my oven rocks!!!

Today's post, dear readers, is dedicated to my oven. I know, most of you are already clicking away from my blog because of that but for the rest who will keep on reading, and for being true to my promise that I will be writing about all the positive things that I encounter in my life in this blog, I will continue...

I have lived for 5 years in a house with no oven... I mean, I did have a poor excuse of a "combi" microwave/oven which was good in neither of these functions!! It would not work properly as a microwave (I normally used a small one I had extra) and it would certainly not work as an oven! It just would not cook the food!! To top it all up, it was so tiny I had to go and buy tiny pans to fit in it which of course would not even accommodate a meal for two... Nightmare... 5 years spent like this... Now, you have to bare in mind that I am Greek!! We love oven roasted food, meat and potatoes and pies and moussaka and baked desserts and so much more... hard... very hard 5 years I tell you...

And now in the new place, I have an oven... a great oven!!! Big and functioning and the type that makes delicious food only by choosing a program and it does the rest of the work! It warms up my bread and makes it so tasty and it cooks a roasted chicken I never had before and I look forward to baking in it and trying all my recipes and... oh, I know, I know this all sounds incredibly trivial but... what is happiness if not a series of happy moments and I have had a lot of them thanks to my oven lately!! And that is better than shoes and it deserves a post! ;)

PS. A very very happy new year to all of you!!

my stuffed chicken...

...was better than the best pair of Manolos!!!

For the first time in my life, I decided to cook my grandmother's recipe for stuffed chicken this Christmas. I have such fond childhood (and more recent...) memories of this succulent dish that my mother would cook for our Christmas lunch and later, after having eaten like there was not tomorrow, my brother and I would just crash on the sofa and fall asleep with a classic old movie... mmmm those were the days... and these are the days too, for I was determined to recreate both the food and the pleasure!

So, with my mom (who spent these past few days with me) to assist/supervise, I set sail. I got a free range French chicken (which I like to think has been strolling nonchalantly through the streets of Marseille before having been caught...) on Christmas eve and on the day I got started. The stuffing was not so difficult, though with a myriad of  ingredients, because I had tried it before. But when it came to the point I had to pass a needle with cooking string through the bird's skin to keep the stuffing inside, well, it got tricky...

Nevertheless, I did it and put it all stuffed and beautiful in the oven, complete with potatoes. About an hour an a half later, there it was on my festive table! And the taste... oh, heaven! The potatoes had actually cooked in the juices from the stuffing that came out of the bird and they were a revelation! The meat was juicy and delicious and the stuffing excellent!

I was so proud of myself! And I ate so much, like the good old days! So much so I had to walk 10Km the next day to burn a bit of the guilt, more than the calories... But it was so worth it! It was better than shoes all the way!!

P.S My mom thought the prunes were cut too small for her taste but... such a criticism I considered a compliment ;)

a "better than shoes" weekend!

You know this feeling when a very demanding time period passes and you have been through it all and gotten out in one piece and all the stress and struggle is over and you can just sit and finally relax? That's exactly how I have been feeling this passed weekend!

Having had the new house all in order and returned the key of the old place, November left me on a good note. The weekend came and, as my tradition has it, Saturday I set up the Christmas tree! First time in the new home, I was dancing and placing ornaments all morning! And after this was done, after I wished like a true Greek "may you do this next year too" to myself, I parked my exhausted body (no, not from decorating the tree obviously, from the passed two months of running around like a mad woman...) on the sofa and watched all time classics: "The Holiday" and "Love actually" with a nice, hot cup of tea! Yes, I do know the lines of these films by heart but "Christmas tree day" without them is not a proper one!

My Saturday was perfected by an IKEA microwave dinner (you should try them, meatball and mashed potatoes, certainly better than anything of the sort) and BBC; being a huge "Strictly come dancing" fan I enjoyed it as always and then laughed my heart out with  "The Graham Norton show" until I fell asleep on the sofa... bliss, pure bliss!!

Come Sunday, after the morning hale storm passed, I went out for a walk with a neighbour and we went all the way to the beach and back, some good two hours walk (to burn the calories from the chocolate abuse of the past few days...) and then, after a much need shower (to warm me up... it was rather chilli yesterday) I went to cut my hair... Pampered!! Continued with a  delicious lunch of erwtensoep, the best thing that the Dutch cuisine (if such thing exists...) has to offer, in my opinion, and then back home where the best surprise ever was waiting for me... ;) What was it?... Mmmm, I think I will keep this one only for myself... But is was most certainly "better than shoes" :) better than those Valentino glitter pumps from this season's collection! Yep, those!! Better!!! ;)