And I don’t mean “pain in the *&#”.  A friend recently pointed me to the King Arthur baking blog and when I saw their post on pita and tomato cucumber salad I decided it was time for some kibbeh as well. I didn’t have time to fetch the OJ called for in the recipe and I didn’t brush my pita with oil but they were quite delicious despite that and it’s my new favorite pita recipe. I’ll have to remember to send it along to one of my penpals who asked for a pita recipe. All but one of them puffed nicely and made lovely pockets like they should.  I have to admit, I’m not usually crazy about wheat or part-wheat bread even but these were surprisingly good. There’s hope for me yet.

For the kibbeh I mixed 3/4 cup bulgar with  a1 1/2 cups boiling salted water and let stand 25 minutes, drained and cooled it. Combine that with 1 pound lean ground beef, 2 finely minced green onions, salt and pepper to taste, 1 teaspoon aleppo pepper, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 1/2 teaspoons Turkish seasoning. Form into football shapes of 2-3 tablespoons each and fry in a little oil over medium high heat on all sides until meat is cooked through. Serve with plain greek yogurt.