Sunday Kalfopoulou Slawson
Sunday Kalfopoulou Slawson was born in 1966 in North Greece in a town called Alexandroupolis (named after Alexander the Great). When she finished high school, Sunday and her sister moved to Thesaloniki to study agriculture, but both realized that teaching young children was their calling, so they then moved to Athens and studied young childhood education.
Sunday’s husband, Eric, was in the American Air Force in Greece when they met. They married five years later and sometime later their son, Panagiotis (they call him Cole) was born in Athens. Seven years ago, Sunday and Eric decided to move to Portland (Eric’s home city), and have been here ever since. Sunday cooks her Greek specialties regularly for her family and friends, and has generously shared her recipes with us this month.
Sunday’s favorite food memory is when she and her family would go foraging for wild greens and snails in the fields of Northern Greece. They’d bring them home and her mother would make savory filo pies with the greens. Then, after getting the snails to purge their impurities by feeding them some whole grains, her mother would cook up a big pot of snails for Sunday and her siblings. Yum, yum!
Kali-Órexi!
M.O.M. Menu
Appetizers – Lunch or Dinner
Melitzanosalata
roasted eggplant dip with garlic & olive oil, served with warm pita & kalamata olives
Hummus
a garlicky chick pea dip served with warm pita, a dollop of spicy sauce, kalamata olives, cucumber & tomatoes
Greek Salad
on our regular menu, but bears repeating here — tomatoes, kalamata olives, feta cheese & red onion on a bed of lettuce, with celery, dill, green onions & red wine vinaigrette
Mezze Platter
a little of each of the three salads
Spanikopita
two savory flaky pastries filled with spinach, feta cheese & onions
Lunch
Souvlakia
skewered, grilled marinated leg of lamb, vegetables & salad wrapped in a pita, served with tsatsiki (garlic-yogurt cucumber sauce) & french fries
Dinner
Souvlakia Platter
two skewers of marinated leg of lamb & vegetables, grilled and served with rice & pea pilaf
Mousaka
a traditional casserole of eggplant, ground beef, spices, tomatoes & a béchamel sauce, served with smashed red potatoes
Dessert
Galatoboureko
a break from the ubiquitous baklava – this is a creamy custard-filled phyllo pastry with a light & not-too-sweet syrup – it is truly melt-in-your-mouth yummy