I was inspired to dry some fruit after taking a class at the Civic Garden Center this week. Here are the apples being sliced.
I had no idea of how many would fit into my oven but I fit in the limit! Pay NO attention to the temperature gauge - sooo off. Oven was set to 170 degrees, the lowest setting on this oven.
Here they are dried, really pretty, and I think they turned out ok. I hope Lia will learn to like them with the texture. I will definitely eat them! :)
Colleen and I promised to get together and celebrate food and making it together this year - more than ever - maybe once a month, maybe every other month. No matter, it was a great birthday for me to spend it making Greek food with Colleen. We made 2 different Spanikopitas - my traditional one and another I saw Ina Garten make that looked interesting (with pine nuts, parm cheese & nutmeg - not the traditional ingredients I'm used to) - and an Artichoke Phyllo Triangle with Shrimp.
Above are some of our "larger" triangles.
Now rolling up the smaller artichoke-shrimp phyllo triangles.
A time consuming process - but well worth the effort when you taste theses triangles!!!
Here are some finished triangles, most of the smaller appetizer portion, but 2 of the larger dinner size, meant to be served with fish or meat. We can't wait to try these!!! 
I saw Giada making this recently and we were invited to a dinner with some friends and I thought I'd give it a try. Everyone really liked it. It's different too, with roasted whole almonds and pine nuts finely ground and then mixed into the flour. And then it's topped with a lot of roasted slivered almonds & pine nuts - very nutty!
Oh my... this kale is AMAZING. I read about it on a website where people called it "crack kale" and such and also talked about their childred LOVING it so much - think of the crunch. I roasted it far beyond what it said, I kept putting it back into the oven after eating it and wanting more crunch. I'm thrilled to find a new way to eat a vegetable that I've grown for longer than 10 years and so excited that this is sooooo good.
Ok so I am slightly obsessed with making ravioli this month. This time it's a mushroom recipe, using portabellas & shitakes, with onions and garlic. However, I took the recipe and added ricotta and an Italian mix of cheese because that sounded good to me. Hopefully it will be as delicious as it looks! I also am trying a new pasta recipe that uses not only unbleached white but also semolina flour - which I use all the time in my pasta maker that utilizes the dyes for different shape cuts. 
This meal was absolutely delcious! Both Frank and I agree and were excited to eat the home made Greek Ravioli with my Greek meatballs (same recipe I made for Lia's birthday party). YUM!
Rolling out the dough.
Cutting out the ravioli circles, I like using 2 different sizes - a bigger one for the top to strech over the filling. I happened to like the sizes of some ceramic wine glasses I have.
Mmmm filling them.
I have been itching to make some spanikopita or ravioli ever since Colleen and I have been talking about putting some food making together on the calendar. Last night I was going over my spanikopita recipes right before bed and woke up dreaming of assembling spanikopita. However, since Colleen and I are scheduled to make spanikopita together at the end of the month (next month raviolis and the following maybe tamales) I thought I'd go ahead and make some raviolis instead. These are what I call my "Greek" ravioli, a recipe I made up 2 years ago after Colleen and I made ravioli together. I'm excited for Frank and I to eat them tomorrow with some home made greek meatballs I have in the freezer.
