Tasting summer

Oh no! I can feel it coming...winter is approaching, and anyone who knows me knows very well how much I can't stand the winter cold, having to wear fifty layers to keep warm, wearing socks in bed (I hate that, but I have no choice when it's freezing out there!), waking up earlier then usual to pour water on the car windows as they're covered with a thin layer of frost, having a conversation with a friend outside and seeing our breath carrying our words and floating away in the air, touching my nose and feeling an icecube instead...and the list goes on and on. For I am, by nature, a summer girl. My birthday month is June, I was born in a mediterranean country (Greece), my family are all from scorching hot countries (Egypt,Greece, Syria), and the best feeling in the world is feeling summer on my skin. That feeling is priceless for me. It's what gives me energy, joy and a love for life.

Luckily, I can recreate summer in my very own kitchen. That is the beauty of food. It allows you to cook up memories, relive past holidays, and let's your senses travel... in my case...to Greece, where I spent my summer vacation.

Mykonos & Paros...islands that took away all the Paris-stress and tension...

...and the signature white stones that let your soul unwind...

I printed all my holiday photos and posted them on my wall at home and in the office, so whenever it was grey or rainy outside, I could turn to these visual memories and smile.

Of course there are some foods that speak summer: strawberries, peaches, cherries, mangoes...but my favourites in the hot months of July or August are lots of greens. Huge plentiful generous dishes of green things: zucchini, spinach, snap peas, artichokes, etc. They are just so wonderfully refreshing and speak "health"- to help me catch up with the chocolate overload I do over the winter...

This however has got to be a salad I adore. I absolutely love the peppery taste of the roquettes combined with grilled artichokes, the finesse of a mature parmesan, and a touch of almond crunchiness. So many people may consider salads to be boring, but I've always found them to be colourful dishes full of tastes and textures...without the bloated feeling you can get after a cooked dish (I don't like generalizing however, because some cooked dishes do not make you want to go to sleep right after).

Not only does this salad tingle my tastebuds with summer memories, but it also leaves place for something sweet!

What better to finish my Greek daydreaming with coffee and kourabiedes. Kourabiedes are Greek almond cookies, heavily dusted with icing sugar...they are crunchy, and then just melt in your mouth...Typically, they are eaten during the festive Christmas season, but we have them at home pretty much all year when we want to recapture mediterranean memories...

To me, this is the real beauty of food- the magical ability that takes you away to different places of the world and different moments of your life..with the most basic act all humanbeings share: eating.