Opa! Opa! Opa!

Hello to all! At the moment I am on board a Greek ferry between the island of Naxos and Piraeus (the port near Athens). Aaahhhh! The power of the Internet! I am tapping this post oit on my iPhone so it promises to be relatively short.
This has been a wonderful journey thus far, though not without it's complications. We've been forced to abandon our trip to the island of Milos due to ferry cancellations and have basically lost a day to travel. Just the same, the islands we have seen are gorgeous with their sugar cube houses and dramatic coastlines. We've spent time lounging on a black sand beach, riding donkeys up the side of a mountain, and exploring beautiful, winding towns carved into the sides of steep cliffs. And now, Athens awaits us! But enough about that! On to the food!
The best thing we've eaten so far, hands down, is stuffed grape leaves. Grape leaves are tightly wrapped around bundles of soft rice mixed with a little cheese and herbs. The neat little packages can be eaten in two tidy bites either on their own or dunked in tyziki sauce (my favorite!). We've eaten them twice -- once drenched in olive oil and served with kalamata olives and the other time served dry with fresh slices of tomato. When I return home I'm going to do everything in my power to recreate these tasty little bites. Yum! I could go for a plate of them right now!
We've also eaten some amazing cheeses -- soft, salty feta and Saganaki (a new one for me). The feta is unlike anything I've eaten in the USA. It's so fresh and soft. We cut it into pretty little pieces and popped them into our mouths using just our fingers. Wonderful! The Saganaki was a local cheese that was very lightly fried (almost like tempura) in a thin block. We cut it into pieces and were surprised by it's complex, buttery taste. It was rather hard and had a nice flavor from being fried. Also, it wasn't greasy at all. When I return home I'm going to look it up and find out for certain how it was prepared. It really was extraordinary.
We've eaten many other delicious foods and had wonderful local wines, but this will have to suffice for now. I have pictures galore (Paige has been very sweet to wait until I've photographed all the food before diving in) and will post a number of them upon my return. We have two and a half more days in Greece, during which I plan on stuffing myself silly, then we move on to Italy for a week. I'm sure well find a thing or two there that's worth writing home about! Cheers!

Fentimans Tonic Water

Charlie and I have been on a quest to completely knock high fructose corn syrup out of our diets. Sometimes this is easy: don't buy Gatorade, drink water; always read labels; eat whole foods.
We cook a lot of our food from scratch and enjoy the process so that helps tremendously. However, there has been one product we haven't been able to find without high fructose corn syrup. Tonic. I love a super-cold vodka tonic with a slice of lime. There really is no equal (or substitute) for that particular drink. Charlie and I tried to fake our way past the HFCS problem by creating a new drink, but club soda and extra lime just really don't cut it.
SO, when we found Fentimans Tonic Water this weekend we were overjoyed. The ingredient list includes actual sugar. Wonder of wonders! We stumbled upon Fentimans while perusing Belly General Store, a wonderful gourmet food and coffee shop in our neighborhood. They had the tiny bottles of chilled tonic snuggled in with other gourmet sodas. We snatched two bottles, purchased them, and took them home to try.
Boy was I impressed! The flavor does not even compare to other tonic I've tried. It's so crisp, clean, and natural. Even with Smirnoff vodka (reputable but not top shelf) it was easily the best vodka tonic I've ever had. So, problem solved, right? Wrong. The adorable bottles contain 125 ml of tonic -- enough for one drink. At $2.76 a pop they're just too expensive for casual use. I checked online to see if I could order a case at a discount rate, but it seems that this option is currently only available in the UK. Too bad! For now it will have to be a special occassion drink, and I'll continue searching for another brand that uses sugar.
Belly is the only place I know of in Atlanta that carries Fentimans. If you live in town and enjoy tonic you should really do yourself a favor and pick up a few bottles. They are expensive but also delicious!

Could you please pass the....lamb butter?

Has anyone else seen the lamb-shaped butter for sale at the grocery store?  It kind of creeps me out.  

I looked it up, and it turns out that lamb-shaped butter is sold by a company named Keller during March and April, turkey-shaped butter is sold in October and November, and Christmas tree-shaped butter is sold in December.  I also found out that this making lamb-shaped butter is a tradition for many people celebrating Easter.  I have never heard of this!  Am I alone in thinking this is odd?  Have I somehow just missed the boat on this one?

Check it out for yourselves, and let me know what you think!  

Kugelhopf pan

The cake I just baked called for either a kugelhopf or a bundt pan. I wasn't sure what a kugelhopf pan looked liked, so I looked it up and found these photos. I thought I would share my findings!

It's basically a really pretty bundt pan. It would certainly make a simple cake look a little fancier!