spinach | 3greenOnions

pumpkin, spinach and feta muffins

29-10-2012

appetizer, baking, breakfast/brunch, cheese, muffin, party, pastry, roasting, sweet+savory, vegetable, vegetarian

pumpkin, spinach and feta muffins

There is some sort of internal force governing the behavior of Balkan grandmothers in the presence of their grandchildren. This mysterious force turns normal human beings into well rehearsed feeding machines; permanently shadowing hyperactive toddlers, a plate in one hand and a well-composed bite in another (a little piece of bread, some vegetable, a chunk of meat if they manage…) always aiming for the kids’ mouth, using every single chance said mouth is open (be it for purposes of speech, laughter, cry, whatever..) to park the bite inside.

We typically spend our weekend lunches (and the ensuing afternoons) visiting grandparents. For us, it is an opportunity to sit down to a proper meal which I didn’t quickly scramble in the kitchen while the toddler was getting into one trouble or another. For Ognen, its an chance to explore new rooms and spaces, marvel at other washing machines, test car toys on unfamiliar surfaces, hide behind doors and generally run around squealing in delight. For the grandpas, its a weekly dose of physical exercise. For the grandmas, its the ultimate test of seeing how much food they can stuff into him.

spinach feta tortilla lasagne

By: Elena

06-05-2012

casseroles, cheese, main dish, meat/poultry, pasta, savory, vegetable

Spinach Feta Tortilla Lasagne

If I told you that I have somewhere around 20 lasagna (or lasagne? which one?) recipes bookmarked, would you believe me? If there’s one thing all of them have in common, it’s some unusual twist; an ingredient you don’t typically find in such a dish (like hazelnuts or pumpkin for example). Here’s the thing: I’ve never made proper, Garfield-style lasagne. I know it’s not exactly rocket science but I’m always put off by worries about what type of lasagna sheets to use and my dislike for tomato based sauces and for handling minced meat (just when you thought I couldn’t get much weirder, right?)

One evening last month, our next door neighbors (a bustling full-of-life family with 3 kids of varying ages, managed by 2 successful entrepreneur parents) knocked on our door with a huge pan of half-baked lasagne. Due to some clerical error their electricity was cut off in the middle of baking and they asked if they can finish baking in our oven (it is moments like this when I think ‘gosh, I really should clean the oven more often!‘). As their youngest daughter entertained Ognen and we grownups had a cup of coffee, the aroma of the lasagne bubbling in our (not so clean) oven was intoxicating, even to me. When it was finally baked and before they headed back to their place to eat a family dinner by candlelight (I guess you have to take romance where you can get it when you have a house full of kids), they left two sizable slices for us to try. As we sat in silence and gobbled them up, I guess what was going through Ivica’s mind was something along the lines of “who the hell did I marry? couscous, sweet potato burritos and salads with pears? there’s families eating lasagne out there…”

spinach and leek pie quesadillas

By: Elena

23-10-2011

breakfast/brunch, cheese, egg, frying, main dish, quesadilla/burrito, savory, snack, vegetable, vegetarian

I spent a great deal of my childhood afternoons eating pies. They were always homemade, with a rich filling and perfect pastry. It required a good amount of jaw-stretching to be able to take a good bite with everything in it; be it eggs and leeks or spinach and cheese, there was always so much of it that it often made you want to just bury your face in it.

My late grandmother lived across from my elementary school and was a pie wizard. Let me rephrase that – she was a kitchen wizard with a specialization in pie magic. The only thing she did wrong (pie-wise) was to make a really critical pie-lover out of many people (myself included). I have by now abandoned all hope that I’ll ever truly fall in love with someone else’s leek pie, ever again. And, you know, I’ve had a LOT of pies in my life.

spinach and raisin triangles

By: Elena

14-10-2011

appetizer, baking, breakfast/brunch, food combining, party, pastry, snack, sweet+savory, vegetable, vegetarian

As much as I love cheese, it is pastries that are definitely my nemesis. Be it savory or sweet, I have the hardest time resisting pastry of any kind. For breakfast, lunch and/or dinner. It is often a good thing I suck at pastry making, because we’d probably resort to eating some daily. It’s also a good thing we don’t live in Greece anymore because I might have had to make my middle name Spanakopita. Occasionally (ok, more than just occasionally), store-bought puff pastry comes to assist me in imposing things like this one to Ivica. For dinner.

And spinach…well, I don’t know about you, but show me a golden puffed up pastry with dark green stuff sticking out from its insides… and I’m sold. Add raisins to it and my hands are itching.

lentil, spinach and halloumi salad

By: Elena

08-10-2011

bean/legume, cheese, food combining, frying, grilling, main dish, salad, savory, side dish, vegetable, vegetarian

I used to be a really difficult kid when it came to food. I think it was easier for my parents to list the things that I DID eat because the list of foods I hated was so long. I remember hating most of the food they were serving in our kindergarten (especially braised cabbage, ugh, I so hated that!) and then later at elementary. At home, I was always the one playing with the fork, chewing each bite for what seemed like ages, my mom and dad making me sit at the table until I finished whatever it was we were having, tears rolling down my cheek. I was a small kid but a big drama queen. (I think Ognen got some of that gene, of course not in relation to food, not yet at least).

Then I went through the biggest part of my teenage years eating crap. I gobbled up any kind of snack (sweet or savory) in sight. My favorite thing in the world was bread thickly smeared with cream cheese and slices of salami piled up high on top (shudder). At some point around 14, I probably weighed a little bit more than I do now.

Roast Carrot and Avocado Salad

By: admin

07-07-2011

salad

Roast Carrot and Avocado Salad

This week, we’re packing to go up to our house in the mountains where we’ll be staying for a few weeks. Its a place built by my greatgrandfather a little less than 100 years ago; it used to be a small cheese workshop (hence my addiction to cheese, I guess). It is located at one of the edges of a village lining a protected forested area with endemic pine trees. It really is a very special place, with birds chirping…wait, let me just slap myself out of daydreaming. I’m still in this oven of city. Few more days…

Meanwhile, I keep finding carrots in my kitchen. I think I have a major crush on them in the last few months so I tend to overbuy and there always seem to be quite a bit of them lingering in a bag somewhere. We’re trying to clean up the kitchen before we leave so, much to common delight, I decided to make one of our favorite salads (what, you were surprised at the word salad?) ever; it is definitely on both mine and ivica’s top 5 list. The original recipe is this Jamie Oliver’s Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad, but in addition to not plating this even 10% as nicely as Jamie does, I also change it up a bit too, although the changes are not too earth-shattering, at least flavor-wise. Or so I think.