People are always so interested in how a Black woman from North Carolina started a Greek inspired baklava bakery in Utah and up until now, I tell the story of having worked for a Greek family in high school and college, never really explaining the deeper reasons WHY I started Sheer Ambrosia.   It’s a part of my story that I think is significant to tell and I am finally ready to share it. I want people (customers, friends, and employees alike) to know and understand from where and why this business REALLY blossomed. I want everyone to know how valuable this business is to me and I’m not just talking about financial value. I want to provide a blueprint to others going through a difficult time…highlighting one way to redirect their heartache, anxiety, and anger. I want to be an example, an inspiration to other newly single people on what to do with all those heavy feelings post…insert whatever misfortune happened to them. Instead of allowing the catastrophic event to forever define you negatively, turn your hobbies or passions into a fruitful and positive “project” or in my case, a business.   I went from wanting to end my life after my husband left our marriage, to taking that inconsolable energy and applying it to building a business, my business, Sheer Ambrosia. I think you should know that journey.   Baklava saved my life and I can’t think of a better day to explain how that unfolded, than on National Baklava Day!   Happy National Baklava Day Everyone! 14 years ago last month, I founded Sheer Ambrosia and embarked on a path that changed the course of my life for the better. Thank you all for being part of my journey! Enjoy my story.

For the past two holiday seasons, I have had the fortune of having Helene Simpson and Desi Hayda come and help me navigate the massive amount of orders and successfully take excellent care of all of my customers. Desi has since become my full time bookkeeper and Helene is starting to help me more and more around the bakery. I thought it would be a neat idea to introduce them to you because, the plan is for them to take on more permanent roles as Sheer Ambrosia looks to expand our operations post holiday season. I met the mother/daughter duo several years ago, through a cousin of theirs, whose children went to the same school as my kiddos. Our friendship grew over the course of the years because they are both very down to earth, kind, and humble. A couple of years ago, in conversation, they found out how busy my business was getting and they offered to help me over the holidays. I am very picky about anyone helping me in the kitchen, but instinctively, I knew they would be an asset. Helene is the mother of 4 beautiful children and grandmother to eight. She is a native Utahn and she loves her family, her garden, cooking/baking, camping, and going to the casinos every once in a while. On Sunday mornings she hosts her brothers and sisters at her house and they have a grand time having their coffee and breakfast treats while they catch up from the week. Helene was a single mom for a lot of years and worked really hard to take care of her kids. She worked 12-hour shifts and never complained. Her attitude as a single lady has been exactly what I strive for. Even though she didn’t have a life partner for a long time, she never let that stop her from living a full life and being the architect of exactly what she wanted to build for herself. Partner or no partner, Helene loves life and lives it! She has hobbies and she gets out there and enjoys them. One of the first times she invited me to her home, she took me out back to her very impressive garden and showed me all of her vegetables, her compost, and all the other wonderful things she was growing out there. She definitely has a green thumb even though we basically live in a desert. She’s 70 years old and loves Post Malone and Imagine Dragons. She can joke and have fun while working hard in the kitchen. Helene doesn’t know this, but she is a real inspiration to me. Helene’s got me by 20 years, but you’d never know it. She has the energy of a 30 year old. I don’t know what I would have done without Helene these last couple of years. So much goes into making baklava. For example, the Cranberry Walnut Spice that everyone loves so much…well, someone has to wash and dry all of those cranberries and for the past two years, it’s been Helene. Thank you Helene for all the hard work you do for Sheer Ambrosia. Then there’s Desirae! We call her Desi for short! Fun fact…Desi is Helene’s oldest child and the mother of Helene’s youngest grandchild. Desi is meticulous and super smart. She’s so helpful, a voice of reason, and someone that I can bounce ideas off of. She’s a wife and as stated earlier, the mother of one lucky 7 year old and two older step-children. Desi is devoted to her family but also makes time for herself too. She has always been an athlete and still plays women’s soccer and softball. Desi has her own bookkeeping company but isn’t afraid to jump in and help with whatever, never worrying about getting her hands dirty. One thing I really love about Desi is she asks for direction, but once she knows what I need, she gets the job done. If she needs to ask more questions, she’s not afraid to ask, but once she understands her assignment, she runs with it. Desi is a self-starter, humble, and takes the initiative. I am so excited to have her in Sheer Ambrosia’s corner. Together with her mom, Desi and Helene are a force! There you have it…the second and third members of my baklava team. We’ve got you covered this Thanksgiving & Christmas season and beyond, so place your orders with the confidence in knowing that I have surrounded myself with not just competent helpers, but with friends that love me and Sheer Ambrosia and are committed to seeing the company grow.

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Sheer Ambrosia Debuts Two New Flavors

Sheer Ambrosia is beyond excited to debut our two new flavors. Drum roll please…Cherry Chocolate Almond and Caramel Cashew Crunch! They will replace this year’s July and August Baklava of the Month flavors, Blackberry Walnut and Peach Cobbler Walnut. You can still order Blackberry and Peach, but if you are a Baklava of the Month recipient, you will now get the two new flavors for those months. Blackberry and Peach are both very juicy fruits and have a much higher water content than apples and pears, for example. While most customers love the extra juice in those flavors, I did have a couple of customers give me some feedback on them tasting good but being too soggy upon arrival. July and August are especially hot months as well, so I think it better to not ship higher water content fruit baklava's during those months. Here’s a little bit about each new flavor: Cherry Chocolate Almond is one of Sheer Ambrosia’s latest creations. We start this recipe off with the tried and true deliciousness of our current chocolate almond delight but add more decadence by including a burst of tart by mixing in the intense flavor of dried cherries. The concentrated zest of the cherries is the perfect compliment to the already chocolate almond top seller. Each piece is hand decorated with an almond, a chocolate morsel, and a dried cherry on top of the 45 layers of hand-buttered fillo sheets drenched in our signature honey syrup recipe. Our new Caramel Cashew Crunch was described in our test kitchen as tasting like “Christmas morning.” The subtle tastes of the roasted cashews mixed with the warm, deep rustic flavor of real caramels are blended together to make the perfect treat. It’s unique and modern but still carries the vestiges of old world baklava.

Place Your Orders For Thanksgiving As Soon As Possible We are expecting a whirlwind of a Thanksgiving season this year. We already have lots of orders placed with the request to hold for Thanksgiving. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to encourage you all to go ahead and reserve your baklava or baklava cake NOW for Thanksgiving. The baklava cakes have been pretty popular and take a bit of extra time to prepare so if you have your eye on one of those please order it now so we can make plans & preparations to take care of everyone. We ship the baklava cakes to you in metal pans (which you can keep and reuse) to protect the cake from damage, so we need to make sure we order enough of those pans to take care of everyone. Watch Baklava Cake Video If you purchase a baklava cake, click on the above video to see how to remove cake from pan & present it on your holiday table.

For a long time, work and kids were my life and I didn’t have a hobby. That changed when I turned 33 years old and my beautiful Columbian friend Gloria invited me to an Argentine tango dance. I was excited because I had seen a movie called THE TANGO LESSON years ago while on bed rest during my first pregnancy. I never forgot the movie because the dancing was the most magical thing I had ever seen. So, one Saturday night, I got dressed and went with Gloria to my first milonga (a tango dance event).

I was doe-eyed and overwhelmed with excitement, not just for the dancing but the music as well. I will never forget the night…it was October 21, 2006…the night I fell

in love with Mr. Tango. Within two months I was on a plane to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for 10 days; and for the two years that followed I visited again and again to master the craft. I found my hobby! That was years ago, and while I do not dance as much as I would like to now, when I need an escape I head right to the amazing community of tango dancers that I know and love.

So, find something you enjoy doing just for you. It doesn’t need to cost a lot of money, but it does need to be something you are passionate about.

—Peace, Love, & Baklava Forever,
Rita

“Back in June, Rita Magalde of Draper, Utah, was shocked when her business’s Instagram suddenly started gaining dozens of followers. As people were protesting racial injustice across the country, many were also mobilizing to support Black-owned businesses. Magalde’s bakery Sheer Ambrosia, which specializes in baklava, was included in a list of Black-owned businesses in Utah.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Magalde went into “panic mode” as restaurants cancelled their orders and business dried up. She even got another job to make ends meet…”

Read or listen to the whole story HERE.

Our minds are like magic! Whatever you tell it becomes reality! Don’t believe me? Think back in your life when you told yourself that you excelled at something. I bet you WERE good at it! Whatever you think and say out loud is kind of like asking the genie in the bottle for a wish. Whatever you ask, he/she makes it so. I learned this powerful lesson during the years after my divorce. I used to tell anyone that would listen to me how I was the victim of my unfortunate divorce. Unfortunately, this thinking and behavior took away my physical and emotional power, not to mention it stifled any chance at happiness. Every time I told that story, I could physically feel my power escape from my body.

I finally got tired of that victimhood mentality, and I started to believe and tell myself a different story. I started to take back my power, and I had to do that in my mind first. I started to tell myself a different narrative, and when I did my life started to change for the better. My self-esteem came back with a vengeance. I reestablished my membership at the gym and made one positive life change after another.

One of my favorite scholars on the power of the mind is a man by the name of Earl Nightingale. He is a master teacher of this concept. Whenever I start to feel down for whatever reason, I reopen the YouTube videos that others have posted of Earl Nightingale. My favorite recording of his is called THE STRANGEST SECRET. It is worth a listen. There is not a week that goes by that I don’t listen to this man’s talks. He is a genius, and he re-energizes me. I promise you, when you are done listening, you will feel like you can conquer the world.

So, cultivate a positive mindset. As Mr. Nightingale so wisely admonishes, our minds are like a farmer’s field: Whatever you plant in it will surely grow. You can plant corn (positive thinking) or you can plant nightshade (a deadly poison/negativity)…it’s all up to you!

—Peace, Love, & Baklava Forever,
Rita

As most of you already know, I grew up in a small town in North Carolina called Statesville. It was a bit idyllic and way off the beaten path. Our modest home stood at the perimeter of the woods, down what was then a dirt road surrounded by large, oak trees with our more than an acre yard. Every autumn my sisters and I could count on a few things happening: 1) having to haul wood from trees my dad cut down in the forest for fire wood for the winter, 2) having to shuck large bushels of corn that my dad would either harvest from our garden or buy so my mom could can them, 3) weekends raking an endless amount of leaves that fell from all of those trees, and 4) going apple picking way up in the Harmony/Union Grove area.

We didn’t have a lot of extra money, so these outings counted as entertainment for us kids. We would pick strawberries in the spring, blackberries in the summer, and apples in the fall. The apples were my favorite because fall has forever been my number one, most loved season. After an extremely hot, muggy summer, the crisp, cool autumn air was a huge welcomed relief. The days were shorter and the afternoon sun always left us in the dark while we paid for what we picked. There were the usual red gala apples, the green granny smith and a few other varieties that I don’t recall; but my favorites back then were the golden delicious. The flesh was always so firm, juicy, and oh so sweet like candy. I’d be hard pressed to find apples that tasted as good as those apples these days. I loved going apple picking.

Fast-forward to what seems like a lifetime ago from those childhood memories, to when I first started sharing my baklava treats with my friends here in Utah. At first, I only had one flavor—my Traditional Honey Walnut. People would always ask me if there were apples in it. “No,” I would say, “but why do you ask?” always very curious why so many different folks thought they tasted apples. “Because it tastes like apple pie,” they would say.

It took me a few years (I can be a slow learner J), but finally I started to experiment with my original recipe by adding apples. It was a great idea! I can’t think of a better way to start the fall/holiday season, than with a box of Sheer Ambrosia Bakery Apple Pie Walnut baklava. You have all the decadent pleasure that comes with baklava: the flaky, buttery layers of fillo, the crunchy spice-infused nuts, and the sweetness of real honey. But you also have the true taste of fall apples!

And if it’s not too sweet for you, drizzle a bit of caramel on top…OOH LA LA! Thank you for your business and enjoy your baklava this month!

—Peace, Love, & Baklava Forever,
Rita