Cuchaule – not your average food of love

Many boys are trying to impress their girlfriends by giving them flowers, chocolates, expensive jewelry etc. Not my boy. When we first started dating, he brought me a sweet bread which he made by himself. Guess what. It worked! I was impressed by that fact that he made all this effort for me. That said the bread was great too. Sweet and fragrant. I took it home and I didn’t let anyone else try it. I ate a piece every day to remind me of him. OK I am not usually this cheese maybe it’s because I was in love or maybe because saffron makes you cheesy.

Last time I was in Switzerland we decided to make this bread again with Fabs. But this time it was different. I was doing all the work, his mother was giving instructions and Fabs was taking photos. So at last I could offer him a gift of love too

French Bread – Daring Bakers

If someone told me one year ago that I would make french bread I wouldn’t believe him. You see a few months ago I didn’t know how to knead. I think that now after making the Christmas Bread, the french bread and another Swiss bread (coming soon) I am starting to get the hung of it.

So, February’s challenge was Julia Child’s French Bread. As this has been a very busy month including a 10 day trip to Switzerland (again ) I did not manage to find time to make this bread until the day before the deadline (yesterday) where I had no other choice. It was not the best time to bake as my parents had invited people for dinner. I told my mother that I really had to make this bread no matter what. Thankfully she offered to buy the ingredients for me so I didn’t have to go to the supermarket as well. When I came back home from work I told her:

‘I will go and change my clothes because I have to start’

She said to me: ‘Don’t worry I have already made bread for your website! You don’t have to make bread now’

‘Mother, I have to make this specific french bread and not the traditional Cypriot bread.’

‘Come on take a photo of that and nobody would know.’

You see, she was trying desperately to get me out of the kitchen but she wasn’t successful. I had to make the bread. So, I started work and I ignored her complains. (She was going back and forth checking it out of course).

As it takes a long time to make this bread, I had to make the last part of the recipe with a live audience. I had to clear a part of the table between the main course and dessert to shape the bread – not very polite I know. Nobody was bothered though because the were all curious to see the result. My aunts kept telling me that if I ever get married my husband will be lucky because I can make bread etc. etc. Unfortunately it was not ready before they left so all the sucking up on me went in vain.

The bread looked pretty good in the end and I could not wait until the morning to try it. The shape was not right but hey I didn’t have the space and the time anyway. Nevertheless, it tasted very good when I tried it this morning. Actually, the big piece disappeared before I came back from work so this means that my brothers liked it as well.

Will I make it again? Definitely. With the right shape hopefully… You can find the recipe from this month’s hosts Breadchick Mary (The Sour Dough) & Sara (I Like to Cook)

P.S. I really need to get a new computer because this one is so slow and it crashes all the time. It is really off-putting. Could someone tell me where to get the money? (Just kidding)

Lemon Meringue Pie – Daring Bakers

So, this is my first challenge for daring bakers. For those of you who are not familiar with Daring Bakers, it is a group of foodies who are cooking the same food each month. The recipe is called the monthly challenge. I joined the group because I suck at baking and I thought it is a good idea to practice and learn.

This month’s challenge was Lemon Meringue Pie. This is a sweet I have always liked to eat but I have never tried to make. Anyway, it was not a 100% success, but it was a good start. I will try to make it again another time. The biggest mistake I did was using the wrong pie plate. It was too small and too thick for the job. I also did a stupid mistake and thus I had to make the dough twice (I am too ashamed to tell you). In addition to this I had two doggies biting my feet during the whole process and it was the day I came back from Switzerland and I was still daydreaming about it.

The recipe comes from the Canadian Baker and I strongly recommend that you should try it. You can see below some pictures of my great achievement. Sorry about the bad quality of photos. My mind was still somewhere else you see.

Swiss fondue – Melting for it

One of the big sins I commit every time I visit Fabs in Switzerland is cheese fondue. And it’s all his fault. He knows I love it and he offers me fondue every time. Grrr… Men. Anyway, last week Fabs made a fondue for both of us at his house. So, I took the opportunity to share with you the recipe and the photos only not the fondue as we have eaten every last drop of it. This type of fondue is called Fribourgeoise, as it is made with cheese coming from the state of Fribourg. If you want to learn more about fondue there is an interesting article here. This is a very simple but tasty recipe for cheese fondue. I have recently bought a cook book about fondues and I will be presenting other recipes to you soon. So here we go:

I have been away for some time…

My dear readers, I would like to apologize for being away from you for so long. You see I went for holidays to a very nice place. Guess where:

Honey we made it a salad

There is an expression in Greek that I really like. When someone wants to say we have messed things up he/she says we have made it a salad. Well, most Greeks like salads and this makes me wonder if this could be an allegorical link to the Greek culture. Greeks are after-all well known for their lack of organization.
One of the Greek songs that was popular in the eighties was the one titled ‘Serenata’. During those days, I was just a child and I could not understand what the *&%$* the singer was talking about. The song starts by saying that the singer and her boyfriend broke up and split the furniture between them but she has kept their cat (Serenata). And the chorus goes somewhat like this:
“I don’t want to see you again
my babe we made it a salad
I just wanted to tell you
that the cat gave birth tonight”
and then it goes on saying that the cat gave birth to two kittens in the kitchen and she named one of them after him. As he had promised the cat that he would never give his soul to another cat, she abandoned her kittens and went looking for him. Now the singer is left alone with the kittens and she does not know what to do as she has received bad news about Serenata. But he doesn’t care where Serenata is or if she has been hit by a car. So – she is telling him- that he can buy new plates and find another cat but he should think of Serenata from time to time.
“I don’t want to see you again
my babe we made it a salad
I just wanted to tell you
that tonight we lost he cat”
Sad ain’t it?

Anyway this is a nice salad that I made as a starter for my birthday dinner.

Epiphany – Sweets for the Goblins

(Picture taken from the book: “Αερικά-Ξωτικά και Καλικάντζαροι” of Θ.Βελλούδιου)

According to the Greek tradition ‘kalakantzaroi’ are terrible creatures that leave under the earth and which all year long are trying to cut the tree of life which is the foundation of the earth. On Christmas Eve when their work is almost finished, they come to earth to tease and harass humans. There are many tricks that you could use to make them stop harassing you and one of them is to give them sweets.  On the 6th of January (Epiphany) the Greek housewives make sweets and throw them on the roof of the house in order for the creatures to eat them and go back home.

Through this myth, sugar has taken magical forces chasing the bad creatures away. I wish that we could use sugar to chase away all the evil from this world. Wouldn’t this be nice?

This afternoon we went to my grandparents and my grandmother cooked for us these traditional sweets for Epiphany called “Loukoumades”. Sorry I don’t have the recipe for you today. I have to run and I feel a bit low today. I will post it another time. For those non-Greeks out there can you guess how they are made (The photo of my grandmother can give you a clue)?

Christmas Bread – Eat it all year round

Happy new year my dear readers!!!

Christmas might be over but we can still eat some of the nice Christmas treat like this bread. This is a very festive bread which was a big hit on the dinner I had for my birthday two days ago. My birthday is on the 22nd but I decided that it was more convenient to have the dinner party on the 28th as nobody would be fasting and I would also have some extra time to prepare nice food. The menu contained mostly things that I haven’t done before and this bread was one of them. I know its risk to cook something for the first time on a birthday dinner but I warned everybody ahead (and I had the fast food phones on hand just in case). I have to say that I did very well for a beginner. Well, everybody told me that the food was good and I hope they didn’t lie.

As I said before, this bred was a big hit and I am glad about it because it took a long time to prepare. But, believe me dear readers it was worth the effort. The recipe is taken from a greek recipe book of Vefa Alexiadou which contains recipes for holidays and big occasions. You are lucky enough to have me translating it for you

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone…

(the photo is from our Christmas cake. I will give you the recipe some other time)

Kitchen disasters – trying to make gingerbread cookies

Murphy’s law: If anything can go wrong it will. And in my case it always goes wrong. Last Monday I attempted to make ginger bread cookies so I can decorate them nicely and write a post about them. At the same time I was trying to make a spicy carrot soup which I wanted to test drive for the dinner I am giving for my birthday next week. The results of this busy morning were that the cookies where overcooked, the soup too spicy and on top I have managed to drop my camera and turn it into little pieces. This is one of the reasons I haven’t posted anything for a week. In the mean time I have done some soul searching and I have found the following excuses to comfort myself:

1. I have never eaten gingerbread before. I have only read about the cookies on blogs and cookbooks hence:

2. I have never cooked gingerbread before

3. I have never cooked spicy carrot soup before either

4. I am very clumsy. I am sure a good psychologist would find a way to put the blame on my childhood for this

You can see below some pictures of the ginger bread mission that I have managed to take before I dropped the camera. The decoration was done four days after, when my camera was salvaged by a technician.