“Friday, April 30 is National Raisin Day, and California Raisins has announced partnerships with small businesses across the country who are offering baked goods featuring California Raisins. Each small business partner will be offering California Raisin cookies and other treats at discounted prices on April 30 while supplies last.
“The spirit of small business is one we deeply admire, and we know our industry is thriving because of the support of small business owners like the ones we are partnering with today,” says Tim Kenny, vice president of marketing at the California Raisin Marketing Board. “On behalf of more than 2,000 family farmers who produce California Raisins, we are thrilled to celebrate National Raisin Day with the people who bring the natural sweetness of raisins to life for our customers across the country.”
Read the full article HERE
Written by Brian Amick
I did not grow up around all my grandparents, but my dad’s mother lived close by in our little old town of Statesville, North Carolina. Her name was Bertha and she looked like a “Bertha.” She was outspoken, robust, and had the softest, curly brownish red hair that I loved to comb while she napped. My Grandma was a big girl, and she had a big personality. She was fiercely loyal to her only son, my dad, and they spent a lot of time together.
We would visit Grandma often and whenever we went to her house, she always had a jar of peppermints and butterscotch hard candies placed neatly on the coffee table. I was always shy about it but when she’d ask us if we wanted a piece of candy, I would go straight for the butterscotch. For years and years, she kept that same jar of butterscotch and peppermint candies replenished for me and my sisters to enjoy. It sat right there on her coffee table along with her Avon catalogues (she sold Avon cosmetics), her most recent copies of Ebony and Jet magazines, and her TV guide. Having a piece of butterscotch candy was part of my ritual when going to see Grandma. A lot of times we headed over to pick her up so that we could all go fishing. That was kind of our thing daddy, Grandma, and I. We loved to go fishing, and we loved to go see our family who lived down by the coast of North Carolina in and near a small town called Lumberton. Going to Grandma’s was always the start of a day or weekend adventure and so was having a piece (or two) of butterscotch candy.
That flavor holds such nostalgia for me now. When I decided to come up with another flavor of baklava to share with the world, my first thought went to the days of my childhood and what made me feel special…going to my Grandma’s house. She was always sitting out on the porch when we got there as if she was waiting for us to arrive.
My Grandma is long gone. She died when she was 84. My dad is gone now too. He died a few years back at the very young age of 72. In fact, today is his birthday. He was born on April 5, 1944. He would have been 77 years old today. Happy birthday, Daddy! Here’s to you and your darling mother who filled my life with wonderful childhood memories.
Enjoy your Butterscotch Rum Walnut baklava and when you’re putting together your own recipes, always add ingredients that bring you joyfulness and remind you of good times long past. That way when you eat whatever it is you’ve made the effort to create; your delight will be multifaceted.
Until next month, my baklava family!
Love,
Baklava Rita
Allergy Notice
Please DO NOT eat if you are allergic to any of the following ingredients: oats, almonds, coconut oil, dried cranberries, raisins, walnuts, brown sugar, honey, 100% pure maple syrup, ground cinnamon, vanilla extract, and salt.
ENJOY!
-Baklava Rita
This morning I woke up incredibly thankful for my life. I woke up excited to connect with you, my Baklava of the Month Club peeps. Excited to bake another flavor for you, and excited to write this entry. Now I don’t have a particular story about my Southern Pecan recipe, so I thought I’d just write about how baking and my business makes me feel.
Right now I’m listening to my favorite music while I enjoy my cup of coffee, popping shipping boxes, and contemplating the day ahead. I’ll bake lots of trays of baklava and then I’ll package them tomorrow, deliver to those who live locally, and mail packages to those who live afar. Did I mention I’m excited?!
I don’t know what it is about baking and cooking, but it makes me so happy. I think it has to do with enjoying the pleasure of making something with my hands that you then get to delight in with all of your senses. You taste and smell the flavors, see how pretty it is packaged, feel the textures in your mouth, and you hear the crunch of the fillo as you bite into all 45 flaky layers. I love taking simple ingredients and transforming them into masterpieces that I get to develop! Cooking and baking are both forms of art—edible art that doesn’t last but for a few days at the most and that you get to nourish your body with.
Then, I get to earn a living doing what I love. I get to be imaginative in my business. I get to explore and create new recipes, as I’m inspired. I get to interact with you, my customers/friends/family, in a common experience. Not many people get to do this and for that I’m so very grateful! I hope you enjoy this month’s installment of baklava.
Here’s one little tidbit about this month’s flavor: I invented it because I wanted more variety in my offerings. While I learned to make baklava with walnuts (the traditional Greek way), I do realize that baklava is made with a variety of nuts depending on where the recipe originates. Pistachios are the nuts of choice in Turkish baklava, for example. Some regions of Greece mix different nuts in their recipes. Baklava is a cultural staple in many countries in the Middle East, Northern Africa, and Eastern Europe. The nuts and spices utilized vary in all of these locations. I grew up in the south, North Carolina to be exact. My mother indulged us every fall with the most delicious pecan pies. It only made sense for me to have a southern pecan flavored baklava for you to experience.
In honor of my gratitude to you and the universe for allowing me to serve you, I thought I’d also include another little surprise in your box this month—a little sack of my homemade granola! Today is a cloudy, gloomy, and snowy day outside, perfect for baking; so I’m going to make a long day of it and adorn my home with the aroma of some yummy granola along with the earthy scent of pecans. Share with me in this blessing! I hope you like it as much as I do. I like to eat mine in the morning as cereal with a splash of milk or with a dollop of my favorite plain Greek yogurt. Be careful, though, because it’s addicting. If you don’t watch out you’ll turn into a “granola monster” like me…think Cookie Monster but with granola…Ha!
Until next month! With all the love in my heart!
Baklava Rita
“Two separate phone calls came in Thursday night from a man identifying himself as ‘Lee.’ One came into Sauce Boss Southern Kitchen, the other to Sheer Ambrosia Bakery. The owner of Sauce Boss, Julius Thompson, shared recordings of the phone call to his Soundcloud account.”
‘I received a phone call from a gentleman at 9:41 on Thursday evening,’ said Rita Magalde, the owner of Sheer Ambrosia. ‘I, you know, didn’t think it would be business related at all because it was so late.’
The caller asked both Thompson and Magalde the same question: ‘Are you a Black-owned business?”
‘He then veered off on, you know, Black History Month and why is there a Black History Month, why isn’t there an Asian history month, or a brown history month,’ Magalde said. ‘He said that there was going to be a race war in this country.’
Read the full article HERE on Fox 13 Now
Written by Diego Romo
My top three favorite comedy movies of all time are about strong, single moms who run their own businesses. One runs a chocolate shop in the movie Chocolat (Juliette Binoche); one is a baker in It’s Complicated (Meryl Streep); and the third is a successful playwright in Something’s Gotta Give (Diane Keaton).
Today I get to tell you about Chocolat. Binoche plays a beautiful, young woman with a daughter who wanders from place to place in Europe sharing her love of chocolate making everywhere she goes. The movie starts with her moving to a small village in France, renting an old patisserie (bakery) and turning it into a chocolaterie (chocolate shop). The problem is, she does this right before Lent and the mayor of the town, who is very religious and a man of tradition, has a real problem with her tempting his citizens during the holy fasting time of Lent.
There are so many elements to the story, but my juices really get flowing during the scenes where she is cleaning the old shop, painting and preparing it for her grand opening. She makes the most decadent, beautiful, and delicious chocolate treats! When a new customer visits, she guesses which indulgence is his or her favorite. At one point, she helps another townswoman, who is being abused by her husband, escape from that horrible situation by giving her a place to live and teaching her the art of chocolate making.
I’ve watched this movie over and over again (yes, I know, I’m one of those annoying people who re-watches movies when they strike a chord. This movie is special to me though. When I began contemplating starting my bakery, all I could think about was this movie. How Vianne (Binoche’s character) just walked into town, set up her shop, and became a very special part of the community. I wanted that so much for my baklava and myself, and while there are complications to her immersion into the hearts of the townsfolk, she emerges as a very significant part of so many lives.
This movie came out in 2001, and I opened my bakery in 2008. When I knew I wanted to come up with a chocolate version of my baklava I pulled out my trusted DVD once again for inspiration. There is a scene (which I rewound and rewound to watch again and again) where she pairs nuts with chocolate, and it looks so gorgeous I knew I needed to up my game from my original design of just placing a chocolate chip on top to garnishing with an almond as well. It just really makes each piece extra lovely to have a kiss of chocolate accompanied with a whole shiny almond on top. It’s like a crown for a king or queen!
There are so many significant themes that this movie delves into: the value of grandparents, the importance of establishing roots in a community, women helping women, non-conformity, being willing to stick up for people less fortunate than you regardless of the cost. And, of course, there’s love and chocolate! Hey, I have an idea: while you curl up on the couch to enjoy your Chocolate Almond baklava why not do it while watching this fantastic movie! You won’t be disappointed. See you next month!
With lots of love,
Rita
“Sit with Rita Magalde for an hour and you’ll notice her cell phone buzzes and beeps a lot. Baklava orders from her business website, www.SheerAmbrosiaBakery.com arrive in her inbox and one local customer texts, ‘Hi! The walnut cranberry is to die for! It might be my favorite. It has a nice balance of tart, sweet and nutty flavor with a hint of cinnamon. You are the baklava queen!’
Such compliments are appreciated by Magalde, a Draper resident who has been making varieties of this honey- and nut-filled Mediterranean delight for 30 years. ‘It makes me so happy that I bring light into people’s lives,’ she said.”
Read the full article HERE in the Draper Journal
Written by Linnea Lundgren
There is a reason I chose my Traditional Honey Walnut Baklava as my January Baklava of the Month: It was the very first baklava I ever learned how to make. Most of you already know my baklava origin story as there are a few videos online that tell it; but for those of you who don’t, I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version.
When I was 16 years old I started working for a Greek family in North Carolina where I grew up. They were three brothers, two of which were married with kids. They all lived on the same street and had all come to the United States as adults. While they were very successful in the restaurant business, they relied on good help to navigate through our culture and language. Once they realized that I was “good help,” they utilized me in lots of different ways. In addition to working at the restaurant, I babysat their children, paid their bills, and picked up their parents and brought them to work with me on many occasions.
I was around “the Greeks” (as I called them) a lot, and over the years I learned a ton from them—not only about their country and culture but about life and business in general. They were extremely proud of their roots, and I was introduced to all things Greek while in their homes. I was curious about it all. It was very different from my African American culture, but they reminded me a lot of my own family in many ways: family was important, food was always part of the festivities, and they were loud. They primarily spoke Greek around me unless they were speaking to me directly, but I didn’t need to understand what they were saying to absorb from them.
When my boss would ask me to pick up his mama or daddy, it was never a quick honk of the horn and Nick (Papou, Greek for “grandfather”) hopped in the car. I had to park, ring the doorbell, go in for Greek coffee and treats, and smile while awkwardly eating. It was awkward not because I didn’t want to be there nor because I didn’t feel comfortable; I couldn’t stop speaking in English and they couldn’t stop speaking to me in Greek, and none of us understood each other.
I was always interested in what Yiayia Maria (Greek for “Grandmother”) had to offer me, and she could tell I wasn’t just being polite. She would show me the pastries she baked and would explain them to me in Greek and I would look and respond back in English. It was a dance we did every time I went over. Let’s just say, there was a lot of smiling and you don’t have to understand a particular language to understand the meaning of a big smile. She and Papou have long since passed away, but I still remember their kind, warm faces and their proud Greek spirit. I was so smitten with the years I spent with the Greeks that I never forgot the recipes long after I left their restaurant and North Carolina behind for my adventures in Spain and then my life and family here in Utah.
Over the years, I’ve expanded on that first baklava recipe and have run wild building upon it. In 2008 after tinkering with my recipes for years and sharing them with friends, I opened Sheer Ambrosia Bakery. Enjoy my version of Traditional Greek Walnut Baklava and Happy New Year! May 2021 be a blessed and healthy year for all of us.
With lots of LOVE,
Rita Magalde
“Rita Magalde of Sheer Ambrosia bakes delectable baklava, a succulent dessert pastry formed of crisp phyllo dough and drizzled with a honeyed sweetness or sugared syrup to hold it together. Chopped nuts mold each layer, and, once baked, the flaky dish crumbles and melts on your tongue with a flavorful duality of earthy walnuts and soaked honey.
Appropriately named, Sheer Ambrosia bakes food “fit for the gods,” says Magalde. Not any business can slap such a title onto their storefront and have it feel congruous. As someone who has traveled far past her current home, Draper, Utah, to better understand how food and dessert is derivative of varying cultures and identities, Magalde has earned the namesake. With baklava that is delivered across the United States, she has certainly mastered the craft and ardently recognizes cooking and baking as an art form, not just something that tastes good and satisfies a craving.”
Read the full article HERE in the Slug Mag.
Article written by Jamie Christensen
We’ve made it to the end of 2020, and hopefully you and your family members are healthy and well. It’s almost Christmas and, for me, Christmas is a special time. It’s special not only because my business generally booms during the holiday season but, more importantly, because I love Christmas. I’m going to get a little personal with this month’s message so bear with me.
I was raised in a religion that didn’t allow me to celebrate Christmas as a child. Our family never had a tree; carols were never sung in our home. I never received a Christmas present, and I always knew Santa Claus wasn’t real. There was zero Christmas spirit, cheer, or nostalgia. My parents were wonderful, but they were steadfast in their belief that Christmas was not to be celebrated in our home. At school, while other kids colored pictures of Santa and the reindeer, I colored the letter R for Rita. And when we went to music class, I awkwardly sat in silence as the other children sang all the traditional Christmas songs one after another.
When I was 18 years old I left the church I grew up in, and a month before my 19th birthday I celebrated Christmas for the first time. I remember as if it were yesterday. I had my own apartment, and I went to Target and bought one of those two-feet-tall Christmas trees that came with pre-installed lights and tiny ornaments. It sat in the corner of my little apartment, and I was so happy.
The year my husband and I bought our first house, I raced out and purchased our first tree but had no idea how to decorate it. I put the bulbs on first and they all came tumbling down when I tried to install the lights. Ha! Ha! Rookie mistake! Lights first, then the ornaments, Rita!
When my children were born, I spared no expense and had the biggest tree with the most beautiful lights and ornaments. The candles warmed our home with their Christmas fragrances, and I cooked and baked and bought them all the presents they could want. My children would not be denied Christmas joy!
When I was 36, my boyfriend at the time couldn’t believe that I’d never experienced the Nutcracker in any form or fashion so he treated me to The Nutcracker ballet. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever witnessed, and I cried during the performance.
For years, my Cranberry Walnut Spice served as my go-to “holiday” flavor and it still does. But last year I wanted to come up with an alternative flavor. As you know, I love fusing my baklava with fruit so I decided to make a Sugar Plum version as an homage to the beautiful Sugar Plum Fairy and my love for Christmas.
So there you have it, friends…Sugar Plum Walnut! Enjoy the subtle hints of plum and the sweetness of the sugar along with the honey and spices. Relish the Christmas season as much as I’ve grown to appreciate it over the years. It’s cold outside, but it’s my hope that your home is always warm inside with love, good food, the company of your family, and the comfort the holiday season always seems to bring
So, from our house to yours, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Blessings that you remain healthy and safe!
Happy November! I’m so excited to connect with you again. I’ve been spending lots of time alone these days because I desperately want to stay COVID-FREE so I can continue to bake for you, my customers and friends. So when I get to write to you and tell you stories, I get a little giddy!
We have come to my favorite flavor of the year! Yes, I know, a mother shouldn’t have a favorite, but I dooooo! I can’t help it. The marriage between tart and sweet with this combination is TO-DIE-FOR…or should I say TO-LIVE-FOR. Anyway, the year I came up with this flavor (I think it was October of 2013) I’m pretty sure I gained at least 10 pounds over the holiday season, and it was ALL from this Cranberry Walnut Spice Baklava.
I can’t believe it took me as long as it did to come up with this flavor because I’ve had a love affair with cranberries for a long time. It all started back in the summer of 1995, before I left for Spain. I was doing an internship for my history major in New Port, Rhode Island, where I worked at the Newport Historical Society Monday through Friday and on the weekends. I explored New England, living on the Salve Regina University Campus in an old mansion (there are LOTS of mansions there), which they converted into student dorm rooms, and I loved it!
Every morning on the way to work, I rode my bike to an old historic home converted into a bakery where I’d sample a different pastry. One morning I had a cranberry orange muffin and thought I’d died and gone to heaven! From that day forward, it was a cranberry orange muffin…nothing else would do! That burst of tart amongst the light, airy, buttery sweetness of the pastry was just so delightful. I was 110 pounds soaking wet and could eat whatever I wanted in those days without gaining an ounce, so yummy muffins every day? An explosion of goodness—bring it on!
A few weeks into my trip, I visited Cranberry World by Ocean Spray in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with a group of students. It was a museum dedicated to, you guessed it: CRANBERRIES! It was there that I learned how cranberries are cultivated and harvested, about the cranberry bogs, and all the delicious ways you can enjoy the fruit. I remember getting lots of laughs when I told my friends back home that I went to Cranberry World!
After the internship was over and right before I drove back home to North Carolina, I stopped to get an oil change at the local Jiffy Lube and met a realtor in the waiting room. We talked about my adventures, how much fun I had during my summer, and my newfound fondness for this part of our vast country, in particular New Port with its flat, biker-friendly streets, neat, culture-rich shops & people, and gorgeous beaches. She slipped me her card and told me to call her if I ever wanted to come back to live. At the time, I thought that was definitely going to be in the cards for me. Little did I know that my study abroad in Spain would change the trajectory of my life.
Years passed and I forgot about my dream summer in New England, but when I re-discovered cranberries for my holiday baklava in my own bakery in Sandy, Utah, memories from that summer came roaring back. It reminded me that there are so many places here in the States that I love too and that I don’t always have to travel outside of our borders to enjoy and learn about the world. If you’ve never been, and once this crazy pandemic is over, you must find time to visit New England. It’s so beautiful and there is so much culture and history to see, eat, and poke around in.
Stay safe and healthy because there are good times to come.
Love,
Baklava Rita
