When Momma and Daddy lived in Swaziland, they had a Greek friend named Auntie Lefkia. She gave Momma this recipe. Greeks usually have fruit for dessert. They have treats with company with coffee (or tea?).

Honey Cookies–Melomakarona

Makes about 40 biscuits

• 1 stick butter
• 2 tsp grated lemon rind
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup oil (we used coconut)
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup self raising flour (we put 1 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt on the bottom of the cup and added flour to fill the cup)
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 2/3 cups orange juice
• 1 cup honey
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 Tbl chopped walnuts extra
• 2 tsp sesame seeds (we omitted because we did not have any)

Cream butter, lemon rind and sugar in a small bowl until well combined. Gradually beat in oil until light and fluffy.

Stir in sifted flours, nuts and juice in 2 batches, mix to a soft dough. We had to add more juice.

Roll level tablespoons of mixture into egg shapes, place on lightly greased cookie sheet and flatten. We just pressed them into the tablespoon and took the dough off.  Before they were cooked, they looked like a mini football!

Stab biscuits (cookies) in the middle with a fork .  Bake 350 degrees for 20 minutes until lightly browned. Let sit on tray 5 minutes before placing on wire racks to cool.

Heat honey, water and sugar in pan until just warm. We did half the syrup recipe and still had lots left over. Dip biscuits in honey to coat and place on wire rack (over something that they can drip onto) and sprinkle with extra chopped walnuts.

They are very very good, especially the edges! They were fun making.

We are studying Greece.  We read some mythology, I liked the mythology! I like silly stories. Some Bible people lived in Greece.  We are going to learn some more and maybe watch a video about it.

We made some Greek soup. It was very good. We had it for lunch and Megan liked it too. There was a lot of variations, so we just picked one. The only thing I would do differently is make more because we finished it (and Momma did not get much at all!)

Here is the recipe we used;

• 6 cups chicken broth.  Feel free to use canned soup
• 1/2 cup white rice (you could use orzo if you wanted)
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tbl lemon juice (fresh squeezed is probably better!)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Parsely to garnish if desired

Boil the chicken broth.  Add rice and simmer until rice is tender. Beat eggs and then add lemon juice and beat again. Bring soup up to a boil and stir in egg mixture.  Season to taste.  Cool a little before eating.

It would taste great with a Greek salad for dinner.

The other day, Momma was sick, and this is a soup. We made this for Momma because she was tired of chicken broth. It was very, very good!

The Turkish name is Domatesh Tel Ierhriye Corbasi.  We think that domatesh is tomatoes, because we found a recipe for tomato salad and it used that same word.  We learned a Turkish word, by cooking!

Here is the recipe:
3 ripe tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped. (We used 2 Tablespoons tomato paste, since Momma was sick and could not help do them right)
1 cup water
4 to 5 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup vermicelli pasta, broken into 1/2-inch pieces (We used Capellini)
black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter
1 handful fresh parsley, chopped (We did not use the parsley because we did not have any)

In a large saucepan, combine tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil for 10 minutes longer. Over a medium bowl, pour tomatoes and water through a strainer, using a spoon to press as much of tomato mixture through as possible. Discard pulp and set aside juice.

Cook noodles in the broth and start cooking. Just before they are done, add tomatoes, simmer until noodles are done. Season to taste with pepper (and salt if you use it).  Drop in butter, it will melt, and parsley.  Serve warm!

Daddy asked his friend for some recipes because we are still studying Australia and his friend, John, lived in Australia.  He sent us a few ideas and this one looked good. We are also trying to make some Ginger Beer. There are some good looking desserts to try too, but Momma said we had to stop on desserts for now.    We were looking at Lemon Slices because they look good to, but we don’t have graham crackers to use for the Granita Biscuits right now.

Vanilla Slice

• 2 sheets puff pastry (we just bought ours from the store)
• 1/2 cup vanilla sugar (or regular sugar)
• 1/2 cup custard powder (some leftover from when Daddy was in Swaziland.)
• 1 cup cream
• 2 Tbl butter
•  2 cups milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Icing (I was going to do half the amount of frosting, but it made so little. I want to make half the amount next time because it was so SWEET!)

• 2 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Hot water

Place puff pastry on parchment paper lined baking tray. Prick with fork deep and lots! Bake for 10-15 minutes at 425 degrees F. My first layer puffed up a lot because I did not poke it enough. The next one I poked better and it did not puff up as much.

Put sugar, custard powder and cream into a saucepan and stir over medium heat until it starts to thicken. It took about 10 minutes, keep stirring!

Add butter and milk slowly, 1/2 cup at a time, and whisk continuously until custard is thick. Use clean spoon to taste

Let everything cool slightly. Place puff pastry in bottom of 8 inch square pan. Add custard, and top with last layer of pastry.

Make icing by putting icing ingredients in bowl with only enough hot water to make a thin to medium textured icing. Pour–I had to spread–over puff pastry. My top layer “shrunk” because the frosting was heavy. It was fun to watch

Place in refrigerator for 12-24 hours. If you can’t wait that long, it is okay to eat earlier. We ate it for a late dessert and it tasted VERY good. We saved half for today.

Momma said it would be fun to make with homemade puff pastry and homemade custard.  Anyone know a great recipe for either?

Last week we were studying about Australia. Friday we were going to cook, but something came up so we could not. So yesterday we made the Australian meal. I made the cookies, Mark made dinner and Audrey made a salad. It was really good.

Anzac biscuits are the national biscuit (cookie) in Australia. They are named this because women would cook them for soldiers. They needed something that lasted a long time without going bad because it took two months to get to the soldiers. On 25 April 1915, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed in Turkey on the Gallipoli peninsula. They were beaten the worst in Australian war history. So instead of being called Soldiers biscuits, their name was changed to ANZAC Biscuits.

They taste like an oatmeal cookie, but too sweet for an oatmeal cookie. I really liked it. Momma said it reminded her of the Scottish Ginger Flapjack cookie she makes sometimes. So we researched and learned that many Scottish people came to Australia (and probably brought their oat cake recipe with them). They baked their cookie on a griddle. That is why they are so close.

• 1 cup quick cooking oatmeal
• 3/4 cup flaked coconut (we had to use sweetened, though recipe says unsweetened)
• 1 cup unbleached flour (we used soft white wheat)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 stick butter (one half cup)
• 1 tablespoon honey (supposed to be golden syrup)
• 2 tablespoon boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix oatmeal, flour, sugar and coconut together.

Over low heat, melt honey and butter.  When butter it completely melted, mix baking soda and boiling water.  Watch it foam as you add to the melted butter.

Add butter mixture to dry ingredients. Drop by tablespoon on greased cookie sheet. We used parchement paper and the dough was very crumbly. Squash the dough together well.

Bake at 350 degrees till light brown. Ours took about 10 minutes, but the recipe says 18 minutes. So watch them till you know for sure