Recently we opened our cottage for the summer. It was a busy weekend made even busier by someone’s hair-brained idea to redecorate (paint the wood paneling, new flooring, update kitchen upper cupboards, etc)! And that doesn’t stop me from complicating things by making an entire menu for the weekend home-made.
I’ve mentioned that our cottage is remote, so everything has to be brought in because even a 45 minute trip to the closest largest city doesn’t guarantee that one can find what one is looking for. So preparing a Menu Plan is essential as is the List of what needs to be brought up to execute said Menu Plan.
The list is key, here’s how I organize the list:
Menu Plan, Shopping List; things to be brought from home: the Pantry, the Freezer and the Refrigerator. As we pack for the weekend, things get checked off The List. The Menu Plan is followed to a T. If I bring four eggs, it means I’ll use four eggs. The trick is to end up with less than what we came up with, which usually works well. The Menu Plan also allows for left overs to be utilized in some sort of wrap for our return drive home, guaranteeing a healthier lunch than the truck stops on the road. Over the last twenty years I’ve only forgotten one thing and that was before The List was implemented, we were young and lived dangerously. If you’d like to download my template, feel free to use this one May 24 2013 Cottage Menu. The other essential thing is the running list once we get to the cottage — things that need to be brought the next time (toilet paper, paper towel, hand soap etc, you get the picture!)
JTs sister uses my FIL’s cottage about 15 metres (50 feet) from our place, so we generally get together at least once for cocktails during the weekend. I usually make something for cocktails because I like to cook! I came up with the idea of spinach and feta tartlets using my friend Zsuzsa’s cottage cheese pastry after seeing Sawsan’s post of Fatayer. They can be baked and then reheated to serve. I like them because they are full of flavour and small (portion control or eat them ALL!). This recipe makes 36 mini tarts using mini muffin tins with lots of pastry left over which can be frozen for future use. My lovely niece Laura (soon to be a full-fledged Lawyer) made Spanakopita, a delicious Weight Watchers recipe…great minds! This recipe isn’t for the dieter even though the serving is small, there is a lot of butter in the pastry. An alternative to the buttery pastry would be using wonton shells like my lovely friend Sissi has done here!
Spanakopita Tartlets
Makes 36 mini 2.5 cm or 1″ tarts
Ingredients:
- 1/3 Zsuzsa’s cottage cheese pastry dough
- 200 g (7 oz) baby spinach
- 50 g (2 oz) finely chopped sweet onion
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp dill weed100 g (3.5 oz) crumbled Greek Feta
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- Sweat the onions until translucent.
- Add garlic and sauté until you can smell its aroma, add the spinach and cook down until spinach has wilted.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
- Add to a food processor and pulse a few times, you don’t want paste, just smaller bits.
- Add the oregano, dill and the crumbled Greek Feta and stir well.
- Roll the dough to about 2mm (a hair more than 1/8th inch) thick and cut with a 5 cm (2 inch) scalloped cookie cutter.
- Press each round into the bottom of an ungreased mini muffin tin.
- Fill with about 1 tbsp of the spinach filling.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until pastry is golden. Serve warm. Can be frozen and reheated for 10-12 minutes at 350F.
[…] have been known to enjoy a cocktail or two ;-). Simple is usually what I lean toward because of the effort one needs to make to bring everything up for the weekend. I know I’ve posted a guacamole […]
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[…] talked about lists before (here and here), it’s nothing new and as I was compiling yet another list I started to wonder how many lists […]
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[…] we clearly understand what each ingredient is for, we make lists and action plans. Remember my cottage lists? Let me say that my list-making abilities will come in very handy. We began our grocery journey at […]
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Absolutely love these, Eva!
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Thanks so much Fati.
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Wow Eva, you’re so organized! I’ve never made a meal plan for cottaging… mind you, the nearest town is never more than 20 minutes away. My dad has a camping lot that I visit at least once a summer, but there’s no hydro there, so we make a daily trip into town to buy food that cooks well on the bbq or over a campfire. Love the tartlets that you made for your most recent cottage trip! So elegant!
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Thanks so much Amber, you are indeed fortunate to have a town close by.
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Perhaps some of your organizing skills will rub off on me, hopefully soon.
Your tartlets look divine. True they are portion controlled, but then I would eat an extra one or two, may be 3, there goes the control. The wonton skins tip is a great alternative.
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Thank you for your lovely words Norma, these days I’m finding lists are the only way to go, otherwise I’d literally forget my head somewhere!
Don’t worry, you’d likely work off the extra tartlets working in your garden!
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Hi Eva, is it common for people to have a “summer cottage” in Canada? It’s really common in Sweden… so I was wondering if this is also something the countries have in common (not just landscape!). Of course, people have summer houses in other countries too, but it seems something extremely common in Scandinavian countries. The cottage may or may not have running water and sewerage and it’s lovely to “get back to nature” and spend a week or weekend there.
I can imagine the importance of planning ahead for this… you don’t want to suddenly discover you’re out of flour or eggs or something at 7pm on a Saturday night when you’re in the middle of nowhere!
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Hi Charles, it’s common in certain areas in Canada, for example Ontario has several cottage countries, as does Quebec, Alberta and I believe BC, not sure of the other provinces. Certain areas in the US are cottage prone, but it’s really not as common as Canada. Also, I believe our people have been doing it longer (our cottage has been in JTs family since the late 1800’s). It’s rather expensive to own 2 homes so it’s great that we don’t have a capital investment in ours. We just maintain and pay taxes, which we’ve gotten considerably reduced with a Forestry Management Program run by the government (the family have over a 100 acres). My brother’s cottage in the Muskoka’s has more infrastructure (they get garbage pickup), but his tiny little lot (about 1/4 acre) has a cost of about $15,000 of taxes a year. That’s very high, we don’t pay that for our house in Toronto! He subsidizes that cost by renting his place out for about $3,000 a week. No, it’s not a mansion, it’s a pretty ordinary 4 bedroom cottage on a lake with 100ft of shoreline!
You’re quite right, not planning ahead is disastrous for a menu — that one time I forgot to pack the cream cheese for bagels, lox and cream cheese breakfast and had to stop at a convenience store to pick some up…sadly they had only cream cheese chip dip which wasn’t quite as tasty as the cream cheese I had splurged on in the city!
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Eva, I’d imagine you to be the hostess with the mostest!! How lovely to have a place to get away from it all too! 🙂 P.S. I’ve been away this past week in China and I haven’t been able to read lots of blogs. It has been so sad!
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Hi Lorraine, thank you so much for your lovely compliment; I figured as much that you were away.
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We were having a conversation about living in remote places when we were on the Oregon Coast earlier this week. Well, mainly we kept saying: Where do they get groceries? Anyway, these look fantastic.
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Thanks Greg, the groceries are often imported, unless they’re canned and then they’re local!
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I so appreciate your preparations for time spent at the cottage, Eva. If I’m planning on cooking something for Zia, I bring everything required with me. I learned years ago, when Mom was still with us, that to leave an item behind, no matter how seemingly common it might be, usually meant that the meal was prepared without it. The nearest “big” city is an hour away and there’s no guarantee the item will be found there.
What a great idea to prepare spanakopita in tartlet form! They really do make the perfect appetizer, especially being they can be frozen. For me, that’s portion control. 🙂
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Thanks John, it’s so nice of you to cook with Zia. And that she still makes a Manhattan on your arrival is so cute! We have a friend who specializes in Manhattan’s at tailgating so I’ve only had it once, and sadly not a taste I’m into but give me a martini any day!
I use freezing as portion control too but I’ve discovered that some things are quite delicious even when frozen!
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A remote cabin sounds perfect to me. Stopping by your cabin would be even more fun – you always do everything up just so perfectly. I need to start cocktail hour and apps this summer for Mike and I. It’s the perfect, not overly indulgent date night idea. 🙂 Your tartlets look great too. I remember we made a version of this when we did our Greek cooking adventure. Good stuff Eva!
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Thanks Kristy, cocktail hour is something we look very much forward to, and I never serve booze without a little something!
You and Mike would be most welcome at our cabin and cocktails would definitely be on the menu.
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Eva what mouth watering treats you made with Flo Braker’s cottage cheese dough! These look delish!
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Thank you kindly Zsuzsa, I still have some dough in the freezer and I have some tasty treats planned for it.
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Your cottage sounds like so much fun! I had a look at your template – you are definitely someone who can organise!
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Thank you kindly Maureen, it’s a matter of necessity, otherwise we’d be eating emergency canned tuna all the time!
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A wonderful WW recipe, Eva.
These little tartlets look not only beautiful, also very delectable.
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Thank you kindly Angie.
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I missed the cottage cheese pastry recipe, I’ll have to go take a look.. very interesting! I love how organized you are, that’s the kind of organization I dream of and aspire towards. On occasion I have moments of list bliss, but then it’s back to my random daily scrambles:) Bravo, that’s sure to save a lot of money as well because food isn’t thrown out or wasted. Oh.. and I can’t wait to see those renovations!! xx
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Thanks Barbara, I can’t risk going on memory these days, it’s just not there! We’d be eating emergency canned tuna for every meal if I did!!!!
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Very pretty tartlets, and you are far more organized than I am, Eva!
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Thank you Betsy; about the organization, I have no choice, otherwise we’d be eating emergency canned tuna for every meal!
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Sounds like going to your cottage is similar to planning an expedition into the wild … and you’ve got it down to a science by this point.
Delicious spinach and cheese tartlets.
PS: Spotted an editing error
“1/3 Zsuzsa’s cottage cheese pasty dough” should be PASTRY dough because I doubt your dough is pasty. 🙂
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Thank you kindly Maria, I corrected the error, much appreciated.
It’s about as ‘roughing it’ as I will go.
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Good heavens, only forgotten one thing over a 20 year span?! Eva for Prime Minister!! :). I love your tips and ideas and especially the thought of coming back with less than you bring up. The concept of waste minimization appeals a great deal. You can grow weary of all the packing/unpacking and organization that goes into cottage living — the approach you offer is both sensible and helpful. Our son’s nanny was a Greek grandmother (“Yiayia” we called her) and she used to make us the most delicious spanakopita so I have many fond memories of this food — I love your mini version!
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Thanks Kelly, but I’ll stick to blogger and my day job! It’s really the only way to do it, the car is packed to the gills anyway!
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Spinach fillings – you can never go wrong. The tarts look wonderful, delicious. And I am impressed by your organizing skills. Great post!
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Thanks Minnie, that’s quite the compliment! The spinach tartlets were very tasty.
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I love how you have everything perfectly planned Eva, I am sure that helps run things smoothly without the meltdowns that come with having to drive 45 minutes to get something you forgot.
Thank you kindly for the mention. I love you little tarts and the filling is one of my favorites
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Thank you Sawsan, it has made the weekend much more smooth for sure. The mention was my pleasure.
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Dear Eva, first of all, thank you so much for the kind mention. You have just gave me an excellent idea of filling wonton wraps with feta and spinach! I’m sure though that your cute cottage cheese dough-based tartlets taste much much better… They look cute and luscious. You are so lucky to have the cottage. I live in a city centre, so a cottage would be an excellent place for a barbecue or grill… and a relaxing glass of wine 🙂
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Thank you kindly Sissi, I love that blogging is so inspirational! I’ve yet to try the wonton wrapper idea, it would be healthier than the cottage cheese pastry for sure, and easier in a pinch.
The cottage is indeed a wonderful escape, we’re very fortunate to have it.
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Sounds so peaceful to go my friend 😀
Cheers
CCU
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Thanks CCU.
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This sounds like such fun….. I wish I had a cottage with my sister nearby xo
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Oh how I would love to come to cocktail hour at your cabin. It sounds so idyllic. It must be the most peaceful and relaxing place to be in all the world. And you sound super organised with how you plan these weekends xx
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Thanks Charlie, you and Carl would be most welcome. After a long drive up it is just a sigh of relief with a cocktail looking at the lake.
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