Tiropita…for the love
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb feta, crumbled into small pieces
- 12 oz cottage cheese
- 5 eggs
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- ½ cup finely chopped dill
- 2 sticks butter
- 1 lb filo pastry (also spelled phyllo)
- salt & pepper
- About two hours before you’re ready to start, take the filo from the freezer and set the box on the counter. Don’t unwrap it just yet.
- Saute onions until translucent, then add in garlic and cook for two minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Slowly melt two sticks of butter and set aside.
- Crumble feta into a standing mixer bowl (or large bowl). Then add cottage cheese and mix well.
- To the feta mixture, add eggs and mix thoroughly. Then add onion mixture and mix well.
- Finally, add the mozzarella cheese and stir together until mixed well.
- Note: Once you add the raw eggs to the mixture, it’s not a good idea to taste the until it’s cooked. However, you need to add salt and pepper. Keep in mind the salt content in feta is different with every brand and every package. I generally use kosher salt and about 1 tsp or two grabs. Here’s a tip I use if the feta is really salty – before I add any salt to the cheese mixture, I take a small dollop of the mixture and cook it in a frying pan. I taste it and correct accordingly.
- Play one layer of filo on a flat, clean surface with the shortest side directly in front of you. Brush it with melted butter (I have several small 1″ and 2″ paint brushes that I use for cooking)
- Fold the filo over on to itself in thirds. You should now have one, long column. Brush it with butter.
- Scoop a heaping, spoonful of cheese mixture on a corner of the filo nearest to you.
- Take the corner and fold it over the mixture to the other side of the column and form a triangle. Then, fold the triangle up, then across, then up, then across. Here’s a little video to demonstrate: Click here
- Repeat, repeat, repeat
- Place the triangles on an ungreased cookie sheets covered in parchment paper and brush butter over the top.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool about five minutes before serving. Yields about 24 triangles.
- Note: Tiropita can be prepared ahead of time and frozen, unbaked. When ready to use, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake without prior thawing for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.
Lianne La Havas’ Debut Album
Here’s what they’re saying about my beautiful cousin on Rdio:
Offering a mostly acoustic and hushed hybrid of alternative folk and soul, Lianne La Havas was born and raised in London, England, the daughter of a Jamaican mother and Greek father. The singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist was a member of the Paris Parade, but the act proved to be short-lived. La Havas eventually shifted to solo work and released Lost & Found, an EP featuring a duet with Willy Mason, in October 2011. Two months later — the same month she opened for Bon Iver during a North American tour — it was announced that she had been nominated for the BBC’s Sound of 2012 poll. La Havas’ debut album for Warner Bros. was planned for release in 2012. ~ Andy Kellman on Rdio
What She Said…
Today I found my way through the clutter of the interwebs and found a happy place:
Sarah Bessey…the intersection of a spirit filled life
She said this: In which the doorbell is ringing
It feels sometimes like it would be simpler to live in a Christian ghetto, to shut the door, build a fence, keep the big, bad, scary world at bay, especially when it comes to my tinies. And sometimes we can buy into the idea that ministry is for the professionals, for somewhere other than here, right where we are in our walking-around life, like the Gospel doesn’t have hands and feet and voices, right here, right now, in our own neighbourhoods, in big ways and small ways.
Then she said this: In which you are loved and you are free
Stand up, shake the dust from your feet if you need to, and look outside, it’s beautiful, isn’t it? There are a lot of us here, waiting for you, in the open air. We’ve been here all along, don’t you know? We’ve been ministering, preaching, praying, teaching, loving, mothering, caring, singing, walking each other home. It’s glorious and messy, far away from the rules and the limitations, the barriers and restrictive religion. But look, here, we, the people of God, we are here with you, we are a family, we’re your family, we’ve been waiting for you. We have a big, gorgeous tent and every one is welcome.
And lastly, my favorite thing she said: In which I am done fighting for a seat at the table
I’m done fighting for a seat at that table.
The one filled with white men, all reading the same books, spouting the same talking points, quoting each other back and forth. It’s the table where the men – a small, select, vocal group in no way representative of men in the Church overall – sit around and discuss who is in and who is out, who is right (usually them) and who is wrong (every one else) and, a favourite topic, whether women should be allowed to write or teach or preach or even read Scripture aloud, what women should be saying and doing, how marriages should look, how children should be raised, how everyone else should live their lives in holiness.
Me? I am simply getting on with the business of the Kingdom.
Enjoy your table, gentlemen.
Those Who Carry the Keys
“We cannot suffer with the poor when we are unwilling to confront those persons and systems that cause poverty. We cannot set the captives free when we do not want to confront those who carry the keys. We cannot profess our solidarity with those who are oppressed when we are unwilling to confront the oppressor. Compassion without confrontation fades quickly to fruitless sentimental commiseration.”
—Henri J. M. Nouwen
Voldemort Beware!
“Voldemort himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back!”
– J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
