Spinach, Feta, & Chicken Filo Pie

 Tiktok done made me log in to my dead blog, purely so I can capture a recipe I saw in a video.  Insanity I say, insanity!

This recipe was absolutely delicious though, so kudos to @kalscookingpot for getting me to try out using Filo for the first time. Bonus points, this should be a 1 dish pot if you grab the right size.


Ingredients:

• 2 - 2.5 pds chicken thigh - cubed  (I used 2.25 pds cause that's what the package was)
• 2 medium onions - diced
• 1/4 cup of diced butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1/3 cup greek yogurt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 6-8 cups fresh spinach (Listen, who am I to tell you what your heart says)
• 8 oz feta -crumbled 
• Large Filo sheets (I used 1/2 a box, defrosted of course)
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp dried garlic (I recommend roasted garlic)
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried parsley  (I skipped this)
• salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Heat some oil in a pan and saute the onions until golden brown
3. Add chiccken and cook until color changes.
4. Add spices (pepper, salt, paprika, garlic, thyme, and parsley) & cook on high for a few minutes
5. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes
6. Uncover and allow chicken juices to boil and reduce a little
7. Add butter and allow to melt, then add flour and stir until mixture is thickened
8. Pour in chicken stock, heavy cream, and greek yogurt
9. Mix well and cook on high heat until consistency is thicker but still pourable 
   
10. Add spinach, cover and cook on medium until spinach is wilted
11. Remove lid and stir, simmer until mixture reduces to desired consistency (should be thicker but still be pourable, as it will reduce further in oven)
12. Crumble feta all over the top 
13. Roll up sheets of filo (one at a time) into a round rosette (or crumbled ball, whatever your patience has in you) and place on top of the mixture until fully covered.
14. Spoon melted butter generously all over the top of the filo
15. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until filo pastry is golden, crispy, and deliciously cooked through.
    
16. Serve immediately and be impressed with yourself

Small tweaks I'll make my next go round:

• 
  
• Probably add more spices
• Add more feta
• Might dice in some mushrooms
• Probably more spinach
• 
  
• - and most importantly, I'll stick with the 6 qt dutch oven instead of going to my larger pan - which made my filling to crust ratio closer to 1:1 than I intended.

Home styled "Pagliacci" salad

I love love love ordering from Pagliacci's in Seattle. Partially because their pizza is delicious, but more because it means I can order their amazing Pagliacci salad. I love everything about this salad - the garbanzo beans give me texture, the red onions some flavor, pancetta... all of it.

So of course, I decided it was about time to try and figure out my own version at home. Here's what I came up with for a single "meal" serving:


Ingredients:
1 "head" of romaine hearts (I buy the organic 3-packs)
1/4 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/4-1/2 of a red onion, chopped
1/2 a red pepper, chopped
1/4 cup of grated parmesan (could use mozarella if you have it)

Dressing
1 tablespoon caesar dressing
1/4 tsp of dijon mustard
1 teaspon red vine vinegar
salt + pepper to taste


Mix all of the ingredients + dressing in a large bowl, then dish out.

The great thing about this recipe is it's made me realize how easy it is to make a delicious salad if I can get my hands on a dressing I enjoy. I almost never like dressings out of a bottle, but by fiddling around with it and adding my own flavors - BAM, I have something I enjoy.

Eggless Chocolate-Coffee Cupcakes

Cupcake batter:
1 and ½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup strong black coffee (or you can use 1 tablespoon instant in hot water)
1 tbsp white vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil

Frosting*:
2 and ½ cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 tbsp butter, at room temperature
6-10 tbsp heavy cream
Heart shaped chocolate chips for decoration

Instructions

1. Preheat oven at 350 degrees
2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, salt and vanilla in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl mix coffee, vinegar and olive oil.
4. Combine wet ingredients with dry ones mixing with a spatula. The batter will not be very thick. Do not overmix.
5. Share into 12 cupcake liners and bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
6. Let them cool down before frosting.
7. For the frosting; sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl.
8. Beat the butter about a minute and gradualy add sugar and cocoa powder.
9. Pour heavy cream and continue mixing.
10. Top the cupcakes with the frosting and decorate with heart shaped white chocolate chips.

*As a warning - the frosting recipe makes about 2-3x more frosting than you need for the cupcakes. It's also super thick so expect to add more cream to thin it out than what I have listed. I've used a different amount each time aiming for a texture that's spreadable

Garlic & Almond Green Beans

I have a thing for green beans. I know I do. You know how I know? Because I love eating them! So much that I'm making another post about... GREEN BEANS!

I know, crazy.

These ones are made different than my last recipe (which was all about sauteing). These...are blanched. Depending on who you talk to - they may be over or under blanched at that. But who cares, make them however makes you happy.

Ingredients
2-3 pds of Green Beans, ends trimmed
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
1 tablespoon salt
6 quarts of water
1

Instructions
1. Bring the water to a boil and stir in the green beans and 1 tablespoon of salt. Cook the green beans 2-5 minutes until slightly tender (but still with a bit of crispness left). Basically - don't boil them so long they go utterly limp, no one likes limp green beans.

2. While the water coming to a boil, melt the butter in a saute pan and add the garlic. Saute garlic for about a minute then add the almonds.

3. Drain the green beans and rinse under cold water to halt the cooking process. Then throw them back in the pot. Pour all that delicious garlic-almond butter all over your cooked green beans and toss to coat evenly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Congratulations, you have just made yourself delicious garlic-almond green beans. If you want to play around the recipe consider adding fresh rosemary or thyme. Maybe some red pepper flakes if you like spice. Or if you're me, just keep increasing the garlic until you reach your limit...whatever that is.

Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce

I was getting the itch for fettucini alfredo, but my roommate and I are both trying to eat healthier. Cooking with a ton of cream and a ton of cheese kind of felt like the opposite of what I should do. Luckily, Pinterest started showing me photos of everyone's version of Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce just about the same time I was getting my craving.

I ended up modifying a recipe cobbled together from these 2 recipes
http://pinchofyum.com/creamy-cauliflower-sauce
http://americanfood.about.com/od/riceandgrains/r/Cauliflower_Alf.htm

What I made ended up being super easy. And Tasty. Soooo tasty.


INGREDIENTS
4-5 large cloves garlic, minced (I was lazy and used raw garlic from a jar)
2 tablespoons butter
5-6 cups cauliflower florets
1 cups cauliflower broth or water (or chicken broth if you're me)
1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
1 teaspoon pepper (more to taste)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more to taste)
1/2-1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1/2 cup heavy cream

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Bring the water/broth to a boil in a large pot. Add the cauliflower and cook covered, for 10 minutes or until the cauliflower is fork tender. Do not drain the liquid - you're going to want some later (unless you're me and forget that so you have to use plain water later)

2. While the cauliflower is boiling, brown the garlic in the butter to take off the bite.

3. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cauliflower pieces to a blender - add 1 cup of the stock water you used to boil the cauliflower. Also add the garlic butter, cream, thyme, pepper, salt and red pepper.  Blend or puree for several minutes until the sauce is smooth. You can thin it out w

Next step is easy - serve over whatever you want to eat! In my case, I served it with red pepper fettucini with steamed broccoli and sauteed sausage. And garlic bread. Because... garlic bread is amazing.

As is this sauce. I have about 1 cup leftover and I'm thinking of making homemade pizza.