baklava

mmmmmmm

i just made a huge pan of baklava for the party tonight. the house smells of an amalgam of cinnamon, rose water, orange blossom water, and walnuts.

fyi: you don't actually have to follow the thawing directions on the phyllo dough package, which say to thaw in the refrigerator for 7 hours or overnight, and then allow to stand at room temperature for 2 hours before using.

fuck that. just go buy the shit, take the plastic-wrapped roll out of the box, and let it sit on the counter while you get everything else ready (which means making the special syrup, making the walnut filling, and melting the copious butter which must be patiently brushed onto each individual sheet of phyllo as you layer them, one by one, into the pan). by the time you're ready for it, it will be thawed out plenty, and fine to handle. lay out some waxed paper. unroll the phyllo onto the waxed paper. layer some more waxed paper over the top and cover with a damp towel. each time you take off a sheet of dough and place it into the pan, replace the top layer of waxed paper and the damp towel.

if you follow these instructions, everything will turn out just fine.

pics now there

just fyi, i uploaded some pics of...mostly myself (such vanity!)...into a public gallery. you can get to it from my userinfo page. i'm too lazy to import them into this message. i'll probably try to import some more tomorrow--pics from tonight's party, hopefully of more people than myself. :-P

(later)

shit, now the pictures link doesn't show on my profile page. i made them public...wtf?

(later still)

fuck it. here, i'll put a couple in this entry. if you want to see them all, try finding my gallery, and please let me know if you're able, ok? if you're not able, and you know what i'm supposed to do to make it viewable, please let me know that too. ok? thanks.

( pics behind cut )