Things have been super stressful and busy lately and I haven’t had the time to really cook dinner. Last night I was ruminating about what to have, kind of over crackers and cheese with an apple, or my nightly spinach banana smoothie. Wanted something hot and freshly cooked but fast and easy. I had [...]
I LOVE Lidia Batianich, she reminds me of a composite of all the best cooks in my family rolled into one. Her food is homey and satisfying, I love it when her mother joins her, and I’m verklempt when they start singing! Such great old school stuff! Recently she made a lamb ragout, and [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
Most of Montclair was shut down for July 4th. Claire and I had some errands to do and had planned to have lunch at Kakui. A couple of our errands were thwarted by holiday closures so we started thinking we may need a plan B for lunch but luckily Kakui was open. Kakui is [...]
My mom was a great baker. I cherish her spiral notebook with her handwritten Greek recipes and her notes in the margin like “add more butter” or “Mrs. Olga’s recipe”. Mom had several signature recipes, she was known for her Galactobouriko (filo custard pie), Paximathia (Greek biscotti) and Kalouria. Kalouria are a very simple [...]
Here comes another Yiayia memory! Even though the woman had nine kids, worked like a dog every single day, and wasn’t a very good cook she repeatedly made two things that were both complicated and time consuming. One was a Greek pastry called Thiples or Xerotigina (same thing, two different names) which is strips [...]
