Last year, one of the stops during my vacation to Greece was to Kastoria. Kastoria is the capital city of the Prefecture of…Kastoria. It’s located in northern Greece, northwestern Macedonia. This region of Greece is located on fertile, elevated plateaus and the economy is centered around its long history of fur trading, tourism and agriculture. [...]

Greek cuisine is full of vegetarian main options and many of those being main courses that are filling, nutritious and delicious. It’s Spring and herbs are abundant at the markets and in some of your herb gardens. The main ingredient of this one-pot dish are flat, runner or pole beans. Fassolakia. These flat beans are [...]

I’m not sure which ingredient is the star here – the Halloumi cheese or this dressing made primarly of processed Kalamata olives? The Kalamata olive is best known as topping the famous Greek or Horiatiki salad. The Halloumi cheese, born in Cyprus, enjoyed equally throughout the Middle East and gaining new fans around the world. [...]

A couple of weekends ago, when I was shopping for some last minutes groceries for Easter, I had met and chatted with a gent who was obviously a senior citizen. I allowed him to be served before me and the man kindly refused. The man with him interjected and asked me to ask how old [...]

As a convenience to the many readers of this blog, I’ve amassed all the Lenten (and Lent-friendly) dishes that I have posted thus far. Most of the dishes are Greek and appropriate for Lent and others are foreign but due to their ingredients, they fit in nicely with the Greek Lent in which us Greeks [...]

Packages, surprises, bundles are all still welcome in this fickle world. Take the time to stop and enjoy the simpler things in life, including food. Serving little surprises are most welcome and they are usually met with a positive reaction from your dinner guests.Today we’re stuffing pasta shells. You know, the jumbo shells…the bigger the [...]

Here’s a wonderful dish that’s suitable for Lent, works as a side dish or served with seafood or fish. You get to pick how you want this dish to appear on your table.  Kritharaki is what us Greeks call orzo. Kritharaki is a rice shaped pasta that should be treated as such. Do not add [...]

What if I told you that there’s a dish that you can make at home (affordably), be transported into an Italian home and taste authentically Italian? You with me? What if that dish was also vegetarian but was as filling as a meat dish? Look no further than Eggplant Parmesan. This recipe comes to you [...]

One of these days, I’m going to go to Greece when the olive harvest takes place in autumn. Olives can be found all over Greece and as if taunting me, I pass by the idle olive oil cooperative in the town where our summer home in Halkidiki is. All over Greece, farmers and families with [...]

Some of you might remember my post with the classic Bouyiourdi with tomatoes, peppers and cheese – baked until everything melds together and awaits your anxious dipping of thy crusty bread. This spin on Bouyiourdi will also satisfy those who love the act of dunking bread into food. Those of you who like the whole [...]