SANTORINI INSPIRED ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY BREAKFAST

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Memories of wonderful times, romantic dining, or warm loving gatherings can be accessed by creating a dish inspired by a special occasion. This year for my one-year anniversary, I decided to serve my sweetheart breakfast in bed. For this I recreated the luscious breakfast we were served each day at the luxurious Katikies Hotels in Oia, Santorini where we spent our pre-wedding days and honeymoon. Some of you may already know that we were married there in A Greek Island Wedding. To view a clip go to the media lounge at my website www.moderndaygoddess.com and see visions of one of the most romantic places in the world. There you will also see a clip of A Greek Island Destination Cooking Class that I hosted in Santorini as well. (Now available on DVD).

Each day, our breakfast at Hotel Katikies was brought to our room and served on our patio. It was paradise to wake up and eat breakfast as we overlooked the dazzling Mediterranean Sea. The menu we selected consisted of thick, rich Greek yogurt, sun ripen fruit, Mint tea, fresh grapefruit juice and delicious tomato-feta omelets. For our anniversary breakfast back here in Santa Barbara, California, I used Fage Yogurt, a creamy Greek plain yogurt (full fat) that I found at my store. I added some honey and walnuts. I also made a fresh fruit salad with mint garnish. With the fresh mint from the garden, I put some in a tea pot and brewed fresh mint tea. Instead of grapefruit juice, I squeezed fresh tangerine juice from our tree. Our omelet inspired me to make the scrambled egg recipe below which is quick and easy. I also added roses and a “world’s greatest husband” statue on a breakfast tray. For another sensory touch, I played the same sweet music the hotel had playing for us in our room when we returned from our wedding. (The Yearning by Grammy nominated Michael Hoppe and Tim Wheater)
As I served the breakfast in bed to my husband Jim, his Aegean Blue eyes twinkled with love which showed me how touched he felt. Jim said the combination of the delicious food and music took him right back to our special time in Santorini. And it did the same for me. So if you’ve had a special occasion that involved food, you can go back through your senses by creating dishes inspired by those memories. Remember to think about the other romancing the table elements such a music and decor.

SANTORINI INSPIRED GREEK SCRAMBLED EGGS
2 tomatoes diced tomatoes
2 handfuls of spinach (optional)
½ cup of Feta cheese crumbled, preferably sheep or goat or a mixture
1 drizzle or tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.
a pinch of salt
4 eggs
Sauté lightly the tomatoes and spinach in extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan. Whisk the eggs in a bowl and pour into the pan. Add a shake of salt and continue to scramble all the ingredients in the pan until liquid is gone but eggs are moist.

FRUIT SALAD
Use a combination of any of the fruits below that are in season and cut into bite size pieces, preferably organic if available.
(strawberries, bananas, apples, blueberries, raspberries, peaches) Garnish with fresh mint.

GREEK YOGURT GREEK STYLE
½ cup to 1 cup full fat Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon of honey
Several Walnuts or Almond slices
Place Greek yogurt in small bowl. Shake off excess liquid. Drizzle with honey and top with nuts.

You can also put the yogurt, nuts and honey on top of the fruit if you prefer.

Enjoy and write me if you have any love-infused food dining experiences at cynthia@moderndaygoddess.com.

  Celebrating & Understanding Men and Women Workshops

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Lovely decor, delicious food and soothing music of course contribute to a romantic table. So does creating a loving relationship before you sit down at the table. Perhaps because my parents divorced, I’ve made it a point to study how to have happy, satisfying relationships and have read over 100 book on the topic and sought out happily married couples. I’ve learned a great deal. So I was delighted when a girlfriend introduced me to Alison Armstrong, a national expert, educator and co-founder (pictured above) of PAX’s programs – an amazing resource for understanding men and women. I highly recommend the workshops by PAX (which stands for Partnership, Adoration and Xtasy). To date I’ve taken the following workshop Making Sense of Men, Celebrating Men, Satisfying Women, Celebrating Women and Understanding Women. My girlfriends and I (pictured above) took the women’s workshop together which was a fun girlfriend weekend as well. I was also happy when my husband Jim agreed to take the Understanding Women workshop (a co-ed workshop) and we both left with a better understanding and appreciation of each other. We’ve implemented me telling him when that I just want him to listen and that a story has no point. This allows a man to relax, just listen and not try to fix. Of course, my Jim says if there is a plate of delicious food in front of him all the better. I also count to 30 seconds after he speaks to see if he might have something else to say which has allowed him to share even more of himself. These are tips I learned in the workshops. Alison’s wonderful research has also led her to authoring a book called Keys To The Kingdom and creating wonderful CD’s of several of her workshops. For more information you can check out the PAX website at www.UnderstandMen.com

A great place to start is with PAX’s free 3 hour introductory course called Making Sense of Men, which you can see if it is held in your area by checking on the dates and location button on the website. Also, if you’d like to hear me interview Alison on my radio show Romancing the Table: a celebration of life, love and food, on the voiceamerica.com network – you can hear replays on my website http://www.moderndaygoddess.com/ by clicking on the RT banner. Enjoy!