This recipe was sent out via the Greek family communication network (email) shortly before the holidays. In addition to having our own family newsletter that comes out twice a year, and a family reunion at the farm once a year, and the occasional cousins gatherings throughout the year, we have a Dimotakis family group [...]
A few weeks ago I had invited a couple of friends over for a nice weekend lunch. My friends love it when I cook Greek so I decided to do a Greek inspired menu. I had originally planned on a Swiss chard pie, Potato Wedges fried in Olive Oil, an Orange Walnut Cake with Honey [...]
For many, many, many years I gave a NY Day party. It started as a NY Eve party when I was in my late teens or early 20's, and then as time progressed it moved to a NY brunch, and then since no one (including the party giver) wanted to get up in time for [...]
Yesterday was time for the annual cooking club tea. We've been getting together for 17 years now! We aren't as committed as we were 17 years ago, in the past we got together about 6-8 times a year, now we're at one or two times a year, but we still get together, and thats [...]
We had several non cooking classes after our class on Pasta. We were very lucky to have Ronna Kabatznick, the author of The Zen of Eating come and conduct a class. Ronna took us through the stages of mindful eating and posed some interesting questions for us to explore about our relationship with food. [...]
I took this week off from work. Didn't go anywhere, just hung around the house, puttered, tried new recipes, sat in the big soft brown chair and read. It was perfect. I managed to rouse myself to invite some friends over for dinner. I love midweek dinner parties because it's such a luxury to [...]
Class # 2 - Paella I took a survey of students prior to the class to see what folks wanted to learn. Many people said they wanted to learn more about seafood so I chose Paella as our topic since it would allow me an opportunity to discuss many food related things [...]
Throughout France and many upscale restaurants Gougere are considered an appetizer but in our home they are considered breakfast! Gougere are made from pat a choux dough the same dough that is used for cream puffs, but instead of being sweet the dough has cheese and/or chives, onions, garlic in them. Whatever you feel [...]
I love the classic Italian dish of grilled steak over arugula with shaved parmesan. This is my version of this. I wanted a kind of Caesar’s dressing for this salad, hence the salted anchovies. For those of you who haven’t tried them I highly recommend salted anchovies as a staple in your kitchen. Whole [...]
I love melons. They’re in season now and they linger into fall. We’re all tempted to eat melons at other times of the year, but really this is the time to eat them. They’re ripe and juicy now. Since we’ve had a hot spell recently I started reminiscing about a cold melon soup that [...]
