This particular school is turning out to be the favorite of both parents and child in our house due to the proudly casual stance toward academics in pre-K and K, as well as their very groovy play areas, filled with all manner of open-ended toys made of natural materials. (As I said in response to a recent comment, I do expect my children to receive quite rigorous educations although I don't feel they need to start when they're four years old.) Because the Boy Wonder is picking up quite a bit of basic reading and math on his own I'm very comfortable continuing what we're doing at home while simultaneously providing him with his own social space. So far, this school seems a very nice fit. I also enjoyed meeting the other parents present, and sensed no competitive vibe from them - a pleasant surprise. We talked and laughed and watched the kids play, enjoying lemonade and cookies. Entropy Girl was the only sibling and she quickly became the parental mascot and enjoyed walking from adult to adult seeking cookies and hugs. An altogether lovely afternoon.
This is what, for lack of a better term, I'm calling spanikopita pie.
I started to make spanikopita as one of the egg hunt refreshments, using this recipe. Although I have made spanikopita before, I've never made it in the kind of little triangle style (like you see at weddings and corporate holiday parties). Turns out, making those little triangles is a huge hassle (I guess there's good a reason you can buy them in your freezer section for $5.00/dozen after all) and something that I have to confess utter failure at. So, faced with all this filling mixture and more phyllo dough than any American kitchen outside of Northeast Philly but only an hour until guests arrived, I decided to layer them in a pie plate and See What Happened.
What happened ended up being pretty nice. Quite delicious and not so messy to cut and eat. Basically, I followed the recipe up until folding time and then brushed some of the melted butter in a pie plate, placed two pieces of phyllo followed by a quarter cup or so, spread around, of the spinach mixture. Repeat until the spinach has been used up, and top with phyllo brushed with butter. Bake at 400 degrees F for about 30 minutes or so (watch carefully), until the pie is puffed a bit and top phyllo layer is golden. Allow to cool, then slice and serve.
The result is something that would be good for lunch, with some fruit salad and an iced tea or even as a side with chops or a roast. I'm guessing that the pie would have been even better after a day's rest, but there was none left so I don't know for sure. All things considered, not a bad way to spend the last hour or so before a party and even better for not wasting the ingredients.