I Got the Horses in the Back

We have a Greek culture class every Wednesday for 3 hours. During this class, we learn about Greek culture, language and take field trips. During this field trip, we learned about Greek cuisine and a local business.

Our trip began here. It was very similar to a country club.

There was a pool, club house, chapel, soccer field, and climbing obstacle courses.

A group pic with our professor Maria near the chapel :)

Then, we began our walk to the nearby business which was a family owned and operated farm. They had horses, rabbits, emus, ducks, chickens, goats, donkeys, a pig, and even a snake. We had an opportunity to go horseback riding and hold the albino python, as seen in the last and extremely flattering photo :)

Following our adventure at the farm, we headed back to the country club to begin our cooking lesson. During this lesson, we learned how to make several Greek traditional dishes: Tzatziki, Choriatiki, Politiki, and an eggplant and beef stew.

Tzatziki, pronounced (Tah-zee-key) is what Midwesterns would call ranch. It can go great with just about anything and some people eat it by itself. It's made of yogurt, garlic, olive oli, salt, cucumber and fresh dill. On top is more olive oil and an olive.

I had forgotten to take a picture of Choriatiki. However, it is just a Greek salad that is made with fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers, feta cheese, and most importantly olive oil. Greeks love olive oil on everything! Someone had even told us that just about every family in Greece owns their own olive trees so its very unlikely for them to buy olive oil from a market since they typically make their own.

Politiki is very simple and is meant to be canned for several weeks to enhance its flavor. Its made of cabbage, cauliflower, pepper, sugar, salt, and vinegar.

The eggplant and beef stew was made of eggplant and beef :) This dish usually takes hours to prepare so we cooked the meat and eggplant while the chef brought a dish the dish that she had already prepared the day prior.

We finished our meal with dessert which was Greek yogurt topped with a caramelized peach. I also don't have a picture of this dish because I had no self control when it was served :)