Pastitsio, Greek Salad and Brownies

These pictures are actually from last Sunday's dinner (3/9). We went over to my parent's house but I forgot my camera and had to use my mom's. She just sent me the pictures and I have to say how impressed I am with how they turned out. I love taking photos in natural light and I'm thrilled that it stays light later these days.

We started the meal with little balls of mozzarella and marinated sundried tomatoes:

... and pitted green and black olives:


It was hard for me not to fill up on the olives, mozzarella and tomatoes. I am an olive fanatic and you can never go wrong with mozzarella and tomatoes. But my mom had made pastitsio and a huge Greek salad so I needed to save room. The pastitsio:


... was gorgeous with its crispy crust, silky bechamel sauce and meaty filling. Between the four of us we ate almost this entire casserole dish. There was just enough for one serving for lunch the next day (and guess who was lucky enough to get it?) The Greek salad:


... had chopped romaine, chunks of creamy feta cheese, more of those fantastic olives, grape tomatoes, slices of red onion, chopped parsley and cucumbers. The dressing was tart with lemon juice. Here's my plate with a generous serving of the pastitsio and salad:


A close-up of the pastitio:


... and the salad:


For dessert my mom baked brownies using my stepfather's recipe:


I've never been 100% sure what's in the brownies, but they have a distinct almond flavor. We love moist brownies so these were slighly underdone in the center - just how we like them. Since we were being indulgent we had vanilla ice cream alongside our brownies:


Kudos to my mom for making such an amazing meal. We had a great time, as always. And thank you for letting me use your camera and for sending me the photos. You're the best!