Sunday, January 31, 2010

It's been a crazy week

To say the least!
Wednesday I was so sick that Katie came to my rescue. She played with Lily for...maybe an hour while I slept. It was so sweet. How much difference that one hour made blows my mind!
Thursday I was still pretty much in recovery mode and trying to keep up with Lily.
Friday...Friday was hard. Probably one of the hardest days I've had in a few years. I think I'm actually going to designate a very serious post sometime this week to write about what came up. All I can say is God bless Jim Bob Haggerton, Katie Browning, Michelle Monk, and of course my loving husband. Without every single one of your's knowledge, compassion, and patience... you'd be looking at a very different Mae.
Saturday, another day of recovery, hahaha. I also went to a diaper show! Love, love, love diapers and I love, love, love Hip Green Baby. All of our diapers, teething necklaces, Moby's...actually, pretty much everything that is essential for Lily, we've gotten from Kristi!

And today we slept in super late [11- all three of us!] We went to Central Market to get some fish, but for some reason all of their in season fish was the most expensive...still looking for a place that sells quality, in season fish, that doesn't put all of our meals at $20 a night.

Just had to go check on Lily! She's become SO independent! It almost breaks my heart! She crawls short distances now, and still inchworms the long ones, she pulls up on anything and everything, and tries climbing too! She's so adventurous, I really don't know where she gets it from. She's become so good at waiting to poop till I take her to the potty, and when she's sleepy, she crawls from whatever room she's in to our family bed [which is on the floor] and lays there and waits for me to nurse her to sleep. It's quite adorable. She's also found out how musical she is. She loves to "sing" and dance, play drums, and clap my hands. [She hasn't figured out the whole I have two hands that come together.] Her look is starting to change. She's very long and [I think] she's starting to thin out, but she is so beautiful! Sometimes while she's playing, or nursing, or even sleeping, I look at her and see this tear jerking beauty that I am so in love with...

Ok, done catching you up! Here is last week's winner!
SPANK A PITA!  or Spanikopita...
[adapted from The Vegetarian Gourmet's International Cookbook, a staple in our house!]

There are two ways to make this wonderful dish, both of which I have tried. The first "traditional" way is with filo dough. Just typing that sentence made me wanna hit someone. I hate working with filo  dough, and trying this recipe with it has made me appreciate anyone who works with this devilish ingredient so much more. If you have the time, and patience, and the understanding that the dough IS GOING TO BREAK...then go for it. Otherwise, stay away, stay far, far, away.
The second way, which I will be going more in depth with is- biscuits! Now, if you have a quick and easy recipe for biscuits, I suggest you make the batter that morning, seperate it in to eight "biscuits" on to a pan lined with butcher's paper and refridgerate...
OR you can use refridgerator biscuits!  
[This is SOSOSOSOSOSO easy, but I know its hard to find biscuits that...aren't made of chemical warfare...so do what fits your family :]

Now, the ingredients 
  • 8 refridgerated biscuits [homemade or store bought]
  • 1 package frozen spinach
  • 1 small lemon
  • 3 tablespoons raisins [DON'T leave these out...so good!]
  • 1 small onion [white or red]
  • 1/2 cup feta cheese [the original recipe did not have this, but I highly reccomend!]
  • 3 TBS dill
  • salt and pepper to taste [again, salt is your friend! no bland food!]


Directions
  • Preheat oven to 350 [if you are using your baking stone, make sure it is in the oven for the preheating]
  • Remove spinach from packing and steam untill thoroughly cooked
While spinach is cooking
  • Finely dice onion [it is not neccisary to cook the onions. The heat from the spinach and the oven will take care of that for you, while still leaving a great texture! But if you must...]
  • Juice lemons making sure all seeds are removed
  • Line pan with parchment paper if not using stone.
Once spinach is done
  • Drain spinach well!
  • Combine all ingredients into bowl and mix thoroughly. You want to make sure every bite hss lots of flavor!
  • Get biscuits out of fridge
  • If using store bought biscuits roll them out
  • Spoon filling on to half of the biscuit
  • Fold biscuit in half and press down edges to close
  • Bake for 12 mins [I think?] or until golden brown :]

Serve with Hummus, or Tahinni and a side salad. Makes awesome leftovers too!
By the way, there are plenty of tutorials on working with filo dough, but if you have a baby like I do, you may find it mind-shatteringly annoying...

Have you tried any of my recipes? Whether you've made them or I've made them for you, I'd love to hear your feedback!

One last thing before I go, Vita Coco will be sending me a case of their coconut water for me to review on my blog! So generous, I hope they know I'm a brutally honest type of gal ;] With my review they will be giving all of my readers a coupon for $3 off a 12 pack on Amazon!

I hope to be back on track for blogging this week!
Mae

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