The two best cooks I'll ever know....

My inspiration to learn how to cook is driven by the two greatest cooks I know - my yiayia (greek grandma) and nonna (italian grandma). Both are amazing cooks in their own special ways.

I was named after my yiayia but unfortunately did not inherit her incredible cooking skills. This woman can cook anything, but especially nails the sweet stuff (cakes, biscuits, Greek sweets etc).

Her pancakes are to die for. I don't know how she does it but she makes them so perfect in size, so fluffy and so tasty!

The best thing about yiayia is that she can watch a cooking show on TV (she watches them all), see a recipe she likes, and make it the next day (without writing down any measurements). To top it off, she gets it right EVERY time. And if she doesn't, she get's creative and puts her own spin on the recipe. I think she really enjoys cooking and whatever she makes is always super tasty. She also tries to be quite healthy due to a kidney transplant she had years ago. She's pretty knowledgeable about nutrition.

 



Yiayia's pancakes



And again...

My nonna on the other hand, never ventures from the norm. She has her set meals and cooks them the same every time. They are amazing. Nonna mainly cooks savoury foods such as pasta, soups and meats. Her pasta sauce makes my heart sing (too bad I realised much of the delicious taste came from her overuse of salt) and her gnocci is the best on this planet. I've helped her make gnocchi many a time and hope to conquer it myself soon. It's a day task though and needs a few assistant chefs.

Nonna also loves the herb rosemary and uses it with chicken, pork and potatoes. She has passed down the love of this herb to me and I use it whenever I can. Another one of nonna's talents is making any veggies taste delicious. Now this is a real talent.

It's her tradition every Christmas to make 'crostoli' which is pretty much deep fried pastry coasted in sugar haha! But it's great and she makes BOXES full of them. This is also a day task where a few of the family are involved, especially now that she's finding it difficult to walk. That's why I love my nonna, she is the most determined woman I know.





Nonna's crostoli



I hope I can master the art of cooking like they do one day.....

Turkish for lunch

Blog lesson numero uno: always triple check your spelling. Apologies for the thousands of typos, I'll try and up my game! Also apologies for the lack of cooking and therefore posts. Between organising a trip to Europe, applying for graduate jobs, working full time, playing sports and seeing friends and family, I have such little time to do anything blog related. Worst. Finally, apologies for the super crap photos! I don't know what went wrong this time!

A couple of weekends ago we made lamb pides with beetroot dip for Saturday lunch. It was rather yummy! This recipe served two lovely and happy ladies and two hungry and smelly boys!

Ingredients

Olive oil

500g lamb mince

3 shallots, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

2 lemons (one to serve and the other for below)

       1 teaspoon of finely grated lemon rind

       1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice

3 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

1 x 225g can sliced beetroot, drained

130g (1/2 cup) natural yoghurt

4 Turkish bread rolls

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1. Preheat your oven to 180°C. Heat oil in a pot/pan on medium heat and cook the lamb mince for approximately 3 minutes. I lovvvvee lamb mince.

2. Add the shallot, garlic, tomato paste, lemon rind, lemon juice, cumin and coriander to the mince. Cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until mince is cooked through. Then stir in the mint and set aside to cool slightly.

3. Place the beetroot, yoghurt, some cumin and coriander in a food processor and blend until it's smooth. It turned out pretty runny though...any suggestions to make it thicker? It was still super delish though! (sorry we forgot to take pictures!!)

4. Cut an oval piece from the top of each bread roll to make a shell. Place bread shells on a large baking tray and fill it with the mince.

5. Bake for about 5 minutes and then slice it all up to serve with the beetroot dip and lemon wedges :) It was so yummy! The only problem was the mince kept falling off...maybe if we added a bit of cheese to hold it together it could have worked a bit better! Until next time...

Munch time: For the love of scones

"To master a piece on the piano, learn how to order a glass of wine in Italian, plant a herb garden or make a book case are not world-transforming achievements, in the big romantic sense. But they allow us to be active agents of beauty, grace and order." 

I read this quote the other day in an article about creativity and happiness and it really struck a cord inside. The reason why I made this blog is because it's one of my only creative outlets since finishing uni. I don't care if no one reads it, being creative is FUN and it makes me happy :) So there you go. 

Other things that make me happy include easy recipes and yummy food. These lemonade scones fit both of these criteria so happiness prevails! (Shout out to the lovely Carly for offering her kitchen) 

Would you like to know how to make scones? Well here you are: 

Ingredients 

Lemonade 

Self-raising flour 

Thickened cream 

That's it! Easy! I would give you measurements but in reality, you just guess. I followed a recipe on a website and the dough was too dry so I had to add more cream and lemonade. Just go for it, be creative!! 

How to make 

1. Preheat the oven at 225 degrees. Pour flour into a bowl (easy enough) 

2. Mix lemonade and cream together (still relative easy) 

3. Pour lemonade and cream into flour and mix together. Don't mix it too much though, just until it's all combined. It should be sticky and soft.

4. Lightly flour the bench and roll out the dough to about 3.5cm thick. 

5. Cut the dough into the desired scone shapes and place on a tray. SO I know scones are meant to be round but we didn't have a round cookie cutter. We just used a knife and cut them into squares/squircles.

TIP: Later that night, mum told me that she uses the top of a wine glass! So there you go. She's a thinker. 

6. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes at 225 degrees. 

7. Whip up the cream while you wait, open the jam, let the scones cool and then EAT as many as you want!!! They are delicious. 

FUN FACT: I eat my scones like a sandwich. Yes that is probably a bit odd but I guess that's the way I like it! How do you eat yours?