"This is part and parcel of evangelization, Kolokotronis. If you call them to your church, be prepared to welcome their cooking as well :-)"
Given the number of ethnicities we have in the parish, many of our meals are a gastronomic tour de force, but when it comes to fasting food, I'll stick to the food of the Orthodox ethnicities!:)
Many years ago, after a number of the then old and now mostly dead Greek ladies were complaining about some pastries the younger maybe 50% convert ladies had tried to make after the old ladies had given them all but unintelligible receipes (some of this, a little of that, cook it 'til its done, etc.) my wife and another covert girl decided they would have an American pie baking "contest". Guess who won? That shut the old ladies up good!
Ah the joys and pitfalls of having my Russian wife :) An advantage is she can make tons of those old world recipes! A disadvantage is she can make ALL those recipies. Ever tried Holodets?
(Still perogies, and Pelemni are a great treat, not exactly fasting food though).
Ah, the old Greek "there's nothing to it" routine... How well I know it.
I still remember the first time I naively asked about how something was made at our old Greek parish, with the person responding:
Nothing to it! Don't even need a recipe. Just start with a little olive oil, add some onions and garlic, then after a while put in the...
I nodded and tried to concentrate as it went on. Coming too fast to take notes even if I had paper and pen. Of course, by the time it was over, and the table was on to the merits of various versions of Shrimp Creole (these were southern Greeks), I couldn't remember a thing except for starting with olive oil and sauteeing the onions. Which, of course, was probably the idea... I'm sure they got a good laugh out of it later!
Served this white bread Anglo right, of course, for asking about what was probably a guarded family recipe!