Sausage and Feta Hand Pies

My friend Amy, a fellow contesssa, and I went and saw Julie and Julia a few weeks ago (BTW, we both really liked it and both of us had read the book). In you haven seen or read it, its the true story of a woman living in New York who decides to cook every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (including three versions of aspic) within a year and blog about it.

A few days after the movie, Amy emailed me and suggested a challenge of her own, that she and I would make our way through Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook - this cookbook has special relevance for Amy and me but I'll save that story for another post. I told her as long as there was no deadline, I was in! I think I relay a bit too heavily on Cook's Illustrated and the Barefoot Contessa, so this would force me to branch out a bit.

So we've both started to tackle this project. We had some dear friends over for dinner this weekend and I used it as an excuse to try out the Sausage and Feta Hand Pie recipe. The filling was delicious but I didn't love the pate brisee crust - was too pie-like for me, so I'd recommend trying a different dough such as the one I use for empanadas.