Thick, creamy yogurt, figs, homemade apricot jam, fresh bread every day, feta cheese, grilled meats, frothed coffee drinks, filled phyllo pies, produce from garden to table.
I have been silent for awhile but with good reason: I am busy eating my way around Greece. We always take our annual trip to Corfu to visit family but this year, we started with a weeklong road trip through the mainland. I am falling in love with the Mediterranean again – the lush vegetation, the smell of olive and eucalyptus trees, the warm light that bathes the houses spotting the mountains and the glorious sea. Most certainly I was an underwater creature in a past life or a mermaid in a different dimension. Nothing brings me peace like floating and diving through the vast water.
Yesterday, my daughter planted a kumquat tree in the garden with her Papous (Greek grandpa). Yes, a kumquat tree in the backyard. How fortunate I am that she can have such an experience! In Chicago, she will learn how to identify the best sledding hills, build snow tunnels into the plow mounds, relish the beautiful and fleeting spring and fall, hope for summer days when the lake is swimmable and withstand incredible humidity. During summer retreats to my in-laws on the island of Corfu, she can feel the satisfaction of plucking a dozen different fresh fruits from the trees, playing with her little cousins in the village, visiting the neighboring chickens and eating fresh eggs and taking daily dips in the sea.
Don’t misunderstand, I love our lives in Chicago. But, I have learned to relish the respite in Greece, which seems to swing the pendulum in the opposite direction and serve as an antidote to our daily lives.
Unfortunately, I have not come to you today with a new recipe. Our trip through mainland Greece introduced me to some new flavors and dishes but I haven’t gotten my hands on any new recipes yet. Just enjoying the time eating and not cooking or even thinking about cooking! The photo is a feta pie that we were served at a taverna in a small village in the northwest mountains. It was their speciality and was unlike the usual Greek pies. Instead of using phyllo it seemed like a popover-like batter that was poured very thin and dotted with feta. I will try to recreate it when I get home and will pass on the recipe should my deconstructing experiment succeed.
Exciting news… my father-in-law has arranged for a family friend to come and show me how to make homemade phyllo. I wrote about homemade phyllo last year and took this video of a woman tossing the amazingly elastic pie. Wish me luck. I will take photos and report and will plan to have a few more recipes to add to Whipped’s Greek Favorites soon!