It's all Greek to me.

We spent a relatively quiet weekend at home this weekend. But not really at our home. We were busy raffling off our junk at my parent's house (better location for ye olde garage sale). But after all the junk was gone we found some time to add extra fat to the winter proofing layer on our bodies by attending the St. Demetrios Greek Food Festival and sampling some of their spectacular baklava and other kafenio (Greek for dessert!). I have eaten baklava before, but never made by real Greek grannies- and believe you me- there is a difference.

We also got to see some Greek dancing. Reminded me of that one movie... ya know... Opa!

Here is their Baklava recipe. I'm going to try it one of these days.

Baklava
St. Demetrios' Anna Panagopoulos, with suggestions from Carnation Laverty, put together this home adaptation of the St. Demetrios baklava recipe:
Yields 24 triangles
Syrup:
6 cups sugar
3 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
Half a lemon
1/4 cup honey
Pastry:
1 1/2 pounds (6 sticks) butter (at St. Demetrios, they use a mixture of butter and margarine)
1 1/2 pounds walnuts or pecans, chopped medium-fine
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 pounds purchased phyllo dough
Syrup:
1. Stir all ingredients together in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil 30 to 45 minutes, until a thin thread forms when you let some of the syrup drop from a spoon. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
Pastry:
1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a warm burner and keep it warm over very low heat (at St. Demetrios, they use glass coffee carafes for this). Pour some of the butter into a bowl to use for brushing the phyllo; as the butter in the bowl cools, you will need to replenish it with the warm butter.
2. In a large bowl, thoroughly toss the nuts with the cinnamon.
3. With a wide paintbrush or pastry brush, brush the bottom and sides of a 9-by-12-inch pan with melted butter.
4. Take phyllo dough from refrigerator; remove a stack of 10 sheets, cover snugly with plastic wrap or a damp dishtowel to keep the phyllo from drying out and set aside (stack 1). Remove another 10 sheets, which you will use immediately (stack 2). Cover the remainder of the phyllo with plastic wrap or a damp towel (stack 3).
5. From stack 2, remove 2 phyllo sheets and fit them into the pan, folding if necessary. Brush the top thoroughly with melted butter. Repeat with 2 more sheets, buttering the top to coat, and continue buttering every 2 sheets until all 10 sheets have been layered into the pan.
6. Scatter the top of the buttered phyllo evenly with some of the chopped nuts, making sure to cover the corners. Remove plastic wrap or towel from stack 3 of the phyllo and place 2 sheets over the nuts. Butter and scatter again with nuts. Continue in this fashion until all phyllo in stack 3 and all the nuts have been used.
7. Remove the plastic wrap or towel from stack 1 and layer 1 phyllo sheet into the pan; butter thoroughly. Continue layering and buttering, 1 sheet at a time, until all sheets have been used.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
9. With a sharp knife, cut the baklava in the pan into 3-inch squares; then cut each square in half on the diagonal, creating triangles.
10. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until golden on top.
11. Remove the pan from the oven to a work surface and immediately pour the cooled syrup generously over the phyllo in the pan to soak the pastry thoroughly. There should be some syrup standing in the bottom of the pan; the pastry will absorb more syrup as it cools. Swirl the pan to make sure the syrup is evenly distributed and let cool. Baklava is best if allowed to stand for 1 day.