Melomakarona (Greek Christmas cookies) stuffed with spiced walnuts

This is yet another version of the popular Greek Christmas cookies. Stuffed with walnuts and spices this time and always dipped in honeyed syrup. A version that can be found in various areas of Greece 

Homemade individual breads with paprika

This is a really delicious recipe for bread and one of my favourites! Using the same dough (without the paprika) and rolling thin strips of the dough on sesame seeds or grated cheese, you can also make breadsticks! Then you just bake for 15 minutes to 150ºC and you have a whole new version of the recipe!

Fragrant pumpkin, quinces, potatoes and prunes stew - Delicious side dish for Christmas too!

In its simplicity, because of the ingredients and the cooking procedure, this is really a special stew! It can be served as a main vegetarian dish but also it can accompany various meat and poultry dishes. The old days the housewives used to be prepared for the Winter on time. So, every time they cooked such a dish they only had to open those old-fashioned cotton bags with the fruits they had dried under the sun during the Summer and they chose what they needed. Simple as that really! To give a balance to the sweetness of the pumpkin (or the butternut squash) they chose the sour prunes. In this way, the "stiff" and sub-sour taste of the quince and the tart taste of the apricots were coming to a nice contrast with the pumpkin. Nowadays very few people attempt to prepare their dried fruits at home so we have to buy them at the market where often the variety is rather poor. Especially the sour prunes are indeed a rarity! But this obstacle can be overcome if a bit of lemon is used in the recipe. It is not exactly the same but it is better than nothing. A recipe which can be served at your Christmas table proudly next to the other side dishes of the day to accompany your roast turkey or meat

Baked Greek meatballs on a bed of roasted vegetables

Another delicious recipe with the Greek "keftedes" as the main star, one of the most popular foods around Greece! For less calories this time the meatballs are baked and not fried but believe me they don't lack in taste at all. Along with the roasted vegetables (okay... and some fries) they can become a filling main dish but still you can serve them as an appetizer (meze) to share

Easy carrot, coconut and cardamom truffles

A fast, easy and delicious sweet recipe to enjoy making it as well as eating it! These cute little truffles are a great sweet treat as well as a nice gift idea for the upcoming Festive season. If you are not a big fan of coconut (like me) you can use instead ground almonds or walnuts. In that case, though, you have to replace the lemon zest with orange zest

Crayfish and shrimps with trahana, apples and celery

This is an unusual recipe but special at the same time. Tradition meets modern cooking and you end up with this delicious Winter-time dish for sea food lovers but not only. The star of the recipe, in my opinion, is the "Trahanas". This super filling and nutritious ingredient has been a staple in the Greek cuisine from God knows since when and so many generations have grown up with it. Especially in the old days when a plate full of "trahana soup" was the main (and the only one in many cases) meal of a family! In Greece we, mainly, have two types of trahana, the sweet and the sour