Baklava lovers, huddle up. Now listen closely. Clear eyes…full hearts….
Ok, ok. I may be watching a few too many episodes of Friday Night Lights lately. (And crushing big time on Coach Taylor!)
But seriously, baklava lovers, I clearly and fully believe I have stumbled upon something you must try — these quick and easy Baklava Cups!!
When I saw my friend Kristin’s recipe this week for spanakopita bites, they reminded me that I still had a few leftover boxes of phyllo cups sitting in my freezer. (Always good to have on hand!) And for some reason, her appetizer sparked the idea to turn one of my other favorite phyllo recipes into some little “cups” — baklava! I know that the process of making homemade baklava is fairly complex, but the actual ingredients themselves are super simple — just some nuts, honey, maybe a little butter, and phyllo dough.
So the bite-sized-dessert-lover in me instantly thought it would be fun to try and make baklava with my phyllo cups! I popped over to the Middle-Eastern market across the street and bypassed the real baklava (yes, I live with the temptation every day of fresh baklava being sold a block away!), and instead beelined for the huge bins of nuts. While you can literally make baklava with whatever nut or combination of nuts you want, I decided to go colorful with a mix of pistachios, almonds and walnuts. Then I came home and chopped them up, combined them with some butter, cinnamon and honey, popped them into mini phyllo cups, warmed them in the oven, and then drizzled each with an extra dose of honey. And…then indulged. :)
These baklava cups were amazing!!! They seriously tasted just like the real deal, and were so quick and easy to make. All of those delicious toasted nuts paired perfectly with the crispy phyllo and warm honey, and (bonus!) they don’t even make your fingers sticky when you eat them. I can already tell that this is going to become one of my new go-to desserts to serve to friends.
‘Tis the season for grilling! And ’tis the season for my friend Carrian’s birthday from Oh Sweet Basil. She is hosting a week of giveaways, so a group of us are joining in to help celebrate! I’ll let her tell you all about this amazing Lowe’s Outdoor Grill Giveaway below. Scroll down for multiple chances to enter!
In my wise old age, I have come to a realization about myself — I am terrible with due dates. Like, really terrible.
From library books, to movie rentals, even to turning in my taxes on time (which I at least mailed in this week at 4:50pm!), I have a pretty terrible track record of remembering to take care of things on time. This past weekend, when I was “spring cleaning” out my fridge, I realized the same holds true there. Eek. Let’s just say that I think I finally learned what happens to cilantro if it accidentally gets hidden at the back of the vegetable drawer for a month!
One of my favorite memories with my grandma back in the day was going to dinner at Chili’s. My mom would order a salad, my sister would order chicken fingers, and my grandma and my dad and I would all order the baby back ribs, which inevitably brought on a rendition of everyone singing the famous jingle (with bar-be-que sauce!).
But before we dove into our messy main courses, every now and then we would get the treat of ordering the famous “awesome blossom”. Or as other restaurants call it, a blooming onion. I found out later that this deep-fried onion topped the charts at the time for the most unhealthy thing you could order at the restaurant, but boy was it good!!! We all loved dipping those onion petals in that heavenly sauce — so much so, that we were often completely full before our entrees arrived! Oh, to have the metabolism of a kid. :)
Any of you who follow along on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram will know that last week I went on a 3-Day Suja Juice Cleanse!
Yep. For 3 days, I gave up normal food and drinks (no caffeine or alcohol), and instead drank 6 delicious and huge bottles of Suja juices each day. This was my first time doing a “cleanse” or anything like it for 3 whole days. Granted, I love to juice at home, and will often use juices as a replacement for 1 or 2 meals a day. But 3 full days was a different experience, and a very different one when everything is already prepared for you, which I found to be brilliant.
One of my absolute things about moving to a loft is the relationships that I have with all of my neighbors.
I have to admit that — after owning and living in a house for much of my twenties — I was a little worried that moving into a building would feel like regressing to college and dorm life. But I have discovered quite the opposite. I love living in a building with so many interesting, smart, thoughtful, generous and fun people!
‘I am only one, but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do.’ ~Margaret Mead
I have to admit to you that probably the thing I most wrestle with as a food blogger is the thought of sitting here, day after day, creating and cooking and sharing hundreds of recipes with you, when there are so many in the world — even in our country – who do not have the luxury of having enough food to eat.
