Opa! and Aunt Penny!

A couple of weeks ago I had the priviledge of spending the day in the kitchen with a small group of dear relatives/friends. The purpose of this gathering was completely selfish . . . I wanted, for this one day, to be Greek and learn how to bake some traditional Greek goodies. Silly, huh? Our gracious hostess was Francesca, cousin to my sister-in-law. Our wonderful teacher was Aunt Penny. Here is a photo of Aunt Penny, taken by 2 1/2 year old Ella:

Getting together with Aunt Penny was something that I have wanted to do for years. Aunt Penny is the aunt to my dear father-in-law, John. John passed away a few years ago, and connecting with his family and learning a bit of their culture, and recipes, was very important to me. We laughed alot this day, and I realized how important it is to take time like this, before these opportunities are gone. Here is a great photo of Francesca with Aunt Penny (who happens to be her Yia Yia), preparing the phyllo for our baklaVA:
I'm not Greek and I don't speak the language at all - Aunt Penny and the group baking this day can surely vouche that I CAN'T EVEN PRONOUNCE what we baked (I do know that everything ended with a 'VA' or a 'NA' or a 'KA' . . . and had lots of BRANDY inside. . . wait, maybe that's why I had such a hard time pronouncing all of the words!) Here's one last photo of some of what we made: BaklaVA (there's that 'VA' that I wrote of earlier) and Melomakarona (and there's the 'NA'). Let me tell you - I may not be Greek, but I can bake a MEAN BaklaVA after this day!! (I have to spell it with the capital VA, because the group corrected my pronunciation and clarified that I need to stress the VA when speaking.) Did you even know that phyllo dough comes in NUMBERS? Seriously . . . we used #7. . . it's a bit thicker than the regular Jewel store bought kind. Ask me . . . I'll tell you all about it. I'm a professional now.

Thank you so much, Francesca, for giving us the opportunity to mess up your kitchen. And to Aunt Penny, for showing us the ropes. Loved this day! Just loved it!!! (Next time we are going to make Pasticio! Ah . . . something that doesn't end in a 'VA/NA/TA'! Now that will be interesting!)