Peace, Love & Family

On October 13^th 2014 my family lost a very beloved family member, my grandfather, better known as my Papou.  After a year of battling pancreatic cancer we ended up losing him to dementia. Although my family had a year to somewhat prepare for the loss to come, it did not make anything easier. It wasn’t until this great loss that I realized how strong love truly is.

My family has been nothing but loving throughout this entire nightmare. The hardest part of it all was also losing my grandmother, Nonna, on the day of Papou’s funeral. At that point my family and myself felt hopeless and like there would never be a silver lining. When going through such tragedy it becomes hard to understand what you need to feel better. Losing two very important people within 5 days almost felt like a very bad, horrible joke. At that point, you’re in shock, you can hardly think about what you’re going to eat, never mind how you’re going to get through the day. But through all of this tragedy the only thing that made sense was my family.

The endless amount of love we received, and still are receiving, from one another as well as our close friends truly shows how significant we are to each others lives. I wouldn’t be where I am without my family and their constant love and attention. It was hard at first to figure out the meaning behind such horrible incidents, but after some time it became clear how important my family is to me and how we can get through anything as long as we have one another. I love you all to the moon and back and am so proud to have each one of you, in my life, standing beside me every step of the way.

Love,

For the Love of Food

With all this talk about love many things come to mind.  But as many of you may agree, one of the things I love most is food. It’s not just love, it’s lust. Yes, I lust food. It keeps me up at night, it encourages me to get up in the morning, it’s what gets me through my 3-hour lectures. Just imagining a perfectly prepared plate of food is enough motivation to get me through the toughest of days. For any of you that know me, well, you know the key to my heart is food.

Growing up in a Greek/Italian family you can imagine the amounts of luscious food and get-togethers revolving around amazingly prepared food.  Endless amounts of fresh bread, 1100+ Christmas cookies every year, freshly baked spanakopita (from scratch, of course), pastas, seafood, steaks… I could talk about it for days. Choosing one favourite dish would be so naïve of me; I’d be a fool. Although I must say I am a huge fan of soup, nom.

In spirit of my loving Grandfather, who recently passed away, I would love to share with my fellow bloggers a fantastic recipe for soup that has been carried on, in my family, for generations.  The name of this soup is simply “Papou’s Soup” (Papou translating to Grandfather in Greek). I spent a huge chunk of my childhood with my grandparents. Staying at their house (quite often) I would wake up to the smell of this amazing soup. It wasn’t morning until the smell of soup was in the air forcing me out of my slumber.

Ingredients:

-       Butter

-       Knorr Stock Cube (I prefer beef)

-       Soup rice (same as used for risotto)

-       Fresh Dill

-       Fresh Garlic

-       Red Pepper

-       Green Onions

-       Sliced Cheese

-       Milk

-       Feta Cheese

-       Salt and Pepper (to taste)

-       Chili flakes (optional)

Step One:

-       Fill pot ¾ full with water,

-       Set stove to Med/High heat

-       Immediately add Knorr stock cube and butter 

Step Two:

-       Quickly chop fresh garlic, red pepper, green onions and fresh dill

-       Add all to water

Step Three:

-       Once the water has begun to boil it’s time to add the soup rice

-       Add as much rice to achieve your preferred consistency

-       Lower stove to Medium heat

Step Four:

-       Once the water begins to look cloudy, it means the rice is cooked

-       **The rice releases starch once cooked which makes the water look cloudy**

-       Add a splash of milk and 2 slices of cheese (processed cheese melts best in the soup)

-       Chop up feta cheese into tiny cubes

Step Five:

-       Wait until the soup has begun to boil

-       Add spices, to taste (salt, pepper, chili flakes)

-       Turn off heat, add feta

-       Allow to cool for about 5 minutes

-       Serve and enjoy!

As you can see this recipe has few measurement outlines. For anyone who has cooked with a Greek, you’ll know there’s no such thing as measurements when cooking. It’s all based on preferred taste. Enjoy this recipe as my family has for generations. Bon appetit!

Love,