Happy Monday everyone! Let’s start the week with a smile on our faces, despite the grim weather and the tons of things on our to-do lists. Let’s start it with a big cup of delicious coffee, feel-good music and sleepy good mornings to the ones we love. [READ MORE]
We’re on official countdown to Christmas, are we not? And apart from everything else that comes with it, I’m also craving comfort food. Like, lots of comfort food. Like, hot, delicious comfort food, exciting enough to match the pre- Christmas spirit, but also quite simple, so we don’t exhaust ourselves just yet. You know where I’m going with this, right? Straight into a big bowl of soup. [READ MORE]
The past couple of days have been filled with shopping, organising dinners, decorating the house, wrapping presents and writing cards. I already have pine needles on my carpet, enough fairy lights to give me a dizzy spell and a freezer filled with more smoked salmon I know what to do with. And in between all this, I’m also testing recipes like crazy. Just this morning I had a glorious failure, involving a cinnamon & clove orange cake, filled with crunchy nuts and glazed with too much butter and honey. It came out of the oven all messy, crumbled and disastrous-looking, yet was so delicious, I’ve already devoured half of it. [READ MORE]
I don’t cook risotto very often, which is weird, considering how much I love it. A few years ago, I used to make it almost once a week. It was my Saturday dish, the main reason I’d wake up in a moderately good mood at 7am for 5 years straight, go teach and then come back, beat yet anxious to cook and get lost in what I considered then the absolute comfort food: delicate, buttery carbs, a couple vegetables, lots of black pepper and a hefty dose of parmesan. I still consider it utterly comforting and delicious. I just don’t make it as often. Still, when I eat out and I spot risotto on a menu, it’s almost always what I’ll order. And every time, right before that first bite, I long for the familiarity and comfortness, that sense of simple, unpretentious deliciousness. [READ MORE]
It’s proper winter here in London. It’s cold and windy and you need about a bazillion layers in order to step out but not freak out (at least I do). I hate the cold, but let me tell you, I LOVE winter! Maybe not as much as say, autumn and all its beautiful colours; or summer and its perfect vegetables & fruit and all the ice-creams and time spent at the beach; I love winter because of the coziness that comes with it. It’s the season that invites gatherings at home, heart and body warming meals, decadent desserts and comforting drinks. [READ MORE]
I often think that cooking is like putting together an outfit. Your basic ingredients are the garments and spices are all the little things that make an outfit special, like a great hat, a colorful scarf, a beautiful simple belt, a distinct piece of jewelry, a nice deep red lipstick or a killer pair of pumps. Your outfit would be ok without them, but, adding one or more of those accessories instantly elevates it and makes it shine. Same with spices: you can do without them, but honestly, why would you when just a pinch of this and a dash of that can make a simple dish all that more interesting and appetising? [READ MORE]
I first had this dish two summers ago at a tiny restaurant in a tiny village in Milos island. We had arrived there on a hot, hot, hot afternoon, following my mom’s directions and her very fond memories of the village she had visited with my dad while she was pregnant. After a very brief stroll around, during which I was constantly repeating over and over again how hungry I was (it’s kinda like my mantra), we started looking for a place to eat. We randomly stopped by that minimally beautiful little restaurant and ordered almost everything on the menu. And what a menu it was: all fish and vegetables, super seasonal and local. And when the food arrived and we had our first bite, we were in love (at least I was). [READ MORE]
Let’s start this week with my favourite kind of dish: easy, quick and delicious. Let’s start with a salad of sorts, filled with wholesome and earthy wild rice, fresh vegetables and fruit and a simple sweet and sour vinaigrette. [READ MORE]
Baked nachos is one of my favourite things in the world. Yours too? Hi, nice to meet you.
Tortilla chips are grand, melted cheese is king- and the two combined is one of this things dreams are made of. My first encounter with them was at a movie theater. I’m usually a pop corn kinda gal, but once I tried nachos, I was fell in love with the crispy, crunchy chips, the non-descrip orange cheesy substance poured all over them and messiness of it all. [READ MORE]
Beware people, pumpkin craziness season is upon us! All sizes, all colours and shapes, some ridiculously overprices, but all so lovely, pumpkins are currently les belles of the ball. You really can’t escape them- but honestly, why would you want to? Sweet in taste and with such deep autumn-y colours, they stand out both as decorations but also as part of so many dishes, sweet and savoury as well. [READ MORE]