Cheese Week

Third and final week of carnival culminating in the great (seafood, beans and unleavened bread) feast of Clean Monday and the first day of the great 7 week Lenten fast.

Cheese week, Tyrini, is also called white week.  Meat is forbidden and instead people eat a lot of cheese, milk and eggs.   Women are not supposed to wash their hair this week as it may turn white.  Can't say I know anyone who follows these old rules, except perhaps my very religious neighbour  (not Vaso).  

This (now devout) elderly neighbour became exceedingly pious when her second husband abandoned her for a younger woman.  Note that she had already abandoned her first husband for this second much younger one.  She must have felt she had brought down on herself the wrath of a angry God.  Her life now consists of church services, wherever they may be, all nighters (service till the wee hours) and very strict adherence to the  code of the Orthodox church.  No hanging out of washing, doing housework or darning her socks on Sundays or Saints days for her.  No meat, dairy or eggs on Wednesdays or Fridays.

She comes now and again on a quick visit with homemade biscuits, a bar of  chocolate or a plate of tomatoes and gives us all the island news.  The local church or a doctor's waiting room are the best places to learn all the latest 'gossip'.  Mind you , most of her news is of funerals, memorials and illnesses.  She is 'of a certain age'.

She and her sisters go on overseas coach trip to Monasteries in Romania, Italy, Spain and Bulgaria and she always brings back very large bars of the best chocolate she can find as presents for her many neices and nephews, and us.

Not much to say about Cheese week.  

Here is a recipe for very easy cheese buns given to me by my neighbour, Fani.  She and her sisters are excellent cooks.  They always bring trays of cakes and biscuits for memorial services, All Souls and church fiestas.

Feta Cheese 'Pies'  .. more like heavy buns.  

Put in a bowl  ......
450 self raising flour
1 carton of plain yoghurt - 200 grams, Full fat, 2%, sheep or goats, whatever

Using the same 200 gram container, measure out and add.......
1 carton of oil (olive or vegetable oil)
1 carton of crumbled feta cheese
1 carton of some other grated cheese

2 eggs
pepper

Mix well.  Form into small bun shapes, put on baking paper on a baking tray and cook about half an hour in a medium oven till golden brown.

Eat warm with a glass of wine

Kali Orexi
Bon Appetit
Good appetite
Buon Appetito

Tomorrow is Tuesday 13th
the equivalent of Friday 13th for the rest of the western world