Wednesday 13 March 2024

March Meats

 


A Get Well 
Welcome Home 
Present

Thursday was *Tsiknopempti, the last big meat eating day before Lent. 
K was going to BBQ a pile of meat and I had a bottle of prosecco saved just for an occasion like this.... Good food and the company of a good friend.
Jan has been a member of our family for many many years. 
Her English wit, perception of Greek foibles and sharp rejoinders have brought me a lot of laughter over those years. 

But, that was the day we learnt of our friend's passing. K, our head Chef, was immediately away to arrange papers and help the family. 

K had done all the preparation the night before, marinating mutton chops, preparing the hamburger 'dough', making pork souvlaki and taking **kebabs from the freezer. 
It was easy for me to  ***shape ****burgers and put them in the oven with a few potatoes. We changed ovens recently and I'm still not quite up with it's times and temperatures. They ended up a bit overcooked but were fine with some quickly made gravy, tzatziki, Greek salad and the prosecco.
I cooked them 'foreign style'. No lemon juice and very little olive oil. 

The main course of the day was catching up on recent events in our lives. In the English language. 
It was better K was absent. We don't catch up very often and when we do it's endless chatter in English which K can't keep up with. It drives him mad. 

Thanks Jan for the beautiful flower. I don't know what it's called. Anyone got a name for it? 
She gave me the prosecco too, at Christmas. 

Cheers

*Tsiknopempti - literally smokey Thursday. The smoke is from the meat grilling on the BBQ 

**kebabs are long tubes of spicy minced meat

***To shape dough is to 'plath' - one of my favourite greek words. It means to shape dough, for biscuits, bread, burgers, with your hands

I Plath.. platho 
You Plath.. platheis
We all plath.. plathoume 

****Burgers in Greek are bifteki






21 comments:

  1. Anemone - well at least the flower looks like one from what I can see🤷‍♀️

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    1. Anenome? Well, you should know, my green thumbed expert.

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    2. It's different from the wild anenomes which are starting to appear in the fields. One day I'll ask the guy who sells them. He's our neighbour across the valley

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  2. oooo the wild anemones!😍 We went to Olympia as this time of year and the place was awash with their colour - red and purples. Sorry to read K's Smokey Thursday did not go as planned but it sounds likes yours was a blast.

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  3. I thought it was a Ranunculus.. didn't look close enough!
    Sorry to hear about your friend but glad you enjoyed your catch up. The prosecco was an excellent idea!

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    1. Someone else suggested a ranunculus too. I really will have to ask
      Prosecco is always an excellent idea!

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  4. Lovely floral present at this time of year. It seems to never stop raining here at the moment.

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    1. It's actually just started raining here!! Still warm though

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  5. I like everything about Greec food.always sounds so good to me.Yael

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  6. Love catching up with old friends, so good for the soul right? I only have probably 3 true friends and one lives back in Northland.

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    1. She's the only friend that has remained over the years. Almost 40 years now.

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  7. The flowers are ranunculus, one of my favorites! I recently bought two plants, one orange and one red. So pretty.
    Your meatfest sounds great! I don't remember all the meats I cooked last week. This week we're going for the cheese/yogurt/eggs. I made some strawberry cheesecake bars that are almost gone.

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    1. Another vote for ranunculus. Looks like it's a winner!
      We are eating fish this week. Do you fast for Lent? K is going to avoid meat till Easter

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  8. Lots of good food. I am not completely up to understanding my new oven yet; the temperatures I need seem different to my old one.

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    1. We use our wood oven a lot over winter so I've hardly used the electric one. Also I'm not doing much cooking recently. I'll work it out soon

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  9. The only Greek I ever learned was how to say 'A bottle of Retsina please'.

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  10. Your meal sounds tasty and the company great, I hope your pristine new oven didn't get messy in the cooking process! Cheers!

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    1. I wish it was a pristine new oven. But it's just new to us.

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