midnight snack

it's 10:45p.m. but I'm seriously considering baking these tonight...
don't worry, they're not for me.  we've got an invitation for a luncheon tomorrow and I thought I'd bring something American..

Eating better?

My pregnancy food guidebook tells me that I need to add some new foods to my diet. Now, Costas and I think that we eat fairly healthy. We buy whole grain breads and organic milk, and eat way more salads than I did as a kid, but we're not health nuts. Looking over the recipies in the preg-food book, I didn't have any of those ingredients on hand. 4 days ago that scared me (lots of new ideas scare me at first), but today when I woke up and there was no food in the house, I felt a lot more brave and I went shopping.

Along with some fruits and tons of dairy, I also picked up some wheat germ, whole wheat flour, and blackstrap molasses. Molasses is healthy? Apparently it has tons of iron.

One recipe in the book caught my eye, Sweet Cottage-Cheese Pancakes. I altered it a bit because I didn't have apple juice concentrate, so instead I threw in some molasses and a whole apple..

Here's what I used:

• 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 whole egg
• 3 egg whites (1/2 cup of "All egg whites" from a carton)
• 2 tbs molasses
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tbs veg. oil
• 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1 medium apple, peeled and sliced
• Smart Balance (margarine) for frying

Combine everything but the apple and Smart balance in the blender and blend. Let rest 5 minutes. take your apple slices and your handy-dandy japanese cherry blossom shaped cutter, line up the flower over the star of the apple, and press. repeat for as many apple slices as you have.
Admire the cute little flowers that result, then toss them in the trash or compost pile.
Heat the smart balance over medium heat, drop 3 apple slices in the pan. Spoon batter over them so that the edge of the apple is covered all the way around. Cook pancakes as usual, carefully flipping so as not to dislodge the apple.
Serve with your choice of topping (I ate mine plain) and enjoy~

Original recipe can be found here, p. 223.

December 13

I'm sick. it's no fun. I stayed home from work today to get some rest. I thought I might write some Christmas cards, but after a few of them the cold meds kicked in and I got really drowsy. I crawled into bed and stayed there til Costas called to tell me they were shutting down the University due to the weather. I looked outside and everything was covered with snow. Glad I didn't go out today~ the porch probably has more than twice as much snow on it now, and I took the pic only 6 hours ago.
After my nap I had a little energy so I threw my neck warmer in the microwave and started baking cookies. I made the neck warmer for Costas, but it's just a prototype and it's a little floppy. I made another with more filler to be worn like a scarf and he likes that one better. They are so easy to make and convenient to have, I've made a bunch in the past week. I want to give them as Christmas presents, but they're heavy. Must see if it's possible to make the pouches and fill them once we get to Chicago..

Anyway, the cookie recipes came from here and here. I sort of combined things and picked the parts I liked from each recipe. I ran out of pecans half way through so I used chopped walnuts on the last two dozen, but they came out great. Best part-- Costas loves them.I felt kind of guilty about staying home from work, but then I try to stand up or move quickly and realize that I'm still sick. I should be able to make it through tomorrow with some cold meds though, I would hate to put off all my work til the last week. Just 5 more workdays til Christmas vacation...

Fall Breakfast

I was playing around in my cupboards this morning and ended up with this warm cozy breakfast.

1/2 cup bulgar wheat
1 cup milk
3 small apples, cut into wedges
golden raisins
cinnamon
1/4 cup water
brown sugar

pour the bulgar and milk in a saucepan and cook over medium heat while you cut up the apples. Pop the apples in, add the raisins, stir and cover. Lower the heat to the lowest setting. Cook for a little while, stirring occasionally, gently so as not to break the apples. Once the bulgar soaks up most of the milk (10 minutes maybe?), add the water and stir again. After 5-10 minutes add the cinnamon and taste. I stirred in a little brown sugar at this point too, and then sprinkled some more on top before serving.
It's pretty much a taste and see recipe. Let me know if you try it.

A Spanikopita Tutorial

Welcome to my first tutorial. I'm going to teach you how to make spanikopita, or Greek spinach pie.
Why am I doing this in a quilting blog? Heck, I don't know. I have always loved the entries in my uncle Tom's cooking blog, and I was making it today and thought, "why don't I take some pictures?" so here goes.

First, the recipe:
I came about this recipe through some trial and error with Vefa's cookbook, by speaking with lots of Greek women (and one American woman married to a Greek guy), and by eating lots and lots of spanikopita. As an American married to a Greek, this works for me. I don't make it often, and never just for Costas, but it goes over very well at parties and any other occasion when you want it to look like you spent hours in the kitchen, because you do.

Makes about 24 triangles. Two triangles make a nice side dish or a small lunch.
Prep time: 2 hours. This includes mixing the mix and folding the triangles. It always takes me over an hour to get all the triangles folded.
Bake time: 1-2 hours. I don't have this part down yet, and I've never made them in the same oven twice. Bake for atleast one hour, then check and see that all the edges are brown and flakey. Sometimes the ones on the outside cook up faster so I'll take them out and let the middle ones stay in a while longer.
*Costas' note: they taste better not straight from the oven, so bake ahead and let them sit for an hour or so before serving.



You'll need:
2 lbs frozen spinach
1 pack Apollo Fillo #4 pastry sheets (about 24 sheets per pack)



Lots of Greek olive oil (the darker the better)



1 lb feta cheese, crumbled (I use imported Greek feta, "vareli," from the barrel)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup heavy cream (or half & half, or light cream)
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped dill
1 med-large sweet vidalia onion, chopped
--and--
a large baking pan, brushed with olive oil
a pastry/basting brush
a clean damp kitchen towel

Start by thawing the spinach and squeezing out the excess water. Squeeze small handfulls really well between your palms and place the spinach in a large mixing bowl with the chopped onion. Add the feta and crumble as you mix. Add the cream eggs, parsley, dill, salt & pepper. Mix well.
It should look like this:




Set the bowl aside and prepare your work surface. Don't open the fillo dough until you're ready to begin making the triangles. Wet a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out the excess water. This will be used to cover the fillo sheets to keep them from drying out should you need to stop or take a break during the preparations. Have a cup of oil and pastry brush to one side, close to the bowl of spinach mixture. On the other side, lay out a paper towel to catch drips of oil, and place your baking pan on top. Are you ready?
Open the fillo and unroll the sheets. There will be a plastic sheet at the bottom, leave the fillo dough on the plastic sheet and place it vertically at the center of your work surface. Carefully spread out the stack to smooth out any wrinkles. Dip your brush in the oil and paint a large line down the center of the first fillo sheet.

Paint the entire sheet, edge to edge, with a soft stroke, taking care not to rip the fillo. Add as much oil as necessary, but it should just be glossy, not wet.

Next, fold the fillo sheet onto itself, oil side down, in thirds.
Paint the thin strip again with olive oil. Take a spoonful of the spinach mixture and place it at the bottom of the strip.

Fold up the bottom left corner to form a triangle.

Continue to fold up the packet of spinach until the entire fillo sheet has been used.

Place the triangle on the baking tray and brush liberally with olive oil.

How'd you do? are you ready for the next one? Repeat about 23 more times. If you need to stop (to wash your hands, answer the phone, anything), remember to lay the damp kitchen towel lightly over the stack of fillo sheets, they will dry out very quickly if you don't. When you resume the triangle-making process, the first fillo sheet (which was touching the towel) may seem a little damp and tough to work with, but spread it with oil as usual and it should be fine. Once all the triangles have been folded, you can either bake immediately in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour (or more, watch til they get brown and flakey) or wrap in clingwrap and store in the refridgerator overnight, or in the freezer for longer. If you freeze them, there is no need to defrost before baking, just pop them right into the preheated oven.

Voila! Enjoy!

(*note* This post has been three days in the making, forgive me. Blogger just doesn't want to upload my photos into a draft entry, any advice?)