Christmas/Holiday Buffet

For all those still on the lookout for some last minute cooking ideas to grace their Christmas or Holiday table/buffet, here are some quick and festive dishes that will surely satisfy hungry guests and add some holiday spirit to any soiree. I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2010 … here’s to peaceful and joyous holidays filled with good food, family, friends and lots of laughter!

Sunday Supper

An ideal Sunday for me is a lazy Sunday. That means plenty of time to catch up as a family with no care/desire to ever glance at the clock and the aroma of our ritual family meal being prepared enticing our senses … continously drawing us all into the kitchen. Some Sundays there’ll be a warm stew simmering; others a flavorful roast or a hearty Pastitsio cooking away in the oven. One thing is for sure: the table will always be set for us all to enjoy a nourishing supper in each others’ company.

Melomakarona/Finikia

For Greeks, whichever corner of the world they may be residing, the Christmas holidays mean lots of kourambiedes and melomakarona, two traditional Greek cookies/sweets. Kourambiedes (almond cookies dusted in powdered sugar) and melomakarona (syrup-soaked cookies often made with walnuts) scream Christmas loud and clear for me, just as gingerbread or fruitcake do for others.

Roasted Citrus Chicken and Potatoes

Crates of small round clementines abound in fruit and vegetable markets these days and while the children love to peel the bright orange fruit and eat them as is, I look to put them to good cooking use. This past weekend I used some clementines to roast a chicken and really enjoyed the fresh citrus flavor the fruit provided.

Octopus Pot Pies

Welcome to the new Kali Orexi! I made some changes to my site and hope you find them agreeable. Any comments or suggestions that you think may provide some improvement are, of course, welcome. But I hope you enjoy it as is! I set out to make a few simple changes. “What could be so difficult?” I thought. Well, small changes or large, creating a new site is a feat indeed. I’m sure there will be some tweaking and some updating along the way, but for now here it is …

Ginger Leek Potato Croquettes with a Fennel Pear Honey Mustard

Kalo mina! That’s Greek for “Have a good month,” a wish customarily shared amongst Greeks on the first of every month. Speaking of which, today (the first of December) is the deadline for this month’s Royal Foodie Joust, a friendly blogger competition hosted by Jenn of The Leftover Queen, and I am running short on time considering I have until noon (it’s 10:33 a.m. as I write this) to post this on the RFJ forum. So, the ingredients for this month’s joust were fennel, pear and ginger. Three lovely ingredients indeed and so many dishes