Sing for the Winner!

Episode Transcript for Baklava

you know Carrie sometimes we find it fun to make recipes that sound pretty darn awful yeah like ones with Miracle Whip ooh no kidding but in this episode we're making something that if we don't mess it up will be absolutely delicious that is a tall order for us Kristen that is so true [Music] welcome to Mom's Wooden Spoon get your apron on and your fanny flicker ready as we cook up some Nostalgia ooh  yummy [Music] we are so excited to be making a very very special recipe this week Carrie yes it is the winner of our family favorite recipe contest I'm very excited about this so am I and this recipe was submitted by a high school friend of mine Carl I Know Carl as well he was older than I was in high school yes yeah I think I went to high school with his uh younger brother actually I think you did yes I was in choir with Carl as was I oh my gosh we're just two singing families well yeah for sure oh my gosh we could all get together and have a quartet we totally could we could just do a quartet singing episode oh my gosh Carl would you be down for that that's just weird let's move on and talk about the recipe he submitted Carl's gonna be like what have I done oh my Gosh I have unleashed these two wackadoodle women on my family my family's never going to forgive me why did I do this sorry Carl sorry so he submitted his mom Diana's famous baklava recipe oh I know I have never made baklava before but I adore baklava I have also never made it and I quite frankly am a little nervous about the phyllo dough I am really nervous when he sent me the recipe and I'm looking at the different steps I'm thinking I don't I don't know if my culinary skills are up to this yeah well you know I am obviously super excited to do this and I'm so excited that people wrote and provided us some recipes absolutely but now that we're here and we are approaching creating this recipe I'm a little nervous that we're going to screw it up it's one thing to screw up Mary's that were written for the masses right and the home cooks and there's you know things don't always translate over it's another thing to just be dumb when you're doing someone's like loved recipe what if we screw it up we could mess up a beloved recipe Carrie yes yes oh my gosh and then we're not known for nostalgia we're known for being horrifyingly awful cooks loser McLoser pants you know and I really consider myself a pretty darn good cook we always laugh about the fact that when my husband eats my food and he's at work and and you work with my husband he will always say oh my gosh this is the best such and such ever everything you make is the best here this is a world famous made by Gordon Ramsey enchilada oh it's good but Kristen she makes the best and it doesn't matter insert food here everything you make is always the best I totally harass him because nobody makes everything the best and is so not true I have so many flops but did I marry the best man ever uh I think so clearly yeah and you are the baker in the family so I'm really going to let you take over today you know if we have questions about stuff because you are used to working with baked goods pastry things like that and she has this look on her face like don't trust me but did I mention that I have fears that I'm going be a part of screwing up someone's beloved family recipe but I want that if this becomes an epic fail and we know it will not be because of Mrs. Easley's recipe I want to have somebody to blame and I don't want it to be me so Carrie you're in charge of making sure this turns out well perfect if the dough is soggy it's my fault it's Carrie's fault well I don't think it's going to be soggy because our first step is going to be to take three sticks of butter it says 3/4 of a pound and we're going to clarify the butter so what do we talk about it's intentions hilarious hilarious you know I have never clarified butter I've cooked with clarified butter I've cooked with ghee before but I've never done it myself and so Mrs. Easley has the the directions right down here so I'm just going to try to follow them the best I can because I'm in charge of the clarification okay and so clarifying butter is basically like you remove the solids interesting this is one of the parts of this recipe that makes me nervous that I'm going to mess it up because I don't want to burn this butter or have browned butter that's not what you're supposed to do right different I know what browned butter is and that is also delicious you can use brown butter to make delicious recipes but this is not browning the butter so no so the purpose of clarifying butter is to raise its smoking point oh okay that does make sense so you can cook in it but without it burning yes and so when we put this delicious beautiful clarified butter on the baklava it's going to cook it's not going to smoke and we're going to have beautiful essence of butter I noticed when I open a jar of ghee to cook with it smells like butter so buttery kind of like the butter flavor oil that we used in the pistachio cake but real but real got it yeah yeah that sounds perfect okay so you are headed off to the stove to begin the clarifying process we're going to remove the butter solids out and there's a foam on the top I will say butter foam sounds pretty nasty butter foam I know that fancy cooks add a foam that I don't know somehow food foam is just gross to me you know it doesn't not sound like a food foam would have a yummy mouth appeal to it you touch it to your tongue and it kind of disappears yeah more like an essence yeah yucky yucky you're really on to the essence today I didn't say the word essence and milk twice-t my mother-in-law used to say twice-t with the t at the end I wonder if it's like a Southern Ohio thing she grew up in Southern Ohio and when we would say oh you just said twice-t she'd say no I didn't and then have I told the worsh wash story oh my gosh I don't know if this is a Southern Ohio thing too you guys are gonna hear it again uhuh so when I was in the second grade my teacher said worsh go worsh your hands yeah and I always thought that was so silly and one of the students in class said you know teacher name who would I can't remember this teacher can I go worsh my hands and she said it's not worsh it's wash now go worsh your hands and little second grade me was like she doesn't even know she's doing it yeah people don't you know what I notice I sometimes hear dad say melk oh now that is absolutely a regional thing melk yes I don't think I do but I don't think that you do either okay good answer I think we have not lived in Ohio for a very long time well that's true because we don't do pop anymore which is sad to me I really miss calling it pop I call it soda yeah now we're boring you know what we may have been boring beforehand we just had cool colloquialisms Carrie now we're we're a new kind of boring we are but you know what we know how to play Euchre oh yeah we do and if you in our listening audience do not know how to play Euchre call us we'll tell you how yes absolutely best game ever you're going to think that we've lost our ever loving minds when we start talking about it and telling you the Jack this and the Jack that you're like this game is jacked it's not it's awesome it is the most awesome game and when we find someone here in Georgia that knows how to play it they're our new best friends yeah I absolutely so I guess what we're saying is is if you meet us in Georgia and you know how to play Euchre be very careful sharing that information because we'll leech right on to you we're gonna suck you right in man we seem like fun but we're not we're leeches oh my goodness gracious well you know this recipe is super exciting because Mrs. Easley's recipe is really a labor of love okay she immigrated here in 1969 she grew up in the Middle East oh wow right and so she would eat baklava that they bought at the markets that friends would bring over like real right baklava real baklava no joke we know baklava baklava yes and so when she immigrated here and then had her own family she began to look for recipes to try to make it herself oh that's awesome so this is her recreating her childhood in a recipe I love that I mean my gosh that's us here at Mom's Wooden Spoon we really are that's what we're all about we're about family favorites we're about homemakers in the 1970s yeah and recreating those happy memories of childhood and food that's what it is that's what she wanted to do yeah and yay for her that it's not Jello with grated carrots and raisins the size of Chihuahuas wait a minute yay for us so she found a recipe in a cookbook but it just wasn't quite exactly what she's looking for so apparently she tweaked it a couple of times and her first two times were epic fails and the third time literally was the charm and that's the recipe that we have today that we will be putting out on social media and on our web page for you all that's awesome isn't that great oh yeah that that's wonderful so we really just get to taste a little bit of her childhood how she remembers it I think that's awesome so I recall from the story that we received from Carl yeah it became a bit of a competition a family competition a family competition so if I understand it turns out that maybe her brother remembers his childhood baklava a little different than she did and they both were recreating their childhoods and um arguing over who did it better that's right it was this continuous fight throughout the years of who's is better Diana's or David's I love it and of course Diana knows that hers is better well it goes without saying well we're not making David's I mean let's just obviously seriously 

oh Carrie the Butter's looking great the three sticks are about 3/4 of the way melted so I'm just doing it on low I don't want to burn the bad boy okay this is going to be a six-hour podcast as we clarify butter well that's okay because since we are honoring the year that Mrs. Easley immigrated to the United States 1969 I love to hear immigration stories yes I find them just fascinating I mean something huge has to occur to make someone move from one location to I mean that's scary I mean I've moved from the northern US to the southern US and that was hard yeah but I can't even begin to imagine from one end of the world to the other no kidding what that's like well and Carl's mom grew up in the Middle East so they lived in Lebanon Baghdad Tehran that's incredible and then moved here so well and they had to just keep moving because of all the constant conflicts in those areas wow yeah that's really fascinating our grandma moved here when she was 13 yes from Scotland and obviously I'm not going to regale you all with the story of that and how it went but I think I I don't know I'm just always very interested in what what brings it they were looking for a better life and it turns out actually wasn't better necessarily it really wasn't better yeah they're not always happy stories but they are incredible stories and human resilience and and just I don't know the kind of stuff that you can find inspiring it is such bravery oh huge I just you're going to cry I'm going to cry oh my gosh that's usually what I do dang it Carrie stop what this is a great moment for me Kristen's the crybaby today I try to emotionally block myself off from everything but I started thinking mostly she meant me um how she copes with dealing with me I do I'm like emotional wall down oh here comes Carrie feel nothing it's cuz Carrie feels enough for the both of us it's my willy-nilly ways oh just drives you nuts we've talked about that before let's move on oh I think that's great okay so we are gonna get to see for sure if uh David's recipe is uh going down oh I'm pretty sure it's gonna okay so we have a little movement here on the edge of the pan we have like looks like a little simmering let me go back and reread these directions okay I'm clarifying it melt it slowly over low heat okay I I think I have it on a little too high then I just am paranoid I'm not I'm A paranoid and then I'm also not very good at being patient oh it's it's hard in cooking you want to just crank the heat up yeah yeah okay so I looked into baklava I've eaten it and that's really the extent of my knowledge yeah and so I found a couple things that are very interesting so first off if you want to mark your calendars November 17th oh so in a few months November 17th you're going to want to hit up Mom's Wooden Spoon website yeah pull up Mrs. Easley's recipe that's right and celebrate National Baklava Day only eight months away so maybe right now guys you're listening to the podcast I don't care if you're driving your car pull over get your phone out get your calendar and mark her down what day in November Carrie the 17th okay and then go home and start clarifying the butter because it's taking forever so so come November you're totally gonna be ready perfect I love it okay okay so and then I learned that various areas have various recipes so some baklavas I I really want to say Bak laava which might be the correct pronunciation I don't know I didn't look that up okay okay wait I'm going to click The Baklava pronunciation let's turn up the volume real loud you ready baklava Bak lava okay but that's how they say it here in America that might not be the real traditional way to pronounce it but Baklava all right so baklava I think I did that right is different they use different nuts oh yes so in some places it's all walnuts which is what we're doing that's right in some places they use pecans pistachios some places spice it some places don't they all kind of have their own regional baklavas so Mrs. Easley recreating her child so she's recreating the region that she grew up eating that was kind of interesting and her favorite flavors yes that she remembers I just I thought that was neat so then it turns out much wait there's more oh yes much like Diana and David's Battle of The Baklava yeah it turns out that Greece and Turkey were vying for ownership of who created baklava wow and it must have gotten so heated that the European Union stepped in and like well we're going to make a decision once and for all oh my because gosh if you've ever spoken to the European Union that's how they sound right and because we speak to them all the time I just was when I was talking to them last week and they sound like this yeah they do yeah they decided Turkey wow yeah so I'm so sorry oh Greece I don't know that we should be saying this on our podcast we try to not be controversial if we have Greek listeners they're going to be mad at us Carrie wait it's not me I did I didn't make the decision the European Union made the decision so that's all on them right okay yeah I'm okay with that okay all right oh Carrie Carrie wait there's some there's some white foam starting on the top I can see it that sounds yucky I'm gonna look but it's okay because that's the part we're skimming off and then I'm going to feed it to you by the spoonful as we let our listeners see what you think that's disgusting so why don't I tell you kind of what we're going to do from here well yeah because we haven't even told everybody what the ingredients are and how we put it together so sure okay so we purchased some phyllo dough you can spell it f i l o that is correct and that would make you European or British I guess British or you can spell it fancy way p h y l l o and that would make you American which I find kind of interesting because I usually expect the fancy spelling to be British yes but not in this case Okay so we've got the purchased phyllo dough we have a whole bunch of walnuts and they have been pulverized and then Kristen is making the oil component which is the clarified butter and vegetable oil yeah we're going to mix it with a little veggie oil yes oh and then we're going to use some honey that's right and we're going to make a simple syrup you know I was surprised because I never knew how they made baklava I basically thought they just dumped a whole bunch of honey on the top I didn't know they made this simple syrup and then just put a little bit of honey in it yeah all right so I am actually done clarifying the butter Carrie what that's exciting I know right I'm gonna take it from the pot and I'm going to put it in this bowl where I'm going to mix the oil I can see all of the solids at the bottom and I am just avoiding them beautiful clear butter perfect nice so after Kristen has the oil stuff basically we're going to take two sheets of phyllo dough yep um we're going to put some butter on them we're going to put a couple tablespoons of the nuts on the top and do that over and over and over and I think it's like 17 layers is that right I think she said 19 layers and we have to make sure it's really important that we butter the entire dish first so we're going to use a pastry brush and we're going to take this butter oil mixture and just butter the heck out of the dish because we don't want it sticking that's for sure oh my gosh that would be awful And Kristen's Pastry brush Kristen Kristen's pastry brush is red silicone yeah and it looks like a chicken comb you know so I keep pushing it up at the top of my head and clucking like a chicken I'm not going to do that now that's delightful cuz so many people are going to want to eat this Baklava now that they know that the basting brush has been close to your dirty hair I've been sticking it up my nose and in my ear and we were gonna mail everybody a piece of baklava not now to our listening audience and not now now we're gonna be forced to eat it all so oh what a shame I can't believe I did that no that's awful so I want to share that since Greece lost the battle of the baklava yes there is something that Greece does amazingly well okay and that is a tasty beverage called Ouzo ooh Ouzo is a liqueur very thick clear but it tastes like anise AKA black licorice oh yeah oh she just she just dropped the basting brush on the floor she's wiping it on her pants oh my gosh we're good she just blew it off really we're good I have another basting brush that we'll be using it's fine it's all fine so it's got hair guck in it and now floor guck I have dogs ew it's all good it's all good it is not good um okay so Ouzo back to the important things in life Ouzo oh Carrie all right Ouzo is a very strong liqueur yes um there's a lot high alcohol content in that bad boy so we go to a local Greek Fest and my husband goes up he's like I'm gonna go get a drink so he's looking at the beverages available and there's this Ouzo he's not real sure what it is and the person serving him is not real sure what it is what they take a wine glass the person was obviously not Greek who was working they poured Ouzo in a wine glass a full wine glass of Ouzo oh my gosh usually people in case you're not familiar with Ouzo it's in a little shot glass and you just sip it cuz it's strong oh my goodness he didn't even know what he had cuz he he' never heard of it right so he comes back and he has enjoyed about half of his glass of what I assumed was white wine and I said well what are you drinking there honey he's like well I don't know it's this wow wowzo I don't know and I'm like Ouzo he's like yeah that's what it's

called ooh did you just drink half a wine glass of Ouzo oh no needless to say we got him some coffee oh no we stumbled around for quite a while I drove us home that is so bad oh my golly gracious but he really really liked the Ouzo well I bet he did and he got that deal of a century he paid for a shot worth and he got a wine glass and oh yeah he didn't care for the Ouzo so much the following day ooh I bet not I bet not oh my goodness so I have taken control of the basting brush because Carrie cannot be trusted with this I have now run it under boiling water and soap because I ain't making no delicious baklava with your I itched my toes with it I don't know what her problem is eww all right Kristen has uh clarified beautifully it really does look lovely okay so phyllo dough comes wrapped in plastic wrap so I have it out on the counter flat on top of the plastic wrap that it comes wrapped in and I have it covered with a a damp cloth cloth to keep it moist and so then it says to fold and flip in half crosswise lift it up gently and unfold it into the prepared dish pressing it flat and folding down any excess around the sides and then we have to sprinkle the pastry evenly with about three tablespoons of the pulverized walnuts and it says repeat the same procedure using two sheets of buttered phyllo so I'm assuming we start with two in the bottom right and then just keep going from there yep all right so it's coming off beautifully Kristen grabbed two yes I did now she ruined everything oh no I ruined it it's just so light and leafy you know it just really blows like a leaf I actually have to admit that I watched a video online to make sure that I would not totally embarrass myself here today did we mention that we've got some anxiety over this one I think we do yeah yeah and they had some interesting tips about it the lady was like don't be panicked about it if you rip it that's fine just keep going and so she said some of the tricky part is putting the butter because the the leaves want to just kind of oh go with you yeah fly up with the pastry brush so I'm kind of dab dab dabbing she is she's she's dabbing it might take five hours it well you know that's Kristen with the butter okay I think I've been buttered all right butter my phyllo and call me happy that's color me purple and call me happy you missed a spot oh shush 1969 yes that's what I was going to say Mrs. Easley moves here to the United States yes and just in time for Sesame Street oh my gosh Sesame Street debuted in 1969 love some Sesame Street yes part of the beauty of Sesame Street yes is that those amazing puppets that you loved interacted with human beings that is so true which apparently they were told to not do and by whom by their the specialists who are helping them create a solid kid show that it would be too confusing for children and they wouldn't be interested oh you're kidding and when they test marketed it they found that when the puppets weren't on the kids lost interest of course and so they're like will forget you in your fabulous advice we are just gonna do the interaction boy oh boy were they right were they right you know this is absolutely turning out just like Mrs. Easley's recipe says she said you're going to to fold it over a little bit and so I'm trying to fold it over on the left there's just about what would you say an inch that has to be folded over half an inch and then I'll do it on the right so it's not too thick on one side or the other it just doesn't completely fit in the container I think maybe if we had done a metal 9x13 pan you know how they're a little more square yeah yeah that this may have fit better we're using glass and that may have been the wrong thing but I don't know it it is what it is well you know Carrie another show that came out in 1969 that we all know okay Hee Haw really absolutely I'll be darned you know that was on the TV when we were growing up our parents would watch Hee Haw okay the only person I know from Hee Haw is Minnie Pearl oh that's right uh that's it now wait a minute wait a minute do you know where oh where are you tonight why did you leave me here alone I searched the world over and I thought I found true love you met another and psst you was gone I do you knew it she did the song that is I was going to scream join in Carl with our choir singing I love it okay so there is another show it did not come out in 69 but it had a vehicle in it from 1969 and I'll give you a hint oh I I think I got it oh you do yeah a 1969 Dodge Charger yes orange yes I think that would be one Dukes of Hazard yee haw absolutely absolutely I have found this really cool fact about uh Dukes of Hazard and the Dodge Charger the General Lee that they used yes do you know how many Dodge Chargers were destroyed during the filming of just the Dukes of Hazard TV show that ran from 1979 to 1985 oh I bet it was huge hundreds yep they destroyed three hundred of them that equaled out to be about two Dodge Chargers per episode that does not surprise me isn't that crazy you imagine the number of yeah broken axles just from all the jumps it really gave us as children of the 80s false ideas of what you would do if you saw a ramp on the highway on the side of the road I think kids still have that idea I mean have you watched America's Funniest Home Videos oh that's true and the bicycles I mean kids just love a good ramp well I also thought it was cool when we would watch Night Rider and that Michael Knight would drive Kit right up the ramp of a moving semi I mean that is just craziness that's crazy talk right there yeah absolutely oh that's funny well you know what it really is going smoothly isn't it Carrie it is I think doing it as a group effort is super nice first of all it's fun it is and then second of all the phyllo dough is not ripping apart it's just really going on beautifully it is it's quite frankly a lot easier than I thought I saw 19 layers and I was a bit panicked yeah I was too and then Kristen started clarifying butter over a small 5 hour window and I thought holy holy cow we're we're in trouble here but so far actually this is way more doable than I thought it was going to be I totally agree well you know we were not well I was not born till 1970 but I found this fact online about 1969 and I found it fascinating in 1969 Carrie about 90% of all American school children walked to school wow yeah we did not we did not we lived a little further out but you know I remember my mother-in-law telling me that she would walk home for lunch that was not in 1969 but right you know so they really built neighborhood schools and you know we did not really live in the downtown area of our town and so we could not have walked although I did threaten to walk to my grandmas a lot of times when I was mad at mom I did get mad at mom once and walk did you you walk to Grandmas no but I walked from uh where we lived to the old neighborhood I mean it was miles oh my goodness yeah I didn't even tell her I left maybe not one of my better life choices I was in high school oh you were in high school that's okay high school angst we all had it yeah so I got thinking about you know school and school-age kids and that made me think about what what children's books were popular or may have come out in 1969 and there was one that surprised me because I actually thought it was older than this okay and that is a book by Eric Carl was it The Very Hungry Caterpillar it was now I don't remember being a huge fan of that as a kid were you no I kind of thought it was overplayed but I like to stick my finger in those holes through the holes of the book in the book that part was the coolest part the story meh well I was thinking about what was my favorite picture book of the time you know okay and it has to be Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever oh those pictures are amazing oh my gosh and they ranged from cutie patootie little animals driving cars right yes that's what I remember to these absolutely gorgeous pictures of like a bunny in a hollowed out tree in the winter under a little blankie so beautiful I remember those I just remember like the little cities of animals oh and then I remember the one where the Papa bear takes the baby bear to bed and he puts the baby bear up on his shoulders and then pretends that he's lost baby bear and he walks all around the house and he can't find him in my mind that bear was our dad it just reminded me of our dad well well you know why cuz Dad marched us to bed he would March us to bed and he would put one of us on his shoulders oh that's right and the other one would have to follow behind and it was the best to be on the shoulders cuz the person on the shoulders got to go to bed second and as a child that extra two minutes was everything well it totally is and the best part of it is he'd go lep lep lep right lep and we would March right along with him and when you were on his shoulders when he'd go under the doors you'd have to duck way down so you didn't smack your head on the the door frame that was just like the papa bear in that story he'd have to bend down low to not crack the little baby Bear's head on the doorframe I think that well I always thought the same thing and I think that's exactly why is cuz we would get to sit on shoulders I forgot about the sitting on the shoulders part Carrie that's so fun well I probably got to well I guess I didn't do it longer than you but you were younger than I was so you were smaller yeah so I probably was on the shoulders more often because of my size so you think I'm using enough butter we have a whole lot left there is quite a bit but you know what we have an entire second roll of dough oh I forgot about that we are about half through the pan yes which is perfect because we're about halfway through the dough yes um we've got a second roll to go we left it in the wrap just to try and keep it from drying out that's right this is actually quite fun I'm enjoying it this this ended up being perfect I was so nervous about this and I thought oh no sometimes when we make a little more complicated recipes it's hard to talk to our listeners as we do it cookies we are the worst as you're scooping cookies and you're trying to do it fast oh my gosh you can't talk and scoop cookies simultaneously no so sometimes we'll have to pause it and then just talk and then go back or sometimes you guys get the most boring episode ever yeah just really sorry but you're absolutely right sometimes when we're working struggling to figure out the recipe our conversations are lame they are really lame and we talk really slow yep you know what a couple people have mentioned that first they started with why does Carrie talk so slowly and I'm like cause she's dumb she's a dumb dumb no it's because you are trying to recall the story as you are trying to read recipes and follow the directions it's sometimes tricky is it really is we don't prep for this well we we prep a lot we do not cook the recipe beforehand no yes that's exactly what I meant yeah so I mean we're futzing along with this recipe screwing stuff up live are as we go and if if we didn't know what the heck we were doing when we started we don't know what we're doing we don't know what we're doing okay I think this is gonna end up being absolutely perfect because it looks like we're almost halfway through so I just have a couple more um I like that you're surprised by this it's like she planned this recipe to have just the right amount of everything weird I am not surprised by that I'm surprised that I have not screwed it up royally that's what I'm surprised by you know what don't let her fool you she's surprised that I have not screwed it up royally let's be honest okay that's the truth okay so we have finished up our first roll of of the phyllo dough yep and so Carrie's going to sprinkle on her next three tablespoons and we will be back in a few because this is going to take the same amount of time for us to use up the rest of the phyllo dough and I ain't got nothing else to say I don't know about you I was just thinking that maybe we need to kind of divide and conquer at some point so we can get started on that simple syrup well actually the oh she just well actuallyed me nothing good good ever comes after well actually that's true this takes I believe over 50 minutes to bake I think we bake it at 350 for 30 minutes and then we reduce the heat to 300° and bake it for 45 minutes longer and they say to make the simple syrup as it's baking oh so we don't put the simple syrup on before no we will bake this in the oven it'll get crispy and beautiful and then as soon as we pull it out of the oven you're supposed to start spooning over the simple syrup and the honey which is mixed in with the simple syrup oh it's a combo yeah I don't know why Kristen thinks that you guys don't want to listen to us for four and a half hours as we continue on this process I mean we are super exciting whatever

[Music] well we have done a lot of things we've been busy little beavers we have we have not just been sitting chit-chatting over in the dining room forgetting that we had stuff on the stove having a wine glass of Ouzo that's right what we've done is we finished putting the layers of the phyllo dough and the nuts on yep and if I may add little pat on the back to Kristen and Carrie yeah because we had just the right amount of butter and dough and nuts and actually Carrie just a little pat on the back to Mrs. Easley her recipe was perfect I suppose give credit where it's due fine it was awesome and then we scored it with a really sharp knife yes and got it in those kind of diamond looking shape I mean they're pretty bootleggy diamonds but if you look at it just right yeah it's a diamond yeah I'd say that's the worst of what we've done because then we put it in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes and then we cranked down the temperature to 300° and put it in for 45 more minutes and while that was happening we made the simple syrup and then added the honey at the end we did I am so proud it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever been a part of making I absolutely cannot believe that we didn't screw this up well we haven't tried it yet so there's always time that's true oh and there's lemon juice in the simple syrup that we made so I can't wait to see if we can taste that flavor in there so we've been letting it cool it says to let it cool to room temperature I don't know that we can wait that long no I know I absolutely can't wait that long now the person I saw online said it's even better the next day because the simple syrup really has a chance to to combine and get in there but Carl had a great recommendation on this he said you have to be sure to refrigerate it sure when it's cooled but then don't completely cover it with like a cling wrap or a lid because it will get soggy and part of the beauty is the crispness of the phyllo dough it's just gorgeous it is gorgeous and so he recommended that you just put a loose paper towel over the top okay so we could do that but you know we're not waiting for any of that this is not going in the fridge this is going in our mouths yes yes and if our tongue gets burnt in the process so be it yeah I said to Kristen that I'm like I would make this again yeah just for the presentation it's a sight to behold y'all if you've never gone to our website I would really encourage this is the one that you check it out because we will show pictures yes I always make a picture compilation of the different parts in the process of making a recipe and quite honestly this is gorgeous this looks way better than corned beef and Jell-O that's all I tell you that much all right so who's going first well I think uh you Kristen you've let us off here so I'm going to let you lead off on the bite okay you guys ready to listen oh yeah for crackling let's see oh wow that was awesome that was beautiful crackling it is it is a nice thick piece the nuts are just brown and beautiful Kristen is doing a victory cheer in silence with their eyes closed I think it's all right oh my gosh I don't want to talk with my mouth full but this is absolute heaven if I could applaud Mrs. Easley and not have it spike our sound out on this audio I would do it in a heartbeat oh Mrs. Easley and Carl thank you so so much for this recipe I can see why people would request this for special events it's time consuming so it's a gift of love to people my goodness I can taste the lemon just a little bit it brightens the whole thing up wow I'm in love so I will be in full disclosure yeah I have had baklava twice previously in my life and I did not care for it oh and so I was really nervous about taking a taste of someone's special dish yes knowing that it is not necessarily a food that I enjoy and I'm converted that is epically amazing I've never had it with that crispness no and the flavors and you're right I've never tasted lemon it's Baklava always tastes like nut and sweet this is such a complex array of flavors and you would never guess it because it has such simplistic ingredients and none of it is cloying it is not one bit beautifully balanced and the texture and the oh my gosh holy moly do you have anything that you can talk about cuz I want one more bite yeah I don't know but I will come up with something I just just to reiterate what Kristen said thank you thank you for sending this in thank you for allowing us the chance to make it holy moly I don't think you could get better I'm I'm blown away uhhuh to be able to taste that lemon there's no bitterness to the Walnut at all not a bit it is not overly sweet it is not overly honey flavored no and then to have the crispness and I'm so glad that Carl mentioned how to maintain that because I think that that is key and it looks amazing we look like we know what we're doing I know right and here's the funny thing you guys know that Carrie does not really love to cook she'll bake yeah but she really is not into anything that's terribly time consuming and while we were off the recording while we were pulling it out of the oven and we saw how beautiful it was Carrie was like I'm making this again oh I absolutely would yeah I think people would just lose their mind over this for as nervous as I was going into this yeah I am doubly as thrilled to have had the chance to make this oh my gosh me too well that's it for this episode thank you so much for joining us thank you so much to Carl for submitting his mom's recipe it was really amazing yes Mrs. Easley while we haven't tasted your brother David's baklava we are willing to say in this very public and potentially international forum that we're positive yours is better hear hear be sure to set your alarm for next week's episode released on March 25th the recipe we are making has an odd name but I think it will be

yummy

thanks for listening to Mom's wooden spoon if you like what you heard don't forget to subscribe if you want a copy of this recipe or to check out our blog click on the link to our website in the podcast description if you'd rather you could get to our website through Facebook Twitter or Instagram pick your poison don't say poison we're making food oh my gosh we could all get together and have a quartet we totally could we could just do a quartet singing episode recipe the recipe was yummy and tasty the recipe the recipe was yummy and tasty