SURPLUS OF SPINACH

After the very heavy rainstorm we had on national day, in the middle of the local parade, all the greens have surged upwards and onwards.  We have weeds two feet high once again, the lettuces have bolted for heaven and the spinach is lush.

the last of the lettuces

SPINACH - we have none in our garden this year, though we have had quite good crops in previous years.  One year about this time, at the end of the season, our neighbor Vasso brought us a barrowload of spinach she had dug up to prepare for the summer planting.  It was old and tough just like her but I picked out the better leaves and blanched and freezed them for all the family.

Now I bought a kilo of  big and largely dirt-free spinach leaves.  It still needed a good clean.  The rule here is to wash all greens three times in a big bowl of water till there is no trace of dirt and sand left at the bottom.  I took the spinach outside and filled up two bowls with the hose pipe.  Still quite a job.  Of course you could buy a packet of frozen spinach, use silver beet or swiss chard.

A favourite meal here, especially during Lent is spinach and rice (spanakorizo).  Quick and easy, served with feta cheese and bread.  It is my granddaughter Nelli's favourite dish along with lentils.  That girl is born to be healthy.  On her birthday she asked her mother to make her green beans and potatoes, another popular dish especially in the summer, with lots of fresh tomatoes.  I don't think her siblings were overjoyed by the birthday meal though.

This time I made spanakopita (spinach pie) with 'country' filo pastry.  Once the spinach is washed it really is an easy recipe, especially if, like I did this time, I use bought pastry.

spanakotiropita (cheese and spinach pie)

There are quite a few variations and it can be made with or without cheese.

These are my ingredients.

-a kilo of fresh spinach, washed and cut into large pieces.
-a bunch of dill
-half a dozen fresh spring onions, or a big onion
-three or four leeks
-a little olive oil
-other fragrant greens.  Whatever is popular in your area.  They just give the pie a little more flavor
-half a kilo of feta cheese
-one egg
-pepper

-Enough filo pastry or short pastry to line a big baking dish, top and bottom

Clean and chop the spinach and other greens and put them in a hot pan till it wilts down a little.  Then put it into a colander to drain.  It will have lots of liquid.  Water your plants with the liquid, it's full of vitamins - or drink it yourself.

Chop the leeks and onions and lightly fry in a little olive oil. Add the spinach, greens and chopped dill.  Crumble the cheese and add that as well.  Then stir in a beaten egg.  It should be a great savoury mix, without having liquid on the bottom.  Too much liquid will make the pastry go soggy.

You shouldn't need salt because the cheese is usually salty enough.  But put in a good sprinkle of pepper.

Oil your baking dish, line the bottom with pastry and oil the pastry if it is filo.  Add the spinach mix, top with more pastry and tuck it in nicely.  Score the pastry and brush with a little water.

Cook about half an hour in a medium oven until nicely browned.

Eat while hot.  Serve with a good squeeze of lemon juice.
.........................

Last year our Australian visitors introduced us to another spinach recipe, this one made by their Croatian friend.  Simple and very tasty.  A delish accompaniment to any meal.  It is called BLITVA.  Croatia is just over our border.  I am surprised it is not a favourite greek dish too.

Cube and boil potatoes for 10 minutes.
Chop the spinach and wilt for a few minutes.
Brown some chopped garlic in olive oil.  Add the potatoes and the spinach, put in a little salt and toss and turn for a few minutes to mix up all those flavours.  You may need to add a little water too.

Serve hot with meat or just as a side dish.  Wonderful and very healthy.
...................

Kali orexi (bon appetit)

Kyriakos pruning the bougainvillea

nana's little helpers cleaning up the winter garden

CLEAN MONDAY

The carnival is over.  Lent has begun.  We had  a leisurely Clean Monday, though K did not think quite the same.  He and Kyriakos sat outside in the cold bbqing, boiling and cleaning all the seafood.  Kina in the half 'shell' has to be cut in the middle with a special 'implement'.  Crabs have to be boiled lightly, octopus and kalamari grilled and a sort of shiny cockle opened ready for slurping.  Small children were entertained with squirts of lemon juice which made the cockles wriggle and squirm. Cockles and mussels alive, alive-o.

Kina (sea urchins, ahinous) were snagged by K from our local bay using a piece of fishing net on the end of a long pole.  They are an endangered species now, although you would not think so when swimming around our bay.

I made half a dozen loaves of flat sourdough bread and lots of taramousalata.   For 'pudding' we had fruit doused with honey and cinnamon and a big halvas, made of semolina, sugar and oil.

No one ate too much, no one drank too much, the kids were reasonably uninvasive.  We sat around the table with only close family and a good friend, chatted and gossiped, listened to the wind and rain outside and stoked the fire to keep out the damp.

Not a day for picnics or kite flying.

The last two days we have had southerly winds and dense clouds of red sand from the Sahara with just enough rain to make it all stick.  The red dust cannot simply be rinsed off, cars and outdoor fixtures have to be properly washed and cleaned to get rid of it all.  Our windows and doors are covered in thick red raindrops.

a small child dressed up as a kalikanzaro, a sort of naughty imp, wielding a yellow plastic cricket bat (from NZ of course)

clean Monday table

25th March - National holiday with parades, wreath laying, poems, dancing and feasting with those named Evangelina or Evangelos.

This day is a religious and a political holiday.  It is Annunciation day - announcement day in simple language.  The angel Gabriel gave Mary a lily and told her she was the chosen one and would give birth in exactly nine months to the Son of God.

Also on this day many hundreds of years later Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the Greek flag and started the revolution against the Turks.  The Greeks cried 'Freedom or Death' and began a 9 year war of independence.

There is a big military parade in Athens and in every village, on every island there is a parade of local bigwigs and school children, the laying of wreaths and patriotic music and dancing.

On the eve of the holiday our school kids have a small celebration at school where nationalistic poems are recited and there are small theatrical productions starring those historical heroes and heroines who took part in the long struggle.  Byron was also one of the heroes of the campaign and died in the swamps of Messalonghi in 1824.

The blue and white blue flag is flown outside houses and businesses and it is one of the few days of Lent when it is allowed to eat fish.  Traditionally this day the fish dish is salt cod and garlic sauce.

We went across to the inlaws on Galatas to celebrate with Kyriako's family.  His brother's name is Vangelis (Evangelos).  The salt cod has to be soaked for at least 24 hours to get rid of the salt and then it is fried in crisp batter.  The garlic sauce is made from stale bread soaked in water, lots of olive oil, many cloves of crushed garlic and a good dash of vinegar. 

Aunt Eleni, over 80, had fried 60 pieces of cod.  It is a large extended family.  The maiden aunts will feed  cod to all the cousins. uncles and aunts.With the left over batter she made a huge pile of little pancakes, great with wine and a few olives so I was told.

salt cod and garlic sauce - NOT fried fish and mash as I once thought.  What a nasty surprise

K puts up our flag

Me, left bottom corner with one of many glasses of wine

Refugees - Greece already had one million refugees before this latest crisis started - from the Balkans, India and Pakistan mainly.

Now almost 60,000 from Syria and middle east  and more arriving. 

15,000 refugees camped out in the mud in appalling conditons, and weather on the Macedonian border.

This route through the balkans is now officially closed but they refuse to leave and go to established camps......just in case.

5,000 refugees camped out along Piraeus harbor.  Also refusing to go to established camps. Fighting and protesting a daily occurrence.

Italian PM Renzi sent carabinieri to the help the Albanians secure their border with Greece.

Refugees now just a Greek problem  it seems. EU borders closed.

Is this Warfare by migrant invasion?

Je suis Bruxelles

Coffee and lessons from grandchildren

Afternoon tea at Danae's place. Cupcakes by N els, with green icing. Plus raisin bread, sweet bread (tsoureki) and a bit of birthday cake.  Something to keep the brain cells working while I learnt all about Viber and how to take photos on a tablet\ipod etc.

And more rain.  Not good for the refugees who refuse to leave the bog on the border.  Great for the Greek earth.  Greens of the field will be on the menu in a few days.

Good day for rakomelo.

Raki and honey.......

A good mug of raki (grappa, pastis, tsikoudia, tsikoudia, Arak, sambuka)

A heaped spoon of good thyme honey

A stick of cinnamon

A few cloves

Simmer for a few minutes till honey has melted. Leave half an hour...if you can wait.  Drink and you'll be merry.

Sent by Turbo-X device

HOMELY CRAFTING

This is a magic ball

made from all the odds and ends of wool

from 'things' I have knitted over the last few years

This is Nels joining all those ends together

and THIS is free form knitting

Danae and I and anyone I can rope in then knits

'squares' which are joined together to make a blanket.

4 finished, another 40 squares to go, you can see how you might get bored if they were all the same.  Freeform means, any colour, stitch, pattern, wool and even shape which tickles your fancy.

One of the half dozen blankets I have knitted or crocheted.

They are all definitely freeform....I use odd balls of wool and change colours, and pattern as I get bored.  

 

An original greek marble table.

Also freeform!

a chunk of marble left over from the outdoor sinks covers

a rather rickety outdoor table.

 

The shell on the table was found in local waters.

It was given to K so he could cook the contents as a meze

for his ouzo.  The 'meat' inside cooked for about an hour but was still tough.  I guess it needed a good bashing like an octopus or a paua.

Don't forget to have a look at

ricthewriter.com

and PLEASE  leave a comment

here, there and everywhere

LIFE IS GOOD

Our lemon trees were branching out so much they covered all the front garden so we gave them  all a
severe pruning.  We have two trees, one next to the other, one has lemons with lots of juice, one has lemons with just a few hard squeezed drops.   Katherine, visiting from Perth one summer, offered to make us a lemon meringue pie.  She couldn't get enough juice out of a couple of dozen lemons and made peach pie instead.  Great thinking and a fantastic pie.

the lemon pickers, Lydia and George............

and the trees are still drooping with the rest of the crop

This year they do have a little more juice.  I made lemonade and squeezed enough to put in the freezer for some more lemonade in the summer.  But who wants to squeeze a ton of lemons.  Not even grandchildren who get paid for their effort.  You can freeze whole lemons just as they are, straight from the tree, but that means having a lot of spare room in your freezer.  Our freezer is already filled with strange cuts of meat and odd bits of fish which K keeps for bait.

Kyriako's mother, Nota, (synpethera - the mother of our son-in-law) is now a great-grandmother.  She wanted to celebrate the occasion but her brother died less than  a year ago so the family cannot observe the occasion with any sort of a party.  Guess what.  We had  the party at our place instead.  What 'party'.  When Nota and K get together the dinner becomes a feast.  But no music.
Kyriakos is a terrific cook.  In another world he would have been a chef and not captain of a water taxi.

Nota got hold of some wild pig which Kyriakos marinated and cooked.  Lots of red wine and a long time in a slow oven.  Meanwhile, K fired up our outside wood oven and prepared a 15 kilo cows head.  There's a lot of bone in that head, but there is also a hell of a lot of meat.  Tongue, brain, cheeks, eyes.   Both the pig and the beef just melted off the bone but there was so much meat.  Too much meat.  And lemon roasted potatoes and home made bread, hot from the breadmaker this time, not my sourdough.  Lettuce salad and greek salad and feta cheese and tzatziki.

enough to make you a vegetarian!

all packeted up and ready for the oven

what visitors never see

the back verandah in winter mode

K waits for the oven to fire-up

A week later we had the big meat eating day before Lent - smoky Thursday.  Your easter is a month before the Orthodox easter this year. Lent starts on 14th March, easter at the beginning of May.  Fortunately Elli and Kyriakos held the bbq at their place, downstairs in yard under the jasmine vine.  Lots of smoky mutton, pork chops and souvlaki and even more tzatziki.  An even bigger gathering.  All the Tzanos family, friends, relatives and neighbours.  'Poverty needs a little of the good life too'.  Greek proverb.  From the 14th March most members of the family will stop eating meat till easter Sunday.

Years ago the whole island would be covered in a smoky haze as little bbq's appeared out on the street and in every yard.  The petrol station used to have a huge grill and anyone turning up for a fill-up got a few glasses of wine and a lamb chop or two.  No grill this year. The taxi boat captains would have their own grill on the water front.  No grill there either this year. But the butchers shop next to the 'green chairs' (K approved cafeteria) had their grill out.  They also did a  roaring trade inside selling pork chops and chicken pieces.  I noticed that those around the grill seemed to be mostly Albanians drinking beer and scoffing free grub. 

Memorial.  And the next 'bash' was the one year memorial of one of our elderly neighbours.  His family own the Paradise taverna up on the hill.  First of all though I had an hour standing up in church, trying not look at my watch.  It was All Souls Saturday so the service was at the small church in the graveyard.  After lighting the candle on the Tzanos family tomb and wafting around some incense, K stood outside gossiping with all the other men and I went in to pretend I was one of the faithful.  We came in at the end of the service but the new priest goes on and on and gives a little talk at the end.  Not to mention that he reads out ALL the names of the dead remembered at the church ALL through the year.  He spent over five minutes just reading out the names of all those souls.  Women came in and out with bowls of funeral wheat, small children cried and were given to grand parents who had got the few chairs provided. Finally I went outside but all the graves were already sat-on so I had to stand out there too.

Next we went for funeral coffee, the koliva (wheat) and a brandy or two.  I always come away from memorials a bit wobbly.

From there we were invited to the 'wake'.  This being a 'taverna family' it was a great repast.  A good time was had by all.  Lots of wine, loads of gossip but no music.   We had a selection of cheese, two different salads, bourekakia (fried rolls of ham and cheese in pastry), tzatziki and feta cheese dip,  and roast beef with potatoes and lemon rice.  No sticky cakes at a memorial meal.

In the good old days the (now) widow (K's distant cousin) would make 20 huge loaves of sourdough bread a week for the tavern.  On her knees she kneaded and punched, what must have been, about 40 kilos of dough then lit up the wood fire and baked them over the coals.  In later years the family bought her a machine which kneaded the bread.  Now the tavern only opens for Sunday lunch and  fiestas and the old lady still makes a couple of loaves of bread on special occasions.  I have some of her sourdough starter which has been going now for 3 years.  Strong stuff.

Sunday we had the two grandsons to stay over night and do some work in the garden.  We (they) finally emptied our big compost bin which has been going since we first moved in here about 8 years ago.  K's friend Menios (after Menelaos - the husband of Helen of Troy) who owns the other K approved cafeteria (the orange chairs) has been here digging and de-weeding our garden.  Under his instructions we are going to graft the grapefruit and bitter orange tree and have some summer citrus fruit.  Also he says he'll plant a summer garden for us.  He has suddenly become a gardening enthusiast, spends hours studying it all on the net but also puts it into practice .  K really does have some great friends.....and lots of cousins.

He shamed me into weeding my front garden as well, though my lettuces have grown quite nicely in amongst the wild sorrel.

Today is 8th March.  International Women's Day.  In the good old days I used to go out on the town with most of the Poriotisses (Poros women).  Even K's sister Dina could be  made to join in the celebration.  Large groups of women, young and some very old, would fill up the tavernas and then move on to the bars downtown and take them over for the night.  Dina would go home at this point.  The old biddies were always done up in their best furs and all their gold.  They were the first to get up and dance and end up on the tables doing a tsifiteli (erotic dance).  It was THEIR night.  Now they're dead and gone and their heirs have sold off the furs and jewelry. 

Last night Elli, Danae and a couple of friends stayed in, ordered souvlaki, drank a beer and watched a movie. 

PRADA.  I have a pair of Prada shoes.   Given to me by a relative with big feet and too much money.  Love them.  Though I am not a big fan of prada.  What a fun sentence to write!  This is the second pair I have been given.  The other shoes were sports shoes and they were ugly and uncomfortable.  I gave them to the animal bazaar.  These are terrific.  Just right for funerals and memorials.

pradapradapradapradaprada

This weekend is the end of carnival and Monday the beginning of Lent.  It is a public holiday and a day of more food and drink.  Shellfish, octopus, kalamari, taramasalata.  No meat, dairy, eggs or fish.  But that is another story.

BLACK CLOUDS revised

Is Europe still high on your holiday list?  How about Greece.  Those picturesque greek islands shimmering blue and white in the summer sun, are they still a desirable destination? 

The EU has brought Greece to its economic knees and kicked over the ouzo bottle. 

Turkey and Russia are firing thunderbolts of insults at each other.  How long before the barrage of mere propaganda becomes warheads instead.

The war in Syria has made millions run for their lives.  Over 800.000 refugees and migrants made it to Greece in 2015, another 150,000 to Italy.

Thousands of  hopeful asylum seekers are still arriving on greek islands every day.  Samos, Chios, Leros, Lesvos, Symi, Farmakonisi, Kalminos, Gavdos, Amorgos, even Santorini, Crete and Mykonos.    Poor little Kastelorizo only 650 metres from the Turkish shore and 300 inhabitants has been over run .  Kos, 5 kilometres away from the Turkish coast, has the locals rioting in protest at the construction of ‘reception’ centres.  These will ruin tourism they say, their main source of income.

Skopje (Macedonia) is building a second fence along its border with Greece.  Macedonia, the only entrance point from Greece to the rest of Europe, now allows  entry to only Syrians and Iranians with proper papers.  Today there were 80 let through the border, yesterday 200. Thousands wait and protest.

 Detention camps, are being built around Athens.
Many think concentration camps on the islands  of Yarra and Macronisi should be reopened.  Political prisoners were held here during the military junta.

Border crossings  into Bulgaria and Albania have been closed by farmers objecting to new  measures which will triple their social security payments.  Lines of tractors have blocked  all  main highways for over ten days now .  Bypass roads are closed for hours every day.  Greece has been cut into pieces.

General strikes occur on a regular basis.  Even little Galatas, across the water, held a protest march. Car ferries, water taxis and fishing boats cruised in the straits on a 2 hour stoppage.

Rumours are spreading that large numbers of men have been recalled to the armed forces, there will be a general call up, the 6th Fleet is  patrolling the Aegean and the greek navy and coast guard are on high alert.   Just rumours now, but they are being discussed over coffee in the cafeterias and it is making us all feel a little insecure.

NATO ships have been sent to the Aegean to deter human smugglers sending migrants from Turkey.  Their role is simply to patrol and prevent ‘illegal activities’ at sea.

New words we learnt.

  Schengen agreement.  The free passage of European citizens from one country in the EU to another.  Greek citizens can travel to other EU countries using only their ID card.  The latest threat is that if Greece cannot control its borders  they will be expelled from the Schengen area.

FRONTEX  the European Union’s border patrol agency

HOTSPOTS  refugee reception centres on the greek islands

Winter has been so warm the almond trees are blossoming two months early. 

But.   The olive harvest was bountiful.  Vine yards produced plenty of wine.  Our lemon trees are bowed down with fruit.  We've burnt half the amount of fire wood we used last year.  No rain, means no flooding, no mould.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS AT CHRISTMAS

WINE IN A PLASTIC BOTTLE.  20 KILOS OF YIANNI'S WINE NEXT TO THE

OLD 1 1/2 LITRE COKE BOTTLE OF WINE

octopus and ouzo

NEXT BLOG POST .  THE GOOD LIFE.

don't forget to visit

www.ricthewriter.com

2015..austerity All Blacks and more

XMAS 2015

NZ NIGHT - ALL BLACKS WIN THE WORLD RUGBY CUP

ALL BLACKS - DANAE AND ELLI

What can I write that I have not already written  during this long year, last year and the year before. Economic ruin was on the cards for the first six months.  Worse than the years before, but with the usual outcome.  A last minute bailout saved Greece from bankruptcy but the threat is still there to keep the masses toeing the line.   Our stockpiles of macaroni and toilet paper gave us supplies for the next few months.  What we saved on food and hygiene products we gave to the government in the hope that we wouldn’t lose the roof over our heads.    January 1^st will bring more pension cuts, from 10-25%.  Our family are still able to pay all their taxes and we are grateful for that.  I hope I can still write that at the end of 2016.

 Refugees and asylum seekers took first place in the news in the second 6 months.  In previous years refugees from Afganistan and Pakistan arrived in the thousands on the greek islands.    This year asylum seekers, mainly fleeing the war in Syria, have topped the half million mark.  You’ve all seen the news reports and horrific photos.

  Thousands are still arriving each day on greek shores crossing the 'sea of death' between Turkey and Greece.  Seas are rough, bodies are washed up daily on greek beaches.  Borders are closing as fences and walls are built all along the refugee route to restrict and control the huge numbers of people passing through.  Refugees are stuck in the freezing cold for days or weeks before they continue on to Europe.  Athens has opened up its Olympic stadiums to accommodate those who want to wait out the winter. 

And terrorists creep through to bring terror in Paris and all of Europe.``  

At the moment there are an estimated 7,000 on the northern greek borders.  Last week Iranian men sewed their lips together in protest at not being able to cross into Skopje.  Yesterday it was a war of stones with the police and bona fide refugees who are allowed through the border.  A Moroccan migrant was electrocuted whilst attempting to climb on top of  a train.  Why a Moroccan?     Was his life threatened in Morocco or was he just in search of a better life and trying to get into Europe via a back door.

Syrian families who can qualify as genuine refugees are the first to be allowed through to continue on their long trek.  But young men from Pakistan, Afganistan, Iran....and Morocco are the majority on the borders.  They are the irregular migrants who are stopped from continuing and they are the trouble makers.  They are fighting between themselves and with police. All of them are supposed to have been photographed and fingerprinted but what does that do really.  At least one of the Paris attackers came through the island of Leros.    Whose is to say if they are genuine refugees or a threat to peace in Europe.  Young men are deported regularly.  As soon as they set foot 'home' they are off again, on their way back to the refugee trail.

After the incident between  Russia and Turkey the 'Csar' and the 'Sultan' are insulting each other and making threats which I hope they do not carry out.  Russian ships have been stopped from sailing through the Bosphorous and out into the med.  Turkey has stopped providing fresh fruit and vegetable to the Russians.

Turkish war planes invade Greek airspace a dozen times a week.  As the Greek PM said, 'thank goodness our pilots are not as nervy as the Turks.'

A blessed greek monk, named brother Paisios, who died in 1994, left behind him Nostradamus type predictions.  One of them was that Russia and Turkey would go to war and Turkey would be wiped off the map.  Whilst he says Konstantinople (Istanbul) will be returned to the Greeks, something they have been waiting for since its fall  to the Ottomans on a Tuesday (a most unlucky day) in 1453, it would also mean a war on our border.  Peace brothers.

Greek chemists, hospitals, the employed and the unemployed are out on the streets striking and protesting.  Farmers have warmed up their tracters and are blocking roads.  Our local school still has not got its full quota of teachers although the schools opened in September. 

Big businesses are moving across the border to Bulgaria, Skopje and even Albania where life and taxes are cheaper.    We've all gone back to shopping at the Chinese 'emporiums'.  Galatas across the waters has  a large store where we find cheap clothes for all the family. 

Our days here are still sunny and bright but the nights are getting colder.  We lit our wood burning stove for the first time last night.  The neighbours have gathered most of their olives and we have a 17 kilo tin of fresh olive oil to keep us going for a few months, plus half a ton of fresh olive wood.

GREEN OLIVES READY FOR PICKING

10 kilos of olives pressed to get one litre of oil at the beginning of the season

by December it was 6 to 1

HAPPY HELPERS MOVING OLIVE WOOD FROM FRONT ENTRANCE

K STACKING THE WOOD AT THE BACK OF THE HOUSE

The grape harvest went really well, especially considering that most of the grapevines in our area were under water for months after flooding last December.  For the first time Kostas did not get any grape juice and has not made his own wine.  We buy a few kilos from our neighbour as needed.  An extra tax has been put on wine and there was a huge uproar.  Politicians did agree that wine was not a luxury in this country but a tradition.  A few glasses of wine are drunk with every meal . Fiery  raki cleans out the rust and warms the blood, a necessary 'medicine' not a luxury.

The winter was wet, the summer was hot.  We all grew a year older.

“May calm be widespread, may the sea lie smooth as greenstone, may the warmth of summer fall upon us all”.

A maori blessing



as usual all the types of type face have been used, much to my bewilderment.  One day I will get it all the same, I hope.