Banitsa

Given the enormous amounts of Bulgarian feta cheese (sirene/сирене) consumed during our vacation, we needed to wean ourselves from it ever so slowly. So, despite stuffing my face with banitsa practically until they were closing the doors on the plane (Cabin crew, cross-check doors and lady in 4B, stop with the cheese already!!!), we had to just whip up another batch.
Here is the pictorial:

You'll need:

1) 4 eggs, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 6 oz of plain yogurt (eye of 4-year old optional)

Beat the eggs in a largish bowl. Beat the baking powder into the yogurt, holding the yogurt container over the bowl with the eggs, because the yogurt will start to seep over. Add yogurt to egg mixture.

2) 1 stick of butter or margarine, half a cup of flour, and 8-10 oz of Bulgarian feta cheese.

Melt butter, crumble the cheese. Save about 1 tablespoon of butter, and then add remaining butter, cheese, and flour to the egg and yogurt mixture. It should look something like this... The cheese should be lumpy.


3) 1 package of phyllo dough, that has been sitting at room temperature for about 30 min (if it is too cold, the sheets will not separate properly).

Separate each sheet of phyllo dough, spread a tiny amount of the reserved butter, and then spread a few tablespoons of the filling near the top of the sheet (see demonstration on the right by my lovely assistants). Then roll the sheet up, and place in a baking pan. If you have a round one, you can get all fancy and make concentric circles (click here for an example). Spread the rest of the butter on top.



Bake at 375 degrees, for about 25 minutes, until it looks nice and crispy.

Usually eaten for breakfast, but there are no rules.

Beer, coffee, and vitamins..

8:20am. Vasco's sitting on the step and I'm helping him put his shoes on, and I'm trying to multitask: one hand on his shoes, one hand swiping around for my shoes, all while I'm chewing my multivitamin (have I mentioned that I am awesome at multitasking: I can chew and put shoes on at the SAME time!). Vasco: "Mom, when I grow up, I want that (pointing to the remnants in my mouth). I want beer, coffee, and vitamins." I'm really glad he added vitamins to the mix!
And, on a related but separate theme, I know that Mike and I enjoy a cocktail or a glass of wine or two every so often, but when your kids are playing imaginary tea-party with strawberry daiquiris, it makes you wonder...Funny part, now that I think about it, is that I've never made a strawberry daiquiri. I would have been less surprised if it were a margarita-on-the-rocks-with salt party. They also seem to know about the Statue of Liberty (never been there, never discussed it!), the EXACT text of about 59 books (today I had the audacity to say "workbench" instead of "workroom" while I was reading and was severely reprimanded), can find the "author" of a book on the back cover, eagerly ask how to say words in either Spanish or Bulgarian, and are about to take guitar (pronounced kitar) lessons with Mr. Kevin next week.

We have been enjoying summer...

... the zoo, with their cousins...


..and, in other news, I am a DOMESTIC GODDESS! or at least worshipped as a minor god by Mike's colleagues, whom I supply with fancily decorated cupcakes. This one came from Family Circle magazine. I was practicing making these, which I plan to make for the kids to take to school to celebrate their birthday with their friends.