Sweet and Sour Sticky Wings

My mom and I teamed up on this recipe. She came up with the recipe but I helped her tweak it since I am her official taste tester!!! We made this dish for a party this past weekend and everyone loved it!

Liza's Pineapple Pie

This may have to be my favorite pie now besides a warm apple pie with tillamook old-fashioned vanilla ice cream on the side. The first time I encountered this sweet pineapple pie was when my family and friends went to a beach house for the weekend in Belfair in May 2011. My boyfriend's mom made two pineapple pies for us and I ended up loving it!

Liza's Pineapple Pie

                                         
I went over to my boyfriend's house today and I made hot fudge pudding cake and she made her famous pineapple pies!!! I helped her make the pies!!! It's soo easy to make! She also ended up sharing her recipe with me and I wanted to share it with you guys!

Today is her birthday! Happy birthday, Liza!

Chocolate Almond Walnut Baklava

BAKLAVA!!!! 

Bite size piece!

Last week, I went to a Greek restaurant around town called Gyros House with Stacey and MoLo. There were lots to choose from, gyros, pita and hummus, baklava, combination plates like Souvlaki, Kafta, fish and chips, and lots more!!!    MoLo and I ordered the Lamb gyro which was amazingly delicious. A gyro usually consists of meat of your choice (chicken, lamb, etc) or you can have it vegetarian, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, tzitziki sauce on pita bread. The price was average about $6.99 with a side dish of french fries or rice. I recommend the rice because the taste is so flavorful. T

The atmosphere at the restaurant was very welcoming. I assume the guy who took our order was the owner because he was friendly and very enthusiastic! At first, we decided to have our food to-go because we were initially in the area for a Meet & Greet sponsored by Verizon to see WongFu Productions, Cathy Nguyen, KevJumba, Ryan Higa, and Far East Movement. Then, we realized that we had enough time to actually dine in and relax before going back to get autographs! LOL. Anyways, we decided to dine-in and the restaurant owner served us our food. I forgot to mention that Stacey didn't order anything because she wasn't hungry. The owner asked if Stacey ordered anything when he delivered our food and she said, "No, I'm not hungry". The owner turned around and brought her a free dessert called baklava. It was soooooo sweet, nutty, and cinnamony (if that's a word). The baklava melted our hearts. 

The other thing about me is that I am very finicky with nuts. I'm not allergic to them, but I absolutely don't like them unless they are already in my cereal like Almond Bunches of Oats. I think that they give me headaches and acne so I limit myself to them. Nuts are not my favorite but I can say that they are delicious in baklava. 

This trip to Gyros House made me want to make my very own baklava. The only baklava I've had was my boyfriend's mom's baklava which was also delicious!!!! There are a variety of ways to make baklava. I've seen it made in rectangles and rolls. The place where we got baklava for free was rolled and I thought it was soooo cute!! So I rolled this version. So here is the recipe for my version of Greek baklava. I pulled the recipe from a variety of websites so it is a combination of everything.

**If you want to make Baklava... you should purchase the phyllo pastry sheets a day in advance to thaw it out!!! I failed on this part. I bought it 3-4 hours before I wanted to make it........ And phyllo pastry sheets are very tricky. It dries really quick. There are some tips on how to work with phyllo pastry sheets in the package that I did not see until after I made them!! HAHA

**I rolled the first one.. and it was a majorly epic fail on my part........ hahaha!! The rest were rolled by Stacey!! She is really good at it!!! She's my little helper!!!