Blech-lava or the Christmas Disaster

First of all, I want to say that I'm sorry that I haven't kept up with this blog. I've been dealing with my diverticulitis and ancillary problems and so my cooking and eating hasn't been very ambitious of late. Actually, I'm darn sick of the pablum I've had to eat. I'm feeling better and since this is the holiday season, I thought I'd get back to it.

At Thanksgiving I told my family that I'd attempt to make Baklava with homemade Phyllo or Filo (I've recently learned that it's pronounced "Feel-o") dough. So the hunt was on. I had to find the right recipe. I found the dough Phyllo recipe at http://greekfood.about.com/od/greekbreadspitas/r/phyllo.htm and the Baklava recipe at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Walnut-and-Pistachio-Baklava-364612 I even ordered raw shelled pistachios on the internet.

I liked what I was seeing in these recipes. I realized I could do a bit of it at a time. The only thing that really worried me was rolling the dough thin enough. It said each sheet should be about the thickness of two sheets of paper. That's really thin. You can see light through two sheets of paper. But then I was happy to see that it said you could run the dough through a pasta maker. It just so happened that I have my parents' old pasta machine.

I forgot the lemons I needed so I ran to the store earlier in the day. Then off and on, I did one part of it and then the next. I decided to save the dough for last. I roasted the nuts, grated the lemon peel, juiced the lemons, boiled the syrup, ground the nuts etc. Then it came to make the dough.

Old Greek grandmothers must have hands as large as and as strong as NBA players. I should have known it was going to be a problem when I realized it called for 8 cups of flour and only 1 1/4-1 1/3 cups hot water. Well, maybe there was a little more liquid in it than that from the sweat dripping from my brow as I tried to work the stuff. I dug into it for 8 minutes and still I couldn't get it to stick together. This is what I ended up with.

I'm also thinking that those Greek grandmothers don't have any fat on their arms. I'm going to have to soak my hands in water and take a Tylenol before I go to bed tonight I hurt so much. My kitchen is a disaster.

I ran to the store to see if they had any frozen Phyllo dough, they didn't, but I haven't given up hope entirely. No, we won't have Baklava for Christmas, but I'll put the ground nuts into a baggie and freeze it. Then when I get a chance to find some Phyllo dough or a better recipe, I'll be ready to go.