Cooking & Gardening

By Violeta Lost

Everyone knows that Badgers enjoy themselves in the Kitchen and try to grow their plants in the Greenhouse! This is a new column in the Wizarding Times that offers cooking recipes and gardening tips depending on the season. There will be either Muggle Editions or Wizard Editions for both, so stay tuned!

Cooking: Muggle Edition
The Greek Simiti or Koulouri

Simiti, or koulouri, is a type of circular bread covered with sesame. It is usually eaten as a short breakfast, and it can be found in nearly every bakery in Greece. Here is a recipe I always do to make delicious koulouria. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1/2 cup warm water
9g dry yeast
2-3 tbsp. flour

50g sugar
100ml olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup warm water
400-450g flour
Sesame

Instructions
Mix the first three ingredients in a bowl and leave them aside for 10 minutes. Prepare the other ingredients (except for the sesame) and then mix them into the bowl. Now leave this dough to rise for 30 minutes. After it is raised, prepare a bowl of water and a plate with sesame (see picture no. 1). Separate the dough into small balls and turn them into strips (see picture no. 2). Form a circle with each strip and immerse them into the bowl of water then straight in the sesame. Then place them in a baking dish (see picture no. 3). Bake them in the oven in 220 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes. See some baked koulouria in pictures no. 4 and no. 5.

Enjoy them with a glass of milk!

Gardening: Muggle Edition
How to prepare your autumn garden

Fall is the season of the year that is also called "small spring," and it is the transitional season between the warm months to the cold ones. During the fall, we garden lovers have to revive our plants from the hardship they've been through during the hot months of summer. We have to enhance their immune systems so they can deal with the very cold weather of the winter months.

These are some tips on autumn work in our garden:

  1. This is the best season to trim the "hungry" summer brunches in our trees and bushes.
  2. Collect all your precious last summer fruit and vegetables, like apples, pears, peppers, grapes, and pumpkins.
  3. Clean your garden area from parasite plants and fallen leaves, and dig the ground superficially and carefully.
  4. Feed your ground with some compost or other fertilizer in order for your plants to have "food" during winter.

Now the garden is ready for some fall plants, both seasonal flowers and vegetables. After all the taking care of your garden, now you can plant seasonal flowers (they differ depending on the area you live), winter vegetables, like cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, fresh onions, garlic, and leek; and of course now is the time to plant bulbs that will grow into your spring flowers, like tulips, anemones, daffodils and some kind of lilies.

Next time, I'll share some wizard edition recipes, and we'll talk about creatures that live in your garden! Until then, badger your life with a spoon or garden gloves!