Pancakes and more-edited for L's peace of mind

Well, I have had a bit of a week (for someone who has nothing going on, I always seem to have so many issues...)

First off the baklava post:
I could not get my ipad to email the photos to my blog. I have fortunately figured out that problem and have the photos now:

 Don't these look lovely?

The baklava was surprisingly easy. I just watched a tv show while I made it. I had only two issues-I used all the butter early on and had to clarify more-so I melted another stick in the pan with the butter removals-that was a stupid stupid idea-after spending forever trying to get the stuff to separate I had to just melt another stick. The other issue-why are phyllo dough sheets so big? Last time I checked most pans were 9 x 13, not 500 x 6135. So yes, I had to tear my sheets and still had loads hanging over the edges. Other than that, no problems. O came home, nibbled on an edge and said "that is the best baklava I have ever had" (it was later revealed that he had never had baklava before, though he swears he ate some pastries in the Czech Republic a time or two...). L also came over to visit my little temporary pig and said "that is good baklava, and I normally hate baklava" some stuff about the baklava. Between the three of us we managed to finish three little diamonds. I sent some up to my brother and the rest of the pan to my fam-good thing it lasts for 10 days bc they were all out of town and I did not want to waste what the book labeled as a "labor of love". The fam liked it. All in all, I'm glad to find out it is totally do-able.

I did not fix my original post bc I had some reason to be snapping mad at O-oh yes, it was over something he said about Arby's-but then I had to set that aside and become friends again bc he was planning a surprise for me the following night, so that took up most of the evening. Then, my psychic mind told me to go to bed to prepare for the events of the next several days.

The Events started Thursday morning: In the middle of the night (actually I think it was 4:3O) my sister called me and told me she was going into labor!! I raced down there (with O, who agreed to come once I told him I was taking his new car-which he denies had anything to do with it), fell asleep for an hour, called everyone in the world to find someone to take some little Burmese children to school so that L could come spell me off, found out that B and spouse had really faked labor so they could go out to breakfast (j/k), raced back to school, raced home to my surprise, got a teacup pig, stayed up all night with said pig, went to work looking like a rabid jackrabbit before racing right back to my pig, sent my pig to camp to learn how to eat, found out that L's love interest was formerly engaged someone had an event in their past (imagine that) (that was a bit of a non-issue in my mind), planned and unplanned a trip to Japan about 20 times, had to put my little baby pig up for sale, and in my depression have watched an entire season of The Good Wife, packed up almost all of my belongings, and had about 307 diet cokes.

Well, my sister is in the hospital now so she really will have a baby soon and yesterday I got a ticket to Japan-leaving in 3 weeks so time to do some serious planning. To celebrate, I had Korean bbq tacos from CPK last night, they are quite tiny but rather good.

About Japan-L is going to Japan for graduation. Her friend is over there doing an internship so she thought it would be the prefect excuse to head over! We are just going over there, no apparent reason. Of course she cannot go alone and so I was invited to Japan on account of me not having a serious job, any children, and bc I told some people I had studied Japanese (by which I meant I drive a Honda part-time, have seen all 3 Kill Bills, edited so that was about 30 min total, have watched a youtube video on how to make a bow out of your hair by a Japanese girl, and I loved Spirited Away-great movie, and Anime. I also babysat L's tamagachi once, though I think it died so I will not bring that up enough said) All in all, I am completely ecstatic! I love traveling and have never been to Asia before!! I have found the perfect thing to take with me to wear over there-I'm ordering it on Amazon and I'll post pics soon! And of course you can all look forward to blog posts for the rest of the year about our trip :)

So for this weeks baking we made pancakes!
J, my old roomie, chose this week's recipe. She loves pancakes and makes great ones! I have never made pancakes from scratch so I was really excited. In the end, these were totally fine, they just were not any better than box pancakes. I have had J's Betty Crocker pancakes and think they might be better. I did not care for the syrup I made (butter pecan, with walnuts instead of pecans) but O loved it. This is perhaps the first thing I have made for the club that O ate!! In reality, the syrup was totally fine, it just was not buttermilk syrup, which I am crazy into right now.

We also had bacon-I am too scared to make real bacon so I buy this bacon that you microwave in a little plastic bubble-O thinks it is the best of all the microwavable bacon. I was also on such a roll I made bran muffins-the ones we made earlier in the year for the club. They are not my absolute fav bran muffins but they are super easy and good.
Check out J's blog-Diaries of a cookaholic on my sidebar for the recipe!

Next post I will tell you all about my Birthday extravaganza!!
 
and here is me and some elk I saw on the side of the road the other day.