Tyropita

I just got back from dinner at my once again mentioned favorite local resturant, Park Towers. It's very home-y and a family type diner. I ordered the chicken souvlaki pita (one of my favorites) and tried these for the first time tonight. Tyropita is a greek layered pastry, made with layers of buttered phyllo pastry and a feta cheese-egg mix. I've been in love with feta cheese since eating my first Greek salad a few years back, and this is no exception! I love phyllo pastry, and combined with feta it's really delicious. It reminds me a bit of Ukrainian nalysnyky, although my mom/grandma used to make nalysnyky crepes as more of a desert food. Anyway, if you like feta cheese and flakey phyllo pastry, you might want to try this! It would make a good snack dish for parties, too.

Here's a recipe I found which I will be trying this weekend!

• 2 pounds of feta cheese, drained of any excess liquid and crumbled.
• Lemon zest
• Spinach (optional. Adding spinach makes these spanakopita)
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 or more cubes of butter
• 1 pound of phyllo pastry sheets. Completely thaw the phyllo in the refrigerator and in its packaging if it was frozen.

 If you've made baklava before, it seems pretty similiar. You can make the tyropita in a large pan like baklava, or in individual pieces similiar to making perogi (which would be more time consuming but I think better, as I love flakey baked phyllo)

 

 

Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo

My boyfriend wanted to make chicken in a mushroom sauce for dinner tonight, and I came across this recipe.

The recipe is pretty simple; I picked up some boneless chicken breasts and panfried them in butter. I fried up some mushrooms in butter in another pan, and once the chicken was browned I added a can of Campbell's creamy mushroom soup, a can full of skim milk (instead of the 1 can water recommended), some more butter, 1/2 cup parmesean cheese, and mozza cheese. I boiled the linguine and during the last few mins tossed in the cut broccoli.

Although I love mushrooms, I have to say I was never a fan of mushroom soup growing up, so I was a little hesitant in trying this recipe. Honestly, it was a great meal! It would have been even better with a glass of white wine. ;)