it's been a while! life's been very busy. however, in all that crazy madness i managed to come up with something: 
Baklava!- A sweet and crunchy dessert that originated somewhere in central asia; something I've made before but have improved since then. I used one day's time to make this two inch tall goodness and man, was it worth it! if you would like to have the recipe, here it is:
Ingredients:
- 1lb phyllo dough (14x18 sheets, 20+ count)
- 1 lb chopped walnuts
- 1 c butter, melted
- 1 ts cinnamon
Syrup:
- 1 c water
- 1 c white sugar
- 1 ts vanilla extract
- 1/2 c honey
- 1/2 ts lemon juice
Procedure:
- Mix together nuts and cinnamon in a bowl
- apply butter to a 13x9 in pan
- lay down one sheet of phyllo dough and apply butter. repeat until you've got 5 layers
- spread some nut mix on top of the 5 layers
- repeat steps 3-4 until you've made at least 6 layers of phyllo + nut mix
- layer at least 10 sheets of phyllo dough on top of the whole thing
- preheat oven to 350F
- cut into diamond or rectangular shapes
- bake in oven for 50 min
- meanwhile, mix sugar, water, lemon juice until homogenous and add vanilla and honey and simmer 20 min. let cool.
- spoon sauce over hot baklava
- let sit for at least a day (that's when it's real good. but if you can't wait, at least 4 hrs is enough... i guess)
