Baklava

Yeah, okay...So maybe it's been forever since my last post, well for your information during the in between I got engaged and bought a house, so my life has been a little preoccupied lately. However to thank you for your patience here is a recipe several have asked for. A little Greek woman straight out of Greece gave me this recipe...a genuine yaya she was. I warn you, this is extremely time consuming, but worth every minute if you want to wow your guests with your baking prowess. Do it.

Baklava


3 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons honey      
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 stick cinnamon
3 whole cloves
1/2 pound walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 pound blanched almonds, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 pounds filo pastry
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

In a saucepan, combine 3 cups of the sugar, the water, honey, lemon juice cinnamon stick and whole cloves, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and cloves, and let cool.
In a large bowl, combine the walnuts, almonds, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves and set aside.
Unroll the filo dough on a flat surface and keep it covered with waxed paper and a damp towel so it doesn't dry out and become brittle. Remove 8 filo sheets, fold, cover and refrigerate for the top layer. Using a pastry brush, brush a 15 1/2 by 11 1/2 by 3 inch baking pan with some of the melted butter. Lay a filo sheet on the bottom of the pan, brush with butter, and repeat using a total of 8 sheets. Sprinkle a handful of the nut mixture over the top filo sheet. Layer 3 more filo sheets, brushing each with butter, and sprinkle again with a handful of the nut mixture. Continue until all the filo sheets and nuts are used, being sure to brush each sheet with butter. Use the reserved 8 sheets of filo for the last, top layer.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Using a long, very sharp knife, cut the baklava into small diamonds: First make 6 evenly spaced lengthwise cuts. Cut straight down until the tip of the knife touches the bottom of the pan, and keeping the knife straight, cut in a straight line all the way. Next, cut diagonally across the lengthwise cuts to form diamonds, starting in one corner and making cuts until you reach the opposite corner.
Heat the remaining butter until it bubbles and pour it over the top of the pastry. Bake for 1 1/4
hours or until evenly golden and flaky. Remove to a rack and spoon the cooled syrup over the entire pastry. Cool in the pan.

Pumpkin Sheet Cake

This is a super moist super tasty cake. I realize that Easter doesn't exactly scream pumpkin sheet cake, but it sounded so delicious I couldn't resist. I've decided that I'm going to try and stack and cover the cake with fondant too. Perhaps I can make cute little easter cakes like these. Happy Easter everyone! 

1 can (16 ounces) pumpkin
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt

Frosting: 

1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
5 tablespoons butter or margarine softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 to 4 teaspoons milk (usually not needed)

Directions: 
In a mixing bowl, beat pumpkin, sugar and oil. Add eggs; mix well. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; add to pumpkin mixture and beat until well blended. Pour into a greased 15-in x 10-in baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool for frosting, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla in a mixing bowl until smooth. Gradually add sugar; mix well. Add milk until frosting reaches desired spreading consistency. Frost cake. Eat. 

Magelby's Syrup

This syrup is amazing on pancakes or waffles...or anything else you can think of.


1 stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda

Combine butter sugar and buttermilk in medium saucepan, heat until just boiling, remove from heat and add vanilla and baking soda. Enjoy, as usual. 

Buttermilk Waffles

11:40 AM Posted by MJ 0 comments
1 stick butter
2 c flour
¼ c brown sugar
1tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
3 large eggs
2 c buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Beat brown sugar, egg yolks and buttermilk. Sift together dry ingredients and mix well. Beat in dry ingredients, add 3 T melted butter and vanilla. Whip egg whites until fluffy and they form stiff peaks. Fold in the egg whites. Voila delicious batter! Add a couple of tsp of cinnamon or nutmeg for added flavor. Use the remaining butter to butter the waffles.

Want some delicious syrup, try my recipe for Magelby's Syrup

Butter Frosting

This frosting is really good on the Soft Sugar Cookie recipe I posted.

6 TBLS Butter (I use whole stick)
4 1/2-5 1/2 c powdered sugar
1/4 c half and half (I usually use a little more until consistency is right)
1 1/2-2 tsp vanilla

Soft Sugar Cookies

12:46 AM Posted by MJ 2 comments
These cookies come out kind of like the soft fluffy lofthouse sugar cookies you can get at the grocery store...only better.

1 c shortening
1 1/2 c sugar
1tsp vanilla
3eggs
5 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c buttermilk
Cream shortening, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs. Alternating, add dry ingredients and buttermilk. Chill dough for at least 1hr. When you roll out the dough make sure not to reuse the scraps more than 2 or 3 times. That way the cookies will stay nice and cakey.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for around 8 min

If you don't have a good recipe for frosting check out my Butter Frosting Recipe

Poppyseed Dressing

1/2 cup Red Wine vinegar
1/2 cup Olive Oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2-3 T Poppyseeds (depending on your preference)

In a pot combine brown sugar and red wine vinegar. Heat on medium until brown sugar is completely dissolved. Add olive oil and poppyseeds. Pour in a jar and keep in the fridge for dressing. You will have to warm it up each time you use it so be sure and store it in a microwave safe container. Jar's or water bottles work quite well. You can add more or less olive oil depending on how strong you like your dressing.

Beef Burrito Meat

1:40 AM Posted by MJ 0 comments
This is an easy crockpot recipe that requires little, preparation time, as in less than 5 minutes.

1 (3-4lb) rump roast
2 small cans diced green chiles
1 small can tomato sauce
salt and pepper

Place the roast in a crockpot with all sides nicely salt and peppered. Add green chiles & tomato sauce. Cook for at least 8 hrs. When it's done cooking take a fork and shred all of the beef and mix well with the juices, tomato sauce and chiles. Voila, super quick, super easy and delicious. I serve the meat with all the fixins, flour tortillas, grated cheese, diced tomatoes, avacados, sour cream etc etc. Sometimes I'll even add a can of rotel with the tomato sauce and chiles to give it an extra kick.

Chicken Soup

2-4 bone-in skin-on chicken breasts
2-3 cans chicken stock
Chicken Bullion
1 onion
Carrots
Celery
Leek


In a large pot place the chicken breasts, the onion chopped in quarters, 3 carrots, 3 celery stalks (chopped into 3rds) and some salt. Bring to a rolling boil and leave for at least 1 hr (until the chicken is cooked through). Once the chicken is fully cooked turn the soup on low and remove chicken, onions, carrots and celery from the pot. The larger you chop the onion, carrots and celery the easier they are to pull out later. Throw away the bone and the skin from the chicken and the onion, carrots and celery. Using your fingers, sherd the chicken to desired size and add back into the pot. Add 2-3 cans of chicken stock and add chicken bullion to taste. I usually use 2-4 T depending on how much soup I'm making. 

Once the chicken is shredded and your broth is going chop up fresh carrots, celery and leek to desired size and add to the pot. The leek is really important, it gives the soup the best flavor, don't forget it. If you want to add other vegetables you can, whatever your preference is. Once all your vegetables are added then it's time to decide what kind of starch you want. You can add barley, chopped potatoes,  noodles, dumplings, whatever you want. Personally I make homemade noodles. If you want those here is the recipe I use. Sometimes I substitute regular flour for seminola flour and it comes out just fine. 

1 cup flour
1 cup seminola flour
Dash of Salt
3 eggs

Mix all of those ingredients, roll them out, cut your noodles and toss them in. voila. 

Once you've added you're noodles, starch, or whatever all you have to do is simmer the soup until your vegetables are all done through. Add salt and pepper or a little extra bullion to taste.

Fresh Italian Pasta Sauce

Courtesy of my lovely sister and her husband who used to live in Italy. 

2-4 Mild Italian sausages: (use however many you want, really it just depends on how 'hearty' you want your sauce.
2 cloves of Garlic
1 Onion chopped (I usually chop them in wedges so if someone doesn't like them they can pick them out)
2 Large cans (14oz-ish) Tomato Sauce
1-2 cans of diced stewed tomatoes (I like to use Fresh bottled tomatoes from the garden or fresh chopped tomatoes but you can definitely just buy stewed or diced tomatoes in a can, or chop a tomato from the grocery store)
1-2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp sugar
1 c hot water
1/2 c olive oil
Fresh chopped Basil
1-2 carrots finely grated

Dice the onion and garlic and remove the sausage from the 'skin.' Add the diced onion, garlic and sausage to a large pot with olive oil in it. Sautee until the onions are mostly cooked and the sausage is fully cooked through also (sausage should resemble ground beef or taco meat, if you need to chop it up before adding it to the pot but generally you can just use a spoon to chop it into smaller portions while it cooks.)

Add your tomato sauce, diced or stewed tomatoes, salt, sugar and hot water. Stir well. At this point you should add the chopped basil and carrot. Just use however much you want, I generally use one of those small packages of fresh basil you can get at the grocery store, I think the brand is Living Herbs but really do whatever you want.

Let the sauce simmer for at least 3-4 hours. Every so often keep adding water to keep the sauce the consistency you want. If you feel like it's getting too thick, just add a little water. If you feel like it's too thin, simmer it without a lid to let some of the moisture cook off.

Once it's simmered for several hours you are good to go. You may want to add salt, pepper or sugar to taste. Also, this recipe is up for debate, if you really like rosemary then add some rosemary, maybe you would prefer oregano instead of basil, that's fine too. It's really up to you what you want. You can also make it with steak instead of sausage. It's a different flavor for sure, but it's still delicious. I will sometimes cube a roast or a ribeye instead of sausage. 

Welcome

11:26 AM Posted by MJ 0 comments
The other day I mentioned on my Google Buzz how much I disliked "Recipe Hoarding" and the hoarders that hoard them. Recipe Hoarding occurs when you taste something delicious, ask the cook what the recipe was and 1) They tell you it's a family secret or 2) They leave one ingredient out so yours never tastes quite as good. I don't understand why people find it necessary to guard things that should be shared. Isn't that the point of food? I grew up in a home where good food was religion. It was something to be shared and celebrated and a reason to get everyone together and have a good time.

After posting said Buzz my dearest friend Mindy suggested that I should have a food blog of some kind, so here it is. I will do my best to stay on top of posting recipes, food disasters, things I loved, hated and everything in between. Please feel free to comment, make suggestions, invite your friends to read etc. I may not spend a lot of time making my blog 'pretty' or extra 'cool' but I'll toss up some of my favorite recipes, links and pictures on this cute little dotted template for all of you to enjoy....I also reserve the right to post the occasional non food related adventure. Enjoy. 

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