Original family recipes for the flavorful dishes and delicate desserts of traditional Greek cuisine, spiced with interesting highlights on the island's national customs and culinary arts.

For centuries, the monks of Mount Athos have enjoyed long lives, healthy bodies and calm minds thanks to their unique diet and lifestyle. Now you too can discover the secrets of good nutrition from this ancient community in a remarkable new diet book. In The Mount Athos Diet, you'll follow the intermittent diet that keeps the monks slim, youthful and largely free from disease. The diet is made up of three easy-to-follow patterns throughout the week: - Three fasting days full of delicious fruits and vegetables from nature's larder - Three moderation days to enjoy the best of the Mediterranean, including olive oil, fish and even red wine - One feast day to completely indulge in whichever foods you like With a simple diet plan, recipes, menu planners and tips on how to adapt the diet, plus guidance on exercise, meditation and emotional wellbeing, The Mount Athos Diet promises to transform your body and mind to help you lose weight, feel fitter and live longer.

Kefi, loosely translated, is the Greek sense of joy, and is often found around the dinner table during large and boisterous family meals of Spanakopita, Keftedes (Greek meatballs), and much, much more. Largely considered a bit of a mystery to Americans, Greek cooking is far more expansive than simply prepping up a few gyro sandwiches and Greek salads. There is an earthiness about Greek cooking, an amalgam of many historic influences. Lighter than southern Italian, much less pretentious than French, much more refined than Middle Eastern, Greek cuisine at its best is aromatic, tasty, and satisfying. Around a Greek Table explores the intricacies of Greek cooking and makes these once-mysterious recipes both understandable and possible. The book also delves deep into stories of Greek life and kefi around the dinner table. The 100 recipes are organized around the Eastern Church’s yearly seasons, each explored in one of eight chapters, with historical and personal essays exploring the ancient stories that are told around Greek tables in the honored tradition of combining myths with food.