Phillo, Phyllo, Pho Phum, I Smell Something Yum: Spanikopita

I grew up in a section of a city where the majority of the residents were either Irish or Italian.  I was surrounded by good Italian markets and restaurants.  The various foods did not seem terribly exotic, and as my grandparents spoke Italian around the house, the sound of the language was very familiar to me.  Fast forward to my young adulthood, and my first encounter with someone who pronounced ricotta cheese 'ri-COT-ta. Italians pronounce it re-GAWT-ta, so I was startled at this much more harsh sounding pronunciation of the word.  Similarly, to hear people talk about making something like my beloved lasagne with cottage cheese just about appals me.  I say this in the knowledge that any Greek person who sees the way I make the following dish will be similarly appalled.  And I apologize in advance; this is the best I could do.  I will say that although it is not in the least authentic, it is pretty darn good, and as long as you don't have any Greek people over for dinner,  it will totally satisfy.

Spanikopita (Spinach and Feta Pie)

1/2 package frozen Phyllo dough (usually there are 2 plastic wrapped packages in each box.  Use 1 of the plastic packages per recipe)

4 tbsp melted butter

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 packages frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry

1 1/2 cups crumbled feta
10 oz. part skim ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated romano cheese
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp red pepper flake

1 tsp lemon zest

3 garlic cloves, very finely chopped

Mix the spinach and all the following ingredients well in a large bowl.  Unwrap the phyllo dough, and lay it out, covered with a damp kitchen towel to prevent the dough from drying out.  Mix the melted butter and the olive oil in a bowl.  Using a pastry brush, coat the inside of a 9 X 13 baking dish with the butter and oil mixture.  Lay 2 sheets of phyllo dough at a time at the bottom of the baking dish.  After each 2 sheets, drizzle and brush the butter and oil mixture.  Add 2 more sheets of phyllo dough, and repeat the process until you have used half of the sheets.  Place the spinach and cheese mixture evenly across the phyllo dough, and the add more phyllo sheets, 2 at a time, drizzling the oil and butter mixture between sheets, as before.  Repeat until you have used all the phyllo sheets, and then coat the top sheet liberally with the oil and butter mixture.  This can be done a day ahead, amking it a great weeknight dinner option.  Bake at 350 degrees for about a half hour, or until the phyllo dough is golden brown and crispy.  Slice and enjoy.

Weekend Breakfast: Monkey Bread

Weekend breakfasts call for something a little more interesting than cereal and milk, especially when the weekend morning is as gorgeously beautiful as ours have been here in Connecticut recently.  There is definitely the feeling of Fall in the air, but the sunny skies still say Summer.  Sitting on the back deck reading the Sunday paper and drinking several cups of tea is a real treat, and a lovely respite from the hustle, bustle and chaos that mark the beginning of the school year.  Usually our weekend breakfasts involve eggs and English muffins, but this weekend was different.

This was the weekend we closed up our pool for the season.  It is a thankless job:  all work, no payoff.  In addition, it is sad because it marks the end of another summer, the last stint of freedom for a while.  Sometimes it goes easily, sometimes we run into difficulty, like the year we were lulled into keeping the pool open by long, warm September days.  As soon as October hit, it was instantly cold and rainy, and we closed the pool wearing slickers in the rain one miserable Sunday.  But this year, we closed it over a weekend that we could have spent swimming, it was so warm, and it went off without a hitch, except for the ground wasp nest that was "found" by Anna's friend Brynn while she was helping us with the job.  And everyone helped, with no complaints or eye rolling, which, with a teenage and a preteen girl in the house, is no small gift.  So this weekend deserved a special breakfast.  I have been wanting to find a good recipe for Monkey Bread for some time now, and finally decided to use an old standby dough for cinnamon rolls that I have used for years.  Everybody loved it here; I hope you try it and enjoy as well!

Monkey Bread

For the dough:

3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 package active dry yeast

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar 

1 tsp salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

To coat the monkey bread pieces:

6 tbsp butter, melted

4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Put half of the flour and all of the yeast into the bowl of a stand mixer.  Heat the milk and butter slowly in the microwave, until just warm and the butter is almost melted.  Stir until it is melted completely (mixture should be about 120 degrees).  Add to flour mixture, then add eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla.  Beat on low speed until mixed, then scrape sides of the bowl with a spatula.  Add the rest of the flour, put on the dough hook, and knead for 6 - 8 minutes.  Shape into a ball, and place in a greased bowl in a warm spot, covered with plastic wrap. 

When the dough has almost doubled in size, punch it down.  Spray a bundt cake pan with cooking spray.  Mix the cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, salt and pecans together in a bowl, and prepare the melted butter in a  separate bowl.  Cut quarter-sized pieces of dough (I made my pieces too large), roll the small pieces in a ball, and then coat in melted butter.  Place immediately in the cinnamon sugar mixture, and coat generously.  Place the coated pieces in the bundt pan, spreading evenly.  Repeat until all the dough has been used up. If there is melted butter or cinnamon/sugar left, spread them evenly over the top of the cake (why not?). Place the pan in a warm spot, and let rise for about an hour.  Alternately, you can put the cake pan in the refrigerator overnight, and remove in the morning, waiting for the dough to come to room temperature and to rise before baking.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, until the cake is golden brown.  Turn pan over and serve with powdered sugar on top.  To serve, just pull the pieces apart.  My daughters have requested that the next time I make this, I make Monkey Bread Muffins.....a great idea, I think!

Nectar(ines) of the Gods: Nectarine and Blueberry Crisp

My mother drove out to one of the orchards in town earlier this week and stumbled upon a basket of local nectarines marked 'seconds.'  She inquired about the fruit, and the cashier told her that the nectarines were not as smooth and beautiful as the fruit they sold at full price, but that they were still tasty.  A good sized basket with at least twenty pieces of fruit was just five dollars, so she bought them, and dropped half off at my house.  My daughters, undeterred by the irregular fruit, ate a few of them before I even got home that day.  Once I arrived, I banished all the fruit eaters, and wrapped them up to save for some weekend baking.  I do believe a few pieces of fruit were pilfered even then.  When I was cutting them up for the crisp I made on Sunday, I understood why.  These were the sweetest, tangiest, juiciest nectarines I have ever tasted.  I quickly threw together this crisp, throwing a few blueberries in for a little color and some more flavor.  We ate the whole thing for dessert tonight, and I called my mother after to let her know how delicious it was.  How else could I guarantee that she would drive to the orchards again to get me more nectarines?

For the Fruit:
About 8 medium peaches or nectarines, cut up
2/3 cup blueberries
juice of 1/4 lemon
2 tbsp. Instant tapioca
3 tbsp. brown sugar

For the Crisp Topping:
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted

Mix the fruit and the next three ingredients in a 9 X 13 baking dish.  Toss well to mix. Mix oats and remaining ingredients together in a bowl, and then crumble over the fruit mixture.  Bake for 35-45 minutes at 350 degrees until crust is golden brown and fruit is bubbling.  Serve warm, preferable with vanilla ice cream.

Lots of Reasons to Love: Pizza Dough

There are a lot of reasons I love my husband.  He is one of the most intelligent and curious people I know.  He has a wicked sense of humor, keeping the rest of us laughing much of the time.  He is the sweetest, and most loving father I could ever imagine, staying far more calm than I as our daughters enter the teenage years.  He is fiercely loyal, and loves to cook.  In addition, he is persistent to a fault, rarely getting frustrated at the many jobs there are to do around the house.  He is an amazing partner and friend.  His many wonderful qualities, however, have made my Michael a man who loves a good household project.  Over the years, we have relandscaped, built a stamped concrete walkway, knocked down interior walls, built closets, painted, gutted and retiled a bathroom.  I am just the cheap labor; I often cannot see the forest for the trees, as they say, and Michael is the one with the vision, the knowledge and skills to carry out the plan.  It is one of the few times that I just do what I am told. 

A few years ago, we ripped out a brick patio in our backyard to prepare for a large deck.  Michael is not one to discard any useful things, so we stacked the bricks in a large neat pile in the side of our yard, knowing that down the line, we would find some way to use them.  A friend casually said to Michael, "If you just pulled a few of the bricks out of the center, you'd have a brick oven to make pizza."  An obsession was born!   From that point on, Michael spent all his free time researching, planning, drawing, and getting ready to build the brick wood-burning pizza oven that now stands in our backyard.  To be fair, we had been talking about the fact that there is no good pizza to be had in the town in which we live.  But still, there were people who called us crazy.  Sometimes it was me.

We dug, poured a cement base, spent the Spring of 2007 building the structure of the oven out of cinder block, then I channeled the spirit of my grandfather, who was a bricklayer when he first came to the U.S. from Italy, and mastered the fine art of bricklaying.  We spent that summer sweating in the backyard laying brick over the cinder block structure, then building the barrel arch from firebrick.  While I would not want to build another pizza oven, I will say that working on such a project together was a rewarding experience.  Our kids would swim several yards away in the pool while we worked, so the hours we spent working, we also spent talking.  There was nowhere we could go, and nothing else to do but sing along to the music playing on our ipod and talk.  So although I ended that summer far more exhausted than I started out, we finally got some good pizza. 

Making pizza in this manner is a project in itself.  The fire needs to be built in the oven three hours before the pizza is made, because the mass of the oven needs to absorb the heat from the fire until it is saturated and can reflect the heat back to cook the pizza.  It is perfect for a lovely late summer or early fall evening with friends and a few bottles of red wine. 

This dough is very versatile.  It makes a great calzone, good bread, and works very well in a traditional oven jacked up to the highest temperature.  Let the oven preheat for at least 30 minutes, and if you are using a pizza stone, make sure it is in the oven while preheating.

Pizza Dough (adapted from Alton Brown)

1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil plus more to coat the dough while rising
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups bread flour
1 tsp. active dry yeast

In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the water, sugar and salt.  Mix well until the sugar and salt are dissolved, and then taste to see if it is balanced.  This is essentially what your pizza dough will taste like, so if it is bland, add some sugar or salt.  Add the yeast, stir and let sit for a couple of minutes for the yeast to activate.  Add the flour, then using the dough hook, start the mixer on low, as the flour and liquid become incorporated.  Add more flour if necessary to form a sticky but smooth dough.  Knead the dough (continuing to use the stand mixer and the dough hook) for 15 minutes  Alternately, the dough can be mixed and kneaded by hand.  Cut the dough in half, and roll each half into a ball.  Coat each piece of dough with olive oil and place in a large bowl covered with a clean damp dishtowel.  Place in a warm place to rise.  Dough can be made a day in advance and left in the refrigerator. 

When the dough has risen, stretch by hand into a medium sized circle.  Top with your favorite pizza toppings, and bake on a pizza stone at the highest temperature your oven will reach.  When the cheese on top is golden brown, and the crust is crisp and browned, pull the pizza out with a pizza peel.  Slice and enjoy!

This Summer's Favorite Lunch: Egg Salad and Avocado Sandwich with Sliced Tomato

I have been back to work for six days now, have gotten a paycheck before students graced my classroom, so I really cannot complain.  I am a middle school teacher, and I am looking forward to the students' return, because it is much more fun to be working with them than it is to be preparing for them.  Yes, fun.  When I meet new people and the inevitable subject of what one does for a living comes up, I am often amused by the reaction of those people when they learn I teach 13 year olds.  The conversation typically goes something like this:

     "So, what is it that you do?"

     "I am a teacher."  (at this point, they smile at me because they are imagining that I work with young children in elementary school, and that is noble)

     "Oh, how nice.  What grade do you teach?"

     "I teach eighth grade English."  This is the point that I look forward to because the look of shock is just priceless.  Some fear for my sanity, some just try to get out of the conversation as quickly as possible. I laugh because they don't know what they are missing.  Kids at that age are certainly full of energy, and hormones, but they have wicked senses of humor, are appreciative of any kindness you show them, and can be the most fun people on the planet to spend time with.  I swear.

So my only complaint is that once I start back to school each Fall, my lifestyle goes through some changes.  I have to get used to getting up at 5:20 AM, have to become reaccustomed to the fact that restroom breaks are determined not by my body, but rather by the school schedule, and that my lunch has to be planned and teenager-friendly, as I may have students in my classroom when it is time to eat lunch.

So, my favorite lunch this summer is squarely off limits to me during the school year.  You see, I discovered a really great sandwich made with egg salad, onions,  avocado, and a thick slice of garden tomato.  I could eat this in school if I wanted to be the laughing stock of my students.  Remember all that good stuff I said about middle-schoolers?  That is true only for people who don't bring in weird and smelly lunches.  So I will have to relegate this yummy, open-faced sandwich to my weekends, and maybe add a piece of bacon to make up for the loss.

Egg Salad Sandwich with Avocado and Tomato:

1 thich slice multigrain bread, lightly toasted
2 hard boiled eggs (1 yolk removed)
1/4 avocado, cut into small chunks
1 tbsp. finely diced onion
2 slices tomato
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients except the bread and the tomato in a bowl.  Place the tomato slices on the toasted bread, then pile the egg salad on top of the tomatoes. Eat and enjoy without guilt!

Making Summer Last: Panzanella

Today is officially my last day of summer vacation.  School starts for most kids next week, so for us teachers, the mad rush to the first day of school begins this week.  While I love teaching, the transition each year is a tough one.  To go from the long, relaxing summer days where the biggest decision is what to have for dinner, to getting up at 5:15 AM and hitting the ground running is a tough one.  Teachers look forward to summer each year, not necessarily for the reasons you would think.  While we love the free time, what we really need is the long strand days where we do not have to plan what we are doing the next day or the next class. For ten months each year, the first thought I have when I wake up is "what am I doing in the classroom today?"  The summer provides the break from that.

Don't get me wrong.  By the end of the summer, I am ready to go back.  It is time to use my brain again, and of course, time to earn a paycheck again!  But I still feel that sadness at the end of each summer.  Time is passing too quickly, the kids are growing up much too rapidly.  As the saying goes, 'the days are long, but the years are short.'  So I do what I can to extend that summer feeling.  In addition to making a point of getting outside to enjoy the beautiful weather that September brings to Connecticut, I also continue to cook like it is summer. 

The vegetables in the garden and at the farmer's markets are hitting their peak right now, and nothing is more delicious than late summer tomatoes. We have been working toward real panzanella all summer, and waiting for the garden to yeild those sweet, juicy, red tomatoes.  They are here in spades, almost too many to eat.  Almost.

Summer Panzanella:

4-5 excellent summer tomatoes

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and sliced

1/2 medium red onion

2 tbsp. capers (optional

big bunch basil

salt and pepper to taste

1 small loaf Italian bread (I used a small ciabatta loaf), cubed

Extra Virgin olive oil

3 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

Toast the bread cubes by drizzling with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, a sprinkling of salt, and placing in a 300 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until crunchy.  Cut up the tomatoes into bite sized chunks, and place in a large bowl.  Add cucumbers, onions, capers, if using, and basil.  Once the bread is toasted and cooled, add to the tomato mixture.

Mix 4 tablespoons of olive oil with 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and whisk together.  Drizzle over the bread and tomato mixture, tossing to coat.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and mix again.  Add more dressing if necessary.  Serve immediately, and savor the taste of summer.

A Salad Nana Would Love: Wedge Salad with Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

As I was growing up, it seemed that all around me were wonderful examples of smart and strong women.  In addition to my mother and maternal grandmother, there were many dear friends of my mother who were raising children, taking care of a household, and still forging careers and contributing to the world around them.  My mother's dear friend Dolly raised five children as a single mother, created a career for herself by identifying a need in our community and filling it, and still managed to be the life of the party and a riot to be around.  My mother's friend Ellen was so interested in the world it was contagious, and my Aunt Kathy often reinvented her professional self while always remaining true to who she was. 

My father's mother, my Nana, was an example of a strong woman who was in many ways ahead of her time. She had a good career working for the telephone company at a time when many women did not work outside the home.  She spoke of those days so proudly, and it was clear that although she needed to work financially, she enjoyed what she did and the people she met and with whom she became lifelong friends.    She was a character and a great lady, my Nana.  She smoked her Pall Malls until the day she died, which was well into her 80s, she salted her beer, and she pronounced potatoes "pa-DAY-das."  One of the things I always appreciated was the fact that while we were in college, my Nana would take my sister and me out for dinner whenever we were home from school on break. I think it was her way of getting to know us as adults, having a little quality time with us, and catching up with us.  Usually we would go to a place called The Seafarer, a seafood restaurant, where, ironically, we would all order the stuffed chicken breast.  But before the entree, we always got a salad, and Nana introduced us to Blue Cheese dressing, which we loved.  Nowadays, it seems that the "Wedge Salad,' with its signature blue cheese dressing  is on just about every restaurant menu, and I love it.  The crisp iceberg lettuce seems so retro, but in the best way.  If tomatoes are in season, and the bacon is crispy, it is a beautiful thing. What is old is new again. Even in this, Nana was ahead of her time.

Wedge Salad  (Serves 4)
1 head iceberg lettuce, cored, trimmed and washed
8 strip thick cut bacon, cooked until crisp
2 really good tomatoes (I used heirloom from my garden), cut into small chunks
2/3 cup light cream or half and half
6 ounces Gorgonzola or bleu cheese crumbled and divided
1/2 clove garlic, minced fine
1/2 tsp. black pepper

To make dressing:  Put cream or half and half in a microwaveable bowl, add garlic and pepper.  Microwave on medium heat until very warm.  Crumble 5 ounces Gorgonzola (eyeball it) into the warm cream and stir until it is mostly melted into the cream.  Put it back into the microwave if necessary.  Place the dressing in the fridge until very cold.  Right before serving, add the remainder of the cheese to make it chunky.

Cut the lettuce in half, then in half again, keeping it in the wedges.  Place the wedges onto either 4 plates, or line them up in a platter.   Place tomatoes on top of lettuce wedges.  Crumble bacon and scatter over lettuce and tomatoes.  Drizzle dressing over the whole salad.  Enjoy!  Delicious with a salted beer (just like Nana liked it).