Get back to real food! These are recipes for the “do it yourself” crowd, and those who want to try out the old-fashioned way of doing things. Have fun!
I have to admit, I’m both saddened and embarassed at the amount of vegetable scraps that I have let go to waste in my lifetime. They deserved so much more respect than I gave them. Yes, scraps.
Continue reading Vegetable Scrap Broth
Perhaps you already know the Greek mythological story of how the goddess Persephone was tricked into staying in the underworld by the god Hades by being tempted with pomegranate. Honestly, I can’t blame her.
Continue reading Pomegranate Molasses & Syrup (Grenadine)
One of the greatest things about the World Wide Web is that it allows for fortuitous discoveries to be made in a matter of seconds with just a few keystrokes. This “cheese” happened to be just that for me.
Continue reading Caramelized “Sour” Whey
I have finally accepted the fact that I will never be able to grow sugar maple trees to make my own maple syrup because of the climate here. But I live in grape growing country. So there.
Continue reading Petimezi (Greek Grape Molasses)
One of the worst things about bloggers on the internet is how frequently “information” is copied and pasted from one site to the next with zero thought put into ensuring that this so-called information is good. I solemnly swear I won’t do that to you.
Continue reading Homemade Dried Mizithra Cheese
Having a go-to pastry recipe is kind of like having that one pair of shoes that can work for multiple occasions: everybody needs one.
Continue reading Chilean Style Empanada Dough
No, I don’t live on some isolated homestead. Yes, I could easily go to the store and buy some lard. No, I don’t want to because making your own is easy enough to do, and why not save money and reduce waste in the process?
Continue reading Rendered Fat (Tallow, Lard, and Schmaltz)
So maybe you planted some cucumbers and now you’re realizing how many cukes those vines can churn out in a season and you’re wondering what the heck to do with them all. Once again, I’m here to help!
Continue reading Easy, No-Waste, Homemade Dill Pickles
I consider myself to be a fairly serious kitchen DIY-er. I enjoy learning about a food’s history and recreating it in my kitchen. But then there’s that whole time thing.
Continue reading Quick & Easy Mizithra (Greek Ricotta)
To make good food you need the right ingredients. Sometimes the right ingredients will seem to be so so wrong.
Continue reading Fermented Whole Cabbage Heads
If you’re from the West Coast, you likely know about mizithra cheese from The Old Spaghetti Factory’s browned butter and mizithra cheese pasta (which is really good). What you may not know is that this cheese has a history that goes back thousands of years. That should tell you how easy it is to make if ancient Greeks could do so without modern kitchens!
Continue reading Homemade Traditional Mizithra Cheese
Don’t be fooled by those beautiful pictures of artfully created pies on Pinterest. They are FAKE!!! Have you ever noticed that they never show them after they are baked?
Continue reading Perfect Pie Dough
Every year, millions of pounds of pumpkin gets tossed into the garbage. It’s a massacre of epic proportions and the saddest thing of all is that it doesn’t have to happen. Don’t listen to the lies!!!
Continue reading Don’t Toss That Pumpkin!!
It was sometime in the early 90’s, with some people I don’t remember, at a restaurant somewhere in Berkeley. Alcohol may be responsible for the vague memory. Shhhh… don’t tell my mom.
Continue reading Blue Cheese Salad Dressing
Who picked a peck of pickled peppers? I did! Except I honestly don’t know how much a peck is. I think it might be a lot.
Continue reading Pickled Banana Peppers
If the original creator of pesto was still alive, it would be on my bucket list to find them and give them a long, garlicky kiss of thanks. I owe the quality of my gastronomic life to that person.
I have come to realize that so many of the foods I was **ahem** “not fond of” were ones that started with less than fresh ingredients. Count dolmades, a Greek delicacy made with grape leaves, as one of them.
Continue reading Harvesting Grape Leaves
My parents have fruit trees. They are prolific producers. We have fruit trees. They, too, are prolific producers. Great! Not so fast.
Continue reading Fruit “Leather”
Okay, you know I can HEAR you rolling your eyes. Yes, I bother to make my own nut butter for two very good reasons: 1) control of my ingredients, 2) I’m tired of fighting with jars of stiff peanut butter and having the jar win.
Continue reading Homemade Peanut Butter
A few years ago I was doing some last minute birthday shopping for the Old Man at a local hardware supply store. Lo and behold, I stumbled across something I knew he would want (like, really want): a Kalamata olive tree.
Continue reading Kalamata-Style Home Cured Olives
Mostly Greek 