This month’s Baklava of the Month flavor is Spiced Pear Walnut, and I have to tell you the story of how I came up with this flavor. I love, love, love cooking, baking, and home décor/decorating. There’s nothing like a beautifully cozy and inspiring space with delicious aromas filling the kitchen and permeating the entire home. I grew up watching Martha Stewart and perusing the pages of Good Housekeeping, Southern Living, and Architectural Digest. To this day my television toggles between HGTV and the Food Network.

Anyway, back to the story…years ago, I was watching one of my favorite chefs, Ina Garten (host of Barefoot Contessa) bake something I had never heard of before. She called it a Pear Clafouti. It sounded so sophisticated and foreign, and my interest was immediately piqued. I took notes as I watched her making it on the screen, then went right out and bought the ingredients. It turned out lovely and smelled divine once it was baked and cooling on the rack. I made it again for my next dinner party, and it was a hit! From then on, I enjoyed experimenting with pear desserts. I made pear fruit tarts, both summer chilled and warmly baked. I made poached pears served warm and another version served chilled. I explored recipes with various varieties of pears: Bartlett, Bosc, D’Anjou, Asian, and others. Did you know there are over 3,000 varieties of pears? Crazy, right! I learned that clove, cinnamon, and allspice are wonderful complimentary spices to pears; and, of course, I added pears to my baklava recipes. Over time, I tweaked and formulated my spiced pear walnut baklava recipe into what it is today.

I hope you enjoy my recipe, which was inspired by Ina and her Pear Clafouti. To honor her, I’d like to direct you to her recipe if you are feeling adventurous and want to enjoy another pear dessert after you’ve gobbled up your baklava. You can find it at HERE. By the way, a Clafouti is a baked French dessert made with fruit. It is traditionally made with black cherries, which is also oh, so yummy!

Enjoy your baklava! I can’t wait to talk with you next month! And please remember…I appreciate you more than you will ever know.

“Once again, the country is reeling after another abhorrent death. Breonna Taylor. Darrien Hunt. Amaud Arbery, George Floyd. Countless others. Now, Jacob Blake.

In response to these horrific and unjust deaths, we saw the Black Lives Matter movement gain traction and support this summer. As people all across the country continue to protest in the streets, tens of thousands of Utahns are expressing their own style of protesting – not only in the streets – but also with support for Black-owned businesses. By putting their money where it really counts, Utahns are showing their love and support in meaningful ways and for that, I am so incredibly grateful.”

Read the full article HERE in the Salt Lake Tribune
Written by Rita Magalde

I’m so excited to connect with you again, my Baklava of the Month Club customers/friends! This month I don’t really have a “story” per se to explain how I came up with my apple baklava recipe, but I do have some wonderful news to tell you! My first instinct was to make it a surprise, but I’m not good at keeping secrets. So here goes…

I am so incredibly grateful to you all for your support and business and I want to show my appreciation by giving you something else of value besides your monthly baklava treats. Because I think of my baklava as art, I decided to capture all my flavors in pictures…but I’m also all about useful gifts. So I am in the process of creating a 2021 baklava photo calendar for you all! I’m not using the same images from my website. After all, I took most of those photos and although they are good, they are not FABULOUS!

So I hired a REAL photographer. Her name is Aubrie Cornelius, and she’s a food photographer here in Salt Lake City. She’s a young stay-at-home mom of two and like me, family is important to her, but turning her passion for photography into a business was something she was born to do. Aubrie reached out to me, so I checked her out on Instagram and was blown away by her photos. Can you say G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S! If you’re on Instagram, please go see her page; her handle is @theblonde_chef. After we talked and really connected, we spent the entire month of August working on the calendar pics doing about two a week. Aubrie did an amazing job interpreting my vision and ideas. She’s just finished putting the final touches on each photo and turned them over to me this week, and man are they lovely!

Now, I’m working with my graphic designer to create the perfect calendar. My goal is to have it ready to send to you with your October Baklava of the Month Club orders. Above is a picture of an interview I did with Aubrie on Facebook Live. If you have a Facebook account, please go check it out HERE. It’s approximately 22 minutes. We discuss how we met, our passions, all the ways we are alike, and a little bit about life. Aubrie is an amazing up-and-coming photographer, and I just had to introduce her to my Facebook followers and you, of course!

Stay tuned for the calendar. I can’t wait for you to see it…heck…I can’t wait to see it! It’s going to be beautiful and each month, when you turn the page, you’ll know right away what flavor to be expecting in your mailbox. Enjoy your Apple Pie Walnut baklava. My favorite way to enjoy it is with caramel ice cream. It’s so decadent and yummy. Until next month! And please remember…I appreciate you more than you will ever know!

With Love,
Baklava Rita

We loved getting to know Rita Magalde from her last appearance, when she whipped up the tastiest deserts and told us all about her bakery, Sheer Ambrosia. When we found out she was also author of book “From Mrs. To Ms”, we knew we had to get her right back in!…

Watch now here…

Check out my feature in ABC4 Utah’s episode of “Good Things Cooking”: WATCH NOW

In this video I share my recipe for Kourambiedes, a Greek butter cookie, talk about my passion for baklava, and briefly mention my book, FROM MRS. TO MS. – How To Pull Your Life Together When Your Marriage Falls Apart.

“While thousands are making a statement about injustice at marches, protests and vigils, many Utahns have found an additional way to fight racial inequity.

They are spending their dining dollars at restaurants, food trucks and bakeries owned by people of color.

‘For a white person who is not comfortable going to a protest,” said Rita Magalde, owner of Sheer Ambrosia Bakery, “this is another way to support black Americans.'”

Read More of this Salt Lake Tribune Article
Article written by Kathy Stephenson | June 5, 2020

Today’s post is one I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I want to discuss finding your passion/purpose, getting into your groove, doing your “thing” successfully at an older age. We live in a time that seems to think that if you haven’t made your millions, aren’t able to retire at 45, or aren’t at the top of your career game by 40, then you’re a loser. That is so far from the truth! Just because Mark Zuckerberg became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at 23 doesn’t mean that you belong on the trash heap because you’re 50 and are still working on making your mark in your industry. Not everyone is destined to be Mark Zuckerberg or Kylie Jenner. They are the exception, not the rule.

Life is a J-O-U-R-N-E-Y people! It’s not about the end game; it’s about how you get there through all the twists and turns, roadblocks, and obstacles. It’s about the pitstops we make in order to enjoy parenthood and explore other passions. It’s about learning from mistakes, and sometimes it’s just about taking time to handle things that become new and more important priorities. Sometimes—NO, ALL THE TIME—we change. We evolve and our dreams and desires change as we evolve.

There are examples of folks that became famous, rich, or leaders in their industry while they were young, and I’ve already named a couple above. But there are also plenty of examples of people who became all of those things and more later in life…after they raised their children, after they took care of a sick parent, after they retired from a job they needed in order to care for their family. Whatever the case for the delay in them becoming household names until way past their supposed prime, they still made their indelible mark.

Let’s take a look at a few of my personal role models and guilty pleasures:

I have to start with my favorite female celebrity chef (sorry Martha Stewart…I like you too) but Julia Child is my girl! The queen of cooking didn’t even write her first cookbook until she was 50! It was called Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She went on to have several cooking shows, and thanks to PBS I learned about this wonderful woman when I was a little girl. Thus began my own journey into the cooking world.

Thanks to Henry Ford and his Model T, mass car production became a thing. But guess how old he was when he created the Model T…he was 45 years old!

Ray Kroc was a milkshake machine salesman before he bought McDonald’s at the age of 52 and grew it into the world’s largest fast-food chain.

A gracefully beautiful woman that I admire who is considered a late bloomer is Vera Wang. She started her figure skating career at eight years old and later switched to fashion as an editor for Vogue. She was in her 40s when she became the fashion designer she’s most noted for today.

You can’t go to the movies now without seeing Samuel L. Jackson’s face on the big screen, in a trailer, or on a poster in the hall. But did you know he was 43 when he got his first breakout role in Spike Lee’s film Jungle Fever? Still, he didn’t really become a household name until his rock-star role in Pulp Fiction. That movie solidified him as an icon in Hollywood. He was 46 years old!!!

For all of you Marvel Comic fans, did you know that Stan Lee was almost 39 when he created The Fantastic Four! He co-created Spider-Man after that, as well as the X-Men and other Marvel comic heroes.

I don’t want to bring down the positive mood here, but I cannot leave out my favorite celebrity chef of all time. Anthony Bourdain was a master cook, world traveler, and storyteller—my top three passions since, well…FOREVER. Anthony experienced a rollercoaster life. He went through times of both struggle and success on his way to ultimate name recognition, but he didn’t really become famous until his mid-40s. Anthony embodies everything that I strive for. Although Anthony struggled with his demons, he loved life, people, family, food, and adventure. A man after my own heart!!

I’ve saved another one of my favorite examples for last. Meet Laura Ingalls Wilder. Did you know she was 65 years old when she published her first Little House book? It was called Little House in the Big Woods. Her books inspired The Little House on the Prairie television show. It was my favorite show when I was a little girl. Our family never missed an episode. It came on Monday nights. We watched as a family with our homemade popcorn we popped on the stove in my mom’s big yellow cast iron cooker and washed it down with my mom’s favorite homemade lemonade she made with tap water, Real Lemon lemon juice and a pound of sugar!!!

I could go on, there’s Harland Sanders, better known as the Colonel. He was 62 when he franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken. He later sold it for 2 million dollars!!

Ok, I think you get my point. You haven’t missed your chance to make your mark on the world if you’re in your 40s like me. Like me, you’ve probably been busy raising kids & keeping the lights on and food in bellies. You may have changed careers like me. You may have gotten a divorce like me and had to change your priorities since you no longer have a partner to assist you. You may be helping to take care of your elderly parents. For whatever the reasons you haven’t been able to create that something special yet, don’t fret…you still have time.

Stop judging yourself and just appreciate where you are right now! Also, let the examples I’ve shown you prove that it’s not over ‘til the fat lady sings…it ain’t over ‘til it’s over! It’s never too late to make your mark on this beautiful world we live in. Wherever you are right now in your quest to make your difference, in the words of the late, great Curtis Mayfield, “keep on pushing!!!” Check out his song Move On Up Below…it’s inspiring!!

—Peace, Love, & Baklava Forever,
Rita

 

How many times have you contemplated your life and the decisions you have made and had regrets? Misgivings about your choice in a mate, regrets about which college you chose to attend, or your choice to not even go to college. How about regrets about a career choice or regrets about where you live? I can tell you I have had moments of regret in the past—laying in bed, unable to sleep, restless regrets I call them. I would lie there and wonder what my life would be like if I had not done this or that thing, had made this or that choice instead of the ones I did make.

I finally realized something: I understood that everything I chose was what I needed to choose at that time. Every person I’ve allowed into my life, every situation I have encountered, every project I thought I squandered time on…they have all shaped me into the person I am and were by no means a waste of my time. Please remember this simple message when you start to doubt your past decisions and the results they produced. You have been through a lot and have managed up until now, so don’t start to have reservations about what you have managed to do with your time. Trust that every moment of time exhausted was time well spent sculpting you into the YOU that you are.

Remember this quote by Asha Tyson:

—Peace, Love, & Baklava Forever,
Rita