I tip my hat to Grandma Mary

Upon meeting Jason's family for the first time, I felt I had stepped onto the set of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. While his father's family's heritage is from Armenia, the importance of family and the large family gatherings that come with it brought about plenty of roars of laughter and what felt like a room full of extroverts. Along with this heritage comes delicious homemade foods, such as marinated lamb, pilaf, and of course, baklava or boorma (and much more!). Jason's grandmother was the skilled home "chef" behind these dishes that she so carefully crafted from scratch, using high-quality ingredients. While Grandma Mary passed away 4 years ago, the memories I have of being in her kitchen and learning how to use fresh phyllo dough to make flaky and sweet boorma (a rolled baklava) remain dear to me. So, when I learned that the Daring Baker's challenge this month was to make baklava, I knew I couldn't pass up this opportunity to keep up the skills she so precisely instructed me.

Erica of Erica's Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker's June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

Yes, indeed, it was daring to make phyllo dough from scratch. Making the dough on a 75% humidity day caused me to add more flour than the dough required, but once the right balance was found, the kitchen aid mixer went to town and kneaded the dough into a beautiful smooth and elastic ball. After resting, I found the rolling to be easier than expected with the dowel I was given from Jason's grandmother.

The trick is to roll out the dough as thin as possible, enough so that you could read a printed paper beneath it.

The real challenge actually came back to the humidity and how it affected layers of phyllo that didn't have enough extra flour to keep them from sticking! While I was able to separate about half of my pre-rolled sheets, the others gummed together at the edges and required me to re-roll them, which made for a slightly thicker, a little less flaky phyllo on top.

However, Jason was quite impressed with my efforts and enjoyed every crumb of baklava, down to the last drop of sweet syrup. He had it with eggs in the morning, and then again after lunch and maybe also dinner :) I guess he's been missing his grandma, who fed him so well with these treats and much more!

If you feel so inclined to give phyllo dough a try, here is the recipe. I made alterations to the filling and the syrup of the baklava, based on Grandma Mary's recipe, so let me know if you want any of those tips, too!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lily!

Lily's Birthday was a meaningful day with friends and family. We celebrated with monkey face cupcakes, that Lily still calls "chocolate rice cakes" (actually strawberry cupcakes with chocolate buttercream, fondant and chocolate shortbread ears).

Here she is digging in...

We started the celebration off with a special dedication of Lily to the Lord. Scriptures, memories and thoughts were shared that truly highlighted the bright and joyful spirit that Lily shares with us all. Below, Bart Tarman is offering the charge to us to bring up Lily in the way of Jesus and to those present to encourage and support her.

A joyful occasion, indeed:

Papa Len and Grandy were present to support Lily.

Oma made the long trek from Oregon to be with Lily (and help make sushi and cupcakes!):

Lily was thrilled to celebrate her birthday and dedication with her friend, Summer, with whom she has spent many days playing while Mommy and Daddy are at work.

Happy Birthday, our dear and precious Lily. We love you. Love, Mom and Dad

Snow to Beach in 1.5 hrs

In hopes of keeping you up-to-date with Lily (not just food!), some of our latest endeavors encompass water (or as Lily says "agua") in its various forms. Yes, Santa Barbara has had some good amount of rain this year. Apparently it has been all over the news, but for a NW gal, it feels pretty normal :) Lily and I have been enjoying playing in the rain, especially checking out the creek that is only 4 blocks from our house at the nearby park. She loves to poke sticks at the rushing water, throw in an unsuspecting leaf, and climb on the nearby rocks. We both just put on our hoods and enjoy the rain and the rushing water, 2 natural resources not usually touted by Southern California.

Due to all of this rain, our backcountry has been receiving a good dusting of snow. Thanks to a suggestion by Jason, we capitalized on this one day, so Lily could see and touch her first snow! We tried to teach her to throw snowballs, and it seems that she only wanted to do so at our friends' dog:

We also enjoyed a visit from my (Heather's) mom for her birthday in February, as well as her sister, Nicole, and niece, Grace. Lily adored Grace and wanted to copy her with most things. Here the girls are on the beach together:

Here we are with Nicole and Grace in front of a our favorite beach pancake spot.

Happy Spring!

A delicious breakfast treat

One of our guilty (or not-so-guilty) pleasures is a stroll to our favorite French patisserie, 1/2 mile from our house, to snatch up one of the buttery, flaky treasures. Yes, we are talking melt-in-your-mouth almond croissants (the best ever, maybe even in Paris!), pain au chocolate, plain 'ol butter croissants with homemade jam, and various brioche rolls. The pastry chef also creates the most beautiful little confections that look almost too perfect too eat. However, it is easy to quickly change one's mind after taking a bite of these little treats. Even Lily has started a sophisticated croissant palate at such a young age :) Let's suffice it to say that Renaud is an absolute French genius! Croissants and other complicated French treats are just one of those food delicacies that I am willing to not try to make, but rather enjoy the fruits of another's labor!

When I came upon this month's Daring Baker's challenge, I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy this breakfast bread, as if I was sitting on the patio of Renaud's Patisserie. This, I decided, is the closest I get to such French pastry deliciousness. For surprisingly much less work than that of a typical french pastry, this treat tasted much like a lightly sweetened brioche filled with yummy things :)

The March 2011 Daring Baker's Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria's Collection and Jamie of Life's a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

After making the "brioche" dough and allowing it to rise, the dough is rolled out into a rectangle and spread with a vanilla meringue. I chose to top it with an orange sugar I made using orange zest and organic sugar, dark chocolate, and toasted slivered almonds.

Then, you gently roll the dough up and shape it into a wreath, snipping around the wreath to expose the hidden treasures.

After a 2nd rise, the dough gets brushed with an egg wash and placed in the oven. The inside yumminess peeks out through the slits in the dough and the whole round becomes beautifully golden.

Finally, the bread gets a nice dusting of powdered sugar.

And, voila! A light, buttery dough hugging melted chocolate, scented with orange and crunchy almonds awaits!

Oh, and this recipe is both adult and kid-tested and approved!

Sweet and Creamy for Valentines

This Valentine's Day we were treated to an evening with friends, celebrating marriage, and being reminded of who we fell in love with when we married each other in the first place! It is such a special evening every year that we would never want to miss out.

The past couple of years, I have had the privilege of preparing a simple, but elegant meal for the group to enjoy. This year we enjoyed fresh farmer's market produce, including the salad that starred (my favorite) Shepherd's Farms mixed greens, as well as Root's Farms beets, avocados and (store-bought) goat cheese, all tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette. For the entree, we had a light, but filling manicotti with homemade pasta and a homemade ricotta filling with fresh farmer's market asparagus and garlic scallions. Finally, for dessert...we had a large group, so I served up Ina Garten's Mocha Icebox cake that layers a mocha whipped cream/mascarpone with chocolate chip cookies. The second dessert was my Daring Baker's challenge:

The February 2011 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

For Valentine's Day, I decided to do the classic paring of chocolate and raspberries...how can you go wrong? The panna cotta was delicately layered with raspberry puree and topped with chocolate ganache and fresh raspberries. Instead of using the Nestle recipe, I decided to go with another Giada inspired recipe for the florentines that features slivered almonds with orange zest and was then dipped in chocolate.

It was fairly simple and highly recommended. Panna cotta is delicious on its own without layering the flavors, as I did. It could be enjoyed with a simple topping of fruit and a drizzle of honey or a berry coulis or whatever sounds delicious to you! Here is the recipe if you are interested.

Frohe Weihnachten...Merry Christmas!

The 2010 December Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie's Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make Stollen. She adapted a friend's family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart's book...and Martha Stewart's demonstration.

I have to admit that over Christmas even a sweet lover may be overwhelmed by the overdose of sugary goodness. While Stollen is a sweet bread and even dusted with a generous amount of powdered sugar, it is pleasantly not overly sweet. The enjoyable bits of homemade candied zest of meyer lemons and backyard oranges, along with slightly plumped dried cranberries and

lightly toasted almonds added the right balance of sweetness and saltiness.

After several hours of rising/proofing, the fragrant dough is rolled out and rolled up...

With inspiration from Martha Stewart, it is then curled into a circle to make a festive wreath. After baking, the Stollen gets a basting of butter and a generous sifting of powdered sugar. It then looks something like this.

If you can hold yourself back from digging right in, it can then rest on the counter overnight to dry out a little and concentrate the flavors, just like the Germans do. Then on the next morning, cut yourself a little slice and have it with a cup of tea or coffee for a nice treat :)

If you have enough for leftovers the next morning, then you can toast it and spread a little butter for another delicious treat.

Surprisingly this recipe was not too difficult, but simply requires a little planning in advance, as it does take some overnight rising as well as another day of waiting after it is baked. However, take note that it does also freeze well, so you can make it when you have time and then take it out of the freezer when you need it! Here is the recipe for you to enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

It's all about the crust

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

I made a simple rustic tart with blueberry preserves and persimmons. But because of my love for tarts, I also made a lemon curd tart, using a recipe from Julia Childs for the curd (that was delicious). Just the right balance of tartness to sweetness.