Greek pasties, longevity

While I was pawing over cookbooks this morning to be reminded of the mixture for spanakopita, spinach and feta pie,  this fell out of one I haven't used in a while.  My dear friend Karen.  She's the person with all the teddybears I rehomed, all brand new and destined for her students and young friends. And many other wonderful items, as I helped clear her house, along with family members, after her death. 

 

Karen was a guidance counselor for disabled children in the New York school system, and one of the few professionals I ever met who understood that, for the parents of special needs children, there's no 9-5.  There's no time off.  There's no vacation.  Mostly, there isn't even a peaceful meal.  She was a star.  A person who could understand a situation without having lived it herself.

She died, way too young, of a sudden onset illness, three months from diagnosis, already at Stage 4, to death.  In her last days, I helped nurse her at home.  She was one of the friends who'd planned to be there for me in old age, but, that's not what happened. Life happened, and death.

When people talk about longevity as if it were wonderful, such as a doctor who told me years ago that my exercise and weight program were wonderful because they would help with length of life, and was stunned when I said that wasn't the purpose.  My purpose was and is to be as well as I can now, not ten years hence.  And to keep cheerful and well, now that I've outlived so many friends and relatives.

 

Living long's not a joy if the last decade or more are spent struggling.  And life's not about how long it is, anyway, but how significant it is.  Karen's life was significant. Everyone's is, to some extent, but some more than others.  I've already had twenty more years of life than she. I doubt if I've done much more good, though. 

 

Anyway, this is what suddenly jumped out at me as I was browsing.  Karen loved to sample my cooking. She'd crack up seeing me trotting across the street in my chef's apron, here, K, try this, look out, it's hot! that's how come she's among the cookbooks.

including this one, once a famous one, now I wonder if people still realize how groundbreaking it was at the time

Looking for this.  I wanted to make pasties with crisp crust, not phyllo, not a phan of phyllo so much, but I needed the filling reminders of how to make spanakopita, even without the phyllo dough

I had the spinach from Misfits Markets especially for this purpose, and added feta cheese to my shopping list this weekend.  You can't go far wrong with spinach and feta.

It needed ricotta, but I subbed plain yogurt, vaguely similar, and I thought I'd try it.  Gently fried the onions for a while, steamed the spinach a bit, pressed out the extra liquid

Then added the spinach into the onion, few more minutes

Mixed the yogurt, cubed feta, nutmeg, seasalt in a separate bowl. Added in the onions and spinach,  didn't bother with extra herbs.   

 Then came the making of the pastry.  This was a morning's work, all told.  I used the flour tortilla recipe, because that makes a lovely crisp crust, just what I like for a pasty.

Here it is, resting for half an hour.  When you can smell it developing, you know it's working fine.  Then you can knead and roll a bit, doesn't require much handling

 And shape the pasties.  Big spoonful or two of the mixture onto the dough, fold over, crimp with a fork, pierce the top, spritz with olive oil to help browning without getting too brittle.  About half an hour at 400F.

Today's lunch, with carrot greens fancying up the plate

Tomorrow's lunch

 And here's a bite's eye view.  This was worth all the frenzy in the kitchen.  It was just, well, it was five star.  I have enough pastry for several more pasties, and enough filling, too.  I think this might be good cold, but today I ate it sizzling hot.  You can't go wrong with feta.  I like it cooked better than tossed in salads, though.

So today included a sudden reminder of life and death, and a great kitchen caper. Plus a walk in the suddenly warm sunshine, wearing the technicolor jacket, and a chat with the returned Indian neighbor, and a plant exchange happened. To be exact, some of my spider plant babies moved to her house.

I had stitching plans for today, involving the Peacock Dress motif I stitched a while back, some people may remember that.  It's making its comeback with the Robe of Many Colors now that the vest is finished and just a garment to wear, rather than the focus of determined work. However, the spanakopita pasties took more time and energy than planned, so stitching will happen tomorrow.

Right now it's tea and cornbread.