Chicago Style Pizza at Bella Bacino's

Okay, so there seems to exist somewhat of a pizza debate between Chicago style pizza and NY style. I think this is a really dumb argument, because Chicago Style is really more of a completely different dish. I love both kinds of pizza and I crave both separately. You don't compare a hot dog to a braut, they are different foods, both similar and both delish, but still distinct. Same thing with the pizzas.

Now that that is out of the way, growing up in Chicago I realized that my standards for deep dish are set rather high. For example, St. Louis's Pi Pizza is raved about because they have deep dish, but when I tried it I really didn't think it was that good. At first I couldn't figure out why, and then I realized my standards were really high, and none of the friends I was trying it with were from chi town. 

So that takes me to my favorite deep dish pizza in the city. It's a place called Bella Bacino's which is on Wabash across the river from Trump Tower. It is the cheesiest pizza in the city and it's sooooooooo goooooood. I really only eat it once or twice a year because it's basically a pound of cheese. But my family and I love to go. The restaurant has beautiful outdoor seating in the summer. I should also note that you have to ask for a pizza menu here, they won't give you one. It's an Italian restaurant, but the pizza is what's amazing here. Pizza takes about 30 minutes to cook but it is well worth the wait.

As I mentioned in my previous post I was downtown for the Midwest Geobiology Symposium this weekend presenting research with the rest of my lab group. I suggested that we go to Bacino's for pizza and a bunch of us ended up there on Saturday night.

There were nine of us. We got three large pizzas and we had about half a pizza left. Everyone loved it! I was really happy to be able to share one of my favorite Chicago restaurants with them. We all ordered beers (I got a Dogfish pumpkin ale (see above)), and had a really good time. I think the waiter really liked our table. He brought out these bags of fresh from the oven complimentary chocolate chip cookies after the meal. That's never happened to me before, so it must be for big groups. We were stuffed but still managed to eat the amazing cookies. It was a really nice meal and it was fun sharing Bacino's with people who had never tried Chicago pizza before :D

Big Star

So my Mom has been trying to take me to eat at the Mexican Restaurant Big Star in Wicker Park for years now. We've always run out of time, or forgotten about it, and so we never were able to try it. However, I was in Chicago visiting my family for Rosh Hashanah last week. The timing worked perfectly because the Midwest Geobiology Symposium was being held in Chicago this weekend, so I just met the other members of my lab group in the city. I had to meet up with them on Friday evening, but I spend the rest of the day with my Mom. I love spending time with her, we always have such a nice time! We decided to finally get lunch at Big Star, then walk around Wicker Park before meeting up with a friend in the afternoon. 

Big Star is an awesome restaurant and we went on the perfect day. It's a small place with a huge outdoor seating area. It has a sit down section, and a take out window and picnic table area. We sat down to eat. We ordered guac and chips (yumm) and I got a cider. It was from somewhere I hadn't tried, Vandermill. A nice crisp Michigan cider. I liked it alot and It had 8% alcohol content, so I definitely felt the drink. For out main meal I got a sweet potato taco and a zucchini tostada. Both were good but the taco was rather spicy. The tostada definitely stole the show, and I could pick it up and eat it without it falling apart, excellent quality right there!

It was a really pleasant afternoon! The food, company, and weather made it so. I forget how much I love Chicago until I really spend some time in the city, but I'm so lucky to have grown up close to such a vibrant, amazing city. 

Make-your-own Mac at Cheesology

I already did a very long complimentary post about my favorite STL restaurant, Cheesology, so if you'd like the details about why the establishment is so amazing please check it out here! This post is going to focus on a new menu item that they released while I was in Australia. It's a make your own option! You can create your own macaroni creation from a huge selection of ingredients! Best. Idea. Ever! I'd been eagerly waiting to try it out and got a chance to do so a couple of weeks ago. 

Two cheeses are included and they charge an extra 30 cents for other ingredients. I got a munster and smoked gouda mac with spinach, onions and bbq sauce. With breadcrumbs on top of course! It was really delicious. Bbq, onions, and smoked gouda is one of my favorite flavor combos and it was great in a cheesology mac. I also had it with my go to cider, Angry Orchard. This cider goes really well with bbq sauce because it's crisp sweetness compliments and brings out the sweetness in the sauce. This was amazing dinner, and I scraped the pan clean (note the caste iron pan that the dish is served in). It's so great to have cheesology again after being away for so long. And I'll be back on Friday for the traditional break fast!

Labor Day Meal

My mom always makes a huge cookout on Labor Day, so I decided I wanted BBQ style food too! I made myself 3 of my favorites (all things I've previously made on this blog) A black bean burger, with sweet potato fries, and sweet spicy veggie salad. I also had a bottle of cider (Angry Orchard is my preferred American brew). This time around I had my black bean burger with guacamole, bbq sauce, sautéed red onions, and smoked gouda cheese. Yes it was amazing. I've also gotten so much better at making sweet potato fries. I've stopped steaming the potato in the microwave first, also I've gotten better at cutting them cleanly. Cook around 400F for 25 minutes and they're perfectly crispy. 

All in all a really fun and yummy meal of old favorites. Nothing really special to report, other than this was my first kinda involved meal in the new apartment. Our kitchen is much smaller, so that has taken some getting used to. Good thing I got to practice by sharing a kitchen with limited surfaces with 6 other people in Oz! 

Jake's Wrap

So I am back in St. Louis!!!!! Which means that I once again have access to the culinary experience that is Wash U. To celebrate being back I decided to indulge in getting one of my favorite wraps of all time. The Jake's Warp. This is pure bliss, and I was surprised to find that I had not blogged about it on here yet. This wrap is unusual in that it is fruit rather than veggie based. It is peanut butter, strawberries, banana, raisins, dried cherries, granola, and honey. It is a sweet lovers dream, and is a wonderful yummy and filling meal. I've made them before myself, but somehow Dining Services just makes them better. They are available in the cases in Whispers, Stanley's and Holmes, and make for a super easy quick lunch on the go. 

The reason that I said I "indulged" in a Jake's Wrap, is even though there is not anything super horrible for you in here, they are extremely calorie heavy, and fairly sugary (though its mostly natural sugars). So this isn't something that I eat everyday, but I will have one every month or so. And now… I'm realizing that I only have a year left at Wash U, better make sure to have one at least every month then!

Homemade High Tea

One of the fun food things in Australia is that like England, they have a tea time/afternoon snack culture. Now, this isn't really as prevalent as it is in Britain, but it made me start thinking about High Tea. And this lead me to he idea of making a fancy high tea once I got home. And naturally, this sort of genius had to be shared with my baker of a sister. So we resolved to make ourselves a fancy homemade high tea when I got back to Chicago. For those of you that don't know, High Tea is a multi-course afternoon meal, usually consisting of finger sandwiches, pastries, and scones. My sister and I carefully planned out our tea, bought the ingredients, and spent an entire day preparing this meal. It was an ambitious endeavor, but really it turned out wonderfully. We even had menus (below). 

We had this wonderful fancy chocolate rose tea that my sister had gotten in London. We tried to make some fun tea treats to go along with it. We basically divided and conquered the cooking, but I had a couple of minor difficulties so my sister ended up helping me out some, especially with making things look nice. Our first course was a platter of fruit salads, which we decided to call the amuse bouche. I rolled cantaloupe balls in procuitto (yes it's a meat, but it's the only part of this meal that is), the saltiness of the procuitto and the sweetness of the melon go amazingly together. I also this crazy watermelon/feta salad. I constructed a cube of rectangular pieces and then garnished it with mint. It didn't turn out quite was pretty as I hoped for, but it tasted amazing. The winner of this salad was the mint, it brought out the freshness of both the fruit and the cheese. Can't wait to make this one again (though maybe not in cube form).

Our second course was the savory finger sandwiches and deviled eggs! This was fun to make because we got to choose what flavors we wanted to use. I ended up making 4 types of sandwich, and 2 kinds of deviled eggs. For the sandwiches we ended up making all vegetarian ones. I used two types of bread: light rye and honey wheat. I cut off the crusts and then cut the bread into the fun shapes of triangles and rectangles. I did 3 sandwiches on the rye and one on the honey wheat. The honey wheat one was pears and goat cheese. The first of the rye sandwiches were cream cheese and cucumber (classic tea sandwich). Next I made some eggs salad and made egg salad sandwiches. I tried not to use too much mayonnaise, but then didn't use enough and the egg salad didn't stay together all that well. We garnished those sandwiches with fresh chives (see below). The last sandwich was a pickle cheddar, and dill butter sandwich. This one was probably my favorite. The pickle and cheddar went together amazingly, but the dill butter really made this one. I actually infused the butter with dill and salt. This made it really dill tasting and fresh and it added another dimension to the sandwich.

Okay the deviled eggs. My mom gave me this wonderful book full of deviled egg recipes for a present. My sister and I decided to try two kinds of deviled eggs from the book. The first was Sunrise eggs (below left) and the second was Boursin Garlic eggs (below right). The Boursin ones were the winners! The sunrise eggs were infused with orange juice and sundried tomato pesto. I really wanted to like these eggs, but they just tasted a little too weird. The boursin ones on the other hand were out of this world. We added roasted garlic and herbed boursin cheese. We then garnished them with fresh chives. The creaminess of the boursin and the flavoring of the garlic and herbs made these eggs taste gourmet. We loved them, I will definitely make them again.

                         

Our next course was a tea time classic. Scones! I while I would have preferred Australian/British scones we instead used the awesome scone mix from World Market. We got the plain flavor, and I have to say these were absolutely amazing. While at World Market we found mini jams and clotted cream! So we got that to eat with the scones in the traditional manner. They were delicious and really fun.

After scones we got to the pastries, specifically cookies and cakes. We had Earl Grey Lavender Cupcakes (below left), made by my wonderful sister. She infused the cake with earl grey tea and the frosting with lavender extract. These were the perfect thing to go with tea, tea cupcakes! Next we had Petit Fours! Okay, these are my absolute favorite thing that my sister makes. They are her own invention of cake, call blush cake. This is almond cake with rose and orange extracts. And it's brilliant. For these petit fours she makes strawberry buttercream frosting for the middle layer and then dips them in orange glaze. They. Are. The. Best. And they take her a long time to make because they have so many components. She doesn't make them often, but did them for me as a back from Australia treat. Also they were a perfect addition to high tea. The last dessert in this course was Raspberry frosting sugar cookie sandwiches. These were also outstanding. We found this wonderful soft sugar cookie recipe, and used that for the cookies. My sister then made this wonderful raspberry buttercream that was  heavenly. Lastly she sugared the cookies with raspberry sugar. Is your mouth watering yet?

Our last course was Midgardises, little ending sweets. For this we made Lemon shortbread dark chocolate truffles… and we also bought some meringues from Trader Joes (below). The Truffles were made in a very similar fashion to my Tim Tam Truffles. We used shortbread cookies, lemon curd, and cream cheese frosting to make these. Also we used food coloring to make sure that the filling had a nice lemon yellow color. This time we stuck them in the fridge to harden for a hour or so before they were dipped in the chocolate. Also my sister did the dipping so they turned out pretty!

This tea was such a fun and exciting thing to do with a summer day!! Almost everything (looking at you sunrise eggs!) turned out excellently! It was also really fun to spend the day cooking and baking with my sister. She's the master dessert baker and watching her work reminds me that I have a ton to learn when it comes to baking and cooking, thankfully I have access to a wonderful teacher :D

Tasting my way around Fitzroy

Fitzroy is a funky neighborhood in Melbourne. It's filled with Coffee Shops and boutiques. It is somewhat of the hipster area. It was also one of my friend's favorite part of Melbourne so I wanted to check it out! I walked there from the Queen Victoria markets, and that's where I spent most of my afternoon. The architecture makes the area look bohemian, and the funky names of the stores give in personality. I bought this mini strawberry cupcake (above), as a walked around. It wasn't amazing, but it was $1 and cute. It started randomly pouring on my when I was there (below left), so I ducked into a coffee shop and got a chai (below right). They give you a pot of milky tea, and you have to strain it yourself. It was really good and the chai hit the spot on a rainy afternoon. I drank it and read my book!

I continued to walk around and made a few small on sale purchases. I got a map of Australia poster for $4 and a scarf for $2.50! When I got hungry I stopped at Lord of the Fries, a Melbourne fast food chain known for their amazing chips, a bunch of friends had recommended it to me. I got their Sweet Potato fries with sour cream and sweet chili (below), they were amazing!!!!! Just the right thing for lunch!

I had such a nice time enjoying an afternoon of walking around and exploring. I've realized it's a nice and leisurely way to get the feel of different areas of a city!

Brekkie at the Queen Victoria Markets

So I was in Melbourne for about 36 hours. On the morning of my second day I decided to check out the Queen Victoria markets for breakfast and browsing. I ended up going with a girl that I met at my hostel who had also finished her semester abroad at UQ, such a small world. It was about a 5 block walk to the markets. They are indoor and take up an entire block. Exploring them took me a solid couple of hours. It was incredible! There are aisles and aisles of fresh fruit, deli stall, and souvenir stalls. My favorite was the deli section (above), there were so many wonderful and unique aussie and cultural foods. I ended up buying breakfast at some of the stalls here. First I got a dessert pastry, because why not :P ? It was a pistachio almond twist (below), and it was amazing!!! It was filled with almond and pistachio flavored spread and was a great way to start the morning. 

As I wandered around more I saw Russian Pastry shop. They and these wonderful savory pastries, which I cannot remember what they are called for the life of me (this is why you don't wait 2 weeks to blog about things). I bought a pumpkin one, and it was extremely tasty. It was perfect for a chilly morning, the filling was warm and creamy and the dough was soft and chewy. 

After breakfast I walked around all of the stalls browsing. It is truly incredible how large the place is. Also the fruit was so fresh and cheap!!! I got a mandarin and ate it one the spot from the organic produce stalls. I also looked (but didn't buy) around the souvenir section. Many of the stalls sold similar things, but it was since to walk around and browse. A great start to my exploring day in Melbourne!

Quorn Fajitas

Quorn is a meatless protein that is synthesized from fungi. One of my vegetarian friends had been telling me about it for awhile now. They don't sell it in the states, but they do in Australia so I decided to get some to try as my last involved meal here. I got the fajita kind, it was sliced into strips and marinated in this awesome fajita seasoning (below). I fried up some peppers and onions in olive oil and bbq seasoning and then added the quorn at the end. It really was like making a fajita with meat, and was really simple.

To add to the meal I made some homemade refried beans… these were kinda guess work than anything else. I basically smashed up kidney beans with a fork and mixed in some cheese and heated them up (below right). I then assembled my fajita! I had mild salsa, shredded mozzarella, retired beans, and the fajita mixture. 

I assembled my beast (below) and as per usual with fajitas, it was an incredible mess, but it was a delicious mess! I really liked the Quron. I tasted like the seasoning and the consistency as actually like chicken. The peppers were cooked perfectly too. My only compliant is that it could have used so avocados, guac, or sour cream to even out the spiciness of the seasoning and the salsa. The reason I didn't buy any is because there is so little time left I didn't really want to buy too much extra food. It was still a great meal though. And I have enough fajita mix for 2 more meals. I used it to make a fajita salad last night and tonight I'm going to make a fajita quesadilla. This was a great way to get some protein and this is a really interesting way of getting it since it doesn't involve any chemical intensive agriculture. Right in line with my flexitarian ideals!

Balsamic Sweet Potato Chips

Snacks for dinner! After I made the Tim Tam Truffles I was not in the mood to make anything complicated for dinner. So I opted to try and make sweet potato chips. Super east and quick, they turned out pretty well. Basically I sliced 2 small sweet potatoes rather thinly (after steaming them in the microwave for about 2 minutes). Then marinated them in Balsamic vinegar with garlic salt, by shaking them in a tupperware container until they were covered (below left). I then arranged them on a plate and microwaved them for about 8 minutes, sprinkling more garlic salt before doing so. The before and after pics are below right, they shrink up and get crispy. Also I found letting them sit for a minute or so after the microwave helps them crisp up even more (as tempting as it was to just go ahead and eat them). This was a delicious and easy meal that I would usually do as a snack, but it also sufficed for a light dinner. 

Feta Chickpea Salad

I've seen a couple of vegetarian recipes that use chickpeas as a veggie substitute for tuna and chicken salads. I love chicken salad (especially my mom's), so I decided to try something along those lines but with a Mediterranean twist. I bought two cans large chicken peas (which happened to be on sale for 80 cents each!), a block of low fat feta cheese, some spinach, a capsicum and a cucumber. I drained the chickpeas, and then mixed them with the feta (chopped), 3 heaping handfuls of fresh spinach, 1/3 a cucumber (the seeds were taken out and the excess water dried), 1 chopped capsicum, and 5 chopped semidried tomatoes (also dried of oil). I mixed this together extremely well in a large bowl. When I first thought of making this recipe I was planning on either added hummus or coleslaw dressing to give it a creamer texture, turns out that wasn't necessary. The feta turned out to be a lot softer and creamier than expected and that mixed with the chickpeas being damp and soft from the can, meant that the salad had a wonderful texture without any additions. I made this with the intention of taking it to the library for lunch for the next three days, I did so today and I was the perfect thing to eat. It was portable (see below) and filling and tasted amazing. Seriously, I felt like I had made something that you would buy out of a salad case in the gourmet section of the grocery store. I was super happy with how this recipe turned out, it's something I would made for a BBQ side or bring to a potluck, full of protein and hopefully enjoyed by vegetarians and meat eaters alike!

Spinach and Feta Muffin + Finals Studying

So I returned from a live aboard dive trip on the Great Barrier Reef yesterday… and immediately headed to the library because it is actually reading week and I had to get started on finals studying. I've got one on June 14th so now it's basically crunch time. This morning I went for a run, showered, and then booked it back to the library, where I have now been for the past 6+ hours. Of course, a long day of studying means appropriate study foods are needed. Number 1: Coffee!!!!! I got myself my typical large skim flat white (notice that the 'large' size here is a medium in the states) at Darwin's and also grabbed a feta spinach muffin. They heat the baked goods up for you there, which is great, it was a really nice and filling treat for breakfast. I also brought with me yogurt, kiwi, and my Just Right cereal so I had yogurt and cereal for lunch later in the day. And I also brought a can of soup with me, so I can eat it later if I get hungry. Basically, I did not want to have to give up my spot because I got hungry so I brought enough food for the entire day if need be. I also brought water in my new Prodive water bottle (above) that I got on the dive trip! I was properly prepared and have gotten through all of my material for my first two finals today, I may go through some paleoceanography material again, but I'm pretty much done for the day. I find that if I don't have excuses to end my studying I'm able to plop myself down for hours and just power through it. Guess that's one of the perks of being a Junior and going through the hell that is finals 6 times now...

Vegetarian Pho at Chez Tessa

Oh yum! Finally got around to getting back to Chez Tessa, the vietnamese place a block from my house. A friend and I went there for a quick dinner after our trip to the Australia Zoo. We both got the same thing, the Vegetarian Pho. Pho is vietnamese noodle soup, and its amazing. This one was a gigantic bowl, with rice noodles, bok chou, onions, broccoli and cauliflower (I didn't eat these because I don't like bushy veggies) and the best cooked tofu ever! The tofu was crunchy without being dry and flavorful too!! I thought the soup itself needed a little something extra so I added some hosin sauce and that made it absolutely perfect. I was super hungry and leaving Brisbane the next day so instead of leaving some for leftovers, I ate most of the bowl. It was the perfect comfort food. I love vietnamese (I say it every time I post about it lol) so this was such a treat as my last meal before I left Brisbane to head back to Cairns for more diving on the GBR!!

Apple Quiche

So I've been wanting to make this for awhile,  but have been trying to wait until I finish the chili first (spoiler: the chili is still not finished I made enough for me to eat it every night for 1.5 weeks). Eventually, I just decided to make this anyway. This apple quiche is based on this recipe. I basically followed this exactly but added a lot more cheese. Specifically, smoked gouda on top of the cheddar the recipe calls for. I cooked 2 large and 1 small pink lady apples on the stove in a cup of hard cider, with sprigs of rosemary. This was done for about 10 minutes or so. I mixed skim milk with 4 eggs, and whipped them together, layered phyllo dough on this pie pan, and shredded the gouda cheese. When the apples were done I poured most of them and the cider into the phyllo. Then added all the gouda and some of the cheddar, as well as some rosemary. Then I added the rest of the apples, more rosemary, and poured the egg mixture on top. The eggs sunk through, layered into the dish. Lastly I topped the entire thing with more cheddar and put it in the oven at 375 F for 35 minutes. It turned out fabulously. The cheese and apples went great together, and the cheese had kinda melted into the eggs. The cheese on top was nice and crispy. All together this was a really great dish and the best part is that you can have it for any meal of the day. I had a slice for dinner last night with a salad (below), but also had one for breakfast this morning and it was wonderful in the morning too! A really great, unique, and versatile meal. 

Egg and Cream Cheese Sandwich

This was my lunch yesterday. Super simply but yummy and nutritious! I made a fried egg sandwich with rice cakes. In addition to the egg I put light cream cheese, cucumbers, and smashed avo on the sandwich. This added a lot of flavor and helped keep the sandwich together, it was absolutely awesome. I haven't had something with cucumber, avocado, and cream cheese since last summer, and it's one of my favorite things, so this made me really happy. A nice light breakfast or lunch, that's quick to prepare and delicious to eat!

Vegetarian Protein-packed Chili

I've been meaning to make vegetarian chili for awhile now. Partly, because it's starting to get more 'wintery' here, and also because it's a great meal to make a big batch of and then have for a long time. As for the recipe, I made this one up. I basically put any vegetable/vegetarian protein in it that I could think of that I thought would go well together. I'll list the exact ingredients out later (see pic below), but I used 3 kinds of beans, lentils and quinoa as the proteins, and carrots, celery, roasted red peppers, onions and spinach as the main veggies. The base of the chili was made from low-sodium vegetable stock, tomato paste, and canned tomatoes. 

I started to boil the veggie stock, and then added the quinoa. As this was cooking I was slicing the copious amount of veggies I used in this chili, and straining the beans and lentils. I added the tomato paste after the quinoa had cooked in the broth for about 5 minutes, as well as the canned tomatoes. Then when all the veggies were sliced, I added those and the beans to the mixture. I turned the stove up to high and cooked for 10 minutes. Then I took of the lid, stirred everything up and turned the stove to low. I left this pot of the stove for 1.5 hours, returning every 15 minutes or so to stir the mixture and add garlic powder/salt/pepper to the taste. Then I added the spinach to the mix, and left it on for another half an hour with the same procedure. Then it was finally done! I took a bowl of it, and left the rest on the stove covered with the heat off. It was such a great hardy meal. The quinoa had really helped it cook into this wonderful thick texture, and the beans, lentils, and large chunks of veggies really added to this dish profile. The spinach added a fresh touch to the dish, and the roasted red peppers added a little smokiness. This was such a wonderful meal, and is both vegetation, vegan and gluten free. Really this is the perfect meal to make if you are cooking for a lot of people with a variety of dietary conditions. I made so much that I had a ton of left overs to put in the fridge, I think I'll be eating this for the next 5 days!

Thoughts on this Dish:

• Here's a list of complete ingredients with the measurements
• 2.5 stalks of celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 brown onion
• 1 red onion
• 3 canned roasted red peppers
• 1.25 cups of quinoa
• 8 cups of low sodium vegetable stock
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 1 can of whole stewed tomatoes
• 1 can of lentils
• 1 can of cannelloni beans
• 1 can of kidney beans
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 bag of fresh spinach
• salt, pepper, and garlic powder to the taste
• I think that this is the type of dish that you could cook all day and it would just make it better. Longer cooking will break the veggies down more, and also let the flavors steep into the ingredients. However, the quinoa got really really soft during the two hours so I'd want to play with optimum cook times.
• I also would have added corn to this dish, but canned corn is ridiculously expensive here.
• I used yellow lentils, but I think green or brown would be better in this dish.
• This recipe makes about 6 servings (maybe more this is me eye balling it) so perfect for cooking for a crowd, or freezing for later. 
• More seasoning wouldn't be amiss, I'll try to add some dried herbs next time.

Really pleased with this one, I think it could be slightly improved, but nice to know I have chili under my belt as a dis!

Green Pie

So I STILL have phyllo dough left. This means I needed to make another dish with it. I was thinking about making spanakoptia, but instead decided to put my one twist on it. Basically I wanted to add more veggies, so I put zucchinis and artichoke hearts in as well. With three green veggies making the pie a beautiful, fresh green color, I dudded it "Green Pie." This recipe was my own invention. I sliced up three small zucchinis, chopped up 2 heaping handfuls of spinach, chopped 3/4 of a red onion, and added 1 small container of marinated artichoke hearts. I then took a block of low fat feta cheese, chopped it up and added it to the mix as well. Next 3.5 eggs were added. I mixed all of this together in a bowl with a generous amount to garlic powder and tuscan seasoning. I then poured it into a deep roasting pan that I had layered with 4 slices of phyllo dough. I closed it off on top with 2 more pieces of the dough. The I wiped it in egg whites, and put more tuscan seasoning on top. I stuck it in the oven at 375F for 45 minutes.

It turned out really well. The crust got beautifully golden-brown, and even a bit caramelized in places. I took a generous slice and dug in. It was really yummy and the three different veggies definitely all added something to the dish. I probably would add more egg, feta, and seasoning next time though. If I had a grater I would perhaps make the zucchini thinner, since I think the large chunks overpowered the other ingredients at times. A really yummy dinner though, and one I'll be eating for the next four nights since I made a ton of it!

Thoughts on this dish:

• I would definitely add more seasoning and cheese. Also some more eggs would help it firm up a bit.
• Like I said cut the zucchini thinner might help as well.
• I would use some scallions next time, unfortunately you have to buy them in bulk here, and I didn't think I could use them all before going bad.
• Also sundried tomatoes and maybe olives might also be a good addition to this pie.

Loved this idea, but I think I can work to prefect the dish!