20 Homemade Recipes by a Greek Grandma

This little recipe book contains some distinctive, mainly Greek, dishes that Grandma (Yiayia) Anastasia, from Messenia, Greece, still cooks for Sunday gatherings, as well as other less traditional recipes (some of them vegetarian) that she has adapted to her own culinary temperament. Contents SALADS Greek salad (horiatiki) Tzatziki Black-eyed beans Potato salad MAIN DISHES Pastitsio Moussaka Stuffed vegetables (gemista) Fried meatballs (keftedes) Shrimp spaghetti Mussels pilaf (midopilafo) Stuffed cabbage leaves (dolmades) Greek pizza DESSERTS Walnut cake (karidopita) Baklava Greek honey cookies (melomakarona) Greek Easter cookies (koulourakia) Greek custard pie (galaktoboureko) Orange peel spoon sweet Tiramisu Grandma Anastasia was born in a small village in Messenia during World War II. She began to cook at the age of six, back when cooking was a difficult process: she had to gather wood and light a fire and then improvise, using what her parents grew or produced as ingredients: legumes, vegetables, homemade bread and pasta, eggs from their chickens, milk from their goats and, very seldom, meat. While her parents worked in their fields, she pursued the risky endeavor of cooking with a spirit of endless experimentation and freedom. Years have passed since then and much has changed. What has remained constant in her life for her and her family is the love with which she prepares her meals and the inexhaustible joy she feels every time she cooks. This little recipe book contains some distinctive, mainly Greek, dishes that Grandma Anastasia still cooks for Sunday gatherings, as well as other less traditional recipes that she has adapted to her own culinary temperament.