Pastitsio with vegetables and rigatoni

What a delicious dish to offer to the family!! Pastitsio is one of our favourite dishes although I don't cook it every week because it is high in calories... Personally, what makes me such a big fan of pastitsio is the luscious béchamel sauce on top. I remember when I was a kid pleading to my mother to make a little bit more béchamel than the quantity she would need so to have the chance to eat it with the spoon from the saucepan! Here we have a different version thanks to the addition of the bacon and the vegetables and although the classic pastitsio remains always my favourite this one came out very tasty, hearty and filling

Potato, bacon and caramelised onions salad with yoghurt and mustard dressing

An easy potato salad for all seasons which can also be served as a side dish or as a light meal besides as a classic salad. The red onions and the bacon (of course!) make the difference and the yoghurt-based dressing gives this nice refreshing touch to the dish. I said "all seasons" and I mean it because it can be eaten even cold during the Summer months

Mixed raisins and Aegina pistachios biscuits scented with ouzo and fennel

Semi crunchy, lightly sweet and very aromatic, thanks to the fennel seeds, these cuties are really delicious! These biscuits (or cookies for the Americans) are ideal to have as a sweet snack or with your tea, coffee or even with milk! An all-seasons little sweet treat which both adults and children can enjoy anytime during the day

Crunchy sausage rolls with beer and three-cheeses creamy sauce - A Greek-style Fondue to share!

This is the kind of recipe that brings people together. A recipe to share with friends and family which is something we (the Greeks) love to do, hence the soooo large variety of meze dishes... It is one of my favourite "fun foods" because there are so many elements in it that suit my palate in the best way! It's the sausages I prefer for such recipes and then we have the creamy sauce which I love regardless the type of cheese used! Sausage rolls (or pies as we call them) in Greece are different than those they make in the UK. Large or the cocktail size of Frankfurt sausages (as they are commonly known in Greece) are used and not sausage meat, which makes me hesitant about them since I often find that the sausage meat is too greasy for my taste. To be fair, because of the type of the recipe today, sausage meat would not be the right choice anyway. Try out this recipe next time you have friends invited and see that you'll enjoy their company even more! *** You can always replace the bread with puff pastry and if you like them with an extra kick then lightly brush the sausages with a bit of mustard before wrapping

Potted pork with root vegetables in avgolemono sauce

One more "comfort food" recipe to enjoy with the family before Winter waves us goodbye for this year! Tender pork cooked with various root vegetables and smothered in the famous Greek egg & lemon sauce, the avgolemono! This version is slightly different than the traditional one where only celery or celery and leeks are involved. Here we have more vegetables and the beautiful and delicate flavour of fennel seeds. As usually happens with this kind of Greek recipes, don't neglect to serve the food along with good quality feta cheese and plenty of fresh country-style bread to mop up the creamy sauce!

Fast and easy chocolate mousse scented with Tia Maria liqueur

A chocolate mousse is always welcomed regardless the season and it is a nice way to finish a dinner. This luscious mousse is a rather fast and easy recipe to prepare for your guests since not more than 15-20 minutes are needed of your time. There is nothing extraordinary about this recipe but just a couple of tablespoons of the Tia Maria liqueur are enough to make all the difference, giving a subtle flavour of coffee to the mousse