Of Circuses and Spanakopitas.
'Twas a busy day today between church, devil stick practise, trips to the market, and cooking new foods.
Devil stick practise seems to be progressing nicely, nevermind neither of us can technically keep the devil sticks up in the air for more than a minute. We are quickly becoming pros at flower sticks though. The hope is that by this time next year we will be advanced enough to run away and join the circus, or perhaps the ren faire circuit, we aren't picky.
The company that made my flower sticks has since gone out of business, but you can purchase wonderful juggling supplies from Ben at Serious Juggling.
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Now on to the spanakopitas! Church typically holds a cookie social after each service, today they also had two trays of spanakopitas laying out. After one taste of this delicious Greek, spinach pie, we knew, we had to make some for ourselves! We guessed at the ingredients: fillo dough, feta cheese, and spinach were all we thought was needed. Luckily, spanakopita is pretty forgiving and requires a few unexpected ingredients that I happen to keep on hand.
Protip: Fillo dough can be found in your grocers freezer, right next to the pie crusts.
To make our spanakopita we followed the directions given by Stacy Nguyen over at heo yeah yum with a few variations. The following directions are exactly as we prepared them.
Spanakopita
Makes roughly 15
Preheat oven to 375 °F
Ingredients:
8 oz. fillo dough (We still have 1/3 of the package left)
~ Filling
3 garlic cloves
EVOO (to saute the garlic)
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ pound (8 oz) spinach
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
½ cup chevre
1/4 cup Kraft Parmesan cheese
½ tbsp salt
~ For Use on Fillo Dough
½ cup melted butter
1 egg, lightly beaten (egg wash)
Directions:
1. Thaw the filo dough at room temperature for at least one hour. The brand we purchased came with two individually wrapped roll of 8 oz each so be sure to only thaw one.
2. Add a dash of EVOO to a shallow pan over medium heat. Julienne the garlic twice, then saute it in the olive oil.
3. Add the spinach into the pan. If you are cooking with fresh spinach you should cover the pan with a lid for 30 seconds to allow the spinach to wilt. Then uncover and stir with a wooden spoon as you cook for another four minutes. If you are using frozen spinach be extra careful to drain all of the water from the pan. If the filling is too moist your spanakopitas will not cook properly.
4. Drain all excess water and allow spinach to cool.
5. Mix feta, lighly beaten egg, spinach, salt, chevre, and Parmesan in a bowl. This will be your filling.
Protip: On the matter of beating eggs, Seth specifically recommends using a mini-whisk. No particular reason, they're just cool.
6. Cut fillo dough into thirds.
7. Take a sheet of fillo dough and brush it with the melted butter, top it with another piece of fillo dough. This creates the spanakopita's flaky layers. Spoon a table spoon or so of the filling onto one end of the fillo sheets.
8. To wrap the spanakopita into a pocket, imagine folding a flag. First fold a triangle over the filling, then roll the triangle over on itself until you run out of dough. Placed the finished pocket, flap side down, on a baking sheet.
If you prepare your spanakopitas up until this point, they can be frozen for baking at a later date.
9. Brush all of the pockets on both sides with egg wash and cook in the oven for roughly 15-25 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on them as they don't smell like they are cooking and can burn easily. You know they are finished when the dough turns a nice golden brown.
10. Enjoy!
notes: If you live in Pittsburgh and have never been to the Farmer's Market Co-op of East Liberty you are missing out. It is only open Saturday's from 5 am - 12 pm, but it is well worth waking up early for. Both the butter and chevre (from Riverview Dairy) was purchased there. I highly recommend Greenwalt Farms Amish butter, it is unlike any butter you have ever tasted.
Since there was left over fillo dough you can expect a post on apple turnovers later this week.
Devil stick practise seems to be progressing nicely, nevermind neither of us can technically keep the devil sticks up in the air for more than a minute. We are quickly becoming pros at flower sticks though. The hope is that by this time next year we will be advanced enough to run away and join the circus, or perhaps the ren faire circuit, we aren't picky.
The company that made my flower sticks has since gone out of business, but you can purchase wonderful juggling supplies from Ben at Serious Juggling.
Today's practise mainly involved duo juggling, think passes and steals. Actually, no need to think, just check out this video:
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Now on to the spanakopitas! Church typically holds a cookie social after each service, today they also had two trays of spanakopitas laying out. After one taste of this delicious Greek, spinach pie, we knew, we had to make some for ourselves! We guessed at the ingredients: fillo dough, feta cheese, and spinach were all we thought was needed. Luckily, spanakopita is pretty forgiving and requires a few unexpected ingredients that I happen to keep on hand.
Protip: Fillo dough can be found in your grocers freezer, right next to the pie crusts.
To make our spanakopita we followed the directions given by Stacy Nguyen over at heo yeah yum with a few variations. The following directions are exactly as we prepared them.
Spanakopita
Makes roughly 15
Preheat oven to 375 °F
Ingredients:
~ Filling
3 garlic cloves
EVOO (to saute the garlic)
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ pound (8 oz) spinach
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
½ cup chevre
1/4 cup Kraft Parmesan cheese
½ tbsp salt
~ For Use on Fillo Dough
½ cup melted butter
1 egg, lightly beaten (egg wash)
Directions:
1. Thaw the filo dough at room temperature for at least one hour. The brand we purchased came with two individually wrapped roll of 8 oz each so be sure to only thaw one.2. Add a dash of EVOO to a shallow pan over medium heat. Julienne the garlic twice, then saute it in the olive oil.
4. Drain all excess water and allow spinach to cool.
5. Mix feta, lighly beaten egg, spinach, salt, chevre, and Parmesan in a bowl. This will be your filling.
Protip: On the matter of beating eggs, Seth specifically recommends using a mini-whisk. No particular reason, they're just cool.
6. Cut fillo dough into thirds.
7. Take a sheet of fillo dough and brush it with the melted butter, top it with another piece of fillo dough. This creates the spanakopita's flaky layers. Spoon a table spoon or so of the filling onto one end of the fillo sheets.8. To wrap the spanakopita into a pocket, imagine folding a flag. First fold a triangle over the filling, then roll the triangle over on itself until you run out of dough. Placed the finished pocket, flap side down, on a baking sheet.
If you prepare your spanakopitas up until this point, they can be frozen for baking at a later date.
9. Brush all of the pockets on both sides with egg wash and cook in the oven for roughly 15-25 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on them as they don't smell like they are cooking and can burn easily. You know they are finished when the dough turns a nice golden brown.10. Enjoy!
notes: If you live in Pittsburgh and have never been to the Farmer's Market Co-op of East Liberty you are missing out. It is only open Saturday's from 5 am - 12 pm, but it is well worth waking up early for. Both the butter and chevre (from Riverview Dairy) was purchased there. I highly recommend Greenwalt Farms Amish butter, it is unlike any butter you have ever tasted.
Since there was left over fillo dough you can expect a post on apple turnovers later this week.
