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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Baklava


Ok, so I only post recipes I find to be yummy. I DO NOT make pretty food, lol. There fore you won't see a lot of pictures & the ones you do see won't be anything to rave about. I have been craving this for about a month now. I saw it posted on another blog & it only added fuel to the fire. Have I mentioned previously yet how much I <3 Sandra Lee Semi-homemade recipes? Easy & delicious!! This is her Baklava recipe...

For syrup:
2/3 cup honey

1/3 cup premium orange juice

1/3 cup water

For baklava:

3 cups whole natural almonds, roasted

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1-pound package phyllo dough, thawed for 15 to 30 minutes if frozen

Syrup: Combine ingredients in a microwave-safe container, and cook on high heat 1 minute. Stir and cook 1 more minute. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until cold.

Baklava: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place almonds in a food processor and process with sugar, cinnamon, allspice and salt until almonds are roughly ground.

Generously brush a 13 by 9 by 2-inch glass baking dish with melted butter. Halve phyllo sheets crosswise and stack sheets. Keep stack covered with 2 overlapping sheets of plastic wrap and then a dampened clean kitchen towel. Lay 2 sheets of phyllo in bottom of baking dish and brush top sheet generously with butter. Add a couple of tablespoons of almond mixture. Continue to layer 2 sheets at a time, staggering sheets in each double layer slightly to cover bottom of dish, brushing every second sheet generously with butter and add 1 cup of the almond mixture, until 10 sheets of phyllo have been used, total. Brush top layer of phyllo with butter. Let baklava stand at room temperature to harden slightly, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Using a sharp knife, cut baklava into 6 equal squares, then cut each piece in half diagonally to make 12 triangles. Be sure to cut all the way through.

Bake baklava until golden, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Transfer dish to a rack to cool, then slowly pour cold syrup around edges of hot baklava, in between all cuts, and over top. Let stand at room temperature at least 8 hours. Cover when baklava is at room temperature. Do not chill.

Baklava keeps in an air-tight container up to 1 week.

Valentine's Day chair bag

I clicked onto an old episode of John & Kate plus 8 one day. It was last Valentine's Day episode. She had these cute goodie bags for each child. So I looked them up to see where they came from. Pottery Barn Kids sold them. They have a different version this year. I made my own spin off. You can use any material really. I decided on foam. Just thought it would be fun to work with.

Pottery Barn Kids version:
Mine:

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Shades of purple


I made this tutu for a friend's daughter. It has 2 layers. The top is shorter & a light purple while the bottom is a darker purple.

Chicken Curry



Mmmmmm... even better as left overs! I made this for New Years eve. It's traditions that the toppings are in odd numbers. I did:
1) chopped hard boiled eggs
2) chopped green onions
3) chopped green peppers
4) chopped peanuts
5) raisins
6) chopped bacon, &
7) French's fried onions