Spanakopita Triangles

These are a great appetizer or main course, that can be easily made into batch cooking by flash freezing uncooked triangles for another day! This recipe uses ricotta, feta and frozen spinach wrapped in flaky phyllo dough (found in the frozen section of the grocery store near frozen berries/cool whip).

Phyllo dough needs to be defrosted before use. Once defrosted, unroll sheets - carefully. Dampen a clean kitchen towel and lie over the phyllo sheets to keep moist. Cut the phyllo sheets into 4 long strips  for appetizer size or 2 long sheets for main course size.

I adapted this recipe from What's Cookin' Chicago.

1 small onion, chopped
10 ounces frozen chopped spinach. thawed and squeezed dry
4 to 6 ounces domestic feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup cottage cheese
1 egg
1 pound of phyllo dough

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Cook onions until tanslucent. Mix together cheeses, spinach, egg and cooked onions.
3. Take two sheets of phyllo dough and brush with melted butter or olive oil
4. Place a teaspoon of mixture in top corner of sheet.
5. Fold phylo dough into triangles.
6. Flash Freeze or bake for 10 minutes on each side (until golden brown and flaky!)

If you are going to flash freeze them, please make sure that you defrost the spanakopita triangles before you bake them again later!!

Freezer Meatballs

Freezer Meatballs (adapted from FoodRenegade.com)
3 eggs
1 small onion, chopped (or half a large one)
1 1/3 C. bread crumbs (or cooked brown rice)
2 1/4 tsp. salt (I omit this, and use more spices)
1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. Italian herb blend (or spices of your choosing!)
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 lbs. ground beef

Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the next six ingredients and mix well. Finally, add the beef and mix well. Shape the meatballs into one inch balls (should make approximate 100 meatballs). Place in single layers on ungreased 1-inch deep baking pans and bake at 400F for 10 minutes, until done. FLASH FREEZE!!

Two important techniques: Flash Freezing and Cooking Dried Beans

It looks like I need to play catch up!! I haven't posted lately, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking up a storm.

In the past few weeks I have finished all my canned tomato sauce and the last of the farmer's market onions *tear*. That just means I am looking even more forward to summer coming!!

But in good news I have found the joy in dried beans!! Not only are they cheaper and with less preservatives, but they are also easier to store in my limited space!!

How to cook dried beans
1. Rinse beans and remove any damaged beans.
2. Place dried beans in a bowl of water over night. Beans will expand to about 2 1/2 times their dried measure size, so ensure that there is enough water in the bowl to cover the beans even after they expand
3. Simmer beans in a large pot of water for approximately 1 hour, make sure the water level in the pot is always over the beans., also skim any foam off the top (especially with chichpeas)
4. Drain and rinse beans. Never cook beans after you boil them in the same water they were boiling in.
At this point the beans are ready to be used for any recipe you would used canned beans

Flash Freezing
The most important method to know for any batch cooking or freezer cooking. This process will help you freeze each item individully so that you can defrost only the amount you need for each recipe.
1 Cook the items as directed. Remove from the oven on baking sheets. When the items and baking sheets have cooled, place them baking sheet and all into the freezer. Ensure that none of the items are touching when they go into the freezer so that they freeze individually. Leave them in the freezer for approximately 1 hour.

What a weekend!!

On Saturday, thanks to Kijiji and WagJag I scored enough frozen meats to fill my new mini chest freezer. This haul included: 24x6oz Hamburgers (for $22), 10lbs of 8oz AAA Top Sirloin Steaks (for $71), 3kg of All Beef Hot Dogs (for $16) and 4kg of free range chicken breast (for $47) all from JW Foods in Scarborough. Met one of the owners (Bill) and he was very excited about what is in store for the revamp of JW foods. He also was very generous and gave me free packages of chicken souvlaki and Greek sausages, both of which they make "the way their dad taught them". Check them out for all your meet needs - Brimley, just north of the 401.

Then, after leaving there I raced up to Michaels at Downsview to meet the one and only 'Ace of Cakes' Chef Duff Goldman! What a genuinely nice guy!!

After meeting Duff I came home with my autograph and new Charm City apron, and went down to my new pantry to see what the situation was. I noticed that 2 - what I thought were squashes - were looking like they needed to be eaten soon. So that was the next on the list of things to do. The first one - I though was spaghetti squash - oval, yellow....-but once I cut into it it smells, looks, tastes more like honey dew melon. Who knew honey dew melon had an oval shape and yellow rind!

The second one was one of my weird and wonderful purchases from the market last week. The farmer called it a sweet potato squash. Whatever it was it was DELISH! I roasted it flesh up with butter and maple syrup - like an acorn squash, as the farmer suggested!

After that I made 60 meatballs - some for dinner and some for the freezer. The dinner meatballs became Sweet and Sour Meatballs (with pineapple and peppers).

With such and eventful Saturday I was ready for a relaxed Sunday, I started at Highland Farms to pick up a few staples - dried beans, ice cream and milk - they also had Ontario Field Tomatoes on for 99c/kg. So of course, with the popularity of my last batch of salsa I had to capitalize on the last of the tomato crops - I bought 6kg (13lbs = about 7qts). My lazy Sunday resulted in tomato salsa canning of 7 pint jars, and once again salsa juice that is currently flavouring the pot roast in the slow cooker.

For dinner was steak fajitas with sizzling peppers and onions, of course with home made taco sauce!

I'm starting to learn more and more about this Once A Month Cooking - I may try once a week instead!

Canning, Soup and a Happy Thanksgiving!

After another great farmers market trip on this beautiful Thanksgiving weekend, one of the farmers sadly informed me that this is probably the last week of this years peaches. Which means I bought two large baskets to ensure that we could have juicy and sweet peaches throughout the winter. I also picked up some LARGE tomatoes to turn into jars of diced tomatoes for use when the salsa or tomato sauce runs out.

My canning stock pile is starting to resemble something out of the extreme couponing show! We also purchased a small chest freezer and hope to start to fill that as well - maybe some peppers? Frozen veggies or leftovers? The possibilities are endless!!

With a bunch of cooked and mashed acorn and butternut squash it was time to make soup. I found a terrific recipe from Mennonite Girls Can Cook, thanks ladies! It was delicious!



Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!