Yesterday afternoon was like a step back in time two years--a mom, a dad, and a baby in the backpack:
It was my birthday. Greg arranged to ditch David for a couple of hours in the afternoon so he could take me out to lunch. (Thank you, Lisa!) We decided to head over to the Greek Festival in downtown Dayton at the Greek Orthodox Church.
It was so, so, so wonderful! It was all about the food, and, like I said, it was so, so, so wonderful! We stuffed ourselves with fresh gyros, dolmathes (grapevine leaves stuffed with meat and rice, and eaten throughout the former Ottoman Empire, i.e. in Turkey too!), and moussaka (an eggplant casserole that was unbelievably flavorful). Yum yum yum! We were going to burst, but how could we pass up dessert? So we headed for the pastries. We each had a slice of karidopita, a syrupy sweet walnut spice cake that was divine. We also bought a few other pastries, including some baklava, to take home. I ate so much baklava in Turkey that the thought of it makes me sick now. But once I feel a little recovered from all of yesterday's food--including a delicious birthday cake made by Greg and David complete with homemade chocolate frosting (yum!)--I'll be ready and willing to sample the baklava. (I noticed it's made with walnuts rather than the pistachios that are so common in Turkey.)
The problem is that today I woke up craving the moussaka. What to do? Tonight we're headed to the Order Sons of Italy in America's Food Festa for some stuffed shells, pasta fagioli, and gelato. Hopefully that will put the moussaka out of my mind. Otherwise, we might have to make a stop by the Greek Orthodox Church.
