Introduction and the Hot Miniature Breads

Hi.  
(Forgive me, be kind with me, I am not a native speaker. I love British accent but I am to embarrassed to use it and I improvise directly translating my thoughts from Greek to English. I am writing in English because of my friend M.I., who does not (yet) speak Greek.)
I am a very bad photographer. Possibly, one of the worst. Thank God this blog is not about photography. It is (one more) blog about food. How is it different from others? Well, it is a bit too personal and experimental. I am not a cook. I hate following instructions. I am not even a caring mother and housewife. I am just an architect, who happens to go through these "hippie /healthy" phases. My best friend can for sure recall the time that I was drinking hot tea during a super hot Greek summer because "the Bedouins do it! They know better, they live in the dessert!". Until this September it was just spasmodic incidents of healthy living that lasted for a couple of months and then faded out. And then I started my master graduation project entitled "Food City". I know it is quite hard to understand what the hell does architecture have to do with food, but it is not the purpose of this blog to explain that (Carolyn Steel in her book "Hungry City" does that really well). The point is that I had to deeply research into food production, processing consumption, even food waste. So I ended up like poor Adam and Eve, with the bite of the forbidden fruit in my mouth, meaning that now I know the huge impact that our food choices have on the environment. I was never a super carnivorous person anyway and white meat is my preference when it comes to animal protein, but now the aim is to reduce meat consumption as much as possible (so without ending up depressed about it) and incorporate new protein sources in my cooking. I cook for two and I am lucky that my partner (I feel that "boyfriend" is quite a silly word once you are more than 20) enjoys the whole exploration.
The basis of our diet the last two months (yes, kind of a "new year's resolution" that seems to be lasting) has been lots of fruit, vegetables, seeds and in general whole food products. We are Greek living in the Netherlands, which can be an extra reason to prepare your own food, instead of eating ready-made supermarket meals. We are used to a very rich kitchen from our home country while the Dutch culture is not that much concerned about food. It is treated more like fuel for a day full of work and sports. For me -thanks to my mom- food is exploration and creation and expression and fun and cooking is a great way to unwind at the end of a stressful day. Cooking is one of the reasons that the burnout of the title has been avoided so far.
Having a very full program, I can assure you from personal experience that there is always time to cook and it is always worth sleeping half an hour later or waking up an hour earlier to prepare a little delicious something that will nourish you and your loved ones during a busy day.  Since I started cooking and taking food with me at the university I am looking forward to the lunch brake, while before it was a moment of choosing with what kind of deep fried unidentified stuff I would block my arteries. Let me make something clear here: the Dutch do not eat usually a warm lunch. They eat a sandwich or even just bread with a piece of ham. I guess that they have warm dinners at home. For me, having the cultural background that I have, lunch is a full meal and I need it to keep me going through the day.  And I do find, that since I cook my own food I feel a lot better.
Since this is the beginning of this blog, the first posts will come the one after the other, just to give you an insight in my view to enjoying food. Then, I will probably get bored and post every one in a while extraordinary recipes.
So, what you see in the pictures is what I call "Hot Miniature Breads". And it is an improvisation, like all else that will appear on this blog. So, the recipe won't be that exact either.
Ingredients:
Three cups of self rising flour
One table spoon of baking soda
3/4 cup olive oil
About one cup of water (keep it near and we will decide how much to put in)
As much and as many as you like of the following herbs:
-basil
-parsley
-oregano
-thyme
-onion powder
-garlic powder
-cayenne pepper (lots of it, otherwise they wouldn't be called "hot", right?)
-salt
So, now you put all the dry materials in a bowl. You add the olive oil. And s-l-o-w-l-y you add water, while mixing with a fork/your hands. You keep adding water until you have a nice, firm dough. It should not stick on your fingers very much. Now go to the oven and preheat it to 200C. Take a baking tray and spray it with a bit of olive oil (I do not use a spray, I just use my fingers to make sure the whole baking tray has a thin coat of oil). Now make your miniature breads :) Do they look cute? I hope so. Now put them on the tray and the tray in the oven. I baked them for 20' and turned on the grill for another 7', just to make them blush a bit on top. The bag that you see in the first picture was full of Hot Miniature Breads. Now, one hour later, is not full anymore. They are delicious on their own or with cream cheese or pesto sauce.