Greek = Better, Baby

         Today is Greek Independence Day!

         Απ’ τα κόκκαλα βγαλμένη

των Ελλήνων τα ιερά,

και σαν πρώτα ανδρειωμένη,

χαίρε, ω χαίρε, Ελευθεριά

We sing special songs in Church, light candles and pray in memory of those who fought for the right to call themselves free (I was struck, writing this, at how we are united across the world by this fight). And then there is a big parade downtown. Lots of flags, traditional music, and people dancing in the streets, its a joy to see!

my (second) cousins, dressed in traditional regalia

And one of the best things about being greek? Loukoumades. Greek honey balls, or doughnuts. Just saying the word makes me drool. Little balls of fried sweet dough drenched in honey, cinnamon, and sesame seeds = best dessert in the world. And from what I understand, they eat it every day as part of their breakfast over in the motherland. How awesome is that??? And because I love you guys so much, I will share this most secret recipe (that Im sure you can find hundreds of variation to online lol) and hope it puts you in the mood to shout OPA!

Ingredients
180 g all purpose flour
100 gr whole wheat flour
1 cup milk

2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of dry yeast
Vegetable oil for frying
Honey
Cinnamon

Sesame Seeds


Directions

Heat the milk slightly, just to get it warm and dissolve sugar and salt in it. Add yeast and stir with a spoon. Slowly add the flour and continue stirring.

Preheat the oven just for a minute and turn it off. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it rise inside the oven for an hour.The dough will rise and draw bubbles on the surface.

Use a pan and heat the oil over medium heat. There must be plenty of oil because we are going to deep fry the donuts. When the oil is heated, we use a wet spoon to get some dough and we use another wet spoon to slide the dough into the oil. The secret for this recipe is that you have to turn around the donuts frequently and you must not fill the pot with too many donuts. Just few at a time. 

When they golden brown, remove them and let them drain on a paper towel. Transfer the donuts to a plate, shake some cinnamon, and drizzle with warm honey. Add some sesame seeds and serve (or eat the whole thing yourself)!



Pain Dore aux Bananes

When I was younger, french toast (pain dore rather) was a treat we only got maybe once every month or two, and always on Sundays. My mother didn't mess around with all the fancy versions and did a straight-up, old-school white bread dipped in egg drenched in syrup type of french toast, and that was the way we loved it. Now, as an adult, I've been experimenting and tasting a ton of different styles of french toast: peanut butter and jelly, whole wheat honey, stuffed cream cheese and strawberries, maple glazed, you name it, its been made. And probably tastes delicious. But this, to me, is my all time favorite winner of the french toast category. Et ca adonne, because I always have either frozen banana bread, or 20 frozen bananas in my freezer, waiting to be made into bread.

This is the banana bread recipe that I found worked best with french toast. The result is a much lighter and fluffier bread than usual, a bit more like a cake than the typically dense bread. This recipe is something that I reserve exclusively for french toast, because it is far from my usual recipe (think brown sugar, whole wheat flour, roasted bananas and roasted pecans).

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup mashed bananas (that's about 3 medium, for me)
1 egg
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk

Preparation
1.	In a large bowl, beat the butter into a creamy texture.
2.	Add sugar and mashed bananas. Mix well.
3.	Add the egg and continue mixing. Mix dry ingredients separately.
4.	Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients with small amounts of buttermilk until all ingredients are combined.
5.	Pour into a greased and floured 9 x 5 loaf pan
6.	Bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for approximately 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean in the middle. Now that you have made your banana bread, its time to make it into french toast. Half a loaf is more than enough for two people, so when I freeze this, I cut it into two. Make sure it is completely defrosted before making it. Egg Mixture (for 5 slices/2 people) 2 eggs 1 tsp of honey (warm it up for 10 seconds) 1.5 tsp of cinnamon splash of milk Mix that all together in a bowl. Next melt some butter in a pan. When that is done, dip the bread into the egg mixture, giving it a couple seconds on each side to make sure it is really soaking, and fry in the pan until golden on each side. When I'm feeling whimsical or when I'm serving this to guests, I sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar, and slice strawberries and fresh bananas in a pattern on the top. Serve with maple syrup. And ladies, please, do yourselves and your taste buds a favor and go with real 100% pure maple syrup. None of that Aunt Jemima crap. It really is worth it. Felt too lazy to do the pattern thing.

Zucchini and Lemon Cake - A (messy) photo essay

I have written already about how much my childhood came into play when it came to my love of food. It would only be logical that I have an intense desire to pass on this love in the same way to my children, and since there is a lack so far thereof, my kiddies. That would be the kids that are in my class at the daycare.

Cooking has got to be one of the activities that keeps their (minute) attention focused the longest. They eat this stuff up, literally. Haha I'm so funny. Ahem. Some of these kids have cooked a few times with mama at home, but most have never seen a whisk at work, never mind stirring it themselves. Which is ridiculous, because cooking touches upon so many developmental stages that are necessary for children. Things like math, science, gross and fine motor, language and social skills ARE ALL DEVELOPED IN ONE ACTIVITY. An educator's dream, really. Which is why I don't understand why people don't do it more often.

But anyways, when I cook with my kiddies, I try to make things that they've never eaten before. Luckily for me, that usually falls into the realm of vegetables and fruits. Zucchini and lemon were most definetly a weird thing to eat, and this recipe was so fun to make. Take a look!

Grating. Supervision recquired.

Stirring the dry ingredients.

The easiest way to add ingredients is using pre-measured baggies. Trust me.

More whisking!

Are you sure we can eat this?

Adding zucchini with concentration.

Adding lemon zest

Unnapetizing before, oh-so-tasty after!

THIS IS SO EXCITING!

SUCCESS!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (2 medium)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup apple sauce (might need a little more)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used half white hald whole wheat)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• zest from one lemon, plus juice from half (I let the kids taste the other half.. HAHAHAHA)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan.
2. In a bowl, beat together the honey, egg, and apple sauce. Fold in the zucchini. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon. Stir in the zest and juice. Stir the flour mixture into the zucchini mixture just until blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from heat, and cool about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Side note: If I were going to make this for adults, I would have added a glaze of 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice. Boil till sugar is disolved, then when cake has cooled for 10 minutes, apply with brush without poking holes on the top. Keep reapplying until absorbed.