It’s time everyone, time for the 2018 Saint Demetrios Greek Festival in Fort Lauderdale.  It’s this weekend February 8th through the 11th.  The sun is shining, there’s a stiff breeze and the huge, white tents are up.  The kitchen’s a veritable hive of activity; our ladies group, Philoptochos, is in charge of the mouth-watering baked goods.  You know….all those little butter cookies calling out to you and no one else, telling you how perfect they are dunked in a hot cup of coffee with steamed milk for breakfast?  Or how about the butter and nut cookies resting on a thick pillow of powdered sugar?  I’m partial to the spice cookie that has been quickly dipped in a honey and orange syrup called melomakarona, redolent with cinnamon and cloves.  Ugh!  It’s a dieter’s nightmare.  But I tell myself it’s once a year and IT’S FOR THE CHURCH.  Thinking of all these ladies, most of them grandmothers and great-grandmothers, mixing and rolling and baking all these sweets from days gone by makes me incredibly happy.  Also sharing the kitchen is a team of chefs who crank out hundreds of trays of the most delectable food ever.  They are known for their enormous, meat falling off the bone lamb shanks.  Having worked on the outside food lines for years, I can tell you folks drive down from the Palm Beaches and up from Miami to savor this lamb.  They often purchase two or three additional lamb dinners to take home.  I don’t blame them.  These shanks aren’t available in grocery stores so you can’t make them at home even if you wanted to.  Again, it’s a once a year treat.  For those who might not care for lamb, thick, fat wedges of moussaka or the Greek version of lasagna, pastitsio, are available, both oozing with warm cheese and creamy bechamel.  But let’s pretend you don’t want a full meal, (who am I trying to kid but I’ll try), all you have to do is step outside for authentic Greek grilled sausage with cheese flamed in brandy, gyro sandwiches stuffed with savory meat, lettuce, tomato and cold Greek yoghurt sauce, hand-held spinach and cheese pies wrapped in phyllo dough so crispy they shatter when you bite into them.  Want more?  There is a whole lamb roasting on a spit outside while being basted with garlic, oregano and olive oil.  Boom.  It gets no better.  And, because we’re all adults here, you can enjoy your delicacies with an assortment of beer and wine or an ice-cold bottle of water or soft drink.  We, who volunteer all weekend, will also drink our weight in Greek coffee, hot or iced and prepared right in front of you.  I can’t wait!  As you walk in from any direction the gorgeous perfume of grilled food and the strains of Greek music surround you.  The children of the church, some small and some not so small, dance the dances from the villages of Greece all in authentic costumes of the region.  They’ve practiced all year, all the intricate steps seared into their memory banks.  They dance with joy and abandon as the choreography is now second nature.  You’ll meet kids in their late teens through their twenties smiling at you while serving beer and wine, parking cars or clearing food trays, all parishioners and most of them alumni dancers having started at five or six old.  And you know what the beautiful part is?  They’re ALL still close, close friends.  They’ve passed the baton to the younger kids and accepted the baton handed them from older parishioners whose achy knees or backs no longer allow them the pleasure of standing all day and selling homemade rice pudding or pushing around a dolly with five or six cases of tomatoes or pork souvlaki.  No, these men have earned their spots on fold out chairs.  This is their time to flip worry beads while wearing black wool fishermen’s caps.  And ladies, sit right down and enjoy that frothy Nescafe frappe while gossiping with your best friend about how your loukoumades syrup is made.  God bless you all for tirelessly giving so many years to this church and festival!  There is so much more I haven’t touched on.  There are glorious tours of the church touching on and explaining a myriad of details and facts about the architecture and iconography.  There will be Greek food demonstrations…you might just see me preparing hummus or roasted eggplant dip.  I hope you come see us and taste life at the Greek table!