Fanouropita & Metaxa

Sunday, August 30th, 2009 Tags: baking, fanouropita, greek food, metaxa, φανουρόπιτα

Fanouropita & Metaxa

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Needless to say, I was in some peril recently and a path was revealed to me. That's why I baked this fanouropita.

There are a lot of cool/weird/complex/funny Greek traditions out there, some of which are rooted in the ancient days and have since been amalgamated in Orthodox rituals. One nice and simple tradition says that when you need help recovering a lost item or help finding your way out of a problem, you pray to Saint Fanourios (whose name is similar to the ancient Greek verb “faino,” which means “to reveal,” as in “revealing a path”). If you find your lost item or successfully find your way out of a problem or troubled times, you bake an offering food to the Saint as a thank-you.

Food offerings go way, way back and no doubt this has roots in ancient traditions. And who doesn’t like an excuse to bake a delicious cake that has alcohol in it? :) This fanouropita (a cake for St. Fanourios) has half a cup of Metaxa (Greek brandy) and a splash of French orange cognac in it. Best of all, fanouropita is Lenten fast-friendly, meaning it’s totally vegan!

Koulourakia cookies for an appendix out

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 Tags: baking, cookies, greek food, koulourakia

Koulourakia cookies for an appendix out

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A good friend of mine had the rotten luck of a ruptured appendix just a few days before a holiday flight. As a get-well gift, I overnighted her some of her favorite cookies, these Greek butter cookies called koulourakia. I use my family's recipe, and my friend tells me that the cookies were DOA (delicious on arrival).