Homemade Baklava

I spent the morning baking with my friend Roz. She was teaching me how to make the best homemade baklava.

Here's the recipe:

6 cups ground walnuts
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup of honey
1 package of fillo dough
2 sticks of butter (melted)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Prepare fillo dough layers by spreading butter between each sheet and adding walnut, sugar, cinnamon mixture after every five to six sheets of stacked fillo dough.

Then cover baklava with foil and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Pull off aluminum foil and bake an additional 15 minutes or until the top is a golden brown. Pour honey between the cracks and edges.

Start by buttering your baking dish, the bottom and sides. Then layer six sheets of fillo dough on the bottom of your pan, be sure to spread a thin layer of butter between each sheet.

After you have six sheets buttered, put three heaping scoops of your walnut/sugar/cinnamon mixture on the top and then layer five sheets of fillo dough on top (laying with butter again between each sheet), add another three scoops of your walnut mixture and cover with five more sheets of buttered fillo dough, (repeat four times).

Spread the walnut, cinnamon, sugar mixture around to make sure it covers the fillo dough. Warm your honey so that it pours easily.

After you have baked the baklava, pour your warmed honey between the cracks and over the edges.

Ready to serve :D

LOVE

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. So I decided to bake some test cupcakes. Well these are actually brownie cupcakes that turned out yummilicious.

I used some black sugar sheets to put over the brownies so that the flowers, hearts and decorations would POP.

Then I made some fondant hearts and flowers to put on the top. I think this top really does pop!

I want to make some cupcakes and use conversation hearts to decorate the tops too.

Some cupcakes I make for fun and just want them to be cute or make my family smile.

This is an easy way to give flowers for that special day. And to make my hubby's extra-special, I put it on display in this little cake stand.

I love to bake, make and create. How 'bout you?

The Book Club

I'm not just in one book club--I'm in two. How 'bout you? Are you in a book club?

I've been reading since I was a little girl. Growing up in a house with nine kids and one t.v., I never got to pick the programs we watched. So, I took up reading. And I read everything I could get my hands on. The library was my friend.

I even read the dictionary, the encyclopedia and reference manuals.

But I grew up loving Stephen King and my favorite book of all time was/is Salem's Lot. SK has a way of making the impossible seem plausible. I know, horror, it's strange for a soccer mom. But that's me - full of dichotomies.

Now, I'm reading books I never would have read. Action/adventure, nonfiction, yep, everything and anything is coming up in the book club.

And I'll keep you posted on what I'm liking--or not.

New Project

Sew, I was making, baking and creating presents all during November and December. I was "sew" busy I was getting up at 4:00 a.m. to finish my projects and I say NOT AGAIN. I've decided to start early. I'm pulling out my projects now for next year.

This is going to be a cushion for one of my relatives.

Now all I have to do is "sew" it and put it all together. But, at least I have a year to get it done. :D

How 'bout you? Are you going to start any projects for the holidays today? It will take all the stress out of the holidays of 2013, well at least it will take out some of the stress. :D

SCBWI - The Great Critique is coming January 19th

Here’s a chance for writers to be critiqued by a professional and their peers.

Location: TaborSpace, 5441 SE Belmont St, Portland, OR 97215

Time: 9:30 to noon.

Never been in a critique group? Wish you could be critiqued by someone who is ahead of you in the publishing game? Want to strengthen your work? Need a fresh set of eyes and ears on that oft-revised piece? Want to have your manuscript ready for the May conference? This is your chance. A published writer will lead each small group and critique your manuscript. You'll also hear others' work and get feedback from those writers too. Plus you'll learn from the comments by the critique leader about the work of others.

Cost:

SCBWI members - $10.00 (That's less than the price of a Friday night movie!)

Nonmembers - $15.00 (If you bought any refreshments, your movie night would cost way more!)

No refunds after January 11th.

How it will work:

    Sign up now with the kind of manuscript you'll be bringing. You may bring a maximum of five double-spaced pages or 1200 words. DO NOT bring more. Use standard manuscript format, which means your first page will not be a full page. For picture books, we suggest you bring no more than 750 words.

    We will do our best to place you in a group of 5 or 6 peers who write in the same genre and with a published author who writes in that genre.

    We'll let you know how many copies of your manuscript to bring to the meeting.

    We'll also send you some basic critique group guidelines.

    At the meeting each of you will have a chance to pass your work around to your group and read it aloud.

    Each person in the group will make notes on your manuscript as you read. They'll write down what they like, mark errors they see, indicate where they are confused or what doesn't work for them.

    The professional writer will verbally critique your work. If time, other participants may comment.

    You'll receive your copies with written comments from each one in your group. Take them home and let the ideas simmer.

    You might even make some new friends or find those to form a critique group.

"Can’t imagine sitting with a group of strangers and reading your manuscript aloud? It should be harder to imagine sending an untried, unedited, unrevised bit of your soul out on submission!" – Jenn Bailey, children's writer and social media expert

PAL AUTHORS CRITIQUING include Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Cidney Swanson, Gretchen McLellan, Rosanne Parry, Ruth Musgrave, Stephanie Shaw, and Teresa Klepinger. We have other authors standing by and will add more as our registration numbers grow.

Progress on the Room

This project has taken longer than I expected. When we were younger, we could remodel a room in no time. But, nowadays, things always seem to take longer.

Gutting the room was no problem, ripping up, tearing out...EZ-Smeazy but putting it all back together . . .  that's been a much longer process.

At least this weekend we got the french doors put in. Now we need to build the deck off the back and sheetrock the room, oh yeah, after we put all the insulation in.

So, we're still a ways off. But, like I said, progress . . .

Anna Dressed in Blood

This book was recommended to me by a cyber buddy. And I'm so glad I read it.

I've been working on a novel about a haunted house and was trying to keep the story "real" but real can also be boring. After reading Anna DIB, I was able to see that my story was mundane. It might have true facts and bits and pieces that are truly horrifying but most of the everyday life is dull.

No one wants to read about what we ate for breakfast . . . over and over again.

Reading Anna DIB helped me see that fiction can be so freeing.

I loved how this book stepped outside reality and made fantasy fun...well, if you don't mind people dying and dealing with ghosts ;D

I would totally recommend Anna Dressed in Blood to all young adults and even to adults who feel young ;D