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Greek Festival both fun, fundraiser
By JORGE SANCHEZ
© St. Petersburg Times, LECANTO -- When Alice Poulos cooks up some Greek pastries, it's quite an undertaking. Poulos has been a principal organizer of the Greek Festival since arriving in Citrus County in 1995. The festival, which took place over the weekend, is a three-day celebration of Greek food and culture in the county. Thousands of people visit the festival each year, most stopping by the outdoor grill that serves up gyros and souvlaki, while the kitchen staff inside the banquet room prepares complete meals of roast lamb and other traditional dishes. An assortment of Greek pastries makes up the dessert course. Poulos and other members of the kitchen crew turn out a mountain of sweets. No Greek festival would be complete without baklava, phyllo dough pastry stuffed with spices, honey and a mixture of almonds, walnuts and pistachios. "We made about 4,000 baklavas for the festival," Poulos said. As chairwoman of the food committee this year, she helped turn out many other sweets. Here's a partial tally: About 2,000 kourabieths, a traditional wedding cookie, and about the same number of Greek biscuits, paximadie and koulourakia, which are butter cookies. "We start mixing and baking in mid September and finish in early October," Poulos said. "Then everything goes into the freezer. The men come into the kitchen in the week before the festival to make sauces and other foods, which can be frozen." Poulus has worked hard to make the Greek Orthodox church a community icon. The parish hall is the setting for many top social events, such as the chamber of commerce awards banquets, the Key Training Center Celebrity Auctions and numerous other catered affairs. The festival is a fundraiser for St. Michael the Archangel Greek Orthodox Church in its drive to erect a sanctuary. The banquet hall, or parish hall, now serves double duty as a church. "But we're doing this to build a separate building," Poulos said, "and in about two or three more years, the festivals will have raised enough money to pay for it."
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