Cooking with Kelsey

Haha, just kidding. But I did just make these amazing stuffed tomatoes! Another Greek classic, one of my favorites. A little kima (ground beef), rice, olive oil, tomato stuff, seasonings, and yum yum yum! (I overstuffed mine a bit, I see, as they are bursting open, but all the more good filling for me.)

Last month I got this big fat Greek cookbook, essentially the "Joy of Cooking" for Greek food, and I'd like to try a few different things out of it. Nothing too complicated, since I have about one square foot of counter space for preparing food, but it's fun to try recipes. :)

Easter bread

Τσουρέκι (tsoureki), is the traditional Greek Easter bread. There are bakeries in Thessaloniki that are famous for their variation - chocolate covered, lemon, orange, etc. I have a recipe for one with orange zest and chocolate chips that I want to try!

But, the traditional bread is simple with a distinct flavor, and often with a red egg placed in the center, to symbolize the blood of Jesus for Easter. I went to the supermarket yesterday and saw carton after carton of red dyed eggs on sale! The flavor is anise seed, which usually I don't like, but it has just a hint of taste in this mildly sweet bread that is actually quite delicious!

So, if you'd like to try something a little different, tasty, and very Greek this Easter, give this a whirl! Your friends and family will be so impressed. Let me know if you try it.

Easter Bread (Tsoureki)

3 packages yeast (or 2 oz. of fresh yeast)
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup milk
10-11 cups flour
7 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, melted
1 Tbsp anise seeds, powdered or grated
lemon rind
sesame seeds or slivered almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 (maybe after some of the rising is done). Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk, 1 teaspoon sugar and 2 cups flour. Stir to batter, cover and set in a warm place for about 1 hour.

After an hour, run hot water in a pan and set a medium mixing bowl on top (to keep ingredients in the bowl warm). Beat 6 eggs, sugar, and lemon rind over the hot water. Stir the mixture into the batter. Add remaining flour. Put dough on a floured pastry board and knead, adding the butter, until smooth and elastic. Place in a large buttered bowl and brush surface lightly with melted butter. Cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Shape dough into long ropes 1/2 to 1 inch diameter and cut into 12 inch lengths. Braid 3 ropes loosely together and lay on a greased baking sheet. Let it rise, covered, until doubled, about 1 hour. Brush with one beaten egg, sprinkle with sesame seeds or slivered almonds if you wish, and bake for 25-30 minutes.

To be very Greek, push a red egg into the center before you bake it!

Medieval Rhodes

it's a great country I live in...

The good people in Cyprus reimbursed me for every expense for my trip there. Now, I'm taking the money and running! To a 75% off (off-season special) 5 star hotel on the sea in Rhodes. What can I say, I'm in desperate need of a break.

Bye now.

(photo from Kathleen Andersen)

time for my soapbox

I never really told you what I think of that Stop the Traffik PSA I shared below. (I wrote a bit in the comments but not here.) After I got over my traumatization, I thought about it a bit more, and I think it misses the point.

I think it's really well done, gets the point across, and is in-your-face in a way that gets your attention and makes you think about the issue. (Although, unfortunately, without getting it in actual television spots, the majority of the people who will view it are those who are, at the least, already aware, and at the most, active in the issue.) And my opinion has nothing to do with Stop the Traffik - I worked with them in LA (Oasis, as they are called in the States).

Here's my experience: Anyone would agree, after viewing this PSA, that trafficking is horrible, violent, and should be stopped. Including the man who will go pay for sex in a brothel with this girl. That's because he doesn't make the connection between the girl in the ad - how she got there, whether it was by force/violence or not - and the girl he is having sex with. He assumes and tells himself that the particular girl he is seeing is different - she wants to be there, or at least has made a choice to be there.

We have gotten a lot of attention on human trafficking, and people think it's terrible and evil. But it's not slowing down. Ads like this - and the anti-trafficking campaign in general - would be more effective if they tied this violent event to the girl that is in the brothel or giving services on the street. If we connected the crime, injustice and violence of trafficking directly to prostitution, or even pornography, perhaps that would have a greater effect on the demand - since that is what is fueling the human trafficking industry in the first place.

thinking

random photo of Athens street art to make post more interesting

I am thinking about finally applying for a residence permit when I go to the States in June. I get a headache when I think about all the hoops I will have to jump through: birth certificates, doctors' notes, bank statements, letters from insurance companies, letters from my organization, background check & fingerprints, all translated and notarized, turned in in the States and in Greece, then more doctor's appointments, TB test, lung x-ray... GAH! But, worth it in the end, to not have to leave every 90 days and worry about the small chance of not getting back in or a very large fine??? (????)

I am thinking about my storage unit in Southern California that holds the contents of an apartment, collecting dust and racking up money to keep it there. It's paid through June; what if I got rid of it all? Would I miss it? Would I even want any of that stuff in a few years when/if I do move back to California?

I am thinking about a roommate. We have a girl coming soon for two years from Australia who I met at the prayer summit in Amsterdam last November. I love where I live, I can walk everywhere and I'm 3 minutes from the metro. And I like living alone. But it would save some money and probably give me more space, not to mention company. I'd be very picky about where I lived next, because my location is so great. And I just hate moving and going through the whole process again of finding a place. So I don't know. But I'm thinking about it.

I'm also thinking about the fact that I went to a different church this morning, didn't use the headphones for translation into English, and understood nearly the whole thing. What!!? Either this pastor speaks much more clearly (or uses easier words, or both), or my Greek has improved!! I was listening in sheer amazement the whole time (because I could actually understand most of what I was hearing), and even had a discussion about the sermon afterward with two friends who had their headphones on for the service. Bizarre!!!

And that is enough thinking for a Sunday afternoon. YAAAAAAY for not having any Greek homework to do!!!!!

Just another day in Athens...

Strikes, strikes, so many strikes!

We missed a big one on Friday while we were in Cyprus. I heard several people tell of their two+ hour walks to work! Many didn't make it in at all - metro, trains, and buses do not run, government offices and schools are closed, etc. etc. etc.

Gearing up for another one tomorrow - you have to plan ahead, rearrange your schedules, and stay close to home...nowhere you can't walk to! And hope you don't have a flight scheduled...because those are canceled too.

Thank you, "austerity measures" ...

spanakopita

I got an email today that said "We have been reading a lot in the newspaper about Grease."

:)

Well, I have returned from a whirlwind trip to Cyprus. We had a really great turnout, and I enjoyed doing the training. I was reminded how much "ministry" is involved in these things, when during breaks, after the conference ends for the day, and much of your otherwise "free" time is taken by meals and other meetings and chats and questions and you always have to be "on"! At one point I was so brain dead I just stared into my pizza blankly while the others talked around me. So much polite smiling and nodding and making conversation. :) THAT is what exhausts me; the teaching part I love!It was great having a traveling companion ... Holly is from Seattle and interning with Nea Zoi for a year. I was glad she could come along. We had a bit of free time on Friday morning to wander around along the sea and in the old part of Limassol.
Back in Athens, it's rainy and freezing again! I thought we were surely coming into some nice spring-y weather; last week I was ready to break out the sandals. Not yet! Today we also have our African dust back in the air, so the dark storm clouds mean that it literally rains mud. All the cars parked along the streets look like they have been off-roading.

Stop the Traffik PSA

A friend at home sent me this PSA and a couple others. I think I am traumatized...

Stop the Traffik - Classroom - (2010) :30