Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes with Feta Cheese and Kalamata Olives

The theory: Quinoa is named 'superfood', one of the staple foods of the Incas civilization. It has nine essential amino acids, is gluten-freeI and contains lots of magnesium and iron. So, it is good for your health.

The practice: Quinoa has fluffy crunchy texture and nutty taste. It is really very tasty, no matter as a part of a sweet or savoury dish.  

The ingredients: young zucchini, salty kalamata olives, Feta cheese and quinoa. And, of course, do not forget the hot peppers. This stuffing is also excellent as a dish on its own - in that case you can add some lemon juice to increase the acid taste.

Mexican Bean Salad

Like any other dish we prepare at home, this one is based on a certain amount of hot peppers. Here they are paired with crunchy cucumbers, juicy tomatoes, soft avocado and creamy beans Mexican way. Do not forget the onion and tangy lime juice.
This salad is great on its own or with some tortilla chips. Let there be summer!

Zucchini with Tomatoes and Hot Peppers

With the beginning of the first warm days here, we've started preparing one of the family's favorite summer dishes - zucchini with tomatoes and hot peppers, prepared in a saute pan. The dish is really simple and easy to prepare and is filled with the flavours of the fresh vegetables. It is so low in calories, that no matter how much you eat, you will weight less on the next day. 

Spicy Mango and Avocado Salad

I've had this recipe for a long time before I dared to try it, although I have such an exotic ingredient as a fish sauce in my fridge (well, it was unopened, but still, I had it). Mango is one of my favorite fruits and I adore avocado, but mixing them with the addition of mint and fish sauce sounded too much even for my you-never know-it might be tasty-attempts. 

Well, I must say. this is my favorite salad know. Its spicy taste is absolutely unexpected, surprising, a burst of tastes in a plate. 
Every single ingredient has its place in the recipe and the taste sends me far away to places with weird animals, palms and people I've never met before. Thank you, Food Opera.

Tabbouleh Salad

Tabbouleh is a Middle Eastern Salad, in which the main ingredients are parsley, bulgur and tomatoes. 
This tangy, refreshing salad is light and dietetic and its deep green and red colors bring back the summer at least at the table.

Green Beans Stew

Gold of Bacau is my favorite bean. This pale yellow variety has juicy, slightly sweet taste and long flattened pods. No strings, no starchy flavor. Fresh and tasty - perfect for the summer.

Summer, Magic and Chanterelle Soup with Garlic and Summer Savory

Hello, Summer! You know, I've been waiting for you for so long. 

I love your long days and noisy nights, I enjoy the abundance of species you give birth of, I love the forest with its magic. The birds, the insects, the people, we all love you, summer. 

I hope, you will not go away fast. Let us appreciate the abundance of your fruits and vegetables, the freedom, the magic. You make me so happy... 

Since ancient times women have been celebrating the night of the summer equinox. Full moon is also soon, in only two days. 

I love the magic of equinox - the balance between the seasons after which the scales start growing heavier to one of the sides. But today there is a balance - ephemeral, but still. This magic time of the year deserves a magic kind of dish to celebrate. The fruity smell of Chanterelle. Its golden color. Its orange skin and peppery taste. 

A Chanterelle Soup with Garlic and Summer Savory. The summer forest in a bowl.

Crispy fried zucchini (κολοκυθάκια τηγανητά)

I love the taste of fried zucchini. And what makes them so lovable? Their crispiness. Fried zucchini should be hot and crispy. If you have an opportunity to travel to Greece, you definitely should try the fried zucchini served in most of the restaurants and they will never disappoint you. κολοκυθάκια τηγανητά have crispy crusts tender insides.

If you want to prepare this delicious appetizer at home it will be good to follow three  important steps:

Fried roasted peppers with tomato sauce

This light vegetarian dish is very common in Bulgarian homes at the beginning of autumn. The sweet taste of roasted red peppers, the spicyness from the garlic and the freshness of the rape tomatoes make it one of my favorites for October. 

Cretan Dakos - Cretan rusk salad

Suchlike Panzanella - the Italian bread salad, Cretan rusk salad (Kρητικός ντάκος) is based on bread. 

In fact, it is a large barley rusk topped with chopped tomatoes, crumbled Feta or Mizithra cheese and some olive oil. People in Creta and especially the sailors, used to eat a lot of rusks. Main reasons - rusks are lighter than fresh bread and more of them could be laded on the ships. They are unexpensive and long-lasting and do not get mouldy which is important on any island where every product is limited. Cretan dakos is still one of the traditional Cretan salads. If you do not have rusks on hand, you can use toasted or grilled bread - taste is nearly the same. 

My favorite sour cherry cake

The last sour cherries of the season. I picked them from our sour cherry tree, trying not to eat too many. I needed two cups for the sour cherry cake. My favourite sour cherry cake, the one my mother-in-low prepares. She knows I love it and so does everybody else in our family. Half of the tray is for me, the others share the other half. 

Bouillabaisse a la Marseillaise

I bet, you could not write the name of this dish if you are not french. Well, if you can, congratulations. I could not. I could not even pronounce it. But I can prepare it, I can enjoy it at lunch time, for dinner or even as a breakfast on early Saturday or Sunday mornings.   

Bouillabaisse is a French seafood stew, which home is supposed to be Marseille, but it is widely served in the coastal little ports of Southern France. It was once a cheap fishermen meal, which seafood ingredients depended on the daily catch. So, different kind of fish could be included, the most important thing is to put at least four varieties, every one of which delivers its own taste. Fish should be lean and fresh. The way I prepared the recipe is based  on the one from here. I added orange peel and wine.
There is a little rule conserning the serving of bouillabaisse - seafood in one dish and soup in another. But it all depends on you and your personal preferences. I like the fish to be hot, so I spoon a ladleful of soup onto it.