Categories
Cooking

Baklava

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Baklava! Yay! I love eating baklava and I decided to finally make a version of it myself this past Saturday night. Before I go any further, I would just like to say that while I generally love spending hours in the kitchen, baklava stresses me the eff out. Picture this scene… I have just begun layering my phyllo dough and I realize I forgot to have a damp towel to cover the sheets of dough waiting to be brushed and layered and that I would greatly benefit from a second wax paper workspace… “GARRICK! I need a second workspace and towels stat.” (audible yet unintelligible reply from Gar) “What!? I need help fast!” (audible unzipping noise) “Can it wait? I’m in my new sleeping bag,” says Gar. “Get out of the sleeping bag. I need your help. I don’t know why the hell your in your sleeping bag anyways.” “You don’t want to try out your new sleeping bag?” replies Gar in a surprised tone as he walks into the kitchen. In hindsight, in less than the time it took me to get his ass in the kitchen I could have washed my hands, made some damp paper towels, and gotten out some wax paper to create another area for me to lay phyllo dough on. They say hindsight is 20/20. By the way, bless Gar for trying out one of the new sleeping bags we got for camping almost immediately after coming home from work and then sleeping in it that night. How could I not love the shit out of him?

Back to Baklava, if you have never worked with Phyllo dough then read the directions on the box. It dries out quickly and each sheet needs to be brushed individually with oil or butter or margarine. I use a 50/50 unsalted butter and olive oil mix. I have read and seen different ways of brushing sheets quickly but I have not managed to execute these effectively. I find that I can brush it out relatively quickly by doing one sheet at a time. I brush one side of a sheet, flip it over on top of the stack, and brush the other side. I also use my fingers along with the brush in order to do all of this more quickly. When I move the top sheet that is brushed, I cover the stack completely with damp paper towels, sometimes beginning to brush the top as I’m covering.

First, I combined a 5.5 oz package of chopped walnuts and a 5.5 oz package of sliced almonds with about a tsp. of cinnamon and about 1/3 cup of panko breadcrumb for the nut layers. I chose to use almonds simply for the protein but I ended up loving the addition in both flavor and texture. I thought the sliced almonds would be a nice textural contrast to the walnuts. Next, I began layering the baklava in and 8″ x 8″ glass baking dish, reserving a small amount of the nut mixture for topping after it was baked and the syrup was applied. The layers were as follows: 4 sheets phyllo, 1/3 of nut mixture, 1 sheet phyllo, 1/3 nut mixture, 1 sheet phyllo, 1/3 of nut mixture, and 4 sheets phyllo. Before baking in a 350 degree oven for about one hour (or until golden), I cut into the baklava lengthwise and widthwise to make rectangular strips. In the meantime, I made a syrup by combining 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup honey, and about 2 cups of sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until the mixture was well combined an bubbling. I think that the amounts of sugar and honey one uses should really depend on your taste and how sweet you want this to turn out or how much you want to taste the honey. You just want your syrup to cover the top and surround the edges of all the pieces. Once the baklava came out of the oven, I poured the syrup over it and making sure I got it in all of the cuts and let it refrigerate overnight.

In conclusion, was the baklava worth the stress of making it? Absolutely. I even had a friend ask to pay me for another batch… very flattering.

Categories
Animals

Cool Cat

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No words necessary!

Categories
Cooking

Chicken Masala

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I love to make a chickpea masala. This time I added chicken after I pan-fried it. Some garlic naan and saffron jasmine rice accompanied the dish. I wish I could explain how to make this dish in a more helpful way but the truth is that I usually don’t make masala dishes the same way each time. I mean there are the usual suspects such as curry, garlic, turmeric, cumin, and tomato (either paste or fresh or both) but sometimes I’ll add other things, in this case, it was a bit of jarred tikka masala sauce and serrano peppers. I hope that helps.

Categories
Animals

McCovey

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Meet my new favorite puppy, McCovey, the Bernese Mountain Dog. This picture was taken at 8 weeks of age and he weighed 27lbs. I saw him recently at 15 weeks and he weighed over 40lbs. Love this breed and love him!

Categories
Life

Lake Tahoe

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I love seeing new things, and was lucky enough to spend the afternoon traveling around the circumference of Lake Tahoe. The colors of the lake aren’t exactly describable, but the center is generally a deep blue while the shore fluctuates between shades of blue, turquoise, teal and green. My favorite section of the lake was Emerald Bay, from which the first photograph is taken. There is a Scandinavian castle named Vikingsholm in the bay that I look forward to visiting in the future.

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Categories
Cooking

Andersen’s Split Pea Soup

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Andersen’s is a very cool place along the central/southern Californian coast. They have a restaurant that is famous for (wait for it…..) split pea soup. I can attest that the food at their restaurant is pretty kick-ass. They also have a handful of random shops that sell anything from German pastries to Christmas ornaments to Elvis memorabilia. One of the last few times I was there, I got their “soup in a bag” kit which just includes a bag of split peas and their recipe on the back.

I knew that their recipe is vegetarian but I had a ham hock in the freezer leftover from Easter that I very happily acquired from my mom. I added the ham hock with all of the ingredients and followed directions but then something else happened. I got incredibly lazy and did not want to get my food mill with the very fine basket out. I decided, “eff it” I am just going to put all of this in a blender. So I did and it was still really, really good. I will say that when you taste Andersen’s soup just by itself, it does not have a sort of distinct mirepoix flavor like mine did (understandably so) but I totally loved it. If you ever see an Andersen’s, pull over… if not for the food then just to stare at some random stuff for a few minutes.

Categories
Animals

Scrunge

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A while ago, Gar and I decided that Freya’s other name is Scrunge. This is the name she is referred to when she is being a bad Chihuahua. For example, when she pees in the house or tries to bite strangers in a very unpredictable evil way… she is Scrunge. I pride myself on training my dogs to be very accepting of other people, medical treatments, grooming, and whatever the hell else I need them to be comfortable with in order to make their lives better but Freya/Scrunge is a lost cause in some ways.

I taught Loki to play pretend dead when I point my finger at him in one day but I have not been able to teach Freya anything but “sit” in two years and that is not from a lack of trying. Granted, Loki is a breeder baby that I’ve had since he was 10 weeks of age. However, I have done everything I can in the way of restricting her access and crate-training to ensure that she doesn’t ever pee in the house but I have not achieved the desired effect.

Scrunge is a dog who will pee outside and then, immediately after, pee in the house… and I’ve ruled out a UTI. When it rains, I have to walk Freya on a leash outside to get her to go to the bathroom. Not only is this the only way she will pee outside when it rains, this is the only way she will pee outside a few days after it rains because, “eet smells deeeferent okeh.” This is what I imagine she says to me in these instances. Sometimes Freya gets to sleep on the bed at night with the other dogs and sometimes Scrunge must sleep in the Scrungeon (the name I use for her crate in our bedroom).

On the bright side, Freya has come a long way. She was surrendered at a shelter by a family who had her living exclusively outside and, when I adopted her, she was flea-ridden, terribly matted, and just terribly terrified in general. Now, I can do pretty much anything to her and she trusts me. If only I could convince her to have more self-esteem and to not treat other people like they are un-trustworthy demons when they try to pick her up… if only.