Miniature Plants

Four years ago, I was visiting Netherlands and one of the souvenirs I brought back home were three mini pots, two of them with strawberry seeds and the third with sunflower seeds. The thing is that the instructions were in dutch and I wasn't really sure how to plant and take care of the seeds. They came with some kind of condensed soil that I was supposed to prepare and then plant the seeds, so after a couple of (failed) attempts to read the instructions - no, google translate didn't work as expected- I put them aside and almost forgot about them for a few years. I found them again last month, while I was decluttering a closet and I thought that I should give them a chance, even without instructions. I poured a small amount of tiepid water until the soil actually looked like soil and not like a bar of chocolate! When it got nice and smooth, I planted the seeds and waited -with not much hope, I must admit, because the seeds had expired two years ago!

But I guess nature doesn't know about expiry dates! Here it is, my sunflower seedling! The strawberries haven't showed any signs of life yet, but I'm being optimistic!

Broccoli Au Gratin With Soft Garlic Bread Sticks

As the weather gets colder, my apetite for creamy dishes increases and since this is the best season for fresh broccoli, I decided to prepare an all time classic, easy to make dish: broccoli au gratin. To accompany it, I made some delicious, soft and a bit spicy bread. 

INGREDIENTS FOR BROCCOLI AU GRATIN:

1 Kg fresh broccoli cut into florets (or frozen, if that's all that you have)

3 Tablespoons flour

3 Tablespoons butter

500 ml milk

200 gr yellow cheese (edam, chedar etc)

200 gr hard cheese (parmesan, greek graviera etc)

nutmeg

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven at 180C. Boil the broccoli in salted water  for around 20 minutes until they are soft. If you're using frozen broccoli, cooking time will be diminished to10-15 minutes. Once they are ready, transfer to a colander and drain well until there's no excess water. 

Prepare the bechamel sauce. In a pan melt the butter, add the flour and mix using a whisk. While still whisking, slowly add the milk until you have a soft cream. Remove from heat add the cheese and a pinch of nutmeg. Put the broccoli in a casserole dish and cover them with bechamel. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown. 

INGREDIENTS FOR SOFT BREAD STICKS

550 gr all purpose flour

330 gr water

1 package dry yeast

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon salt

2 Tablespoons butter melted

INGREDIENTS FOR BRUSHING ON TOP

1 Tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

In a bowl pour the water (heated until hot, not boiling), the yeast and the sugar. Let it sit for 5 minutes. In a mixer bowl put the flour and the salt, mix them together. Add the yeast and the melted butter and knead with the dough hook of your mixer for around 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl and give it a square shape. Cut it in half then in 4th, until you have 8-10 sticks. Put the sticks on cooking paper and let them rise for 45-60 minutes, covered with a towel or plastic wrap. Preheat oven at 200C. Bake them for 6 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the brushing. Melt the butter, add the salt and the garlic powder and mix well. Remove the bread from the oven and brush them with the mixture. Bake for another 6 minutes or until lightly browned. 

The original recipe for bread sticks can be found here .

Handmade extra-rich hand cream

Now that the weather got colder, many of us suffer from dry skin and it's not uncommon to experience itching, redness and other annoying symptoms, all due to cold! Today, we'll make a lush hand cream, that will help you battle all the above. Before you go to bed, wash your hands with a mild soap and then apply this all-natural, nourishing cream! If you can bear sleeping with gloves on, that will help even more to make your skin super soft and hydrated. 

Ingedients: (will make approximately one small jar like the one in the photo)

15 gr pure beeswax

2 tablespoons jojoba oil 

8 tablespoons olive oil (or if you prefer it more light go for grapeseed oil)

4 tablespoons water

8-10 drops lavender essential oil (lavander oil is known for its beneficial properties against eczema and similar skin problems)

Water and oils (except the essential oil) need to be warm (not hot!) in order to mix well with the beeswax, so before you do anything else, make sure you have your oils and water in the right temperature. Melt the beeswax in bain marie (double boiler) and when it's almost melted, add the olive oil and the jojoba oil. Whisk for a couple of minutes. 

Remove from heat and start adding the water, tablespoon by tablespoon, while still stirring.  While it's cooling make sure you blend it from time to time, to ensure that the ingredients will not separate. When it's cool enough, add the essential oil. If you add the essential oil when the mix is still hot, this will ruin its scent  and properties and you don't want that to happen. Mix well and it's ready!

Rosemary

The name Rosemary comes from the latin ros marinus and it means "dew of the sea". Rosemary is a very common herb in places near sea water, especially in Mediterranean. It's been used since ages for its therapeutic and cosmetic properties. It is said that Rosemary is one of the ingredients of the elixir of eternal youth, like the one that an alchemist prepared for Elisabeth, queen of Hungary, known as Hungary Water.

MEDICAL PROPERTIES

• Excellent tonic for those who suffer from burnout or chronic fatigue syndrome
• Encourages the production of bile thus aiding digestion
• Helps relieving the symptoms of Bronchitis, Asthma, Flu causing cough and clearing the lungs
• Vision tonic
• Nervous system tonic
• Emmenagogue (induces menstruation)
• Antidiarrheal
• Relieves migraines and headaches caused by stress
• Encourages hair growth
• Relieves vertigo caused by inner ear  problems
• Enchances memory
• Mouthwash for bad breath
• Stimulates brain

HOW TO USE IT:

• Tea: In 300 ml  water add 1-2 spoonfuls of dried rosemary, let it come to boil for a couple of minutes, drink.
• Infusion: in a cup of warm water put a spoonful of dried leaves or flowers and let it steep for 10 minutes
• External use: For stronger and darker hair: put a handful of rosemary dried leaves in 3-5 lt of water, steep for a few hours and use it at the final rinse after washing your hair. Some believe that rosemary stops hair loss. Washing your hair with rosemary water  aids memory.
• Antiseptic: Wash your hands with a rosemary infusion. Burn rosemary to eliminate harmful airborne microorganisms. Burning rosemary and cedar in hospitals  for disinfection purposes was very common.

Be careful when using rosemary if you suffer from hypertension, as it raises blood pressure a bit.

MAGICAL PROPERTIES OF ROSEMARY

One of the strongest protective and banishing herbs, repells negative energies.

If placed under a pillow, it protects from bad dreams and hostile astral entities.

Used in ritual baths for cleansing (make a sachet with rosemary and let it steep in your bathtub for a few minutes).

Used for protection and healing.

Rosemary is a solar herb and as such it has masculine energy.

It is said that rosemary can substitute any herb in a mixture.

Symbol of remembrance. For that reason sometimes it's used in funerals.

A rosemary sprig burned in candle flame was believed to warm a cold heart.

In cooking, rosemary goes nicely with fish and pork dishes

A Natural, Super Easy, Delicious Body Scrub For The Weekend!

Since it's getting really hot here in Greece we thought about making a natural, light and refreshing body scrub that rejuvenates the skin, leaving it soft and shiny. For this simple recipe, you will need very few ingredients that can be found in any home.

       

  INGREDIENTS: 

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 spoonful olive oil
• 1 1/2 spoonful lemon juice
• 1 spoonful honey

Put the sugar in a small bowl and then add the lemon, the oil and the honey. Mix well until the sugar becomes moist.

The final product should look like this:

Your scrub is ready! Enjoy!

Game of Thrones - Winter is coming

 

Game of Thrones is a new, amazing tv series that started a few months ago and has already completed its first season. It's based on the fantasy novels of George R. R. Martin, it takes place in an imaginary, medieval spacetime and it has it all: noble ladies, proud kings, valiant knights, luxurious palaces but also, intrigue, crime, adultery, even incest. An overwhelming atmoshpere in a perfectly set background, which brings in mind movies rather than tv series. Game of Thrones displays crude realism combined with metaphysical aspects and beauty combined with terror and atrocity.

If you are into medieval fantasy, I highly recommend it.

Game of Thrones on IMDb

Game of Thrones on Wikipedia

The Book on Amazon

One of the official trailers:

Chicken with Kritharaki aka Orzo (rice-shaped pasta) - an easy, mediterranean dish.

This is a variation of a greek, traditional dish.I use grams for weight measurement, but if needed, you can do the conversion here . Preparation time: around 30 minutes.

You will need:

1) 4 chicken fillets, cut in strips.
2) 500 gr. of Kritharaki (if you can't find that one, any type of short, tubular pasta, like small rigatoni or tiny star pasta, will do)
3) 6 tomatoes, cut in small cubes
4) 90 gr. of canned pesto sauce
5) juice and grated peel of 1 lemon
6) extra virgin olive oil
7) salt, pepper

Boil the pasta as per instructions on the pack.  Put the chicken strips, the pesto sauce and the grated lemon peel in a large bowl and marinate for 10 minutes.

Fry the chicken in a large pan for around 10 minutes in moderate temperature. Add the tomato cubes and the lemon, salt and pepper and cook for another 10-15 minutes in moderate temperature again.

 The pasta should be ready by then. Strain the pasta, shake any excess water and add some cold water so it doesn't stick on itself. Pour the pasta in the pan with the chicken and the sauce and mix well for a couple of minutes.

Serve immediately with breadsticks and fresh, green salad.