Koulouria & Kourabiedes

I picked up some Greek cookies when in Chicago -

There is a Greek store a couple miles from my daughter’s house in Chicago that has all things Greek! From olive oils to baking ingredients to snacks and candies to delicious pre-made Greek foods, yummy 😋!

They’re not my mothers cookies, which I miss SO much, but enjoying these with a cup of coffee still rushes back some wonderful memories of my mother.

Stop by and try one before they’re gone…

Egg Glazed Koulouria! The BEST!

While in Chicago and before the storm on Saturday really got going Stephanie, Audrey and I headed out to run some errands.  We had an Amazon package to return, dry cleaning to pick up and the most important, picking out their Christmas tree.

While Stephanie and I were in the UPS store taking care of the package return, Audrey ventured into a new Greek store in the same plaza and what a find it was!  Looky at what Audrey bought, Koulouria, OMG!

Clearly and obviously NOT my mothers but man-o-man these sure brought back some wonderful memories and were quite tasty -

One of these days I'd like to try my hand at making these Greek cookies using my mother's recipe.  However, like most old-school cooks their secrets lie in what's NOT listed in the recipe but rather how they "ad-lib" on the fly.

Time will tell and we'll never know until we try.  Stay tuned...

Gemista (yeh-MEES-tah)

I made Greek stuffed peppers yesterday afternoon and it was SO delicious!

My own peppers, that I picked a couple hours earlier, super fresh -

I used ground lamb and my fresh tomatoes, like the peppers that I picked a couple hours earlier -

I ate two, BURP, and have leftovers for a couple days.

#Blessed

Greek Cuisine

I've been feeling a bit melancholy lately.  Reminiscing of past holidays, big family gatherings and of course missing my mother and her cooking, especially the Greek goodies she would make for the holidays.

In an effort to try and recapture just a smidgen of those delicious foods I turned to the Google machine and found a local Greek bakery, well if call Boston, the city of Brookline to be exact, a local bakery.

Off I went earlier this week, braving commuter traffic and crazy inner city drivers, and made my way to Athan's Bakery, which is on 1621 Beacon Street in Brookline.  

I did give the bakery a call before heading in to make sure they had what I was after and was told they had 2 of the 3 items - spanakopita and kourabiedes but unfortunately, no koulourakia, alas -

The bakery itself is in an old style building, which was nice but truth be told I was disappointed, as it wasn't the sort of place I had envisioned in my head.  From a bakery perspective it was a blah. Most of the display cases, shelves and jars were empty and the items that were on display looked like they'd been there a while, not tempting.  For example, the baklava was a half pan of what looked to be older and not very fresh.

I made the hour+ drive in, so I was determined to not leave empty handed.  The kourabiedes looked nice, so I asked for 12, two bags of six.  The spanakopita looked nothing like my mothers, nor the pic above, but rather more like a 'hot pocket'; a doughy-sealed pastry, see below -

I was thinking about the spanakopita the entire drive back home and couldn't wait to dig in.  So, once home I popped that bad Larry into the toaster oven to heat up, made a cup of coffee and patiently waited.  Sadly, it was tasteless and bland and too heavy on the dough, a BIG disappointment, sniff 

Yesterday, I took a drive and stopped in to to see my aunt and uncle in Framingham.  One of the bags of 6 kourabiedes that I pick up, I bought for my uncle, my mother's brother, who's Greek.  He made coffee and we each had a kourabiedes!  Again, not my mothers kourabiedes but I'm happy to say that it wasn't too bad.  My uncle agreed and although we didn't say it, I'm pretty sure we were both thinking about my mom when eating them, which made the drive into the city to get them well worth it.

I have my mothers Greek recipes, so I plan on trying my hand at make each of the items above after the holidays.  How much trouble can I get myself into?!

Stay tuned!