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Christmas Baking: Melomakarona

Published by Oana

For me, Christmas in Greece equals two desserts: Kourabiedes, which featured on my blog last week and got me an order from as far as Greece (!!) and Melomakarona, or walnut syrupy biscuits.

So this week I decided to try my hand at the latter, to the delight of my Greek hubby. I had made them before, the first year we were married but must have used the wrong recipe as I found them hard to get right and stopped making them!

This time I used this recipe from taste.com. I found it pretty straight forward, once I managed to convert my cups into grams, that is :-). I did make a couple of silly mistakes, like using brown sugar instead of white and ended up with a runny mixture instead of a creamy goo but hey, all is well when it ends well, right? And it did, as you can see from the picture:

Kali orexi, as the Greeks you say!

What makes you happy?

Published by Oana

The other day I got a message from a friend who had just discovered my blog and who asked me exactly this question: “How do you manage to be so happy?” I attempted an answer but then I thought that this would make a good blog post entry as I can expand on it…

I suppose happiness is something you choose to feel, to a certain degree. I do realise but there are circumstances that are out of our control (I take the extreme case of domestic abuse, for example) from which I would advise anyone to remove themselves, first for their own safety and then for their sanity and happiness. But under “normal” circumstances, whether you are a stay-at-home mum, a successful in everybody else’s eyes businesswoman or a jobless student, one can be happy, I believe.

It has everything to do, for me, with setting goals and achieving your dreams, whatever those dreams are: building a business, getting a job, having a clean home and tidy children? Goals are as individual as we are but as long as we work towards them, strive to move, one small step at a time, towards what we believe we were made to do or be, then we’ll be happy.

For me, at the moment, my goals are as simple as keeping my home clean, writing on my blog when I find the time (as I find it therapeutic) and doing my weekly reading for the Open University course I am taking this year.

In a few weeks, they will probably change to coping with the lack of sleep that comes with a newborn without too many meltdowns, keeping on top of my house work while looking after two small children and managing to have a warm meal from time to time :-).

I would encourage everyone to set goals and work towards them if they want to achieve happiness. Happiness doesn’t come from having loads of things, being surrounded by famous and glamorous people or living in a fancy home but from feeling contentment over achieving what you had decided that would make you feel fulfilled.

Spending my mornings in the library reading for my course makes me happy!

Silent Sunday: 08/12/2013

Published by Oana

Kourabiedes(Greek Butter Cookies)

Published by Oana

It’s December and I have started getting the Christmas buzz! I decorated our living room on Sunday and today I decided to make some Greek cookies. I was introduced to kourabiedes as an Erasmus student in Thessaloniki and am, let’s say, slightly partial to them :-).

I have used this recipe from Food Network but instead of walnuts I went for almonds, as Greek hubby recommended.

Tips when using the recipe:

Use icing sugar instead of confectioners’.
I don’t have an electric mixer so I used my hands to rub the butter and the icing sugar together. It worked a treat.
Make your cookies slightly small as the baking powder will make them puff up. Mine came out a bit chubby, I will know better for the next batch.
DO convert the cup measurements into grams if you live in Europe, it helps getting things right and your dough nice and crumbly, as it should.

As soon as she sniffed them, Emma couldn’t be chased from the kitchen until she had her fill :-). This proves that the recipe is a success and that my little girl is definitely Greek-inclined in her choice of cuisine!

Here she is, giving me the thumbs up over the plate of cookies :-).

Pregnancy Update

Published by Oana

I can’t believe it but there are only 6 weeks left of this pregnancy according to the calendar!

I have had an uneventful but sort of stressful pregnancy: diagnosed again with hypothyroidism then antenatal depression. Struggled for nearly six months with insomnia and the crankiness and tearfulness that resulted from the lack of rest. Then a spell of lack of iron that left me lethargic. For the past two weeks I have been feeling exhausted most of the time, no matter how much sleep, vitamins and iron I get and heavy, although this baby isn’t massively bigger than Emma. Climbing stairs, walking for any length of time and standing are challenges that leave me breathless for minutes.

I have had a “funny” midwife who seemed most times more interested in her watch than me and who has obsessively insisted that this baby is laying transversally and then breech, despite him hiccuping close to my pubic bone during the checkup visit and talking rubbish like moving my baby inside my womb a month before his due date…

To be honest, I dread NOT being pregnant despite all listed above, as this time I haven’t watched the scales at all and found myself justified in having a slice of cake or a cooked breakfast from time to time. I know that once the baby is born and the baby fog lifts I will be again in the race against myself to lose weight, eat healthy and look trim…

But hey, I am nearly there and on the bright side of things, I have managed to follow through with my Open University course so far, worked as much as I possibly could at making my blog better and eventually help me earn some income and fulfilled my mummy and wife role duties, with dinner cooked most nights and ironed clothes still a common occurrence.

Most of all, I look forward to holding in my arms a tiny, brand new baby, introduce him to his baby sister, spend time cuddling together, getting to know him, putting him in cute, “manly” outfits and just be a mummy, once again!

This is me at 32 weeks, I need to take another picture with the bump but I am leaving it for when I reach 36 weeks. I think every 4 weeks is often enough for selfies, even during pregnancy 🙂