Making Spanikopita

Yesterday Emma and I made some Spanikopita for Thanksgiving. Spanikopita is a popular Greek dish. This recipe is an old family recipe passed down for generations. I've decided to post the recipe and show pictures of Emma and I making it. I hope maybe someone would like to try it. And just a note, I don't exactly follow the recipe, as I go I'll explain what I do differently but if you follow the recipe it will still turn out fine. My family just knows how we like it. :)

Ingredients:
- 1 pound butter
- 2-10 oz. Bags washed and cleaned spinach
- 1 pound cottage cheese with chives
- 2 pounds filo dough
- 2 pounds feta cheese
- 8 eggs – room temperature

1. Melt a pound butter (keep on low)- to spread butter I usually use a paintbrush we keep in the kitchen

2. Cut stems off of spinach- I hate this part! It takes FOREVER!!! Oh, and don't forget to rise the spinach

3. Cut into pieces

4. Put in 8 eggs- in a bowl

5. Chop up feta, add- I always rinse the feta, it can be pretty salty in whatever liquid they package it in

6. Add cottage cheese- I don't usually use chive cottage cheese. I can never find it in the store

7. Mix with hands

8. Butter pan- I know it's silly to post a picture of a pan, but this is our special Spanikopita pan passed down for 5 generations

9. Add filo – wrinkle it- Filo is a very thin dough. You can get it at Publix, it isn't hard to find

10. Butter every layer

11. 4 layers with nothing- My family likes a lot of filo, I usually do at least 5 layers

12. Spread handful of ingredients atop 4th layer

13. 2 filos between each ingredient layer- again, I always do more. At least 3 filos

14. roughly 11 total layers of ingredients

15. use all butter at end on top- I never do this. Just way too much! But I do butter it more heavily than the other layers. Also shove the filo that sticks up around the edges of the pan down

16. cover with brown paper bag- I cut a rectangle out of a large grocery paper bag

17. Bake at 350 for one hour- And golden brown

18. Let cool but eat warm- enjoy!!

Freezes very well. We are putting the ones we made yesterday in the freezer until Thanksgiving. Sorry this is so disorganized. If you have any questions just ask! And if you try it let me know what you think!