Spanakopita

Well, would you look at that? I made spanakopita - using the infamously difficult filo dough - and it was good.

Spinach, onions, ricotta, feta, eggs, flour - basically you tip this into a bowl and stir it up. TWO POUNDS of spinach. That's THREE ten-oz bags, which is what our grocery had. Only I bought two in the morning because my math is contemptible and so that afternoon, with onions bubbling on the stove, I had to rush out to buy another one.

 Catastrophe was averted. There's definitely enough spinach in this thing.

That's the finished product. It looked much yummier than that when it was golden and bubbling and fresh from the oven and smelling deliciously of butter...

That's another thing. I used nearly TWO POUNDS of butter. Well, one and a half. But still, one and a half pounds of butter - does anyone have any idea of how many calories that is? Whatever else this spanakopita is - and it's certainly quite good - it is NOT for dieters.

Now let's talk about filo dough. I'll assume that no one knows what this is so I can describe it. It's a million sheets of ultra-ultra-ultra thin dough. Paper-thin. Yes, I am serious. The stuff is so thin that you can see through it. And when you slather it in butter, you can't see it at all.

It's my firm belief that stuff like filo dough is a vehicle. You wrap something tasty in it and the whole thing tastes like the tasty thing. What you do not do is put a tiny dollop of something tasty in the middle and wrap it in hundreds of layers of the vehicle, because then it tastes like the vehicle and not like the tasty stuff. This is my problem with things like filo dough. There's always way too much of it. Baklava should taste like honey and walnuts, not like crackly, crunchy sawdust.

Croissants take really delicate dough. Filo dough is about twice as delicate. That's why, when my father made it with Mom, he spent most of the time cursing. The dough just shredded in his hands.

That (and I'm being quite smug about this) did not happen to me. Not even close. The dough was difficult to handle, but it didn't do anything even close to shredding. I picked it up carefully and laid it down in the pan carefully and nothing shredded.

I think Dad's a bit miffed that I managed something that he didn't.

Even if he is miffed, he heartily enjoyed the spanakopita, and so did everyone else. Look!

It's yummy. Like more difficult quiche.

But I have to say, quiche is actually better and not nearly so much work...this spanakopita wasn't as good as my mother's quiche. So if you're craving this, just make some quiche. It's good, it's easy, it doesn't require a whole roll of filo dough.

By the way, I am now in a Journalism class for 10th grade! And it's supposed to be summer, but yesterday it was freezing and rainy and today it's cloudy and chill. I hope it warms up and suns out.