Choco Birthday Cake in 10 minutes

This is the easiest birthday cake recipe ever, confided to me by my friend and cakes expert Eleni (whose blog will be ready soon!!!!) . 

500 gms. fresh cream

700-800 gms. Nuttela or Merenda

2 big packets of digestive biscuits. 

In a bowl mix the cream with the Nuttela/Merenda (with a mixer for 5 minutes). Then add the crumbled biscuits. Pour the mix In a medium tin (round or square)  that you have covered with baking sheet.

Put in the freezer for at least 24 hours and then remove the paper to decorate. I brush lukewarm marmelade and then decorate with rolled icing sugar sheets. 

Kids and adults love it! 

Spanakopita (Spinach Pie)*

• 
  
• Filling:
• 500 grms fresh {prewashed} spinach 
• fresh {or dry} dill
• 5 chopped spring onions
• 1 grated onion
• 400 grms feta cheese, crumbled
• 1-2 eggs
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp. milk
• 1 small cup of rice {uncooked}
• salt & pepper

pastry:

4 generous tea-cups of plain flour

olive oil

pinch of salt

lukewarm water

1 tbsp. white/red vinegar

filling:
in a big bowl, mix the washed spinach, the feta,the spring onions, the 2 eggs, the rice,the dill, the grated onion, milk, olive oil, salt & pepper, and milk.

leave aside.

prepare the pastry:

in a bowl add the flour, and gradually add lukewarm water, vinegar, a pinch of salt and olive oil until you have a smooth and easy to work dough ball. Add flour on the work-top to roll the pastry.

Divide the dough in two parts making sure the one is a bit bigger as you will use it for the base of the pie.

each fillo/sheet pastry should be 0,5-1 cm thick.

in a tray that you have brushed with olive oil, you place the first sheet of pastry making sure the pastry is high around the edges. 

pour in the spinach filling and then add on top the second sheet of pastry connecting it to the base pastry and folding it around.

get rid of excess pastry.

with a sharp knife (do not cut deep) but mark the lines vertically and horizontally of the slices so that when it is baked you can cut it easier.

put in the oven in 180degrees for 40-45 minutes until golden brown.

make sure the base is baked.

easy peasy




  

VIOGRAFIES premiera

"Remember tonight.. for it is the beginning of always.”

This week is a special one for it saw the launch of my new project and sister-soul-soul-sister to the blog: it is called Viografies and you can follow it from now on in www.viografies.com and in Facebook.

For the inaugural portrait I travelled to bella Italia to witness first hand the creative outcome of a family affair: brothers, architects and product designers Pio and Tito Toso welcome us into their home, studio, life,and ideas in Treviso.

You can read their full interview here.

When I asked them which are the design objects they wished they had designed themselves, here is what they put in their wish list:

Pio & Tito Toso's Wish List:

* Parentesi designed by Achille Castiglioni and Pio Manzu for Flos: for the innovative design, simplicity, and purity of an idea that remains absolutely intact when taking shape.

* Eros series of tables designed by Angelo Mangiarotti for Agape: for the wise use of materials combined with a balance of forces which create marble tables with seamless joints.

* TS522 Radio Cubo designed by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper for Brionvega: for the synthesis of form and function.

Kalimera!

Lentils from Eglouvi, Lefkada/ Φακές από την Εγκλουβή Λευκάδας

The high nutritional value of the lentils from Eglouvi, a  village on the island of Lefkada in Greece, is explained in depth here. 

And below, I am sharing with you the recipe passed on to my dear mother by her own mother, who in turn got it from her own one, and so on and so forth, up until the platinum chain of handing over the precious information from generation to generation and from pot to pot leaves one sole element intact: the multi-coloured, gem-like grace of this humble seed floating on the ethereal, liquid transparency of filtered Irish H2O streaming from my tap. 

Be easy on the garlic (my granny used to put 12 garlic cloves in the pot for extra-challenging breath!)

for 4 people:

2 cups of lentils (from Eglouvi if you are lucky)

1 grated onion

3-4 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves

oregano

salt & pepper

1/2 glass of olive oil

1 sp. of tomato paste

1 vegetable stock
2-3 peeled potatoes (optional)
vinegar

Boil the lentils, strain and put back in the pot with water and all the ingredients except the olive oil, in medium heat. When the soup starts to boil add the olive oil and the stock. Taste it to see if it needs more salt. If it is getting thick add water.

30-40 minutes later, when the lentils are velvety and soft, sprinkle a bit of vinegar and serve with feta cheese and bread. 

Our Birthday, your present

BabogMoro turned 2 last August and we are dancing inside and out.  To celebrate, we are giving away  a vintage reccord of traditional Irish music released in 1963 and found in Charlie Byrnes Bookshop amazing reccords collection. A real rare find!

For your chance to learn what Irish jigs and reels are all about and win the reccord, follow these steps:

1. LIKE the BabogMoro facebook page here.

2. LIKE and share this photo here on your facebook page.

3. Tell us who your favourite Irish musician/band/singer is in a comment under this photo.

The Giveaway will be active up until the 30th of October 2013 at midnight. Double entries will be automatically ineligible. The winner will  be announced on the BabogMoro facebook page.

Τον περασμένο Αύγουστο, το BabogMoro έγινε δύο χρόνων και χορεύουμε μέσα κι έξω. Για να γιορτάσουμε, σας δίνουμε δώρο έναν δίσκο του 1963 με παραδοσιακή Ιρλανδική μουσική που βρήκαμε στην υπέροχη συλλογή του βιβλιοπωλείου Τσάρλυ Μπέρνς. Σπάνιο εύρημα!

Για να μάθετε τι σημαίνουν τα Ιρλανδικά "τζιγκς" και "ριλς," και για να κερδίσετε τον δίσκο, ακολουθήστε τα παρακάτω βήματα:

1. Κάντε LIKE στη σελίδα του BabogMoro στο facebook εδώ.

2. Κάνε LIKE και public share τη φωτογραφία που θα βρείς εδώ.

3. Πες μας σε σχόλιο σου κάτω από αυτή τη φωτογραφία, ποιός/α είναι ο/η αγαπημένος/η σου μουσικός/γρουπ/τραγουδιστής από την Ιρλανδία.

Ο διαγωνισμός θα είναι ενεργός μέχρι τις 30 Οκτωβρίου 2013 τα μεσάνυχτα. Οι διπλές συμμετοχές θα ακυρώνονται αυτόματα. Ο/η νικητής/τρια, θα ανακοινωθεί στη σελίδα του BabogMoro στο facebook.

Good luck!

Καλή Επιτυχία!

Luck Maith!

Summer wedding in Deutschland

Für mich, soll's rote Rosen regnen,
mir sollten ganz neue Wunder begegnen.
Mich fern, von altem Neu entfalten,
von dem was erwartet, das meiste halten.
Ich will..., Ich will...!

Happy reflections from a happy day.

From the Edinburgh days, striving to crack hard-nut Derrida, talking about Rilke, Tsanaklidou, and that cathartic melody of Jenseits der Stille on Sundays, to our "holiday exchange programme" between Berlin & Bassy after hours, Athens & Decadence, to the here and now. And the ever after.

For E & G the first song still reverberates in my ears.

xoxoxo

From Dusseldorf to Coesfeld

''The foolish race of mankind /Are swarming below in the night; /They shriek and rage and quarrel— 

And all of them are right.''

                                                                                                                             Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)

Well into the middle of the summer and heavily pregnant, we flew to Germany for a very happy occasion, the wedding of my good friend Eva to Guillaume. First stop, vibrant Dusseldorf, then picturesque Coesfeld. A new life is about to emerge from within me, a young couple set off to become one through marriage and I insist on taking pictures of octogenarians. The full circle of life... 

With the social and political upheavals tormenting Greece at the moment, Heine's elegiac tone sums up the prevailing sense of a let down with democracy at work today and a disgust with "the foolish race of humankind." 

Pray 

think

resist 

&

act

ps: happier reflections to follow.

  

Penne con il pesce spada-Penne with Swordfish

1. 1/4 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2. 1 pound swordfish steak, about 1 inch thick
3. salt to taste
4. 1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
5. 3 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
6. 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
7. chopped chilli
8. 3/4 pound penne

1. A recipe by the inspiring cook and host migliora signora Paola who can turn any dull vegetable or ingredient into a masterpiece. Paola hosted a cena grande in her home in Treviso accompanied by plenty of white wine, seafood and antipasti. Grazie mille P!
2. In a large nonstick frying pan, heat a bit of oil over moderate heat. Sprinkle the swordfish with some of the salt and the pepper. Add the fish to the pan and cook for 4-6 minutes. Turn and cook until the fish is just done, 2 to 3 minutes longer. Remove. When the fish is cool enough to handle, cut it into 1-inch cubes.
3. Wipe out the pan. Add the remaining 1/4 cup oil to the pan and heat over moderately low heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in 1/4 cup of the parsley and remove the pan from the heat.
4. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the penne until just done, about 13 minutes. Drain and toss with the swordfish, the garlic-and-parsley oil, the chilli, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.