Pi Day Spinach Pie

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Today is Pi Day, 3.14 as we write the date in the United States.  It is time to make a different spinach pie, one that is one of my son's favorite dishes. 

Pi Day, March 14, is a day to celebrate mathematics. In the American method of day numbering, today is 3-14:  March 14.  Or, the first three digits of the mathematical value "Pi".  3.14

It also would have been Albert Einstein's birthday. (March 14, 1879).  143 years ago today.

Pi Day honors the number representing the radio of the circumference of a circle to its radius.  Pi is an infinite number: it goes on indefinitely, but, not only that, it is a non repeating decimal.  

No pattern to Pi has ever been found.  This website shows Pi computed to 100,000. digits.

To several decimal points:  3.14159265358979323846....

Many people celebrate Pi Day by eating pizza, and that's what we are going to be doing tonight - a frozen pizza.  Others celebrate with sweet pies.  Let's go with a savory one today.

Let's make a somewhat unusual spinach pie.  Or, as we will call it today, Spinach Pi.

Years ago, we lived for several years in rural Northwest Arkansas.  We had gotten into some wild foods, including lambs quarters, and wanted to see if we could make a "spinach" pie out of these nutritious wild greens a pen pal told me about.  But there were no filo leaves to be found anywhere local.

But we could find egg roll wrappers, and that's what we ended up using.

We haven't eaten wild greens in years, but the recipe remains.  Our son grew up on this spinach pie (OK, technically, not a pie) and, as I mentioned, it is one of his favorites.

This makes one eight inch square cake pan's worth.  Yes, a true Pie for Pi Day should be round but...well, this is our tradition.  You should also be able to make this in a pie pan.  One other note, this is so simple a child who enjoys cooking could help with this.

Ingredients

1 1/2 frozen chopped spinach (10 oz each) blocks

About 7 or 8 egg roll wrappers

6 oz feta cheese, crumbled (you can buy a block and crumble it yourself)

1 tbsp light butter style spread such as Olivio or real butter, as you prefer

1 tbsp (approximately) of breadcrumbs

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (I think Celsius folks would use a 170 degree oven.)

Defrost the spinach.  Melt the spread.  In an 8 inch square cake pan, lay down a wrapper and brush with a small amount of the spread.

 

Spread some spinach, then some crumbled feta cheese, top with another wrapper, and brush with the spread, similar to how you assemble a lasagna.

 

End with a wrapper, brush with spread, sprinkle with small amount of breadcrumbs.
 

Here is the assembled Pi.  I suppose you could make this "round" if you are a stickler for Pi Day celebrations.

Bake at 350 degrees F (170 C) for about 45 minutes. 

 

Serve warm or at room temperature.

One more note - this 8 inch cake pan belonged to my mother, who passed away back in 1965.  It is one of my most prized possessions.

Other Pi day posts

Memory Pie.

Several Pi Day links to other bloggers' Pi Day efforts.

Links to two other savory pi's my spouse has made.