Spanikopita

The last time I had my mind set on eating spinach and feta-filled flaky dough goodness, the Greek Food Festival ran out of their best offering. (They even ran out of sweet pastry too; what's a food festival without buttery dough?) Tragedy. To make up for it, I baked a whole bunch of these bad boys when I found an excuse a few months later.

I don't know how the average single 25-year-old female tends to spend her Saturday night (bars? large gatherings of friends? going out to restaurants? movies?), but I tend to do things like supporting youth theater (Bards of Birmingham!) involving gun shots and murder (thanks, Shakespeare/modern adaptation) and creating a Greek-themed meal with my partner in crime, Hannah the foodie great, for a crazy preparty. That and on weekends I tend to play with funny things like phyllo dough in my kitchen for long periods of time.

Mediterranean Barley Salad courtesy of Hannah

Spanikopita Demystified:
1. Melt you some butter and mix up greens with feta and other yummies. Unroll phyllo dough. Do not fear the phyllo dough. It will not break into a million pieces if you keep it cool, and butter mends all.

2. Plop green mixture in the corner of a strip of dough.

 3. Fold the dough over once.

 4. And fold it again and again 'til you have a precious little dough triangle ready for a butter coating. Yay.

Spanikopita

Adapted from Gourmet

10 oz. frozen spinach

½ onion, chopped and sautéed in olive oil

½ lemon, juiced

½ cup crumbled feta

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ cup butter, melted

6 sheets phyllo dough sheets (I used Athens brand) thawed if frozen

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cook spinach according to package instructions. Squeeze out liquid. Let cool slightly. Stir in onion, lemon, feta, egg, and seasonings.

Unroll one sheet of phyllo dough. Cut dough into three long strips. Place a spoonful of spinach mixture in the corner of one strip. Fold over the corner to make a triangle. Fold again and again like a flag until you have used all the dough. Place on a cookie sheet, seam side down. Repeat process until you have used all the spinach mixture.

Brush melted butter on both sides of each triangle. Bake 20-25 minutes or until triangles start to brown.