Christopsomo (Christ's bread)

With Vayia we are gonna make Christopsomo (Christ's Bread).

Christopsomo is the bread that shaped themselves housewives for the Christmas table. On its surface formed the shape of a cross and put a nut in the middle. On the day of Christ, the landlord takes the Christopsomo, makes the sign of crosson it, cuts and divides it for all his family and to those who attended the Christmas table.
Ingredients
2 pounds hard flour
2 tablespoons of yeast from the oven, dissolved in a some water
Warm water
1 tablespoon of salt
1 cup chopped walnut kernels
1 whole nut with the housing

Instructions
In a bowl add the dissolved yeast, flour and begin to knead a little bit by throwing water. When the dough is ready, add the walnuts and mold the loaf .
Place it in a greased deep bowl. Cover well and leave to double in volume, about 1 hour if you are in a lukewarm point or about 1 ½ hours if on the bench. Then take it out on the bench. Cut a piece of an apple size for the decoration. Place it in a greased baking dish. Then press gently to straighten the surface. Knead the small piece we kept in two wicks and place crosswise over the bread. Put a nut in the center and around nuts as many as the family members. Cover the Christopsomo and leave to go up again and cover the entire surface of the pan. For 35-40 mins if it is in warm place, about 1 hour if on the bench.  
Bake at 160oC in resistors for 50 mins to 1 hour to brown and swell.

Melomakarona and Kourabiedes

Christmas time without sweets is not good! So, i need to learn something about the greek traditional sweets for this period. The girls will tell me about them and tech me how to make them!
The most known traditional sweets for the Christmas and New Year time are Melomakarona (small honey cakes) and Kourabiedes (sugared buns).
Marina and Stella gave me the recipe. So, lets make MELOMAKARONA!

Ingredients

1 ½ cup of olive oil

½ cup of butter

1 ¼ cup of sugar

grated orange peel (1 orange)

¼ cup of brandy

¾ of a cup orange juice

a teaspoon of baking powder

a teaspoon of powder soda mixed with flour

flour as much as it is needed to be a little tough

Spices: 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of clove

Instructions

We mix all the ingredients together till it becomes an even mixture. This mixture should be neither soft nor tough. We take in our hands a small amount of the pastry and we give it an oval shape.

We spread some oil on the baking tray and then we place them on it.

We bake them at 180^o C for 30-40 minutes.

When they are ready we let them get cooler and we prepare the syrup.

Ingredients for the syrup

2 cups of honey

2 cups of sugar

2 cups of water

some drops of lemon juice

We boil the syrup for 5 minutes. Then we dip the honey cakes in the syrup for a few seconds.

When they are ready we lay them on a big plate and we put some grated nuts on them.

Some people prefer them covered with chocolate!!! Yummyyyyyyyyy!!!

Fotini and Vasiliki will teach me now to make the other traditional sweet, KOURABIEDES!!!

Ingredients

½ kg fresh butter

1 egg

1 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

some grated orange peel

1 teaspoon of vanilla spice

1 cup of chopped nuts or almonds

8 cups of flour

½ kg powder sugar

Instructions

We blend butter and sugar together. We add the egg, the grated orange peel, the nuts/almond, the vanilla spice, the baking powder and finally the flour. We mix together till the mixture becomes even.

We give oval shape and put them on the baking tray after we have spread some oil on it.

We bake at 180^o C for 30-40 minutes.

When they are ready, we let them get cooler and finally cover them with the powder sugar.

I thought we had finished with sweets but... It's always good to have MORE sweets! Argiri will teach me to make DIPLES!!!

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 10 eggs
• 1 kg all-purpose flour
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tot liqueur or ouzo
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the syrup:

• 1 lt water
• 1 kg sugar
• 1 kg honey
• 2 tbl oil

For the topping:

• 250g walnuts, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

1)Egg mixture:...

The Carols (Kalanta)

I'm with Yiorgos today and he will tell me about the Greek Carols. Here, they call them Kalanta!

The carols is a Greek custom undiminished even today with the children go around from house to house, 2 or more, and sing carols accompanying their song with the triangle or even guitars, accordion, lyres, or harmonicas.

The children go from house to house, knocking on doors and asking: "Shall we say? ". If the response from the landlord or landlady is positive, they sing carols for a few minutes ending with the wish "And next year. Seasons Greetings." The households reward them nowdays with some money and in the past offered them melomakarona or buns.

Carols are sung on the eve of Christmas, New Year and Epiphany and are different for each celebration.

Here are the lyrics for Christmas Carols:
Good afternoon lords
and if it's your command
the holy birth of Christ
may I say in your house
Christ is born today
in the city of Bethlehem
the skies get serene
the entire firmament rejoices

in the cave is born
in the stable of the horses
the king of the skies
and creator of everything
numerous angels sing
the "Glory in the highest"
and significant is
the faith of the shepherds

from Persia arrive
three magicians with the presents
a shining star leads them
without missing nor for a moment 

The Goblins

Today Rozalia and Vasiliki will tell me about the legend of the Goblins

The goblins are an old tradition in Greece. And in every place, and mostly villages, there are a thousand legends and traditions about them. They appear every Christmas. Some say they are spirits, other good and other bad. Others think they are strange beings, hairy and sneak home from chimneys. The nights they go and steal the food they find and mostly figs because they like them a lot. When they finish eating them, they begin to dance.

All the villagers when approaching night, are afraid to go out of home, especially young children, until the Epiphany, when they throw the cross in the water and goblins disappear.  

They go and live under the earth and start cutting again the tree that holds the earth. But they never manage to finish cutting it because in Christmas time they stop working to come up, so the tree grows up again. They appear again next Christmas.

In many villages toss coals in the wells, for them not to be spoiled by the goblins.

The Christmas boat and tree

Now i'm ready to start learning about the Greek customs for Christmas and New Year.
The kids decided to teach me about their customs and they shared the lessons i need to attend!
So, today i will start with Yiorgos, Katerina and Rozalia. My first lesson will be about the Christmas... Boat!!!

Greece, as the country of the sea, used to decorate a boat for Christmas. The boat symbolizes the new course of human life, after the birth of Christ.

50 years ago the Christmas boat was in most of the Greek houses and also in the hands of the children who were singing carols in the streets.

It also was a kind of honor and welcome for the sailors who were returning home.

Today this tradition tends to disappear and is replaced by the outlandish custom of the Christmas fir. In some areas though, especially in the islands, people still decorate boats and in the last years there is a laudable attempt by certain municipalities all over the country to restore the original form and decorate boats to the main squares.

Here you can see the boat in the main square of Thessaloniki which is called Aristoteles Square.

The Christmas Tree in Greece

The custom of the Christmas tree was brought to Greece by the Bavarians and the first tree was decorated  in the Palace of Otto in 1833.
Forerunner of the Christmas tree in Greece was the traditional Christoxylo (Christ’s wood) mainly in the villages of Northern Greece. Every Christmas they put a big stump from wild cherry, pine or olive in the fireplace, where it would burn throughout the 12-day festivities of the Christmas until the Epiphany. According to tradition it brings good fortune and mainly protects the house from the goblins coming from chimneys and steal or do damage to the household.

  

A weekend at home

It was decided that i will pass this weekend at Mr Yiannis home. I'm glad i will be there. I would like to see what are they doing at their homes!

Friday evening i went with Marina to her English class. They study English at school but almost all the kids attend English courses in private schools too. Here we are in front of her English language school.




Tonight i will sleep in Marina's bed. 

But let me brush my "hair" first!

And now let's go to bed! It's so nice to have a nice, warm bed to sleep!

Hey!!! What is happening here??? Who is this??? Go away!!! I am sleeping here!!!





Well, now i know him. He is SNOOPY, Marina's dog. I think he is a little jealous because i'm there. But now we know eachother better we can be friends! But he still looks at me in a very strange way!!!

Next morning i went with Marina to play... Volleyball!!! She plays in the academies of a local team and they had training. So, here i am!

 Phew! Very tired after training...