Our Unbelievable Anniversary!
Last week marked our 29 years of marriage, which seems quite incredible! It was a gray winter day and we celebrated with some humble favorite dishes...
I made a spicy lentil dish that we like to eat with pasta, loosely based on the humble leftover lentil soup, a Lebanese-inspired recipe of Linguine with Spicy Lentils and Caramelized Onions, from my Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts.
I also wilted and fried some fresh spinach, dropping a few eggs on top, an easy dish I love to whip up often these days.
For our lunch Costas chilled my favorite, single vineyard Kir-Yianni’s Sauvignon blanc, although it was not the most appropriate wine for our simple lunch, but I just love it!
Twenty nine years ago
Early afternoon on January 29, 1997, Costas, after finishing his work at the Gennadios library, met me at the mayor’s office downtown Athens. The day before I had bought a red dress which was too long, as usual, and I had shortened it sloppily.
Athanasia, Costas’ mother, and Frossoula, my mother had arrived earlier, and Lenio, my niece, together with our friend Gerasimos were the koumbari (best man and woman). The whole ‘ceremony’ lasted less than 30 minutes, and the only extra thing we were asked to decide about, confirm, and sign, was that ‘our future kids’ would get Costas’ surname…
In Greece women no longer change their surnames when they get married, so the couple has to decide their offspring’s name —not that there was any chance for us to have kids…
I don’t believe that any of our friends and relations imagined that we would stay married long; with a 15year age difference many have expressed their strong doubts
The next day, I believe a Saturday, we had a few of our very best friends for a meze lunch in our Acropolis apartment. It was our incredible good chance, that chefs Rick Moonen and Jim Botsacos were in Athens. These were the last days of their trip throughout the mainland and the islands that I had planned for them, as they wanted to immerse themselves into authentic Greek cooking.
They insisted on cooking our wedding meze lunch, taking over the large fridge and our tiny kitchen. I don’t remember what they prepared, and I have no photos, unfortunately. I think they made some delicious raw marinated branzino —which had not yet become popular— while I had prepared a large bowl of lentil salad with arugula, dressed in an Asian-inspired sauce with toasted sesame oil, something not common in Athens those days, and my cousin and other friends loved it and were asking about it…
We hope that next year, on our 30 anniversary, we will be able to have some friends around our table; but it depends on a lot of factors, the wintry Kea weather among them…
Warmest congratulations and much love to you both, Mary
Να ζήσετε! 🧿💙