On being Greek and cookies

I am 100% Greek - that means that both of my parents are Greek. My mother emigrated to America as a child and my father was born in America the child of immigrants. Growing up, I only knew Greek customs - you cook, you bake, you work at the family's restaurant (in a nut shell...this is a test to see if my parents read this blog...they'll have comments!!). Actually, my father used to tell me joking (although I think there was some truth in his jest), "you learn how to cook so you can marry a nice Greek boy. But go to school and get an education and a good job too". My dad is Americanized...

But I did...I learned how to cook and to bake. My passion is baking Greek pastries and cookies. When we used to own our restaurant, I used to plan Greek nights where we had a Greek band, Greek food, Greek drinks, the menus were in Greek...everything. And I did all of the cooking and baking - I made trays and trays of sticky baklava, I made pans of pastito (a hearty Greek lasagna), containers of tzatziki (we could get the jarred, but I wanted the real stuff!), pans of mousaka, kourembethes (my favorite butter cookies coated in powdered sugar), I made plates of olives (from Kalamata, of course), feta, pita. I was in heaven on these nights! I spent the week preparing and cooking, then enjoyed watching everyone eat my food, laugh at my Greek humor on the menus, order boukalia after boukalia of krasi, prassino, and ouzo. It was wonderful!

Then I got out of the restaurant business and married an Irish boy (who happens to love Greek cooking...). I started wedding businesses but remained true to my roots - my first business was called Nifi's Wedding Planning (which is actually still the parent company of my photo business), which was my personal joke - nifi means bride in Greek, so I was the Bride's wedding planner. I like to educate my clients on Greek traditions...sometimes it's more out of convenience (I always tell people it's good luck to smash a glass at a wedding...yes, it really happens)!

I don't flaunt being Greek as much as I used to. I'm not sure why I stopped - I am still incredibly proud of being Greek and I encourage my kids to do the same (they both are baptized Greek Orthodox and are learning the same traditions I did growing up).

Last week, my family had the flu and we were all knocked out of commission for about a week. My first weekend back was a full weekend - I had an engagement shoot on Saturday, then a bridal show on Sunday. I was exhausted by the time we made it to the bridal show - but I made it through. After the show, Jessica and I were treated to dinner by our very good friend, Bert Fonseca of After Hours DJ (he thinks I'm plugging his name to increase my SEO...ok, so that's part of it!!). I wanted to thank Bert for his generosity - what do you give the man that has more gadgets than Best Buy? I thought about it and I did what popped into my mind first - I baked him cookies!I spent a few hours in the kitchen - clarifying butter, whipping the butter, listening to my KitchenAid hum along, plopping the cookies on my well loved cookie sheet...I felt alive! I remembered why I loved the book Julie and Julia - I could understand why she loved to cook. What brought out my passions - what made me feel renewed!!

On my way to drop off the cookies (of course, we met for dinner - Bert & I have a lot in common, but I think our favorite is our love for GREAT FOOD!), I was listening to one of my audio books of "The E Myth Revisited" and had a lot of a-ha moments. I'll have to say that my number one a-ha moment was - why don't I run the photo business like I ran the restaurant? Wow...it all fell into place. I felt my passion renewed, the drive came back...and I walked into that restaurant a new person.

All because I am Greek and I love baking cookies. :)

Want to see more of the connection? Stay tuned!