After last night's post I woke up this morning with this memory: trying to make banitsa last winter in Walla Walla.

So it turns out I've made two dishes. The first: Skopska salad which I made with a decent amount success. All you have to do after all is chop what seems like an unending number of tomatoes, cucumbers and one onion dump these in a bowl and add cheese. The second: Banitsa. Well that's a longer story.

I figured I'd whip up a batch and wow my dAd who's never been to Bulgaria. Great idea.

But it didn't work so great in practice.

It turned out to be phyllo dough and feta cheese with some egg and milk. It was too crispy and flaky and the dough didn't hold together very well. Rather uninteresting. There wasn't much bite or flavor to it. Sure I was cooking with American ingredients but really the banitsa was bad.

My family not knowing any differently obligingly ate it.

I am not sure why because I did read a bunch of recipes and I watched these rather painful youtube videos on making banitsa. This one has <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZh5hQbeh8" target="_blank">a traditional Bulgarian sound track</a>. The second one I watched was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-0cQXWKOOs&amp;feature=related" target="_blank">a baba making banitsa in slow motion</a>.  I also watched some college guys on Erasmus exchanges trying to make banitsa in a dorm room--this was much funnier than helpful when it came to making my own banitsa. Unfortunately I can't find the video more than a year later.

That last video was exciting. So I am really sad that I can't find it. I also can find the pictures I am sure that I took of my cooking fore into Bulgarian banitsa.

Needless to say, I've got some thinking, planning and creating to do if I want to actually get this next project off the ground. More will follow but I am clearly going to need help with recipes so start thinking now!!