My Online Cooking Friends - French Fridays with Dorie

Saturday, January 12, 2013



A few months ago, when I wrote my first post for the French Fridays with Dorie online cooking group, I was definitely very excited, a bit scared and to tell you the truth did not expect very much. It sure sounded like a very nice way to promote my infant blog, get traffic and hopefully, comments and cook some delicious sounding French recipes from Dorie Greenspans' "Around my French Table" which by the way is the biggest, heaviest cookbook I own!!

As the Fridays came and went my shy fascination with the group grow bigger and bolder! I started reading the other participants' blogs regularly and commented on their posts not just to get their reciprocal comment. I was eager and see how they prepared the dish, their thoughts about the recipe and how they might have adapted it to suit their and their family's pallets.

I must confess my feelings where not always on the noble side (I'm only human and a highly flawed one as a matter of fact...). I envied the beautiful photographs, the inspired writing and ability to manage a household full of people and pets and still be able to cook, photograph and post about it. Some people are blessed and born with special talents but still have to work really hard like the rest of us do to get to a place above our current self. If this is done for something that you love then the process is not as difficult as it sounds but really very fulfilling. And anyway this was not a race nor a contest. It was an opportunity to meet people who shared the same passion, learn from their experiences, their mistakes, and mine, without judgement and if anything with a lot of encouragement and positive energy. 

I studied Liz's, Patty's, Andrea's, Trevor's, Paula's, Maya's, Elaine's mouthwatering photographs. I got inspired by Mardi's, Mary's, Maggie's, Betsy's, Sara's beautiful writing. I related and laughed with Cher's, Alice's, Kathy's, Candy's, Guyla's, Nana's & Tricia's, Jora's, Teresa's everyday cooking adventures. I know I'm only mentioning a few of the wonderful people who participate in this cooking adventure. You have to forgive me, my literary skills are not advanced enough to mention every one without making this post look like a directory page. 

This Christmas time something really magical happened. Thanks to Alice's idea and flawless organisation (I have already proposed to her to move to Greece and have a go in organising our government!) cards started flying in from all over the world. Christmas cards with wishes and messages and favourite recipes from the members of our wonderful little online kitchen. It felt like Christmas morning every time I received a new one. A surge of excitement to see who it was from, and then gratitude and affection when I read the joyful messages full of wishes and words of encouragement. I just hope that my cards brought them the same joy and "childish" excitement, their's brought me!

Thank you all for making this past Christmas season a very special one!!!

As for this Friday's recipe, I have yet to see how my Long and Slow Apples look like! They have been stewing in the oven there for the past 3 hours! But I don't worry. As with many, if not all of Dorie's recipes, I am sure they will turn out tasting delicious. If their appearance is somewhat funny then this is completely my fault! I am going to enjoy them any way! 

Please visit our French Fridays with Dorie homepage to see how my online cooking friends have prepared this extra special recipe!



The # 99

Tuesday, January 1, 2013


Firstly....a wish....

Happy New Year! I wish that all your wishes come true in the new year! Abundance of health, love and friends and a shortage of tears and pain.

Secondly... an explanation for my absence and the title...

It's been a long time since my last post. Almost a month without cooking nor baking nor photographing. I wanted to march into the kitchen and bake cookies and bunt cakes, roast some vegetables and mix a fresh salad, alas time, my biggest enemy it seems, showed no compassion and rejected my eagerness. Seeing the number of the feeds reaching my Google Reader from my favourite blogs increasing every day without me being able to read them, let alone comment and write something of my own, had the most frustrating effect on me. While I was in Zagreb, time was my friend, a very generous friend it now seems. Life was not very complicated, gym in the morning, shopping for groceries, cooking lunch and dinner writing, reading, the occasional painting class, no traffic jams, no strikes...
It sounds nice and relaxed? Well it was, only  I did not appreciate it at the time. I remember myself complaining about being bored and uninspired. How ungrateful was I? But sure enough I got what I deserved. Time punished me by making himself unmanageable. But maybe he made me unable to manage him any more. Most of the times I find myself running from the gym to the school and then back home. I'm always in a bus or on a train going to some place from which I have to rush out again to go somewhere else. This is how it is in big cities like Athens. I know I shouldn't complain I should sit down and make a plan and re-organise my priorities. New Year's resolution? Maybe! I also want to start driving lessons so I have to incorporate this into my schedule somehow!
Whatever my issues with time are I have a whole year in front of me to solve them. It's promising that I started writing on the first day of the New Year isn't it?

Anyway, about the tittle...
This is my 99th post! Hooray for me and my Box of Stolen Socks!! 
It is customary off course to write a 'sum-it-all-up', 'greatest-moments' post when you reach 100. Well as those who read my ramblings and put up with my grammar mistakes, know, I am not a lot for custom. I like #99 better than #100. To me #99 seems mystical  and  utterly promising. So, instead of a 'sum-it-all-up, 'greatest-moments' 100th post, I am going to dedicate my #99 to a woman who left this world 3 years short of her 99th birthday; Georgie's grandmother, the woman who raised and formed his wonderful character and who decided to make a quiet exit just before Christmas.
Unfortunately I did not get to meet the real Evagelia. By the time I entered her life her perception of our world was severely altered by the fog of Alzheimer's disease which fell like a heavy blanket on her beautiful mind. I met a kind, innocent human being, the way we all are before we get corrupted by the absurdity and maliciousness of our world. A baby in an aged body, who held my hand every time the doctor came and smacked her lips with -what I thought was-  delight every time she tasted the cakes I baked. Rest in  peace dear Granny and don't worry we both got your message :)

And thirdly... a promise... to you, friends I know and friends I have yet to meet.

I will try to write more, read more blogs and feature them in mine. Publish the stories behind the ashtrays you have given me over the years and be honest about it. Taste more wine and write, without fear of judgement. I am a novice but we all have to start somewhere. I DO want you to be part of my learning process, my online homework diary, lets say. And please, please, write to me, tell me that you disagree or even that you agree with what I write, I expect your advice and help.

In closing something I found on Facebook


2013 is so young and full of potential. If you are willing to do the work, you will see your dreams unfold into reality.

Happy New Year to everyone.