Ethnic Night 1- Greek Night

Καλή όρεξη! (Kalí óreksi!) - That is the translation in Greek for Let's Eat/Enjoy.

Our first day of Ethnic Night was so much fun! There was so much learning involved. First what do we eat? We talked with some friends and created a good Greek Menu which included a true Greek salad, Spanokopita (Spinach Pie), and stuffed grap leaves.  We hit up the farmers market and got as many of the items we could including fresh spinach, large onions, and herbs.  I thought we would find grape leaves but that turned into a challenge. After going to 3 stores (in the rain) with the boys I finally found them at Randazzos. However not where I was looking. I thought leaf=lettuce... NOPE they are jarred and in the deli aisle by the olives.  Speaking of olives while we were there I hit up the olive bar and got a variety of olives (pitted, unpitted, stuffed with cheeses, stuffed with jalapenos, garlic...).


All the groceries in hand we now had to prepare the food.... We began this process while Stinker was sleeping but it took much longer than that.  Some of the things we learned and researched while we were cooking the food.
* Grape Leaves are used in many countries for medicinal purposes. 
* In the poor areas of Greece if not enough spinach is found you can substitute it with leeks (we had plenty!)
* Phyllo dough is made with flour, water, and a small amount of oil/white vinegar

Sport has not been in the kitchen often so he was very eager to measure and stir. We also took some time to discuss some math with him and discussed cups to quarts (4 cups -1 qrt), 1 Tablespoon = 3 teaspoons.

Sport got a lesson on the airflow through the container.

We had to wash each leaf and pat dry.

Even Stinker got to roll one.

He is so proud of it! Although he tried to take a bite right after and they weren't cooked yet.



The full meal ready to dig in.

As a family we got an assembly line going and rolled the grape leaves (after washing each leaf and drying).  about 2 hours later after everything cooked and settled it was time to EAT... The taste test results:
* Sport loved the spinach pie... funny because he hates spinach (hmmm maybe him help cooking helped). He discovered not everything taste as bad as it smells (AKA feta cheese he said it smells like feet but it tastes pretty good).
* Chef Dadda ate everything but wasn't too thrilled said the grape leaves had too much lemon (we followed the recipe exact so a good note to make for next time)
* Stinker he loved the inside of the grape leaf.
* I enjoyed it all and even ate a couple extra grape leaves. 

This was a great trip to Greece with my family. We learned alot and had a great day in the kitchen together. I look forward to our next destination next month.