Cherry Galette

Perhaps I have not mentioned it, but lately, I've been bitten by the cooking bug! And this weekend, I embarked on my own culinary adventure to make this delicious dessert from an old Better Homes and Gardens magazine. I've also been checking out a bunch of the Bon Appétit magazines from the library and they inspire me so much!!

Baklava: Part 2 (Tasting)

After a long day of training for Royal Family Kids Camp (a 5 day camp for foster kids coming up in July!) we celebrated with an evening filled with smoked brisket, buttery chins, good fellowship, and of course, baklava. As a result of our different methods of cooking and combinations of ingredients, both dishes were truly unique to one another.

Cameron's entry was rich and dense and soaked in perhaps too much honey-syrup. His pan achieved a beautiful caramel brown color and a flaky crusty-ness.

Our dish was lighter with stronger cinnamon flavors, reminiscent of Mom's apple crisp. Unfortunately, it was a little more blonde compared to Cameron's due to less oven time and all that extra butter (2 sticks more, or double what the recipe called for) prevented some of that flakiness from forming.

The verdict? The dishes were too different to declare a winner and a very solid tie was agreed upon by all parties involved!!

Baking Baklava

Baklava.... It began while eating pizza at a restaurant that used to be My Big Fat Greek Restaurant. "We went there for my birthday once." I said, "And we got baklava!"

"I saw a recipe for Baklava!" Stacey said, "I've been meaning to try it!"

And Cameron piped up, "Alton Brown [his cooking idol] has a recipe for Baklava!"

Thus our competition was born: The Great Baklava-ke-off (pronounced bah-klah-vah-klauff, a mish mash of Baklava and Bake-off) in which two teams go head to head to see whose baklava recipe is better!!! 

SD Day 2:China to the Max

I took Jake to a legitimate Chinese restaurant here in San Diego-- our favorite, China Max. As we pulled into a jammed parking lot, I said, "Oh yeah, it's Chinese New Year, just so you know!" Haha the full disclosure would've been nice, but I spaced out about the holiday.

I took him because we raved and raved about their squid fries (pictured at center), but on this particular night, I wasn't feeling them nearly as much as the beef chow fun. I don't know what it was, but the chow fun was stellar this particular night. Service was a bit slow due to the crazy amount of Asians (myself included, I guess) but we didn't mind, since we like to sit and talk. Jake did pretty well with his chopsticks and he ate more squid than I expected him to! I think he liked it!