I decided this confession should be a rant because I bought about 8 pieces of baklava at Walmart and ate most of them. I love baklava and have concluded that while Greek and middle eastern people eat far too much mutton, they have created a truly delicious dessert. It's almost worth eating mutton (yuuuuk) just to get to dessert. I think they have decided to undermine the progress of humanity by forcing us to eat baklava which puts us in such a pleased state that we don't want to conquer the world. We just want more baklava. I could say the same thing about rugalach which is Jewish. It's delicious beyond reason. I think we should have a middle eastern standoff between the best baklava bakers versus the best rugalach bakers. Whoever wins gets the middle east. I want to be a judge. What about you?

Lamb and mutton are far far different...just made a leg of lamb roast Friday night and it was sumptous. As for food porn, check out http://www.slashfood.com and on the right hand side, scroll down to food porn link - the photos are wonderful!!!

Baklava: How do you think I feel I married a Greek Man and my Mother in Law (who I love to pieces) lives downstairs. She makes it every week. I love it but I limit myself to 1 piece a month. It is addicting. Before my surgery I had a piece everyday.

food Porn: Pecan Squares

Posted Dec 16th 2006 4:28PM by Nicole Weston

Filed under: Food Porn, Nuts/seeds, On the Blogs, Fall Flavors, Sugar

Deb from Smitten Kitchen says that these Pecan Squares are the most fattening thing she has ever made. I don't doubt her for a second because, although it looks like she made a fairly large batch, she also used almost 9 sticks of butter in the recipe. That's 1,017 grams, 4 1/2 cups and 72 tablespoons of butter for those of you not familiar with the notion of it in stick form. Of course, the recipe comes from Ina Garten and because she is known to use at least as butter as the lovely Paula Deen, this isn't all that surprising. Ina doesn't say how many servings this makes, but if we assume that you can cut it into 54 bars (2-in. squares), you're looking at around 17 grams of fat per bar - and more if you take Ina's suggestion to dip them in chocolate!

The squares are essentially a caramel pecan pie filling that is baked on top of a buttery shortbread base. It is baked in an unusually large pan (18 by 12 by 1-in., as opposed to the more standard home baking size of 9 by 13-in.), but that does give it the advantage of being a convenient, decadent and delicious treat to bake for a big holiday party. Just don't tell anyone the nutritional stats before serving them.

food Porn: Holiday Meringue Kisses

Posted Dec 13th 2006 7:05PM by Nicole Weston

Filed under: Food Porn, Baking, On the Blogs, Spirit of Christmas

Meringue kisses are very easy Cookies to make but can be tricky to get right. Helene, from Tartelette, made these Holiday Meringue Kisses to give away as part of some holiday gift baskets and provided a great tip to anyone who wants to try making them at home. The secret to achieving crisp meringue cookies that won't turn to grainy mush from moisture accumulation is to let them cool overnight in the oven by simply turning the oven off once they have baked. The residual heat continues to very gently cook the meringues, drying them to a lovely, light crispness. I have tried this technique myself a few times with good results, although I would warn everyone to put a note on the oven as a reminder that something is in there. I have had other people turn on the oven without checking it (and have foolishly done it myself, as well), only to smell burning meringues a few minutes later.

Helene tinted hers red and green for a Christmas-y look, but you can also try other small additions, such as adding peppermint extract to the cookies before baking or drizzling them with a bit of melted chocolate when they are done.

In England people eat a lot of lamb. My Mum came from England and so we grew up eating lamb. I never liked it when I was young. My mother tended to overcook meat. I like meat to be rare.

Meringue is to food what Ron Jeremy is to porn.

Meringue is to food what Ron Jeremy is to porn.

Did you know that Ron Jeremy has a degree in special education? It's good to have a backup plan, but dang....that might give "meet the teacher" night a whole new meaning.

Anybody want my recipe for peanut butter fudge?

Did you know that Ron Jeremy has a degree in special education? It's good to have a backup plan, but dang....that might give "meet the teacher" night a whole new meaning.

Yes! I was lured into The Surreal World and he mentioned it at some point during one of the 2 or 3 episodes I saw. I truly thought he must be joking. That's just creepy in so many different ways and on so many different levels.

Sesame? Not in my baklava!

When made "right" it's not so sweet. Well, that is if you consider honey not so sweet. If honey is terribly sweet to you, then baklava will always be as well. But I don't like sweet things, and I *switching to Missouri mode* love me a good piece of baklava.

I don't like most nuts though, so I can skip the middle. Just give me the cripy top layers, booey bottom, and stick a fork in me 'cause I'm done.

And yes Jack, you're forgetting the 4ish stick of butter. Each of those flaky dough layers is thoroughly brushed with melted butter before the next layer goes on.

Nah, I dont like it either Jack, way too sticky and sweet. Never did like it. Spanikopita too - eew yuck, fatty cheesy urgh.

Beef is our national meat, but in certain areas, pork takes precedence. This is how I know: When my mom (west coaster) talks about "a roast," it is a beef roast she is discussing, and if she meant "pork," she'd say "pork roast." When my MIL said "roast," she was talking about pork roast and we knew that because she would otherwise say "beef roast."

One was the dasughter of a butcher, the other was married to one...so they BOTH thought that THEIR way was the right one. LOL

I grew up in San Diego. When we ordered a "coke" at a restaurant, we were then asked, "Do you want Coke, Sprite, Dr, Pepper..." because "coke" wasn't "Coke", it was "soda" . Or as they say here, "pop" *cringe* When we moved here I would order "coke" and couldn't figure out how the waitress possibly knew what I was talking about.

Ok, so that's not about meat, but it's relevant damnit.

here we say Roast Beef not Beef Roast, ditto pork, but roast lamb is also just called a leg of lamb. Roast chook for roast chicken. But simply a "roast" can mean any of them. Now we often say we're having a Weber also because we more often than not cook big pieces of meet in the Weber (kettle barbecue). I'd never do a turkey or pork in the oven for Christmas day, its always in the weber.

Coke just means all softdrink to me too, soda is soda water, a mixer (I think you call it club soda).

Durex is stickytape and rubbers are what you use to erase pencil mistakes!

I'd never do a turkey or pork in the oven for Christmas day, its always in the weber.

Christmas comes during the summer where you live, so dinner in the Weber is an easy choice. Usually it's warm enough where I live too (Texas) and a lot of people here deep fry their holiday turkey, but most parts of the USA and just about all of Canada would find it a wee bit chilly to cook out in December.

Has the Weber overtaken the barbie in popularity? I always did love that expression: throw another shrimp on the barbie.