soo... as many of you have noticed i haven't been updating my blog too often. its a mix of year-end exams, some travelling, moving into a new apartment and taking summer courses that suck up all of my time. i'll try to update as often as i can (or when i make food that is awesome...) but i think overall i will be blogging less than usual. in the meantime, let's look at how i spent my easter! i had about a 2 week break before my last exam, so i decided to head out east to celebrate easter the super, super greek way with my grandparents, sister and other family. what is the super, super greek way? well, i'm talkin' going to church more times in one week than i have in the last 10 years of my life, baking copious amounts of cookies, breads and food in general, and eating things.. i don't ever want to eat again in my life...
anyways, to give you a bit of background information, here's mr. panos to explain a basic greek easter. and yes, we made almost everything he mentioned (minus the kokoretsi, thank god).
aaaannnddddd just for some laughs, one of the best parts in my big fat greek wedding. "cheestro anesti". her dad looks just like both of my papous... and they think in very similar ways...
anyways, so onto some of what i experienced having a very traditional greek easter with my yiayia and papou. first off, i accidentally slept through the palm sunday service (i thought my yiayia was going to hate me forever after that). so, it didn't start too well. things got better when i was able to help my yiayia cook ridiculous amounts of food. let's start with baking over 200 greek cookies, including melomakarona, kourabiedes (YUMMMM) and koulourakia. next came dying eggs. there were a lot of them. we mostly did red eggs (ya know, trying to be all traditional here) which was a little boring but HEY we got to stick them in our ARMY OF TSOUREKI. yes, yes that's right. it was an army. seriously. i don't know why we made so much! anyways, you add in this cool ingredient called mahlepi, which is a spice made from a particular type of cherry. this gives the bread this subtle and unique sweet flavour.
then came the making of some pretty ridiculously epic dolmathes... i still can't even begin to explain how yummy they were. you can't really go wrong with using ground lamb... mmm... so goood! then we made some random meals with no meat leading up to good friday.. then came the scary stuff. when my papou went to the farm to get the lamb, he got the guts with it. and, what do you do with the guts? put them in a soup.. with LEMON!! i mean, of course, why wouldn't you? erm, yeah.. not such a fan. the lungs, liver and kidneys had been sitting in a tupperware container in the fridge for a good 4 days, and they were just taunting me the entire time! anyways, from my observation, the only real reason you go to church late night on saturday is to get the "light of god" from the priest, party with some fireworks, sing a couple of "christos anesti ek nekron"'s, and to go home and eat magiritsa. can't say i particularly wanted to eat that at 2am.. but, i made myself promise to try a bit of everything. gotta say though, this is something i'm just not ready to eat anytime soon. if it was made with the atcual meat, it would have been fine! i guess i'm just not an organ person... can you blame me?!
anyways, yeah so all i can say is that lungs are very squishy... and bouncy... and that they don't exactly taste good. it weirded me out too much that i could rip a piece apart and name the structures inside (yaaay, HKin nerdiness!). so no. that didn't go well. here's penny, to show us just how awkward it can get. (please mind the random camera movements.. i tried to capture the faces the best way possible!)
sooo... after all the drama with the icky organs, comes the BEST PART OF GREEK EASTER FO SHIZZ. yes, yes that's right. i'm talking about LAMB ON A SPIT. my lord, before this easter, i hadn't had an actual spit lamb for years! ooohhh it was so tasty! the skin was crispy, the meat was falling-off-the-bone ridiculously tender and juicy! there's really nooothing like it. not lamb in the oven or anything. it has to be on a spit. in the yard. so that all of your neighbours can point and laugh. or be jealous. i prefer the to think it's the latter!
so, on sunday my aunt and uncle and cousins came over for an epic feast of food made with lemon! i'm talkin potatoes, chicken, LAMB, hummus, veggies, salad, feta, kelafotyri, olives, dolmathes, pasta, bread/tsoureki, cookies, cheesecake, lots and lots and lots of wine.. and some other stuff i can't remember. basically, i ate a lot of food. too much food. i had to change into my lululemons!!
possibly the best part of easter was when my yiayia would answer the phone not saying "hello" but saying "christos anesti" or "christ has risen". literally for 3 days before and after easter that's what she would say. not everybody who called was greek.. so that would have been a very awkward beginning to the phone convo!
so folks, that was my greek easter... i've given you a wee update hope that is good enough until i find more time to cook!
anyways, to give you a bit of background information, here's mr. panos to explain a basic greek easter. and yes, we made almost everything he mentioned (minus the kokoretsi, thank god).
aaaannnddddd just for some laughs, one of the best parts in my big fat greek wedding. "cheestro anesti". her dad looks just like both of my papous... and they think in very similar ways...
anyways, so onto some of what i experienced having a very traditional greek easter with my yiayia and papou. first off, i accidentally slept through the palm sunday service (i thought my yiayia was going to hate me forever after that). so, it didn't start too well. things got better when i was able to help my yiayia cook ridiculous amounts of food. let's start with baking over 200 greek cookies, including melomakarona, kourabiedes (YUMMMM) and koulourakia. next came dying eggs. there were a lot of them. we mostly did red eggs (ya know, trying to be all traditional here) which was a little boring but HEY we got to stick them in our ARMY OF TSOUREKI. yes, yes that's right. it was an army. seriously. i don't know why we made so much! anyways, you add in this cool ingredient called mahlepi, which is a spice made from a particular type of cherry. this gives the bread this subtle and unique sweet flavour.
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| angelopoulos army of tsoureki |
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| this was the before face... |
sooo... after all the drama with the icky organs, comes the BEST PART OF GREEK EASTER FO SHIZZ. yes, yes that's right. i'm talking about LAMB ON A SPIT. my lord, before this easter, i hadn't had an actual spit lamb for years! ooohhh it was so tasty! the skin was crispy, the meat was falling-off-the-bone ridiculously tender and juicy! there's really nooothing like it. not lamb in the oven or anything. it has to be on a spit. in the yard. so that all of your neighbours can point and laugh. or be jealous. i prefer the to think it's the latter!
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| this is maria! our little lamby.. head meat reserved for papou! |
possibly the best part of easter was when my yiayia would answer the phone not saying "hello" but saying "christos anesti" or "christ has risen". literally for 3 days before and after easter that's what she would say. not everybody who called was greek.. so that would have been a very awkward beginning to the phone convo!
so folks, that was my greek easter... i've given you a wee update hope that is good enough until i find more time to cook!
