Popeye don't preach, I'm in Spinach, DEEP

Hope everyone had a great holiday seasons, and is slowly getting back to normal.  I, like millions around the world have made a resolution to eat healthier,so I thought I should take inspiration from the Mediterranean. Tonight I made Spinach Pie, Humus (Which I'm still eating), and Pitas  (SHHH....that I bought).  Both of these recipes are from one of the Barefoot Contessa's earlier cookbooks, the aptly named,

The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

The Contessa offers some words of wisdom.

The Spinach Pie is a great way of getting a ton of healthy greens into your system, unfortunately the recipe called for frozen spinach. Frozen Spinach requires you to strangle, punish and squeeze the hell out of that poor defencelessness spinach.  If you up for this arm / muscle shaking experience, here is the recipe in all its glory:

Spinach Pie (Barefoot Contessa stylie)

• Three Cups of Chopped Yellow Onion
• Two Tablespoons of good Olive Oil. 
• Two Teaspoons of Kosher Salt
• One and half Teaspoons of freshly ground Black Pepper
• Three (Ten ounce) frozen pkg. of Frozen Spinach, defrosted.
• Two Teaspoons of grated Nutmeg
• One Half Cup of grated Parmesan
• Three Tablespoons of Dry Bread Crumbs
• One Half Pound of Feta Cheese, cut into one half cubes
• One Half Cup of Pine Nuts
• One Quarter of melted Butter
• 6 Sheets of Phyllo Dough, defrosted. 

- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

- In a medium pan, saute (that means cook, in case your not bilingual), the onions over medium heat until they are clear and starting to brown, allow the onions to cool slightly

blood sweat and tears

Squeezed to death Spinach

- Now comes the fun part, avoid the gym because your muscles will be tested (or maybe I'm just really out of shape) once the spinach is deforested enough to be pliable, squeeze the spinach until there is no excess liquid found in the spinach.

- When that is finally done add all the other ingredient and mix well.

- In a six inch butter pan, lay the first sheet of Phyllo Pastry Dough out, coat with melted butter and repeat until all six layers are used.  The Phyllo Sheets will be larger, which is a good thing, allow the excess to drape over the dish.

- Add the Spinach Filling and then wrap the the excess Phyllo Dough on top of the mixture.

- Brush the top with butter and place in over for an hour, or until the top of the pie is golden brown.

fresh from the oven.

Humos, Homos, Hummus I don't care how you say it, stop talking and make this now!

•  Two cups of Canned Chick Peas (liquid reserved)
• One and half Teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 Garlic Cloves, minced
• One Third cup of Tahini
• Six Tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemons
• Two Tablespoons of water or reserved liquid
• 8 Dashes of Tabasco Sauce

- Couldn't be easier, place all ingredients in the food processor with the fitted steel blade and process until the hummus is at the consistency you'd like.   Be warned, this is very garlicky, but i like that. 

Wishing everyone a great year, and hey, lets hope the Mayans were wrong.