I threw my first solo dinner party in 2005. The menu was ambitious and diverse: beef satay and mango salsa, stuffed apples with cream cheese glaze, some stuff that would have been guacamole had the avocados not refused to ripen, and two of these delightfully spiced chicken pies... plus about six more things. This was highly stressful, and I spent most of the evening in the kitchen. Fortunately, I'm smarter now.

The recipe source is humble: it's from one of those giant cookbooks that's always on a fire sale in the breezeway at Barnes & Noble. The title is MEDITERRANEAN, in a very large sans-serif font. Yet despite the price* - and the sometimes baffling Queen's English terminology like coriander, caster sugar and courgettes (that would be cilantro, superfine sugar and zucchini here in the States) - these cookbooks are full of delicious recipes. And if you, like me, appear to own the collection, then you're practically an expert in every possible kind of world cuisine.

But I digress. My point is, long before I discovered glossy food porn mags, Epicurious, or even the freakin' Food Network, this pie was a winner. It remains one of my dinner party standbys because it lends itself so well to advance preparation. For that same reason, it's also a convenient weeknight dinner: you can make the filling the night before in about 15 minutes, and you've got a beautiful dinner in less than 45 minutes after work the next day. If you arrive home from the office as ravenously hungry as I do, this is key to happiness.

And if I have a dinner party, you just get this pie and some salad. And you'll be happy, too.

Chicken and Apricot Phyllo Pie**
Adapted from Mediterranean: a Taste of the Sun in over 150 Recipes by Jacqueline Clark and Joanna Farrow

1/2 cup bulghur wheat
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup boiling water
6 tablespoons butter, divided
1 onion, finely chopped
1 pound ground chicken
1/4 cup slivered or sliced almonds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 cup strained plain yogurt
1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped, plus more to garnish
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
8 sheets phyllo dough, fully thawed***

The night before:
Put the bulghur wheat and apricots in a medium bowl and pour 1/2 cup boiling water over it. Let soak 5-10 minutes, until water is absorbed.

While the bulghur soaks, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes or until translucent. Add the ground chicken and cook, stirring occaisionally, until cooked through. Add the bulghur, apricots and almonds, and cook for two more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the cinnamon, allspice, yogurt, chives and parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Store in an airtight container until ready to make pie. Remember to put the phyllo package in the fridge to thaw overnight!

To make pie:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Melt remaining 4 tablespoons of butter.

Unroll your 8 phyllo sheets on the counter. Place a 9-inch pie plate or tart pan on top of the dough, and use it as a guide to cut the dough into 10-inch circles. Save the dough trimmings. Place one of the phyllo circles in the bottom of your dish, brush with butter, top it with a second, and repeat until you've got 4 of the circles in the dish. Press the sides gently into the edges of your pan. Spread the chicken mixture into the shell, then top with the remaining 4 pastry circles, brushing with butter between each layer. Top the pie with crinkled-up pieces of pastry trimmings, and brush with any remaining butter.

Bake the pie for about 30 minutes, until pastry is golden and crisp. Garnish slices with fresh chives to serve. Equally delicious hot from the oven or at room temperature.

*This title is presently available for a mere 77 cents on Amazon!
**These are the make-ahead instructions. Feel free to do it all in one fail swoop, but do not tempt the Crumbly Phyllo Gods with your impatience. See next note.
***If you get ahead of yourself, like me, and try to unroll the phyllo before it's fully thawed, like me, you will have to patch together bits of crumbled phyllo to create your circles. You will also ruin your entire roll of dough. This recipe really only calls for about 1/3 of a box, so that's pretty sad. No spanokopita for you!