Team Work Makes the Dream Work

I recently received a text from one of my favorite humans that read, “Potluck Sunday?” I responded with an exuberant, “Yes!”

My friend regularly has wonderful gatherings at her home and is kind enough to include our crazy family. She and her 16-year-old son do most of the cooking and everyone brings a side of some sort. Her son is an aspiring chef and makes the most amazing food. He also likes the gatherings to have a theme. This week’s dinner was “A Night in Greece.” Opa!

I live an hour away, so I was assigned dessert. I have to confess my initial inclination was to make a pan of brownies and be done with it. However, I got to thinking and feeling extremely lame so I went to my plethora of cookbooks and began to search.

The only Greek dessert I really knew was Baklava. That prospect was really intimidating. I grabbed one of my go-to Mediterranean cookbooks and looked for an alternative. The only thing I could find from Greece was fruit drowned in alcohol. My friend has four children. I ruled this out.

I grabbed another international cookbook to continue my search and there it was—Chocolate Baklava. Before I could dismiss this recipe, my husband saw it and was sold. Fuck.

I made him go to the grocery to procure all the ingredients. I did not have the energy. After multiple texts and consulting the Kroger app to find out where the hell they kept phyllo dough, he had what we needed.

I should point out my husband actually asked for assistance with the location of the phyllo dough. The person at the store said he had never heard of it, shot him a look like he was making it up and walked on. Mind you, he had a device on his belt that tells him the location of everything in the store. He wanted no part of my husband’s made-up nonsense.

I love to cook, but I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, so I rarely bake. This recipe was outside my comfort zone. So, I told my husband this was going to need two sets of hands. He agreed and began researching how to blanch almonds. He does have a sweet tooth and really wanted Baklava.

It is not that this was a particularly difficult recipe. There were just a lot of moving parts and the assembly was very labor intensive. It included the roasting and chopping of four different kinds of nuts.

We hit our first obstacle when we were making the honey sauce that is drizzled on top. I needed a damn candy thermometer. I don’t make candy and therefore did not have one. Off I went back to Kroger.

The next hurdle came when we were melting the Nutella. We have been married nearly 30 years and have never bought Nutella, let alone melted it. We didn’t just melt it. We cooked it and turned it into a solid. Like a brick. Fuck. Back to Kroger Brett went for more Nutella. Meanwhile, I tried to keep the phyllo dough from drying out. That is a major problem y’all.

Brett figured out the proper way to melt Nutella and I began the assembly. Oh, my god, the layers! So many damn layers—24 to be exact. I also may have been overzealous with the butter, but really, is there such a thing as too much butter? I think not.

As predicted the phyllo dough began to dry and stick, but we soldiered on. This was definitely a two-person job. The cookbook said this recipe took 90 minutes to complete with 25 of those minutes being active. Lies! It took us more than three hours to finish the fucking Baklava.

With all this being said, here’s the takeaway: We had fun, did not fight or yell and it turned out great. I don’t know that I will ever attempt it again, but I’m glad I tried it and happy my husband was by my side.

Angela Traver

What is this blog about? Well, it's a general blog, but it is also a very specific blog. If you get that reference, you get a gold star! I have been a public relations professional and writer of press releases for more than 20 years—primarily in the booze biz. I decided to do some writing for fun and embrace the humor that gets me through most days. Hopefully it will make you chuckle—or at least smile. I’m a certified crazy magnet, and more than a little nutty myself, so buckle up. Also, I have two vices—profanity and red wine/whiskey. You’ve been warned. It should also be noted, that I’m a HUGE Bob & Sheri fan. I’ve been a listener for more than 20 years. This opportunity is a dream come true and it may have made me cry. That being said, I cry at everything. If you are into booze, dogs, food and/or knitting, hit me up on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter (although I’m terrible at Twitter and it scares me) @kyspiritsgal. You can also find all my previous blog posts at www.kyspiritsgal.com.