Baklava at Marat's Restaurant - Fresno, CA

Marat's Restaurant
8961 N Cedar Ave # 103
Fresno, CA 93720-4831

I love baklava when it's not overly sweet, and this stuff at Marat's in Fresno is awesome. I've been to this place many, many times with my family and a couple of friends (Steve and Candy) because we all just LOVE IT so much, and just last week I went there finally with Blake!

Double Pizza Night: Chicken, Pesto, & Mozzarella and Potato, Leek & Bacon

Catherine, Josh, and I made these two pizzas last night (9/21/11). We used recipes from The Pioneer Woman Cooks as well as a pizza dough recipe that Catherine got from The Food Network. Both pizzas were SO DELICIOUS, but Catherine and I agreed that the potato, leek, & bacon one was better (I think Josh chose the chicken one). This was the first time all three of us had cooked leeks, which are pretty much like giant green onions. I've eaten potato leek soup topped with truffle oil in Chicago on a food tour, and that was amazing too. That bacon and cooking the leeks in bacon fat made this first pizza. All three of us agreed that the potato pizza tasted better topped with sweet potatoes rather than regular potatoes. Anyway, here are the pizzas we made!

I thought this leek chopped up was so pretty! Too bad I realized later that I hadn't included the rest of the dark green part. Next time.

 Delicious, garlic-y homemade pesto - made by Catherine & Josh:

 Chicken, pesto, & mozzarella pizza BEFORE:

  Chicken, pesto, & mozzarella pizza AFTER:

Potato, leek, & bacon pizza BEFORE:

 Potato, leek, & bacon pizza (AFTER):

 

Part of the work area:

Pineapple Coconut Smoothie (AKA Piña Colada)

I used "Coconut Pineapple" ice cream but call this a "pineapple coconut" smoothie because I added frozen pineapple juice so that it ended up being more pineapple-y (my brother loves pineapples). This smoothie is sooo good. The ice cream is wonderful and creamy and delicious even just on its own. By the way, I've decided to use my family's sake cups for food blog pictures of certain drinks.

Recipe (use however much you think you'll like):

Non-fat milk
Coconut pineapple ice cream
Frozen pineapple juice
Ice

Combine in a blender (my family uses the BlendTec, which is fantastic and blends things really well and makes ice very fine so you get smoooooth smoothies).

Country Apple Dumplings (w/ Mountain Dew!?)

I found the recipe for these Country Apple Dumplings here on AllRecipes.com. Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman has her usual step-by-step pictures here. The recipes are the same except The Pioneer Woman's recipe is just called "Apple Dumplings," and the cinnamon is just "to taste."

I chose to make these because my mom had mentioned wanting some apple pie and then I saw this very highly-rated recipe and wanted to try it.

*Note: I made this recipe slightly healthier and it was still really good! Honestly, I'd rather not have the Mountain Dew in it, but these were definitely winners! So easy and gooood.

• 2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled & cored
• 2 (10 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent roll dough (I got the lower fat kind)
• 1 cup butter = 2 sticks (I used about 1.5 sticks)
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar (I used a little over a cup)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle Mountain Dew ™ (I poured from a two-liter bottle)
  
  (1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
  (2) Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish
  (3) Cut each apple into 8 wedges & set aside
  (4) Separate crescent roll dough into the triangles as they come
  (5) Roll each apple wedge in crescent roll dough starting at the smallest end
  (6) Pinch to seal & place in the baking dish
  (7) Melt butter in a small saucepan & stir in the sugar & cinnamon & pour it over the apple dumplings
  (8) Pour Mountain Dew™ over the dumplings
  (9) Bake for 35-45 minutes in the oven (or until golden brown)