appetizers recipes

THIS WEEKEND (my darlings), YOU ARE CLEANING OUT YOUR FRIDGE . . . otherwise, just keep on walking, nothing GLAMOROUS to see here ! Cooking a lot means a lot of leftovers tucked away in your refrigerator : half-used opened tins, bits & pieces of smaller stuff and of course larger partly-used stuff, not to mention the fresh herbs slowly...

STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT !  STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! … sorry, but I needed to get that out of my system. Terrible and tragic and unforgiveable things...

"Are you a genuine APRIL DAY FOOL if you make your own sardines at home ... or just TOTALLY-BANANAS-CRAZY !?" Well, I’m not so sure. I made a small batch, starting with 1 kg of fresh sardines, cleaning them, salt-curing them for several days, then storing them in olive oil. The first time I tried this, I realized that...

Let’s start at the very beginning, A very good place to start, When you read you begin with A-B-C, When you sing you begin with Do-Re-Mi, Dough- (yeah, it's funny) -Re-Mi, The first 3 ingredients just happen to be, Flour, Butter, Water … Flour-Butter-Water-Puff-Pastryyyyy !  …...

YES, 6 KG of UNRIPE GREEN TOMATOES ! I mentioned some time ago that I had received over 5 kg of unripe green tomatoes from a friend … I had more actually, an additional 1 kg of my own cute little unripe green cherry tomatoes from my own garden ! The smallest ones are patiently pickling (recipe appearing soon for that, I’m...

A SERIES OF SCORCHINGLY HOT DAYS !!! . . .  and this is one of Angel’s hot weather / summer holiday / childhood  memory / favorite REFRESHING tapas dishes : extra large cooked Spanish mussels, served on the half-shell and covered with a cool ‘a la vinagreta’ mixture which is a combination of very finely diced...

This is not a summer BARBECUE recipe. It's an end of spring (waiting for the summer) recipe for a DEEP-FRYER on a BALCONY or TERRACE, with an extension cord ... (a bit like trying to pretend it was already warm & beautiful outside and we absolutely could & should cook outside) ... Well, you understand that I’m a...

What do you mean by : “WHY AM I BOTHERING YOU AGAIN THIS WEEK” ??? & WHY, WY, Y are we THROWING AWAY our VEGETABLE PEELINGS and SKINS ?!? … because we are wasteful & dumb creatures or perhaps just didn’t know any better … we may be forgiven (if we change our ways now). As I was recently...

I know what I said : "EAT LESS RED MEAT, EAT MORE FISH & VEGETABLES !" Well, for your information, these meatballs are 1/3 vegetables so without abandoning meat, we’re still making an effort. Okay, it wasn’t really an effort either. I often want to try out recipes that are “UPLIFTING” reinterpretations...

It’s an INVASION I tell you ! Just when I thought I’d eaten all, dealt with and finished with the apples that my friend brought me from the countryside 10 days ago (about 1,5 kg), then more appeared. As I was typing this recipe, I was kindly delivered another 4,5 kg of country apples from Northern France. Well, it’s my...

Like eating a "ray of warm SUNSHINE", whipped up with the damp earthy cool of a mountainside village and its pastures grazed by sheep. KTIPITI means ‘whipped’ or ‘beaten’ in greek . . .  It’s a summer dip (or spread) with only 2 basic ingredients, roasted red peppers and feta cheese (let’s save...

RAIN, RAIN, and again more RAIN ! . . .  If it was sunny, I’d be sharing recipes about barbecues, planchas, grilled sausages, roasted vegetables & meats & seafood, fruity pies & desserts, condiments for hotdogs and hamburgers and all that picnic stuff … but it hasn’t stopped raining for weeks...

I like my hummus CHUNKIER (not too smooth & silky) and I NEVER ADD WATER … and of course it has to have lots of lemon, garlic, cumin and SCALLIONS. Is it truly a “hummus” ? It doesn’t matter, it’s how we like it ! If I hadn’t prepared and served this version of hummus several times in the past 2 weeks, I...

It took me a while to share this with you … I know. Not because it’s complicated. It’s super simple but I preferred waiting until they were ready, correctly pickled and taste-tested. The verdict :  WONDERFUL, so just do it too ! It’s a pity to waste those last green unripe tomatoes of the season. It was warm here...

Do you know which country consumes the most cheese in the world ? Answer : Greece ! This includes cheeses in baked goods as well as non-baked goods. Each citizen of Greece consumes an average of 30 kg of cheese per year, and 2/3 of that amount is in the form of feta cheese ! I wish Greece all the best for what they’re going through and hope...