Making Spartan Baklava!!

One of my family’s favorite activities to do together is to cook fabulous meals.  From beef stroganoff to amarula carrot cake to strawberry cheesecake– we can make it all! 🙂  What can I say, we are a family of foodies! 🙂  Anyway, our family cooks a lot during the year, but especially during the holiday season.

I learned how to cook at a very early age.  I made my first chocolate chip cookies when I was about ten years old.  Even though they are remembered as being my “rock cookies”– it was fun to learn how to make certain items.  One of my fondest memories growing up was making cookies with Kristin.  Kris would make the cookie dough and I would bake, and as the years went by– I started learning how to make other yummy items.  Mudbars, sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, and many other desserts.  Soon I was able to make main meals and other fabulous items.

It’s been fun to cook and make things with Mom, Dad, Kristin, and Karla.  It is a fun activity to bring the family together.  We all have our signature dishes that we make.  Mom’s cinnamon and raisin rolls are to die for, and Dad’s beef stroganoff is just out of this world.  Kris makes a fabulous white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie, and Karla also makes a mean peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

This year, we wanted to make something unique for the holidays.  After careful thought and consideration, we decided on baklava.  I’ve had baklava only once before, and it was at a Greek place right outside of the University of Tennessee with a few of my friends, and when I first had it- I was like, this is fabulous!! Also, our family always tries to make dishes from countries that we have visited.  We made a lot of dishes from South Africa (ex. bobatie and Amarula Carrot Cake) and China (ex. Sweet and Sour Pork), and I was invited to present at a research conference this summer in Athens, Greece– so…. based on true Freberg foodie tradition, we had to make a Greek dish! 🙂

So, after doing some researching among various recipes, we came up with a fabulous recipe.  Dad and I made it this afternoon, and so far– it looks AMAZING!!!  I posted a video with some pictures that we took while making the baklava, and here is the link to the recipe.  Enjoy!

Cooking is absolutely a wonderful activity to do with friends and family.  Plus, when you make a dish for someone, that really says a lot. It’s also lot of fun! 🙂  The key is to make sure that you watch your portions and exercise so you can enjoy these elegant meals! 🙂

Hope you all are having a wonderful day and happy cooking! 🙂

Best Wishes,

Karen 🙂