Sweet

This week's word in Our Beautiful World  is

sweet

and was chosen by sweet  Wendy of WenSylvestre Mixed Media Art.
I have recently had a lot of people at home for dinners, lunches, brunches and coffee to celebrate our wedding and my birthday so I decided to give you the recipes of some sweets/pastries I made.
Key Lime Pie

I tried this first time in the States at Dede's,a friend's house and it was amazing!
I found Martha Stewart's recipe here.
But I am making it a little bit different!
So here is my recipe for a 40cm x 30cm pan.
2 packets of digestive biscuits
a big cup of melted butter
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
6 egg yolks
3 cans of sweetened condensed milk.
the zest of 6 limes
the juice of 6 limes
Turn the oven on at 200 degrees.
Put the digestives in the mixer and make them powder.
Melt the butter and add it to the biscuits along with the sugar, mix well and lay in the tray.
Mix the sweetend milk, the egg yolks, the juice of the limes and the zest of the 5 limes in a bowl and lay over the biscuits.
Put in the oven for 15 minutes. It shouldn't get burned or look wrinkled. It should stay even and soft looking.
Take out of the oven immediately,sprinkle with the zest from the 6th lime.
Let it cool and put in the fridge.
You can make it a day before the party.
I don't bake the biscuit as Martha says and I don't add cream on top.It is too much for me. You can also make it with lemons instead of limes but I love limes.

Puff Pastry with chocolate

This is so very easy.
You need two puff pastry pieces and some chocolate spread.
You put one pastry piece on the oven tray. Spread chocolate on top.Put the other pastry sheet on top. Cut any design you like and twist each piece twice. Spread some egg on top and bake for 10 minutes in 200 degrees. I made one as a Christmas tree for Christmas.

Red berry blue berry chocolate chip muffins

Copying my recipe based on my friend Marabeth's recipe from the States.

Materials
2 cups flour
Half a cup of sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
Half a teaspoon of salt
¾ cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil (or olive oil)
1 egg (or 2)

Extra materials
Chocolate drops, blueberries and redberries deep frozen.
Preheat the oven at the top and bottom up to two hundred degrees. Put a little vegetable oil in each muffin tray or a piece of paper.
Mix in a bowl all dry ingredients, in another all liquid materials. Add the dry materials in liquids. Mix well with a fork.
Add any other material that you want as chocolate drops or pieces of fruit.
Put a large table spoonful into each compartment of the muffin tray.
Bake for about 20 minutes.
It makes twelve cupcakes.

I have also made pavlova recently with meringues, cherries and whipped cream, so very easy also.

Now if you don't feel like baking you can still go to the pastry shop and buy some sweets. We tried Konstandinidis the other day and they were delicious although rather expensive.

Or you can even have some cupcakes from Terkenlis, like the ones Kikitsa brought me or petit four from Gatidis like the ones Evangelia brought me, or carioca from Papaparaskevas from Xanthi like those Elsa brought me, or chocolate biscuits in the shape of a heart like Lina's. They are perfect for a

sweet

Saint Valentine's morning.

 Or you can simply have some strawberries with whipped cream

and some sweet bubbly Araldica Moscato d'asti wine like this one that Christina brought us!It was so

sweet

and delicious!

We really enjoyed it!
Enough with all those

  sweet 

things . I think I need a diet!
Why don't you link something sweet in Our Beautiful World too?

The weekend of love!

It started on Friday night with the Teachers' Association Drama Club pie cutting! We gathered at a restaurant with good food and music and danced till late! Guess who won the lucky coin and a bottle of wine? Me!!!! It was great being with the team members again, talking about future plans and performances! We really had fun!

Saturday morning I had a surprise.
My cousins from Athens on their way to a wedding in a city of Northern Greece came for a visit for a little while! It was great meeting them again!

Then on Saturday afternoon was the party I was preparing for during the week.
I inivited all the girls of the crafty group of In My Closet who had surprised me on my birthday two weeks ago and who had come to my wedding earlier in summer. I really wanted to have them at home for a gathering but since we are a lot in the group it needed some preparation so I delayed it a bit.
Anyway after some speculation we managed to find a day that suited almost everyone.
I made key lime pie,

berry chocolate chip muffins,

red pepper dill cheese muffins,

chocolate pastry,

no knead pizza

my mum made her popular cheese cookies and anise cookies

and walnut filo pastry

It was raining cats and dogs when the girls came.That didn't stop them though and I am glad!
Luckily there was enough space for everyone.
First we played a game my cousins from Athens had told me about.Each person brings a little gift wrapped beautifully to fool others so that they don't understand what's inside.

Then you throw the dice and those who bring 6 take a gift. When all gifts are taken you agree on how long you will play. Then you throw the dice again and whoever brings 6 takes a gift from someone else. It's fun! Till the end you may leave with many gifts or with none!We really enjoyed the game!
In this photo I am holding a box made by Kikitsa of DIY my day blog; many of us coveted it but it was lucky Evangelia who finally got it, not me!

I made some lavender soap as a gift for the game! I have learnt how to make soap from this  recipe in Efzin creations blog.

I didn't win any of the gifts but I was so lucky and happy because the girls brought me so many gifts so I didn't mind not winning.
Look at all these gifts!
Biscuits for two and tealight candle by Lina of LinaBug and a good luck charm by Katerina of beh1ndhome.

 Eleanna's of Aouts-pins gorgeous painting!

 Efi's steampunk mixed media decoupaged box.

 Saint Valentine's breakfast with Kikitsa's cupcakes, Elsa's chocolate from the famous Papaparaskevas' pastry shop in Xanthi, and Evangelia's of Happy Deck petit four,

 bubbly wine by Christina Cel Chan

Heart earrings and card by meandmamacreations Lia,

Framed fairy tale by Evangelia of Lupus in Fabula,

Melina's basket for my handiwork,

 Anna's of In My Closet handmade wedding album in the colours of my wedding dress which I have been working on lately.

Angeliki's of pocolocini mirror 

 and a glass stand by Christina of Christie's trees and more

and a handmade mirror by Sofia my former pupil,

After the game we watched a shadow puppet performance by hubby who was happy to perform for the ladies!

It was a great success with the girls some of which hadn't seen a shadow puppet performance before.
Of course we spent time chatting, eating and drinking.
Barca was really happy because no one was afraid of her and they all liked her very much!

She was naughty at times but in general we managed well with her all around.

Thank you so much ladies for this great visit! Let's do this again soon!
And the weekend ended with lunch with music at To Arhondiko and flowers.

So much love in just so few days!

What the mail brought

In the end of November I received some lovely things.
 A box of chocolate from Xanthi brought to me by a colleague. He is from this town and when he said he was going there I asked him to bring me a box of carioces, a chocolate sweet from Papaparaskevas pastry shop.

 I received a lovely parcel from my life long pen friend  Maria Jose from the Acores (Azores in English) who included some beautiful sea glass for me

 My order from Lilla Jizo arrived. Petra paints beautifully on sea glass, sea pottery, stones, paper and wood. I snatched her collage painting for almost free.And there is a 22% sale till the end of the year.

 I loved the beautiful water lily stamps on her envelope.

 Another spontaneous order from Albertine Press shop that I found in Poppytalk. These coasters are lovely and will probably be a Xmas gift.

 Then my order from Cozy Memories from my dear Sonia arrived. Sonia makes such lovely sewn things and always accompanies them in beautiful wrapping like this gorgeous red bag.