Back with a baklava vengeance...

Whew!  This week has been a whirlwind!  It's so nice having the week off work and I've found plenty of stuff to keep me busy.  I had some time to myself after the dentist early Tuesday morning (look Ma, no cavities!) so I took advantage of being alone and finished my Christmas shopping.  The mall and the roads were surprisingly not crowded.  Since I had all my gifts, I decided to wrap them.  Now all I have is baking left.  Wednesday was a crazy day of baking.  The first thing I made was baklava.  I used to make it every Christmas then stopped for some reason so I'm back with a baklava vengeance.  Baklava isn't hard, it's just time consuming.  They take 50 minutes to bake and almost that amount of time to put it together.  But the end result is worth the effort.


The assembly


1 (17 1/4 oz) package frozen phyllo pastry, thawed
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup ground walnuts
1/3 cup ground almonds
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Syrup (recipe follows)


Cut phyllo to fit 13 x 9  pan.  Cover with a damp towel.  Lightly butter bottom of pan.  Layer 10 sheets of phyllo, brushing each sheet with melted butter.  Set aside.

Combine walnuts, almonds, sugar and spices, mixing well.  Sprinkle one-third nut mixture over phyllo in pan, drizzle with a little melted butter.  Top nut mixture with 11 sheets of phyllo, brushing each sheet with butter, repeat twice with remaining nut mixture, phyllo and butter, ending with buttered phyllo.  Cut into diamond shapes.  Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.  Cool thoroughly.  Drizzle warm syrup over pastries.  Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.

Layers complete

Cut into diamond shapes

Syrup:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 1/2 tablespoons honey.

Combine sugar, water and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil.  reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 7 minutes.  Stir in honey.

Out of the oven and ready for syrup

 Payden and Logan, 2 of the neighborhood kids, came down on Wednesday too so to keep them busy, I made dough for cut out cookies and let them have at it.  5 kids, icing and sprinkles...imagine my kitchen afterwards!  I am a master of the cookie cutout.  When Izzy was in kindergarten, her teacher asked me to make cookies one time...and she never stopped.  She'd provide me with the cut out and I'd make the cookies.  I have over 100 cookie cutters, if you even need something, just ask me, I've probably have it.  I make a butter cookie cutout as opposed to a sugar cookie.  Here's my recipe:

1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons vanilla
2 cups flour

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla.  Add flour, mix well, Cover and chill about 1 hour.  Divide dough in half, flatten between 2 pieces of waxed paper to 1/4 inch thickness.  Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet, bake at 325 for 15-20 minutes.  Cool on wire racks

Since I hadn't done enough, I decided to make a new coffee cake too.  I didn't have the hazelnuts or raisins called for so I improvised with walnuts and craisins!  I gave them out as gifts; I just hope they're good because I never made them before...but at least they look impressive.  The recipe made 4 coffee cakes so I took one up to Father at church, gave one to our neighbor and drove one out to Kevin and Kim.  What a pretty drive to their house out in the country with the snow on the ground.  Davis's...if you're reading this, you would have gotten a coffee cake but it has nuts!  I think everything I made this Christmas had nuts...sorry!

To give me a break from baking, I waited until dusk, put on my running shoes and some night gear and headed out for a run around the neighborhood to get in some exercise and look at all the Christmas lights.  It was just what the doctor ordered!

Today I made some easy stuff, pretzels with chocolate and M&M's...salty/sweet...mmmmm.  Me and the kids just got back from dinner with Jay and I'm making my Christmas coffee cake as I type this.  I'm not one to brag but this coffee cake is the best ever!  I got the recipe from someone I used to work with and if it isn't on the Christmas and Easter table, I get in trouble.  I just can't share it here, you have to ask me for it!  Or I'll make you one if you're lucky!

All I have left to do is clean the house and box up my goodies.  Now I'm going to watch a movie with the kids.  Merry Christmas to all!

Breaking 100...

Joe and I decided about a month ago to have a Christmas open house.  We've never had a Christmas party before and I just felt the need to do it.  Strangely, we're not really invited to many Christmas parties each year; I'm not sure if that's because no one is inviting The Schultz's to parties or if people are not having them!  So, if we can't go to a party, the party can come to us!

While stressful in the beginning, the party turned out to be a blast.  And the best part is we broke 100 when it comes to attendance...we had 101 people!  Crazy!  Joe and I feel very blessed to be able to say we have 100 people that would show up to our house to celebrate the season with us (but let's be honest, it may be Joe's cooking that brings them here too!)  We had family, old friends and new friends in attendance and everyone mingled and looked to be having a jolly fun time! 

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the night!  However, I am left with a lot of good memories and LOTS of bottles of wine and whiskey and even a couple 6 packs from party-goers bearing gifts.  I may have to switch from beer and become a wino for a while...life is rough!  Here are some of the memories of the night:

The cookies - I flipped my brother Keith the bird on more than one occasion last night.  I made Spumoni cookies that looked beautiful but tasted like absolutely nothing.  How disappointing to put so much work in to dividing the dough, making each layer of chocolate, pistachio and cherry and then have it taste like nothing which Keith made sure to tell everyone who went for the cookie how it was a terrible cookie!  You win some you lose some.  Thanks Keith!

The sledding - I have an old wooden sled on my front porch that was serving as a nice winter decoration...until all of Joe's friends decided to go sled riding.  It was hilarious to see all of them going down my side yard and coming up covered in snow.  I guess the alcohol numbs the pain and cold.  Props to Kevin for going down standing up!

Little Beers - quite possibly, the best shot ever!  Joe M. brought this concoction.  Vanilla flavored vodka in little tine clear ups with just a dab of whipping cream on top so it looked like a nice beer with the perfect head (that's what she said!).  It was a hit of the party.

Moonshine - if you stayed late enough, Jason provided moonshine in a mason jar...the official spirit of the hills of Kentucky!

Barb - she got a lot of beer and a little moonshine in her, enough said, if you know Barb and have been to Joe's Father Day party, you know....

Joe's present from Jack - a T-shirt that Jack bought for himself but didn't fit...so he gave it to Joe.  Good thing is the shirt is a logo shirt for the drum cymbals Joe favors.

I'm sure a lot more memorable things took place last night.  I just hope everyone that was there will have good memories of sharing time with friends during one of the best times of year.

Merry Christmas to all and next time I'll have pictures...

I'd rather decorate myself...

...than my house!  I loathe decorating my house.  I'd much rather decorate me.  Hence, the posts about outfits, makeup and cool jewelery.  I will whip you up a meal, some cookies or an appetizer any time you want.  But decorating...it SUCKS!  I'm no good at it and I don't enjoy it.  I'm always amazed at my friends who go to Homearama to get decorating ideas...really?  Just not my thing.

So I decorated our house for Christmas.  But here's the thing.  None of my Christmas decorations match.  Why?  I just seem to get a mish mash of stuff from here or there.  Aunt Jeanne gives me a lot of stuff, she loves searching for the deal, the best price, the bargain.  Now, don't get me wrong, I've gotten a lot of good stuff from Aunt Jeanne, she's generous at Christmas with the cash, she's provided Joe some awesome kitchen tools at rock bottom prices; griddles, both stove top and electric, a set of stock pots, a roasting pan, just to name of few.  However, she also buys a lot of stuff because the price is too good to pass up...that ends up in the houses of me and my siblings.    Over the years, I have purged some mismatched items just because I'm not much of a decorator and I don't need all the stuff.  So I'm left with a few things, and I try to keep the ones that match, but again, I'm not very good at it so if you come to my house for Christmas, it is what it is...but the food will be really good!

Speaking of food, I really haven't cooked much since my last post.  Isabelle wanted to try this recipe she saw in one of my Taste of Home magazines so we made it and it was actually pretty darn good...a little fusion cooking at the Schultz House!

Greek Tacos
1 pound ground beef
1 can (14.5 ounce) diced tomatoes, undrained
2 teaspoons Greek seasoning (it's expensive, make your own with 1/2 teaspoon each of dried oregano, dried marjoram, garlic powder, lemon-pepper seasoning, ground mustard and salt)
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups fresh baby spinach
1 can (2 1/4 ounce) sliced ripe olives, drained
taco shells
feta cheese
chopped red onion

In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain.  Stir in tomatoes, Greek seasoning, garlic and pepper.  Bring to a boil  Reduce heat; simmer for 8-10 minutes or until thickened.  Add spinach and olives; cook and stir for 2-3 minutes or until spinach is wilted.

Bake taco shells, spoon in meat mixture, top with cheese and onion.

Sorry, I didn't take a picture but everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Gia and I made gingerbread cookies last week for her to take to school.  It was grandpartents day and they got to go to school and help Gia make a gingerbread house.  I cannot provide a recipe for the cookies because I will admit that I cheated and made them from the Betty Crocker bag mix.

We also went to St. Nick at Night on Saturday and Gia got to tell St. Nick what she wanted.  She even made him a card!

I've been to GW a few times, nothing major to report, snow boots for the kids and this awesome necklace for me!

I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season!