The Daring Bakers: Baklava

One of my goals was to post more often, and one of the ways I convinced myself to do that was to join an online group where there were monthly or weekly challenges, that we all had to participate in. I figured if nothing else, I’d be forced to participate and shunned if I didn’t, so that would be the motivation to keep me engaged. The Daring Bakers were kind enough to accept me into their fold. The Daring Bakers are a group of bloggers that participate in monthly ‘daring’ food challenges and share their trials, tribulations, and primarily successes on their own personal blogs.

Each month a different blogger gets to select the dare, and for June 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.

I felt I had the upper hand on this challenge as I am Greek, and my mother actually makes all of her own phyllo when making spanakopita or tiropita. I didn’t think it would be an issue, but more of a birth right. Obviously, if my croissants are any indication of what my dough skills are like, I should have been a bit less cocky.

I made a few attempts at it, but could never get the dough as thin as my mother does - it wasn’t paper thin or delicate, but more heavy and overbearing. Not to mention that I couldn’t for the life of me get it to a round shape at all, but instead some ever expanding blob that had bulges all around it. So I admitted defeat. I bought some regular phyllo, and made it so I could at least take a final picture and share with everyone (although, I forgot to take a picture and only remembered after we had already eaten most of it). I will definitely revisit this, but I think I’m going to need a quick tutorial from my mom first.

Going MAD

Hey friends! I've been told I need to stop apologizing for disappearing on you for extended periods of time and just own it, so that's the last I'm going to mention of it. In the past I know I've talked about the baking business my sisters and I started, but something new has been keeping me busy for the last little while.

We decided that we would hang up our aprons for the time being and focus on the printables that we were creating alongside our cupcakes. So we took some classes to formalize the skills we taught ourselves and set up shop. An Etsy shop to be exact. And another blog. The name of our business is MADesigns - a play on the first letter of each of our names (Mary - Angela - Dimitra). We thought about other combos, and DAMdesigns just didn't have as nice a ring to it. We've been busy - creating invitations, brainstorming party themes, staging everything, working tradeshows, and trying to get some buzz going.

So if you are planning a party in the near future, be sure to check us out for all your paper needs! I will still be updating here, infrequently, as always!

One Match

This past weekend I volunteered at a swabbing event for One Match. The patient we were trying to find a match for is Cathy who has Acute Myeloid Leukemia. I don't know who she is (she lives across the country from me) but I read about her battle with leukemia on her website. I wasn't familiar with the One Match before this event, but I definitely learned a lot.

Ethnicity plays a huge role in trying to find a match for someone, which is why various Greek communities throughout Canada were holding these events - Cathy has a better chance of finding a match with a Greek person then a non Greek. Ideal candidates for donors are healthy males between the age of 17-39 (tell your husbands, boyfriends, sons and friends to get registered!). It really takes only about five minutes to register and get swabbed and you can do it from the comfort of your own home. To order a swabbing kit, go here and click on join.

I can't give blood (I'm anemic), and I don't volunteer on a regular basis (I'm an asshole), but this felt pretty good for my soul. The chances of being a match for someone are unfortunately pretty slim, but the hope you can give someone just by registering is huge.

Either/Or

I am suffering from some major writer’s block so I thought I would pilfer a questionnaire I found on another blog.

Diet or Regular? Diet Coke only. Addicted to it. I know, I’m a horrible person for drinking it. Stop judging me.
Pizza or Pasta? Pizza – pepperoni and feta, well done.
Duck or Chicken? Chicken
Fingers or Toes? I don’t understand the question and I refuse to answer it.
Sandals or Sneakers? Flip flops
Walk or Run? Sit on the couch
Noise or Silence? Silence
Fair or Circus? Fair – specifically the greatest outdoor show on earth.
All or Nothing? All I guess? This is kind of a random question. Who would choose nothing?
Mother or Father? Both
Morning or Night? Night.
Forest or Beach? Beach, although it depends if the forest is enchanted or not.
Pen or Pencil? Very sharp pencil
Eyes or Smile? Smile
Winter or Summer? Summer. We get 6 months of snow here, so summer is very appreciated when it decides to show up.

Have a great weekend!

Continuing Education Part 2

Hello again. Sorry for the delay in posts. I suppose I don't really have an excuse, except the weather has been horrible and I've been kind of unmotivated.

The only thing I've accomplished is finishing the Aurora Teagarden mystery series by Charlaine Harris. It was the horrible. I really don't know why I stuck with it all the way to the end and kept on getting the next book in the series, but I wanted to see it through. Plus it pretty much took me a maximum of two nights to read each of the books, so I felt like a superstar reader.

I hope my speed reading continues to serve me well - I am starting a graduate studies program. Woot woot! Soon enough I will be a Master of Distance Education - sounds exciting hey? I actually am excited about it a bit. I've always liked taking courses, so I think it was high time to courses that could potentially help in my career. Plus it is completely online which is where I excel. It should be interesting. I am starting this spring, so will have yet another excuse to not update this blog. I kid! I am going to make even more of an effort going forward. Once a week updates at least, if not more. So, that's my news people. Wish me luck as I haven't written a paper using APA format since 2002!

Stir Crazy

How is the weather where you are? Where I am it is still SNOWING! Like a lot of it. At this rate, I don’t think we will see green grass until July. I know, the weather is generally pretty crappy all over the place right now, but seriously, it is almost April! March came in and is leaving like a freaking lion. To make matters worse, with the whole “spring ahead” of our clocks a few weeks back, when it’s 8:30 p.m., it’s still light outside, and there is snow on the ground. I just can’t reconcile that. And the clothes, the cute, brightly colored, opened toed shoes kind of clothes that are out right now. I’m still wearing my Uggs and a parka. Also, I’m getting really sick of the bottom of my pants getting soaking wet from the snow, having a permanently dirty car, and tracking snow and gravel into my house. It’s getting beyond ridiculous.

So because the weather has been total garbage, I have been spending a lot of time indoors. I have caught up on a lot of reading. I love books – and not just cook books - almost as much as I love television. I finished reading Dahanu Road by Anosh Irani. Such a good book! If you haven’t read it, I totally recommend it. I have a soft spot for books that take place in India or the Middle East for some reason. It seems like there is more history and the love (and hatred) of the characters is always that much more epic. Either way, this one gets my vote.

After finishing that book, I felt I had filled my ‘serious’ quota for a while and wanted a quick and easy read. So next I tackled the Aurora Teagarden Series by Charlaine Harris (her other series – the Sookie Stackhouse Novels are the basis of HBOs True Blood). Oh my goodness. These books are ridiculously easy to read, totally vapid, and I’ve usually solved the mystery by the middle of the book, but such fun. I love Aurora, the main character – she’s kind of a dork, sarcastic and self deprecating so I am totally endeared to her. Plus she works in a library, which was one of my dream jobs as a child. I finished the first two this weekend, and started reading the third one today. Like I said, they are very quick reads.

I also picked up Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. So far so good, but I’m only about half way through that one. Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon are going to star in the movie adaptation of the book. Picturing Edward Cullen falling in love with Elle Woods is really throwing me off my game. I have a hard time removing people from the characters that they’ve played. Obviously.

So that’s what I’ve been up to while waiting for the seasons to finally change. Don't judge me too harshly with the Aurora books. I'm not really that shallow. I read good books too, I promise. How have you been dealing with our extended winter? Have you read any good books lately? Share your must reads in the comments!

Happy Belated Birthday!

Yesterday was March 23 – besides being Keri Russell’s birthday (oh Felicity, why did you ever waste your time with Noel?), it is a rather insignificant day in history. However! It was also the one year anniversary of this very blog. Can you believe it? I know, I certainly can’t. I am working on a post about some reading I’ve been doing lately but wanted to acknowledge this milestone (ha!) with a quick post.

I understand that I still need to be more consistent and post more frequently (in one year I only have twenty posts), and I’d love to have more readers, (seriously, if you are reading this, please do me a favor and say hello in the comments. It will make my day!), but the fact that I even remember my password to Blogger speaks volumes at how far I’ve come from previous attempts. Thanks for reading, thanks for posting in the comments, thanks for coming back after I’ve taken a huge hiatus, and thanks for allowing me to snark on. I’m off to celebrate with a cupcake!