all the 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...

SEPTEMBER isn’t all that BAD ! One week ago, I sincerely thought I was going to write up a kicking-and-screaming back to work September article. I changed my mind . . .  It only seems painful in that way, not because everybody’s getting back to work or school or both and vacationing is over but because the weather changes. No...

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...

. . . of the northern Spanish bean & cured meats stew, as prepared by “PEPA” (a.k.a. Angel’s mama) who is visiting us in Paris for 10 days to see us and cook, cook, and cook ! Here’s the wikipedia definition : fabada asturiana, often simply known as fabada, is a rich Spanish bean stew, originally from and most...

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...

Once upon a time (a few days ago), a few fresh PLUMS (the ones that turn into dried prunes later on) decided to have some fun and live it up before they lost their ‘freshness’ and dried up. They wanted to go on “dates” before their time would come. It just so happened that a few fresh DATES (the ones that turn into sweet...

"CURIOSITY is my prime motivator. MEMORY is my second. EVENTS are my third. It seems that the past 20 months have been punctuated by more events than I care to admit to, mostly tragic and man-made, sometimes naturally catastrophic . . ." My cooking inspirations are sensitive to these events and launch a tumult and churning in my mind,...

Dried "VEGETABLE FLAKES" are nothing to “snicker” at  . . . (I can almost picture your mocking grins and my hand slowly raising itself and getting ready to give you a little slap) … HOW DARE I ?! It’s that stuff you’ve noticed when face-to-face with a vegetable soup that you add boiling water...

PART #2 of the summer series . . . I could go on all summer long with the different condiments like home-made sauerkraut, relish, ketchup & mustard (it’s easy you know) but I’ll be sharing all 4 of those recipes with you next summer, so I can publish other stuff I’m excited about this year… 1 STEP (or 2) AT A...

"GOAL !!!" . . .  9 HOURS to go until the 2016 UEFA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP SOCCER-FOOTBALL FINAL that will designate the winners ! Here in France, they’re chanting « Allez les Bleus» … in Portugal, they’ll be chanting their slogans too « a glorious past, a victorious...

The BIG RETURN … By now, you’ve already accepted it or have been forced to accept it because you no longer have the choice. Back to school for the younger ones (kindergarten, elementary, high school, university) and back to work for us older ones (office work, house work or taking care of your crazy family) . ....

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...

“AS PURE AS THE SNOW-CAPPED PEAKS OF MOUNT OLYMPUS” . . . I’m half-Olympian from my mother’s side. Not an Olympian like a citizen of the city of Olympia in the Peloponnese region of Greece, where the Olympic Games first took place. Nor Olympian like the athletes in the Olympic Games. But rather a half-Olympian (in the...

Do you know exactly what is in your "HOTDOGS" ?! I DO . . . which is why I decided to make these little guys . . . even though it obviously takes some time, all good things do ! 3rd week of JULY, a time when barbecuing can safely begin and continue until AUGUST and maybe mid-SEPTEMBER, if you’re lucky. The...

One week ago today, marked the passing of my dear friends’ father. His initials are "P.K." (of course I called him “uncle” because that’s what Greek kids call their Greek friends’ fathers, blood-ties or not). I’d like to express my sincerest condolences to the family for their deep loss...