooms, frankfurt sausages in pieces and tomato slices. Sprinkle on top some oregano and some olive oil. Put in the oven for 10 min or until the dough gets a nice golden color and here it is! Yummy...  

Semolina Pudding (Halvas) yummy!

[Updated 30/03/2025]

A quick, affordable, and incredibly delicious sweet that fills your home with the warm aroma of cinnamon. This pudding is a heartwarming treat that brings people together.

Octopus with Pasta (Htapodi me Kofto Makaronaki)

[Updated 18/03/2025]

This dish brings the flavors of the Greek islands straight to your plate. Tender octopus in a rich tomato sauce, paired with small pasta, makes for a simple yet impressive meal—perfect for dreaming of summer!