Every year, Mary Politis celebrates Christmas at a different house surrounded by her family and friends. The only thing that remains the same is the massive food feast of souvlakia, turkey and seafood, which is guaranteed to leave everyone with plenty of delicious leftovers.
Of course, this plentiful supply of food comes as no surprise as Mary is actually the face behind much-loved food blog, Mary’s Kouzina.
Launched in December 2016, Mary’s Kouzina sees Mary share classic Greek dishes from her handwritten family recipes as a way to help people reconnect with their childhood and journey back to yiayia’s kitchen.
The blog has been so well received, the high school teacher and artist has now also combined her passion for food and painting in order to hand-design a number of festive-themed tea towels.
“I’ve created a synergy between art and food by painting my recipes, illustrating them and printing them onto cotton and linen tea towels,” Mary tells The Greek Herald exclusively.
“I also know that every Greek across the country will be baking during Christmas time and it’s really nice receiving something else along with your baked goods.”
Mary’s designs range from a Christmas wreath featuring pomegranates and a horseshoe, to a vasilopita. She says the vasilopita recipe, which is printed onto the tea towels, is one of her favourites as there’s a special story behind it.
“That recipe was explained to me by my aunties but the way that they explained it was through the Greek metric system… meaning they’re not really specific in terms of their measurements. So I had to sit there and try and work it out myself,” Mary says with a laugh.
Despite this, she couldn’t be prouder of her ability to spread some Christmas cheer this festive season with her new products.
“It’s been really well received. It’s really, really nice because I get messages from mothers and mothers-in-laws who collect tea towels for their daughters, their sons, daughters-in-laws and gift them,” Mary says.
“It’s just a really nice way of preserving family recipes or passing them or collecting them for future generations.”
