Baklava

I have loved Baklava ever since I was an undergraduate at Western and a professor, Dr. Zeine, made it for a NSSLHA bake sale.

When we went to Greece for our first anniversary, I had to try it in it's country of origin (according to the Greeks, if you're Turkish, then you might disagree).

Anyway, it's delicious and so easy to make.

Here is the recipe that I use and my tweaks to it:

Gretchen's Baklava Recipe
Make 12-24 hours ahead of time.
Can be made up to a week ahead, but the earliest I've made it is three days.

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Ingredients

For the filling:

1 lb Walnuts - Finely Chopped (I buy pre-chopped) 1/2 C. Sugar 2 tsp Cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground Cardamom 1/4 tsp ground Cloves (optional) For the Layers: 1.5 C. Butter (3 sticks), Melted 1 Package Frozen Phyllo Dough (16 oz) Thawed in refrigerator. For the Syrup: 1 C. Sugar 1 C. Water 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice (optional) 1 C. Honey (Net weight 12 oz.) 1/2 tsp Vanilla

The steps:

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1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Combine and set aside walnuts, 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon and cardamom
3. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the bottom and sides of a 10x14" (about 1-2" deep) pan with melted butter.**I use a kitchen-use-only spray bottle for the butter and it is so much faster**
4. Open the phyllo dough and layer 6 whole leafs (or 12 half leafs) in the pan, buttering each layer as you go. (The edges will extend over the side.)
5. Spread 1 cup of the walnut mixture.
6. If your phyllo dough comes in full sheets, cut the remaining phyllo dough in half.
7. Layer 8 half sheets -- butter each layer. Each sheet will be an inch or so short, so stagger the sheets from corner to corner to cover the whole pan. 
8. Spread 1 cup of the walnut mixture.
9. Repeat 8 sheets and walnut mixture twice. You will end up with 4 layers of nuts.
10. Layer the remaining half sheets on top -- butter each layer.
11. Brush/spray the top with the remaining butter.
12. Trim the edges off.
13. Cut halfway through the layers using the diagram to the right. This is done now since it will be very fragile after it's been baked.
14. Bake 1 hour or until golden brown.
15. 15 minutes before the baklava should be done, mix 1 cup sugar, water, and lemon juice in a sauce pan.
16. Cook sauce over a medium heat, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes.
17. Remove from heat, add the honey and vanilla, and stir until well blended.
18. Remove the baklava from the oven and finish cutting through the layers.
19. Pour the sauce over the hot baklava.
20. Cool. Let it sit for close to 24 hours (lightly covered -- but not in the refrigerator) -- longer if you can stand it!

A nice way to serve individual pieces is to put each one into a muffin cup that has been partially flattened.
See Gretchen's baklava FAQ page for more tips on cutting. Truly, this is her recipe, I just added a few ingredients or cut a corner by combining a few other recipes with this one.

My finished product

Update: one handy hint for better living: don't dish up/serve until you're ready to eat it, the night before at the earliest, otherwise it will dry out.

Gallaher Head Lake

Our first hiking experience with the Sauras! Jason is an avid nature enthusiast and Whitney was testing the waters with this trip. We wanted a hike that wasn't too long and that didn't have too much elevation gain. This hike was perfect at 8 miles round trip and only 1800 feet of elevation gain. The trail head is about 30 miles from Cle Elum, Wa, and starts/ends at an old campground called De Roux Horseman's camp.

Interesting fact - From 1961 to 2006, Gallaher Head lake was labeled Gallagher Head lake because USGS mapmakers thought they were correcting a misspelling. It's really named after James and Eliza Gallaher (not Gallagher), two Pennsylvania natives who moved to Roslyn in the late 1800's and staked mining claims in the mountains of the Teanaway! Here's the story.

:  :  :

We headed out on Saturday morning, eagerly clambered up the trail through part of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and along De Roux Creek. It was gorgeous as nature usually is this time of year. The hike was mostly easy going for the first three and a half miles, then there's some switchbacks and elevation gain, and before you know it, you crest the hill and see the lake. I'll  be honest, I was a little disappointed. I expected a little more grandeur when I broke through those trees. Once I adjusted my expectations and took a second look around, I realized how beautiful it was and what a pleasant little spot we'd walked into. We walked around the lake and found our perfect spot, or rather our third choice because there was a boy scout troop in our first choice and another couple in our second choice. Either way, there were enough camping spots to go around, and there were several other hiking groups that came after us and set up camp in the fourth and fifth best spots. 

Trail head picture, our last feeling of clean.

A view from the trail.

Settling into camp.

Taking in the scenery

It was a small lake and really shallow. Although I'm
sure deeper than it looks since there's probably
several feet of silt at the bottom.

On our walk around the lake.

Dinner time!

And now time to do dishes! :)
(Don't worry, we use biodegradable soap)

Sunset behind the hills.

Enjoying the last bit of daylight.

Curled up by the fire.

On our way out. Ready for some food!

It was a fantastic hike and I would recommend it to anyone. Jason and Whitney are great hiking partners and I hope this won't be our last hike together! We did decide to start a new tradition though, post-hike food at Triple XXX in Issaquah. Chili dogs, giant corn dogs and root beer floats... oh yeah!

First Anniversary

So we made it through our first year! ;) It was wonderful! It was an adjustment, but a fun one. It was a lot of change all at once: new city, new job, new apartment, new last name, new 'roommate', new life. It was such an incredible year though. I'm a little sad that now we're kind of cheating to say that we're newlyweds... but maybe that counts for a bit longer.

This was one of our favorite wedding pictures, so we decided to retake it every year, as long as we could. Hopefully my parents keep those rocking chairs on their porch and I hope they never move! :)

Here's the first!

To celebrate our anniversary... and really just a good excuse to travel... we went to Europe! It was so fantastic! One of the things that Blake and I both love is to see new places together. We're really hoping to get in some major overseas travel experience before it's time to settle in and have kids. 

First we went to Venice, Italy and stayed there for three days. It was my favorite. I would go back in a heartbeat. I just love the stone walkways and the water everywhere. I love that you walk instead of drive and I loved how friendly everyone was. I tried to learn some Italian before we went, and did learn a little. It was strange though, I barely got to use it. I would start talking to someone in Italian and they would just answer me in English.. Darn it! My accent wasn't good enough! By the end of our trip I did finally get someone to converse with me in Italian until I ran out of phrases that I knew ;).

Here are a *few* pictures from Venice. I took over 1000... so it's hard to narrow it down.

our first night

Our actual anniversary night. Very low-key, but delicious!

 

a gondola parking lot



I love this picture because it was our first morning out walking around. We came to this building and thought it looked cool so we took our picture in front. Little did we know, it was one of the major attractions! The Basillica San Marco.

There was also a major crowd and tour line, just around the corner. It was an amazing structure!

Outside a cute cafe.

I loved this! In that window by the water, there was a man working at his desk.
I wonder what he does when the water rises?

At first I thought that it was "River of the Toilet" but then I looked it up and realized the spelling differences.
It's actually, "River of the amenities". (Cause that's better?)

I couldn't get enough of these windows! It's like they put a plant on every square inch that they could reach, I loved it!

Classic beauty.

My absolute favorite time was walking around the quiet streets of Venice at night, eating a gelato.

It was absolutely as romantic as it sounds and looks.

We had such a great time!

After Venice, we boarded a cruise ship and toured through the Greek Islands. This was also wonderful, but more fun than romantic ;) but oooh was it fun! We hiked an active volcano in Santorini, swam in a hot spring and rode the crazy Santorini Donkeys... not overly recommended. My favorite place of the Greek Islands was Mykonos. It's a lot like Venice. No cars and stone streets with outdoor cafes everywhere. Breathtakingly beautiful buildings and that clasic blue and white 'Greek' look.



Santorini, after the donkey ride...

Santorini

Dinner on the cruise ship... delicious!

This was a cruise stop in Alberobello, Italy

Mykonos, Greece

Also Mykonos. I love lanterns.
I also loved how they decorated their porches.

*Sigh* It was wonderful!

After our cruise, we spent a few more nights in Venice. We ended up missing our flight due to some scheduling errors and a ticketing error.. part our fault.. part the airline's. We got to stay in Venice an extra night and we learned an important lesson in communication and leadership! :)