The Crunchy Greek Mom

So along with being food crunchy (I prefer organic or at least live foods), I'm what many refer to as a "modern hippie mom". Some qualifiers are:  Exclusive Breast Feeding, Cloth Diapering, Baby wearing, eating organics, growing their own foods, homemade cleaning products, homemade deodorant, no shampooing, organic toys or reusing toys, none or selective/delayed vax , homemade soap, homemade herbal remedies, bed sharing or co-sleeping, and everything in between.  Note: I do not have any opinion on how anyone raises their child. I believe everyone does the best they can for their child with their circumstances.  Okay, with that said, I think many of my friends think I'm crazy.  If me ten years ago was looking at me know, I would probably think I was a little off as well. I am going to come clean about something that I feel so guilty about but I was just so young and naive. But I believe it has attributed to the mom I have become today. *And if you are offended by n...

Greeks mainly color eggs red (scarlet) to signify the blood of Christ. We use hard-boiled eggs painted red on Holy Thursday (I got a head start) which are baked into Tsourekia and distributed on Easter Sunday.  We play a game where you and a friend each pick an egg to play with. The first player says "Xristos Anesti!" (Christ is Risen!) and the second player responds with "Alithos Anesti!" (Truelly He is Risen!) and then we smash our eggs together hoping to crack our opponents egg and that ours remains in tact. The player with the uncracked egg wins & their egg is considered lucky.  Great fun except I remember as a kid my mom would put a limit on how many eggs we could play with because she had to eat them or make them into egg salad and who wants to eat egg salad when there is ROAST LAMB! Anyway, i n Christianity, the egg is a symbol of Resurrection, representing the emergence of Christ from His tomb to everlasting life. Which is also represented b...

My first tsourekia! I'm so proud. I used a bread machine for the working & rising of the dough. I added flax & swapped in almond milk, they look and smell amazing. Here's the recipe I used WITH my modifications. Eventually I will try to tweak it to use wheat flour, a sugar substitute and an egg substitute as well to make it as vegan as possible. All in good time. Oh, and my Yiayia (grandmother) who lives across the street was in competition with me to see who's tsoureki will turn out better. She is doing her's "old school" no machine, by hand and a slightly different recipe. Papou (grandfather) came by & he thinks mine looked better....we will find out how they taste in a few days :) Ingredients: 1  cup   Almond milk 4  cups   bread flour (King Arthur) 2 1/2   teaspoons   bread machine yeast (Fleischman's) 2/3   cup   sugar 1/2   teaspoon   salt 1  teaspoon m ahlepi (found in mediterranean stores) 1 ...