Tarator

Tarator 

(cold soup)

~time to prepare 10 min~

Ingredients:

• Cucumbers 1-2
• Yogurt
• Water
• Salt
• Garlic
• Dill

How to prepare:

1. Pour the yogurt into a bowl. Add some water and mix well till you achieve the desired consistency – depending on taste.
2. Wash and peel the cucumbers, chop into small cubes and add to the mix.
3. Add salt to your taste and one or two cloves of garlic pressed, finely diced or minced.
4. Add the washed and diced dill to the mix. Pour a couple of drops of olive oil and mix well.
5. Leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours for best results.

Potato Soup with Feta Cheese

Potato Soup with Feta Cheese

(cooking time between 30 and 45 minutes)

• Feta cheese – 300 gr
• Spring onions – 2-3 sprigs
• Parsley – 7-8 sprigs
• Salt – 1 pinch

Put one liter of water to boil. Add the potatoes cut in two. When they are boiled add the chopped spring onions.  After a couple of minutes add the crumbled feta cheese, a pinch of salt and the chopped parsley. Put the lid on the pot and take off the stove.

For best results use Bulgarian sheep feta cheese. Second choice Bulgarian cow feta cheese.

If you are out of luck Greek feta can do.

My fruit day

Every month I have a day when I eat only fruit and drink fruit juice or a fruit smoothie (no dairy products – just fruit). I believe that helps me clean my body from the toxins because the next day I feel like new. Try it.

Simple Fish Soup

Ingredients:

• Fish
• Carrot
• Celery
• Black Pepper
• Spring onion
• Parsley
•  Salt

Preparation:

Cut the vegetables (carrot, potato and celery) into pieces and boil with the fish in pot for about 20 minutes. Add the spring onion and boil for another 5 minutes. Add the black pepper, salt and parsley and cut off the heat.

Lamb soup for the soul

Lamb soup

Ingredients:

500 – 600 gr       Lamb (neck)

100 gr                   Vermicelli

1 tablespoon     Paprika

1 tablespoon      Thyme

1 tablespoon      Parsley

Salt depending on taste

Preparation

Boil the meat until it separates from the bones.

When it is ready take the meat out of the pot and put the vermicelli in the broth.

While the vermicelli is simmering separate the meat from the bones, cut it into small pieces and return to the pot. Add salt to taste.

Take the paprika and infuse it with the broth (see the video on how to do that).

At the end add the finely chopped thyme and parsley, put the lid back on the pot and switch off the heat.

Ingredients:

500 – 600 gr       Lamb (neck)

100 gr                   Vermicelli

1 tablespoon     Paprika

1 tablespoon      Thyme

1 tablespoon      Parsley

Salt depending on taste

Preparation

Boil the meat until it separates from the bones.

When it is ready take the meat out of the pot and put the vermicelli in the broth.

While the vermicelli is simmering separate the meat from the bones, cut it into small pieces and return to the pot. Add salt to taste.

Take the paprika and infuse it with the broth (see the video on how to do that).

At the end add the finely chopped thyme and parsley, put the lid back on the pot and switch off the heat.

Bon appetite

Pumpkin (or apples) stuffed with dried fruit.

Pumpkin (or apples) stuffed with dried fruit

Ingredients:

1 pumpkin (or if you don’t like pumpkin – 5 apples)

2 – 3 tablespoons  of dried apricots, blueberries and cranberries (each)

2 – 3 tablespoons of various nuts

3 – 4 tablespoons of honey – depends on the size of the pumpkin – if you chose apples – one tablespoon per each apple

3 – 4 tablespoons of butter – again one tablespoon per apple if that is the case

Instructions:

Cut a lid from the pumpkin with the handle (the same for the apples)

Clean the seed from the pumpkin (or the apples)

Put all dried fruit in a bowl and pour then into the pumpkin (distribute evenly for the apples)

Spread the crushed nuts on top

Last put the butter (for the apples 1 tablespoon per apple)

Put the lid back on the pumpkin and put it in a baking tray (or arrange the apples) with half a cup of water.

Bake on moderate around 30 – 40 minutes – depending on the oven.

Take out of the oven and after it has cooled down cut as you would a cake and serve (the apples can be served whole).

Bon appetite

I'm back!

I want to apologize to the followers of my blog for my long absence. The reason is that in the beginning of September 2019 we decided that we have to change something in our lives and that something was to move to another country. We chose Australia to be closer to our boys who live there. That’s when the chaos started – quitting jobs, buying tickets, sorting out our stuff in three unmanageable piles – one to be sent by ship, another to be with us on the plane and a third to be donated or thrown away.  We made the move at the end of September. Ultimately, it appeared that we have organised our move quite well and my former super boss also helped as much as he could. Our younger son met us at the airport, we bought sim cards for the phones and went to his apartment to leave our luggage and then to a restaurant with the boys and their partners for a welcome celebration.

I was very happy when we came back from the restaurant and enthusiastically opened the laptop to look for a place to stay – the best solution being us in the same town but not under the same roof. I liked an apartment and entered the address in my phone for directions. The next morning, I woke up before everyone else showered and go ready to go and see the place. The phone said we had to go to La Trobe St and take tram number 30. We got out on the street and turned left. We walked for some time – my phone lost connection to the internet perhaps the new sim wasn’t working but be believed the other phone might still connect and take us to the place. We walked till our feet ached but saw neither the street nor tram number 30. We stopped to order Uber but unfortunately the other phone had no connection too.  Desperate we decided to turn left and try to return home – we have missed the appointment to see the apartment. As some say – desperation leads to success. After a block or two we saw a tram – a different number – 1 and reckoned that it may take us home. The map in the tram assured us that will be the case. When we told our kids about our adventures, they laughed a lot and said that we should have turned right from the time we came out of the building and the tram stop was just a minute away. Now, three months after that, we still live near La Trobe St and every time I pass through that street, I remember with a smile our initial confusion. But that how life is – it sometimes serves you something you didn’t want but will later turn into a happy memory.

Happy New 2020! I wish you all peace, happiness, health. Let it be bountiful like the autumn and you be strong and unstoppable like the sea in winter!

To sweeten your soul, I start publishing recipes.

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

Pastry

Grated pumpkin

Sugar

Chopped walnuts

Olive oil or butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C

2. Take a sheet of pastry and roll in it 3 spoons of grated pumpkin, 1 spoon of sugar, 1 spoon of chopped walnuts and one spoon of butter or olive oil.

3. Arrange the rolls in a buttered or oiled baking pan. Spray the rolls with olive oil and bake in an oven until golden.

4. After that cut the rolls in rectangular pieces and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Enjoy!