Yiayia's Kouzina

Yiayia’s Kouzina was created by the St. Basil Philoptochos in 2004 when it was suggested that we start using our church kitchen to make all the pastries for our annual festival. This would give us the opportunity to bake together as a group, our pastries would have consistency in quality, and uniformity in size. We further decided that we could lighten the busy lives of our St. Basil family and friends at Easter by offering them the opportunity to buy spanakopites, tiropites, baklava, koulourakia, kourambiethes, and tsourekia on a strictly pre-order basis.

A committee was chosen to work out the details for both the festival baking and the pre-order sales for Easter. Our goal was to know that whatever was prepared in the St. Basil Kitchen would reflect upon our heritage, and remind everyone of the warmth, the love, and the aromas of our Mom’s and Yiayia’s kitchens. To achieve our goal, we tested recipes, and once the recipes were decided upon, we agreed that all our pastries would be prepared with natural ingredients that were of the highest quality. Everything was to be made from scratch and no short cuts would be used.

Having achieved this, we felt that something was lacking ~~ yes, a name! This is how we came up with the name ‘YIAYIA’S KOUZINA’. The name caught on immediately. Father Chris Kerhulas and our Parish Council encouraged us to go forth and have it Service Marked in the State of Illinois. We are very proud of this accomplishment.

During our peak baking periods we meet once a week and we encourage everyone to bring their friends and their children. Of course, men are also invited to join us. This is a hands-on project and it is intoxicating to share and learn from one another. Some of our young mothers have told us that they never paid attention when their Moms or Yiayias were baking and are grateful for this learning experience. Now these same Moms are taking over in the kitchen, which is one of the many goals of Yiayia’s Kouzina.

In addition to our pastries, our festival committee asked if we would prepare the entrees for the Appetizer Table. This was another challenge, but thanks to our dedicated volunteers, we proceeded and succeeded. We are also very proud to say that our pre-order sales have tripled since we first started three years ago.

If you are a member of the St. Basil Philoptochos you are a part of Yiayia’s Kouzina. Please join us – we know you’ll love it