Home and Spanikopita

So surgery number 3 is done.  Only minor tinges of leg pain here and there - which is the least leg pain I have had in over 5 years.  Back pain of course from the surgery but that's totally different than nerve pain.  For those who haven't kept track - Surgery 1 last June - attempt least invasive option of removing bone on my nerve root (lumbar S1), Surgery 2 in December - full fusion with lumbar cage and three screws.  Then no leg pain for 3 weeks but then grew new bone spurs on nerve b/c of bone enhancing meds to encourage fusion.  Surgery 3 yesterday - remove all the bone spurs and scar tissue to free up the nerve root.  I am trying to hold this line of desperately hopeful and realistically staying in the moment.  I can't really imagine being able to deal if it doesn't work and I don't want to live in the fear.  So, I feel my fear as it comes, cry a bit, and move on.

So I made Spanikopita on Monday and ate it last night.  Can I tell you that this cooking ahead thing was a great idea!!!!

I've posted this recipe on FB but wanted to share it here.  I learned about this easy version from my friend Kim.  You can make it in about 20 minutes and throw it in the oven.  If you don't eat it all at once, it stays great in the fridge.  If you were going to freeze it - I would say you could freeze it before or after baking.  I was thinking of using those cute little brownie pans with no edges to make individual ones without depending on weird folding mastery of phyllo dough.

Spanikopita Recipe (adapted from Kim Shute)

1/2 package of phyllo dough (thawed)
Olive oil - lots (3/4 cup maybe in total)
1 box spinach
1 C frozen peas
1 small onion chopped
2-4 garlic cloves chopped finely or pushed through the garlic gadget that I don't have.

1 small container of ricotta
1-2 packages of feta to taste.
lemon zest
2 eggs

In a large pan, saute the onions in olive oil (1-2 T) until nice and soft but not crispy.  Add in whole thing of spinach (stems and all) and the peas.  Cook until wilted not cooked down entirely.  Add garlic for last 30 seconds of cooking - keep stirring.  Burnt garlic is gross.

Put in food processor and chop until all integrated.

In large bowl, combine the spinach mixture, the ricotta, the eggs, the feta (crumble it in as you go), and the zest (maybe 1/2 T).  Salt and pepper to taste.  (I don't use pepper ever, but you might).

Assembly:
Use large pyrex glass baking dish or 2 small ones.  Unravel your phyllo dough so you can get the layers out.  Get a small dish of olive oil and pastry brush ready.

Brush a layer of oil on bottom of dish.  Add one layer of dough.  For this recipe you do not need to go crazy making your layers of dough neat at all.  Even if edges fold over each other, it won't matter one bit.  Add 5-6 more layers to the bottom with a little bit of oil brushed on between layers.  You also don't need to vigorously oil each one, there's a lot of moisture that moves down through it from the spinach stuff.

Add half the mixture.  Put on another 5-6 layers of dough with a little oil in between the layers.  Then add the rest of the mixture.  Top with another 5-6 layers of dough.

I bake with aluminum foil on top, which I take off at the end to crisp up the top,  I think it takes about 40 minutes at 350, but you want to keep an eye on it.  It's done when nothing is giggling in the spinach mixture (the eggs will have pulled it together).

This is completely easy and delicious.  It is not the same as the more authentic version with a million layers and tons of butter, but this way is way easier and actually tastier in my opinion.

I squeeze a little lemon on top when I serve it.

Sorry - I forgot to take pictures this time, this is from last time.

Recipe Index

Appetizers
Spinach Triangles

Soups

Main Dishes
Spanikopita
Cute little chicken pot pies
Dressed up veggie burgers
Spinach Triangles 
Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce

Side Dishes


Desserts
Chocolate cheese cake cupcakes
Box cake but recipe for chocolate cream cheese frosting
Mixed berry crumble
Devil's food cake with cream cheese/whipped cream frosting (OMG)
Gingerbread cupcakes


Breakfast
Smoothies in Green and Pink
Mixed berry crumble

Spinach Triangles

I did big cooking. Big.  I decided to prepare myself some yummies for the week of recovery.  I made spinach triangles, chicken pot pies, and spanikopita (which I still have to finish).

Ok, I seriously made all three of these dishes simultaneously which made it much easier, sort of.  In essence, they are all things you cook and then stuff into something else.

Spinach Triangles
First, I made the dough for the spinach triangles:
3 C flour
1/2 t yeast in 1/4 C warm water with 1 T maple syrup
1/2 C olive oil
1/2 cup more water.

Combine and knead until a nice dough is formed.  Oil the dough ball and let rise until doubled in size.

The recipe for them is here at Wandering Spice
I made minor mistakes adjustments along the way.  While the dough was rising in a warm spot, I made the filling.

Filling:
2 packages baby spinach
salt
lemon juice
olive oil
lemon zest
1 small onion chopped fine and cooked in olive oil

I varied these amounts to taste.  You can follow the recipe link above for real amounts.

Woah.  Realizing I need to back way up here for this all to make sense.

Okay, so I needed to cook so that I have food to heat up and eat that is healthy and yummy since I am having surgery Tuesday.  Yesterday I realized that I am not functioning well without an unreasonable amount of pain medication so today I wanted to take it very slow.  We had a lot to do and Nate asked me to make a list.  So I took out the sticky notes from my personal binder organizer (will share that bit of genius on another post) and made a post for each task and put them on the frige.  This way, we can pull them off when done.  Cleaning, cooking, shopping.  Basically.  And all I can think about making is spinach triangles.  I had them at Pita Pocket near the Walmart in Dartmouth and they were good but I put both my hummus and my tabouli on them.  They were just spinach and onions in dough.  Then my friend brought me some from the Lebanese place in Fall River near BCC and they were so different and yummy.  I tasted a sweetness, a lemony bit and a crazy spinach texture.  How do they get spinach like this?  Well, that part at least, I did figure out.

You take the raw spinach, chop it up and put it in a bowl.  Then, put some salt on it and massage it in (kind of like the massaged kale salad that I will have to post some time soon).  Then squeeze the excess water out of the spinach.  I should have rinsed the spinach but I didn't.  I used the Maldon sea salt so it's not bad to have the salt in there.

Then I realized I had rotten lemons.  So I used the bottled lemon juice.  The mixture tasted perfect but once cooked, it really needed more lemon.

I rolled out the dough and made one batch of small ones, using a biscuit cutter.  Hold the circle in your hand, use a fork to put in a bit of the filling, then lift up three parts to the middle to make a little package.  I brushed a little egg wash on them before baking them at 350 until golden brown.  The next two batches I made big ones using a super large mug as a guide.  This recipe made 6 large triangles, and 9 small ones.

Yes, they are totally delicious.  Next time I would add way more lemon.  I intend to buy some new lemons and then squeeze more on before eating.  I froze three of them unbaked for this week.  

The chicken pot pie recipe is here.  I froze all of them unbaked and can just bake when I want them.  Actually, Nate can bake them for me.  

Today I will finish off the spanikopita and take some pictures of it.  I have a lot to learn about food photography but I think I am getting a little bit better.  

I must say I am totally freaking out about surgery tomorrow.  I have done a lot of work on feeling my fears and hopes, but still it is very intense.  I know this one is much simpler than last time, but still it is for lack of a better new word here, intense.  

Anyway, if you want to come visit, I will share my frozen yummies with you :)

Upcoming surgery cookathon hopeful

I'm having surgery number 3 in two days.  So I need to do some cooking for the week.  I'm thinking of spanikopita and the chicken pot pie thingies.  And some cupcakes.  For all I know, I will have no appetite.  But also knowing me, the appetite I will have will be for cake.

This surgery is much less than the last one.  They gave me some bone growth enhancing med to make the fusion work and my body built a bone spur (osteophyte) on my nerve root.  So the doc is going in with a laser to remove all the weird bony growths in there.  I am so hopeful that this could be the end of 5 years of pain, but it is scary.  Yesterday I cried and cried (which was good - it had to come out) - letting myself feel the fear of what if it doesn't work.  This time I will be more on the ball about recognizing any post surgery things as MS flare ups (that's indeed what the esophagus thing was).

I feel a strong urge to clean my house too but that probably isn't the best idea.

More later with cooking I hope.  If not, bring me cupcakes this week, ok?

Gingerbread Cupcakes and Puppy Love

There have been plenty of challenges of late, but I must say I am fortunate to have lots of joys as well.  Jeanine (the bride for whom I am the MOH) brought her new bergamasco puppy, Amira, to visit today.  All this sweetie wanted to do was snuggle, kiss, and play gently with toys.  Ayla put herself on strict patrol until I really encouraged her to play.  Then the two of them chased each other around the house.  

Jeanine wanted me to show her how to make my gingerbread and make it into cupcakes.  Yea!  It's a challenge for 2 people to cook together in my 6X9 kitchen but we worked it out really well.

Gingerbread.  I could eat only that as my sweet most of the time.  I know it's sort of an autumn food but  I love it all year.  I had not make them into cupcakes before and they worked perfectly.

I adapted my recipe from here.  Also, this time we used butter, but you can use coconut oil.  I doubled all the spices.  The frosting is all my own creation.

Gingerbread cake or cupcakes

Cream 1 stick of butter with 1/2 C sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
Add 1 egg
Blend until well mixed
Add 1 C of molasses and blend until full mixed.

Sift together dry in a separate bowl:
2 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 t cinnamon
2 t ginger
1 t cloves
1/2 t nutmeg


Add dry slowly, mixing after each addition.  After the dry is well incorporated,
add 1 C hot water slowly, and blend.  I always put the hot water in the same measuring glass I used for molasses to get the last of the molasses out of it.

It is a very liquidy cake batter.   For cake, pour in 9 X 9 baking dish and bake at 350 for about an hour.

We filled cupcakes 3/4 full and baked at 350 for about 20 minutes but I kept a close eye on them.  They are done when a knife or toothpick comes out clean.  They rose exactly to the top and were flat.  If you like a more puffed up top, add more than 3/4 full.  It made 14 cupcakes.

Frosting
1 package cream cheese
2-3 T vanilla greek yogurt to achieve the right consistency
2 T maple syrup to taste
1t ginger (ground)

This made just a little too little cream cheese - just enough for a dozen, so you might want to use 1 and 1/2 packages of cream cheese.

We sprinkled the top with cinnamon.  I tried taking a bunch of photos this time.  Working on my food photography.

When I make the cake, I just make maple whipped cream and serve it on top of warm cake.  It's marvelous.  This was a nice variation.  I think it might be nice to go in a lemony direction too.

Healing:  It's just been a pain lately but I am trying to deal with a lot.  Medication for tremors is pretty awesome but it makes me extremely tired.  Right now, one eye is closed because I am about to crash completely.  Anyway,  I hope this blog post finds you well, in love, in health, and knowing your heart's desire.