Mediterranean Cookery: Spanakopitta

Who knew this dish had two T's in it?  I've always spelled it with just one.

This one intimidated me a little, thanks to my first use of puff pastry, but it turned out really well and was pretty delicious.  One thing I'll note is that you may want, after it's baked, to sprinkle salt and cayenne pepper on top.  It wasn't quite salty enough for me, and I thought it needed some spice.  But that's your call.

Spanakopitta

Serves 8

Ingredients

2 lb. frozen spinach, thawed and thoroughly drained

1 onion, finely chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more to brush on top of pastry

4 Tbsp. dill or parsley, finely chopped

4 eggs

8 oz. feta cheese

3 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese, grated

Large pinch nutmeg

Pepper

Salt (optional)

Cayenne pepper (optional)

1 lb. filo pastry

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

First, make the filling.  In a large saucepan, fry the onion and shallot in 2 Tbsp. olive oil.  Add the spinach and dill or parsley and cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes.  Allow to cool.

Beat the eggs lightly in a separate bowl.  Add the feta cheese, mashed with a fork and the Parmesan cheese. Add the spinach mixture, drained of liquid, and pepper to taste.  Stir well.

Brush a rectangular baking dish with oil.  Place half the sheets of filo in the dish.  Spread the filling evenly on top of this and cover with the rest of the filo, tucking down the edges to seal everything in.

Bake about 1 hour or until the pie is crisp and puffed up.  Cut into squares or diamonds and serve.

Mediterranean Cookery: Poires au Vin (Pears in Wine)

This week, I'm delving into Mediterranean food with Mediterranean Cookery by Claudia Roden.  I didn't get too crazy, especially with this first recipe.

This makes for a really nice, super easy dessert.  It would probably be good with some vanilla ice cream, or maybe some honey Greek yogurt.  As it stood, we just ate them out of a bowl.

Literally, the hardest part about this recipe was trying to get a good picture of the finished product.  It's easy enough to just throw everything into a pot and forget about it for about an hour.  When these come out, they're so pretty.  (Also, if anyone knows an easy way to eat a whole, cooked pear, avoiding the core, let me know!)

(Also again, happy birthday to my mom!  It's her birthday today, and most likely, sometime later, I'll post the dessert I made for the occasion.)

Poires au Vin (Pears in Wine)

Serves 6

Ingredients

6 firm pears, peeled and left whole

One bottle inexpensive red wine (I used Trader Joe's Charles Shaw [aka Three Buck Chuck] Cabernet     Sauvignon)

1/2 cup sugar

4 cloves

1 vanilla pod

Put the pears in a pan with all remaining ingredients.  Add water, if necessary, to cover the pears completely.

Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, for about an hour until the pears are very tender but still hold their shape.  Carefully lift them out and arrange in a bowl.

Reduce the syrup further if necessary and pour over pears.  Serve cold.

I had the hardest time getting a good shot of the finished pears.  I think the third one is my favorite.

Book Sale

Every year, Wake County Public Libraries has this book sale that's. . .massive.  Millions of books, both old library books and books people have donated, go to this sale, and hundreds of thousands of people attend.

It always runs from Thursday to Sunday, but I only go on Saturday and Sunday of the sale.  Saturday, hardback books are $2 and paperback books are $1.  On Sunday, though, you can get a grocery bag full of books for $2 and a box of books for $5.

Needless to say, Sunday is when it gets a little crazy.  The perspective isn't great, but here's the line to get in the door.  This was after they'd let about 200 people in.

 

 

For point of reference, once we got to the end of the fence, we turned right until we got to that shelter held up by the pillars, and then, if you can see beyond the tall guy's head and the tree behind him, that was the building the sale was in.

 

Cheap books for the entirety of the county and beyond?  Yeah.  It was insane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Between the two of us, Dennis and I filled 3 boxes of books.  His were mostly business-related, and mine were mostly cookbooks.

 

What I've discovered about this sale is that it's flush with those little cookbooks that churches put together, which is a sub-collection in my cookbook collection.

 

I haven't separated my books into my "cookbook" and "non-cookbook" piles yet, but this was my total stash:

 

 

Some people might call that an addiction.  I call it 'blog security.'  At some point soon, so I can get into all my church cookbooks, I'm going to dedicate a week to them, using a few different ones.

 

Up tomorrow is the beginning of Mediterranean week.  I hope you all find something that looks good!

 

 



Hello Fresh: Acorn Squash Stuffed with Pecan & Cranberry Pilaf

If every vegetarian dish in the world was like this one, I might be able to be convinced to give up meat.  This recipe was so incredibly good, I didn't really know what to do with myself.  It makes a ton of the rice stuffing, but it's not even overkill to have a side of rice with your rice-stuffed squash.

If you make one recipe off of this blog ever in your life, make it this one.  This, or the mac and cheese.  Or both.  Definitely both.

I loved this so much, I hunted down an acorn squash at the farmer's market so I could make it again.  I'm already excited.

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Pecan & Cranberry Pilaf

Serves 2

Ingredients

Go make this.  Go make this immediately.

Hello Fresh: Classic Burger with Caramelized Onions and Bacon

I know I said I wasn't going to do this one, but I lied.

The only thing I don't have is pictures. . .this is because the original idea for the burger post was that it was going to be completely a video blog -- Dennis added YouTube videos to the services he offers through his business, and I was playing guinea pig while I made this meal.

He filmed the whole thing and he was set to do a video. . .but then the burger wasn't very good and (sorry for being so incredibly vain!), I hated the way I looked in the video.  The outfit wasn't flattering, and it was. . .just not good.  Since I was expecting to have the whole thing documented on video, I didn't bother taking pictures of the process.  I also don't really want to comb through the entirety of the video (it was SO LONG!) looking for screenshots.  I'm not even sure there would be screenshots of what I needed.

So all of the pictures in this one are just pictures I've taken on the card that came with this recipe.  It's fine.  It's a burger.  Truly, the best part of it is the caramelized onions on top.  I'd never caramelized anything before, and it was really good.

Do not, I repeat DO NOT add all of the lemon the recipe calls for.  It will make it gross.  Like when this happened.

Classic Burger with Caramelized Onions and Bacon

Serves 2

Ingredients

1.  Preheat oven to 370 degrees F.  Slice the onion thinly, chop the bacon, and slice the tomato.  Cut the potatoes into 1-inch thick wedges.  Mix the mayonnaise and the hot sauce together.

2.  Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan over medium-high heat and, when hot, add the bacon and cook until crispy.  Set aside on a paper towel.  Turn the heat to low and, in the the same pan, cook the onion slowly until just brown and caramelized, stirring constantly, about 6 minutes.  Remove and reserve.

3.  In a bowl, mix the potatoes with salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon of oil.  Spread evenly (even though the recipe card they printed said to spread "ovenly") on the baking sheet, cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes.  Take out and toss the potatoes.  Bake 10 more minutes, uncovered.

4.  Place the ground beef, steak sauce, small squeeze of lemon, half of the caramelized onion, salt, and pepper to taste into a bowl.  Mix well and divide in half, gently shaping them into 2 equal-sized patties.

5.  Heat the pan over medium-high heat and add the burgers, cooking on both sides until just brown.  Put them on the baking sheet and in the oven for 7 more minutes.

6.  Toast the buns in a pan over medium heat.  Remove and spread the spicy mayo on the bottom.

7.  Put the patties on the buns, adding the tomato slices, onions, and bacon on top.  Serve with the potatoes on the side.

Hello Fresh only gave me two small potatoes with this recipe.  It made for a very sad side dish.  However, with more potatoes, I think the side could be nice.  On the whole, I give this recipe 4/10.

More from Hello Fresh

I spent last weekend at the Diabetes Sisters conference in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, so I didn't get the chance to get the second Hello Fresh recipe up.

What I've decided to do is to go ahead and post both of the other two recipes, including the lemony burger.  I'll just make sure to indicate that adding the lemon isn't a great idea.

Stay tuned for more from Hello Fresh this week.

Hello Fresh: Parmesan pop-Chicken

You guys, I'm going to be so lazy with this post and the next one, you're not even going to believe it.  I'm going to take pictures of the card that came in my Hello Fresh Box.  I did actually take pictures of the food I made, so it's not completely lazy.

This chicken was amazing.  Both this and the next recipe were some of the best meals I think I've ever made.  The burger, which I think I mentioned before, wasn't great.  It was kind of sub-par.  These recipes fully make up for it.

I had never had parsnips before, and they were good.  The carrots Hello Fresh sent me were sweet, and really good.

Also, I've been telling people forever I don't like hazelnuts.  Apparently, that's not entirely true.  I guess I just don't like hazelnut flavored things.  Also, full disclosure, I don't like Nutella.  I'm sorry.  You can leave now if you want.

My point is that actual hazelnuts are pretty tasty.  There was no part of this recipe I didn't like, and I'll probably make it again some time.

Parmesan pop-Chicken with Roasted Parsnips and Carrots

Serves 2

Ingredients

 

Their picture:

 

 

 

My picture:

 

Sorry for the weirdness of this picture. I got Photoshop happy with a bad shot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Take everything out and test the chicken to make sure it's cooked through.  Let everything rest for 5 minutes, then slice the chicken with the veggies on the side.

 

Their finished meal:

 

 

 

My finished meal: 

 

 

 

 

Not to gush or anything, but this meal was so ridiculously good, I'll probably be making it again on my own.  It was pretty easy, too.