Spinach Phyllo Pie with Turkey

A while back I came across a recipe what just needed something, but was too yummy looking to pass up.
Adapted from Everyday Food
Spinach and Turkey Phyllo Pie

• Olive Oil
• 1 medium onion
• 3 large garlic cloves
• 1 package baby spinach
• 1 cup crumbled feta
• 1/4 dried dates
• 16 oz ground turkey or chicken
• 20 sheets frozen phyllo, thawed
• salt and pepper

Heat oil over medium heat, and cook onion until soft and then add ground turkey. Cook until slightly brown. Transfer to a large bowl.
Return pan to heat and working in batches if need be cook spinach until wilted about 1 minute. Press out the excess moisture and then roughly chop. Add the spinach to the turkey. Add the feta and dates to the bowl, then salt and pepper to taste.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Unroll the thawed phyllo, working one sheet at a time, brush with olive oil and lay another sheet down. Repeat until you have 10 sheets. Spread half the mixture down the center and roll into a log. Brush the seem with oil to seal. Use a sharp small knive diagonally cut across the top.
Repeat with the remaining filling.
Place both logs seam side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Baked until golden brown, about 45 to 50 minutes. Serve warm or at room temp.

London Part II

Yes I know, I've been a little slow on getting this second post up but I've had lots going on and just haven't thought much about it.

On Sunday, we got up at our usual half awake what-time is it here and what time is it there. Hit the Pret for our now favorite breakie. We did lots more walking on Sunday. Remember that all the museums are free, so we popped into the National Gallery to see a few of the more important item there. Another place that will make your head spin from all the amazing art and the amazing amount of it. So we headed out to St. Paul's by taxis after walking around by Parliament again and snapping some pictures of the Household Guard. Those boots are not made for walking.

We walked along the water front until we reached the Tower and the Tower Bridge offering me a chance to take some nice pictures. But most of them are very underexposed.

The people watching at the Tower was fantastic, including a large group of overly skinny girls wear nasty street walker shoes and nearly falling on their butts. So we moved on to the next thing. It was getting to be lunch time so we walked over to St. Katherine's Dock. On a little "island" in the middle of the dock we had a great meal and watched the boats go in and out. A touch sun burned and very full we went a walking again.

As soon as we could find a cab, which was kinda hard since this end of the Thames is very residential, we went out to Greenwich Park and the Prime Meridian. I did fall asleep in the cab, which was hard to avoid. It was a great toasty warm day, I was full and it was a long ride. Hub and I climbed all the way to the top of the hill, which wasn't as bad as it looked. A huge line was waiting to take their picture with a line in the brick. I just snapped a few pics at the end of the meridian. Despite the large number of people we walked through the observatory. It was amazingly well preserved. By now, we've gotten a little hot and sticky so we stopped at the best little I can't believe this is in the park kind of a place, The Honest Sausage. They serve yummy sandwiches and more importantly ICE CREAM! Two ice cream cones and two waters.
After we headed down off the hill we want to find the farmers market that we had passed when we drove it, but it was just too hot and there were just too many people, so we called it quits.
Once back to the hotel we napped a little and got ready for our last night in London. Just a few more stops. Refreshed we made the short walk to the palace again, and across Green Park, which lead us to Picadilly Circus. WOW, the people watching was fantastic! So by now it was dinner time and we wanted something a little different. Now if you want to go to TGI McFunster's this is the place to find one. I did not fly 9 hours to eat at a restaurant that I can eat at in Nashville, so to the Alley! A little Japanese Restaurant caught our eye, called Akasiro. The dinning room was super tiny but the food was great, it came up from the down stairs kitchen on a little elevator. As with every restaurant we dinned at in London, something was just a little off about this place and it was the music.
After dinner, we walked down through Reagents and Pall Mall and through St. James Park.

Good Bye London!
We left Monday morning, getting to the Airport almost 3 hours early to avoid any problems. We enjoyed a great Airport Breakie at a pud and then spent the next 9.5 hours on a plane. Once in Atlanta we collected our bags and rechecked as is the process, and then flew home to Nashville. We'll be back!

London Part I

As many of you know Hub and I went to London for a long weekend a little while back. I have been avoiding it but here goes.

We left late on Thursday for Atlanta and then at about 10pm for London. It was like the first night of summer camp on the plane. Everyone was making friends and getting comfy. They gave us all blankets and eye masks. They even fed us a normal, and darn good dinner for free! Lots of sleeping and trying to find a place that didn't make my back hurt but we got there. We picked up a cab into the city and took a nice long nap before dressing up and going to the concert.

The Concert which was held at The Royal Albert Hall, was freaking fantastic. It wasn't too long, but had encore. Lots of lights and good solos. He had his usual backup singers and keyboard player. He played Cocaine and Badge plus lots of other great stuff. An amazing range of people there too. We had dinner from a take-away truck in the park which proved to be quite tasty. I have no pictures because they said no cameras but everyone was taking them. We walked part way home and took a cab. We fell into bed, which mind you was two beds. Yes, in a rush to get us checked in they gave us a room with two fulls and not a king like we asked for, so we pushed the two beds together. It was the first of many laughs.

The next morning we struggled to wake up but we wanted to get going before it was too late in day and we headed straight for the Pret. Pret A Manger is like the Starbucks of London, except 10 times more cool. They don't just serve coffee, they mainly serve wonderful fresh made sammies and what nots. It's hard to explain, go to the website. It's all fresh and made from fresh things and the coffee is beyond 4 dollar frappie thing that the 'bucks could ever make. From there we strolled to down to Buckingham Palace. There we learned how stupid most American's really are. A group of silly, stupid, fat, and overly tan ASU girls jabbered like morons in that OH MY GOD voice while we waited for the changing of the gaurd.

If you aren't of a certain hight then kiss off the changing of the gaurd since you aren't going to see a bloody thing.

We moved on as soon as we could, and caught a cab to the British Museum. Neither one of us was fully prepaired for what we were in for. We could have stayed at the museum for the whole trip and still not have seen everything or read everything. The impressive collection was just too much for us and we had to move on. It was just past lunch and so after walking up and down the streets we settled on an Italian place that looked promising and we were not disappointed.

From there we took a cab to over to the other side of river to check out the EYE, but when we got there the line was huge! And the thought of being stuck in a pod with a possibly stinking, non-DO wearer was more than we could handle so we moved on. The next stop was a walk to iKnit, which was surprisingly just around the cornor. I picked up some yarn, which wasn't from England, why didn't have any. Can't say the guy running the place was a real talker or that the place was very large, but it was cool.

Mind you we're walking, and walking and walking. So we walk to the next stop. The Imperial War Museum. We stayed until closing time. It was also way more museum than either one of us could have handled. We stopped for drinks and then trucked back across the river stopping to snap some shots of Big Ben and Parliament. More walking and a pub dinner. I was not thrilled with my fish and chips, but the blind date at the table next to us had great conversations! Off we went, walking back to the hotel and bedtime.

To be continued.......

*Visit the Picture Gallery*

Green weekend

Clarksville stepped up this weekend and opened a real Farmers Market. Not a lot of veg yet but the city is working on it. I was happy to see a few grain fed beef vendors with sign ups, a few organic growers and some crafts. Without any veg to buy I picked up some nice plants from Nancy's Herb Garden.


My tomatoes are also doing a nice job of doing what they do best.

So on thursday we drove out to nowhere for a hail and farewell, when I asked Hub where we we're going for this dinner he answered "a Quonset Hut in the middle of nowhere. I laughed. No really folks it was a quonset hut in the middle of nowhere decorated with a ton of 101st stuff. I have no pictures, but we had no bars on our phones.

I've been knitting too, a co-worker and I are knitting a shrug together. We've picked the Textured Circle Shrug from Glam Knits.
I'm using UltraAlpaca which is one of my fav yarns. We're working our way through, and I'll keep you up to date.

Welcome

Hey, Welcome to the new and improved blog. New name and such. Yes there will be still be knitting but lots more of lots more things. I just don't knit as much as I used to and I have lots of other fun stuff I do.