In case you don’t it’s Greek Orthodox Easter this weekend. I’m not Greek and my Easter took place in March this year, but at least half of my neighbors are Greek and Macedonian and they have been celebrating all weekend.
One of my neighbors has a huge barbecue each Easter and all of his relatives come over to enjoy a feast of barbecued lamb (it’s spinning on the rotisserie in his backyard right now), barbecued chicken, sausages, grilled steaks, Greek pastries and a ton of other yummy treats.
Our neighbor, Nick’s, guests haven’t all arrived yet, but as I said he’s been busy cooking and preparing food for the feast. One of the reasons why I love this neighborhood is that people are very free about sharing things. We lent him our barbecue in case he needs it and on other years when it’s rained or even snowed during his easter celebration we’ve lent him our huge tarps so that they could build a roof over their barbecuing stations and perhaps even stay warm and dry while they cooked their food.
One of the benefits of all this sharing and neighborly love is that our neighbors often give us food on special occasions. In fact, Nick just popped over to give us some delicious grilled octopus, barbecued sausages and some sliced bread. One of our other neighbors, Helen, came over earlier to give us a loaf of her easter bread and two boiled eggs (a Greek Tradition).
With neighbors like ours who needs to book Outer Banks rentals for a vacation. It’s like a holiday around here all the time!
I’m not a huge fan of Octopus – more so than my husband is – but I must say that this is the tastiest Octopus that I’ve ever had. Even someone that really doesn’t like Octopus would probably say this was ok.
He must have squeezed lemon over it as he grilled it as it has a pleasant lemon taste and dare I say it, the meat tastes and sort of has the texture of chicken rather than the rubbery texture that Octopus normally has. Yummy.
A close up of the Octopus and sausages:
Oh and the sausages … again I don’t eat this type of food often as it really doesn’t go well with my bad tummy thanks to the Crohn’s disease, but it too is tasty. He gets his sausage at a Greek Butcher – Andy’s cash and carry Meat terminal in Scarborough (Warden and Eglinton) I believe. Great name for a butcher eh? We get our chicken and pork shisk kebabs and gigantic chicken breasts (for a fantastic price) there several times each year.
The sausage has orange rind in it so it has a slight orangey taste. It’s also lightly spiced. I can’t eat a lot of it, but the way our neighbor Nick cooks it, well, lets just say it’s delicious!
More than likely we won’t have to cook dinner this evening as, if it’s like other years, I’m sure Nick will probably give us some of his fantastic grilled chicken, steak and lamb. Heck he sometimes throws in dessert too.
I love this neighborhood!
Too bad his outdoor party often coincides with our, must tidy or spring clean the garden before it becomes overgrown and out of hand weekend. I’m not a fan of being outside gardening when there’s 50 people milling around in a neighbors yard, but we need to get some work done!
Free is always the best flavor – Your neighborhood sounds lovely! I wish I had fun neighbors like that – I live across the street from a bar and none of my regular neighbors speak any English. XD
A delightfully tasty treat or two.
awww, this post makes me more hungry! it’s sure nice to have neighbors like you do! 🙂 free food!
I love different cultures and being immersed in them! I lived in an area recently with a family from Turkey, several families from Polynesia, Asia and various African countries. There were also many South American countries represented as well. It was such fun to see the different ways they celebrated the holidays!
Sounds and looks delicious!
I’m ready to move over to your neighborhood 😉
I Know just how you feel about free food, We moved to Greece in January so we had our first Easter here, What with the festivals and Carnivals plus of course the church services we had never experienced such friendliness from strangers. It really is a wonderful culture.
Looks really nice, wouldn’t think of combining squid with sausages!
I really like the comment about using the huge tarps to protect the barbecuing stations. Tarps are so useful and can save a lot of time and money. They are defiantly worth the investment. There are so many different uses for tarps and most are very affordable.