A Greek Easter Dinner and Apple Squares

Last week, we had a traditional Greek Easter dinner at my parents’ house of roast lamb with gravy and potatoes. We also had avgolemono soup (egg-lemon chicken soup) as a starter, salad, feta cheese, and spanakopita (spinach pie triangles). My parents roasted the lamb in the oven (not outside on a spit) with fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper (and I think oregano because they always use oregano). The lemon and olive oil kept the lamb from tasting gamey. The potatoes were roasted separately, but with the same ingredients.

Since I was busy studying, my only contribution to the feast was a hastily-made dessert. I didn't have to make anything because my mom had made all sorts of Greek cookies which I forgot to take a picture of (drank too much wine) – koulourakia (twisted butter cookies), melomakarona (honey and walnut cookies), kourabiedes (powdered sugar almond butter cookies).

I didn't get a chance to post pictures from Easter dinner last week. Since this is not only a CPA Exam blog, but also a Cooking blog, I wanted to take pictures of all the food we made and discuss the ingredients and cooking techniques used. But I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures BEFORE we ate; the picture is of the food that was left AFTER we ate.

Right before we left our house, I had made Apple Squares using the remaining frozen puff pastry dough sheet from when I made the Spinach Tart. I cut the puff pastry dough sheet into small squares and added an apple mixture I created by taste. I have to try it again to get the right proportions, but I mixed together approximately 10 oz of Mott’s Natural No Sugar Added apple sauce, about a tablespoon and a half of sugar, and a teaspoon or two of cinnamon. I spooned some of the apple mixture onto each square and baked them. The final product looked sloppy because I was in a rush, but they tasted so good! I thought they tasted like Pepperidge Farm apple turnovers, but everyone else thought they tasted like Entenmann’s Apple Puffs but without the icing. I am going to make them again soon so I can share the right ingredient amounts with you.