The first few years after my divorce, I was focused on all the things that I didn’t have—a husband, a second income, the father of my children in the house sharing responsibilities, etc. While it is normal to grieve after a loss, it wasn’t healthy for me to ruminate in my grief.
Gradually, however, I started to evolve and change. I knew I had to make adjustments, and I desperately wanted to be happy. So, I went to the drugstore, bought a big neon yellow posterboard, and I made a list of the Top 10 Things I Am Grateful For:
1) I am healthy.
2) My two children are healthy.
3) I live in picturesque, beautiful mountain country.
4) I have a family that loves me although they are far away.
5) I have friends who care deeply for me.
6) I was born in a country that allows women to have opportunities.
7) I have a successful business.
8) I know God loves me.
9) I have an education.
10) Nothing stays the same…time heals all wounds.
I hung the poster in my bathroom, and I read through all 10 statements every day. Gradually, my attitude started to change. It wasn’t magic; I didn’t instantly become this super content person overnight, but that poster marked the beginning of a new way of thinking for me. I realized that yes, there was much that I didn’t have, important things, but there was more that I DID have. Just having my physical health alone was a huge blessing and that was just the beginning. I made it a point to start focusing more on what I did have and cultivated a gratitude mentality. It’s amazing how that one tweak can move mountains.
So, focus on what you DO have instead of what you are lacking, and be grateful for those blessings and see what amazing things start to happen for you. The Universe is alive and well and just as a parent feels the overwhelming urge to want to give their child more when they show gratitude and appreciation for the gifts they have been already given, so too will The Universe act in accordance for YOU.
—Peace, Love, & Baklava Forever,
Rita
This month’s baklava flavor is one of my top sellers. I find that it’s quite popular with my middle-eastern clients who also enjoy baklava in their cultures but prefer the earthy, rustic flavor of pistachios to walnuts. I didn’t grow up baking with pistachios. In fact, the only real tree nuts I grew up incorporating into my baked goods were walnuts and pecans. Now don’t get me wrong: I love these two nuts very much, but once I was introduced to pistachios I was IN NUT HEAVEN.
I remember first seeing them around Christmas time at our country market when I was a little girl. As I recall they were dyed a red/pinkish tint, and I don’t remember seeing them again until years later when I was studying abroad in Spain and then again while I was traveling through Italy.
Besides baklava, my all-time-favorite sweet treat is ice cream. I love American ice cream and frozen custards, and while in Italy I fell madly in love with gelato. My favorite flavor was…pistachio. It was creamy and smooth, and the nutty pistachio flavor was so addicting. The color was a perfect, warm green that looked exactly like the flesh of the nut—not that artificial and obviously inauthentic mint-colored green that I grew up seeing at the local ice cream store in North Carolina. Everywhere I went in Italy I had to try their version of pistachio gelato. Getting my cup was never an easy task, but I was always up to the challenge because it was so worth it! There were ALWAYS large crowds of people standing in front of the gelato displays but never any real lines. I just had to work myself up to the front with my hand up, smiling really nicely, trying to make eye contact with the person dishing out the delicious scoops while shouting my order. It was always a small pistachio: “Piccolo pistachio, please!”
I came home from my first trip to Italy in 2009 with a taste for all things pistachio, so I set out to make a pistachio baklava. Pistachios aren’t cheap. In fact, they are quite expensive so I decided to pair it with a great compliment: pecans! While my recipe calls for equal parts pistachios to pecans, I find myself being a bit heavy handed with the pistachios because I so want you to enjoy the pistachio experience. I also love to garnish with the green nut because, frankly, I think the color is beautiful.
A few fun facts about pistachios: 1) In China pistachios are called the “happy nut” and in Iran the “smiling nut” because, in the shell, they look like they are smiling. 2) In the first century AD the Emperor of Rome introduced Italy to the pistachio. 3) Its green color comes from antioxidants and 4) The red/pinkish color I mentioned earlier was the result of pistachios being dyed to cover their imperfections, as merchants wanted to make them look more palatable to consumers.
Enjoy your Pistachio/Pecan Mix Baklava! I hope my story makes your palate yearn for this month’s ambrosia.
—Peace, Love, & Baklava Forever,
Rita
“Baklava – the Greek food of the gods — and other flavors of Greece are the specialties of an extraordinary African American woman who founded Sheer Ambrosia Bakery in Salt Lake City after being honored as the first non-Greek to make the dessert for the Salt Lake City Greek Festival.
Yes, you read that right, Salt Lake City, in Utah. The name of the state conjures up images of imposing sawtoothed mountains, a vast lake of salt water, and Mormons.’’
Read the full article HERE.
By Patricia Claus
Outside of cooking, baking, baklava, and traveling, I have another passion that I discovered back in 2006—Argentine Tango. Well, when I discovered it can be a bit of a debate because I actually saw Argentine tango for the first time in 1999 while I was pregnant with my son and on bed rest (read more about that here on my Reinventing Rita blog). I wasn’t allowed to move from the bed for almost my whole first trimester so I read a lot of books and watched a lot of television. One day I stumbled across a movie called The Tango Lesson and I was so intrigued…partly because I loved the music but mainly because I craved the freedom to move the way the dancers glided around the dance floor. The dialogue was spoken in three languages: English, Spanish, and French. And it was shot in Paris, Buenos Aires, and London. It was partially filmed in color while some scenes were in black and white. I loved the movie, but most of all I loved the dancing.
Fast forward to 2006. It was two years after my divorce, and I was open to trying new things. A friend invited me to what she was calling a “milonga,” which I later found out was a tango dance party. I recalled the movie I had seen so many years before. When I heard the music, I immediately fell back in love. Two months later, I was on a plane to Buenos Aires and there began my love affair with Argentine tango. Since then, whenever I’ve been able, I travel to various tango festivals around the country. Once while at a festival in Portland Oregon, I visited a place called Voodoo Doughnut where I tasted the most yummy Maple Bacon doughnut ever. I had heard about this unconventional way of enjoying bacon and felt this Maple Bacon craze was overrated…that is until I tasted that doughnut.
I came home with the idea to invent my own Maple Bacon Baklava creation, and after a few iterations this is what I’ve come up with. I hope you enjoy it! I personally LOVE to eat this flavor of baklava for breakfast or brunch. I love to enjoy it with my morning coffee, a bowl of in-season fruit (my favorite is fresh peaches), and of course with a couple of warm scrambled eggs. I’m telling you THIS is the way to start your morning, people!
So there you have it…two of my passions (baking and tango) collide and the result is one of my favorite baklava flavors yet: Maple Bacon Walnut. The sweetness from the honey and maple flavoring paired with the salty, meaty bacon gives this baklava a rare savory/sweet combo that is like no other baklava you’ve ever had. My favorite part of this story is how my passion for tango led me to this new flavor.
Enjoy your treat this month my baklava family, and do let me know how your passions have intertwined in your life creating new and interesting twists and turns. Until next month!
—Peace, Love, & Baklava Forever,
Rita
“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
