Savoury Pastries as part of Mezza

This is Called Saj - this is the element which we use to bake our lavash bread in Lebanon.
It is a metal round tray sit on another round heating element with leg, the heating element has holes and it works on propane, also if you want you can build yourself a brick fireplace to fit the Saj and bake your bread on it, you need to be a professional to control the fire, and make sure its working properly to get the perfect wood baked bread and pastries, other wise it will not bake properly or you burn the bread.

This is a gas element Saj, my mom puts it on the balcony outside and bread and oregano and cheese bread as a treat during the weekends.

Phoenician Gourmet Participating in a Christmas Craft Shows

During the month of November I participated in three craft shows in North Bay, as a baker and a caterer. It was my first year participating in something like this; I worked very hard and spent many nights baking till the early hours of the morning, making sure the food looks fabulous and the taste is excellent (you eat with your eyes first right!!!) . The preparation started couple of weeks before; I soaked 20 kg of dry chickpeas, boiled them, then froze them. Boxes of eggplants have been roasted and cleaned and also packaged in the freezer, couple of boxes of big red peppers were roasted cleaned and packaged in the freezer ( oh no…. I don’t have a commercial freezer, I have a big freezer, and thanks to my dear neighbor Linda who was kind enough to offer me a clean empty freezer in her basement, and also my in-law’s freezer, so I barely made it for the first show.

My food was a variety of Lebanese Dips (hummus, Baba Ghanouj, Mhamarah) around 40 jars of pepper jelly, the majority are red pepper jelly, and some with Jalapeno pepper and some a mix between red pepper and jalapeno .
Also I baked several dozens of Lebanese flat bread; also I prepared vegetarian savoury pastries which included Spinach, and Mushroom Galettes.
For dessert I baked a total of 40 pounds of Baklawa with different flavours and designs, also, I made Pecan Butter Tarts, and Homemade Mincemeat Pies, I made around 10 kinds of Christmas Cookies.
Two kinds of Fruit cakes the first with Homemade Marzipan and other is the traditional English Fruit cake which is wrapped with homemade marzipan and covered with royal icing frosting. Also I prepared 4 kinds of truffles, Black Russian truffle, Orange liqueur truffles, almond and brandy truffles and Kahlua truffle
Also double chocolate coffee beans bonbons and pecan caramel bonbons


These are some of the pictures which I took for the stuff I made :

Boxes of Christmas Cookies , Pecan Butter Tarts & Homemade Mincemeat Pies

more baking's

the tables are ready and full of delicious food

More dessert trays

we needed big bins to carry the dessert boxes.

Variety of Christmas Cookies

Traditional English Fruit Cake with homemade marzipan and royal icing on top

Traditional English Fruit Cake

Rich Fruit Cake with homemade marzipan

Truffles Variety including:black Russian,Brandy Truffle, Hazelnut Truffles, Orange Truffles, then Double Chocolate Coffee Balls, Kahlua and Pecan Caramel Truffles

Apricot & pistachios Baklawa

tray of Bird's Nests Baklawa

Coffee Baklawa

Bird's nests Baklawa

Chocolate fingers Baklawa

Blossom Baklawa Tray ready for the oven

Almond Baklawa

Cranberry and Nuts Baklawa

Blossom Baklawa

Traditional Baklawa with walnuts, almonds cashews

Holiday Decorations Stand

Hand Made Crafted wood decorations

Santa Was there too...