Today is Greek Easter

Orthodox Easter, to be exact. I spent the day, as usual, at my sister's house with the abundantly loud extended family and an absurd amount of food. Here's a quick tour of the day's feast:



First up, loukaniko. It's Greek sausage. And wonderful. Best cooked on the grill, then you douse it with lemon.



Next, the required Greek salad. My sister Kathy's specialty.



Then my favorite, ever since I was a kid. Pastitsio. Some people call it Greek lasagna, but it's really not. It's these large hollow noodles, mixed with a ground beef and tomato sauce, and then topped with a wonderful bechamel sauce. Then you bake it. When done right, it's to die for.



Greek potatoes. A surprisingly difficult dish to do well. The best Greek potatoes cook alongside a roast chicken, and absorb all the chicken juices, and the added lemon juice and salt and pepper and garlic and olive oil. Oh my God. Then you let them cook until they get brown and crispy on the edges. Unfortunately, it's the rare person who is able to pull off Greek potatoes the right way. The potato rarely absorbs the flavors adequately. I'm not sure why. Grandma (aka yiayia) knew how to do it.



Magiritsa. A word that strikes terror in the heart of every Greek-American kid. It's soup that tastes wonderfully of egg and lemon and lamb. But we know better. It really contains lamb heart, liver, kidney and intestines. I tasted it once. It's delicious. I'll never touch it again.



Lamb. An hour ago this little baby was spinning on a spit in the backyard. Yeah, yeah, it's cruel. It's also delicious.



Spanakopita. Another favorite. Mom and I made one plate, my sis made another. It's layers of phyllo dough and butter on the bottom and top, then in the middle a mix of spinach, eggs, feta, cottage cheese, parsley, dill, and romano cheese. I may be missing something, but that's the gist of it. Then you bake it till it's brown and crispy. Heavenly.



Galaktobouriko. A great warm custardy dessert. Not as heavy as it looks, but awfully sweet.



Mom's krema karamele. Or flan. (Those of you who speak French will recognize that the Greeks borrowed the French name, creme caremele.) Actually absurdly easy to make, but it looks complicated, and that's what counts. The hardest part is melting the sugar you'll need to glaze the bundt pan. Always a crowd pleaser.



And finally, to close the day, koulourakia and red eggs. Greeks only use red eggs at Easter (though we, thank God, used to make multi-colored eggs as kids). We take the eggs and engage in egg fights. You take one, I take one, we crack them against each other, end to end, and the person whose egg doesn't crack, then moves on to the next person. By the end, the person whose egg doesn't break gets good luck, or something. It's fun. And of course we never eat the eggs! That's Greek Easter in a nuthsell (without the 3 hour church service from midnight to 3am the night before).