My daughter informed us at the age of 6 that she was going to grow up and become a teacher. 📚Over the years, she crossed paths with more than a few people that tried to discourage her and steer her in another direction, but she held strong to her conviction that she was meant to teach children. Teaching has always been her passion which makes watching her live out her dream as a Kindergarten teacher even sweeter. I took the longer, more "round-about" road to discovering what I was passionate about in life. 🤣 And once I finally decided that I really enjoyed cooking and baking, it took me the better part of 10 years to turn my hobby into a business. 💁🏻♀️ I'm more of an ease my way in and test the waters than a jump right in with both feet, kind of girl. 🤣 While there are obvious perks to baking professionally, there are also some downfalls to turning your hobby into your job. Decorating cookies is way less fun after you do it for 12 straight hours. 😅 It's fair to say that my family's not been deprived of sugar since my baking evolved into a business though. There was never any shortage of cake scraps and cookie mistakes for hungry kiddos to enjoy. 😋 Maybe it's just my pride, but I bake so many cookies that I really can't justify buying them from the grocery store. As much as my kids loved growing up in a house filled with homemade sugary treats, there was no denying their looks of disappointment when we passed by the cookie aisle in the grocery store. 🍪 Is it considered child abuse if you don't buy your kids Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies? 😂 I'm still not sure that I ever bought a package of Chocolate Chip cookies but I will admit to purchasing the occasional package of Oreo cookies. My family LOVES Oreos and turns out, they were a great reward for unmotivated kids. The magic cookies turned my kids into professional negotiators and surprisingly helpful dishwasher emptiers. 😂 Now that the "kids" aren't so much "kids" anymore, the Oreos tend to last just a little bit longer in the house, which gives me a chance to snag a few to myself. If I'm being honest - I don't love Oreos but I do love to crush them up and turn them into other ... more homemade treats. Cupcakes, cakes, ice cream and cheesecakes are all treats that I've made even more delicious by adding Oreos. Today, it's biscotti that's getting and Oreo upgrade. I can't imagine a better way to take ordinary biscotti to the next level. Oreo Biscotti 6 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature ⅔ cup granulated sugar ½ teaspoon salt 3 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 2 large eggs 2 cups all-purpose flour 15 chocolate sandwich cookies coarsely chopped 2 Tablespoons white chocolate, melted
Arrange slices on baking sheet and bake 25-30 minutes. Let cool. Drizzle chocolate over cooled biscotti. For a girl who doesn't really love Oreos - I could not stop eating these biscotti! They are amazing and let's just say, I would clear the dishwasher twice a day if I could eat on of these every time. 😅
Ciao!
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I'll be the first to admit that I have a lot of idiosyncrosities. 🤷🏻♀️Those who know me well - know that my biggest pet peeve is ... CRUNCHING. 🙉 Not necessarily just the sound of crunching food - any sound that people make when biting into or chewing food, really. It's like nails on a chalkboard. Ironically - it's not just other people's crunching that annoys me, either. The sound that my own mouth makes when chewing crunchy food, is equally irritating. 🤦🏻♀️ Grape nuts, sourdough pretzels, pita chips, kettle chips, toasted corn - all foods that I don't allow past my lips simply because I can't stand to hear myself eat them. Obviously, my weird aversion to chewing sounds isn't my best personality trait and it's not something that I'm necessarily proud of. I recognize that I've eliminated some pretty great foods from my diet, simply because of their crunch factor. Unfortunately, my misophonia affects more than just me though. My family loves to tell people how I've been known to swipe a bowl of tortilla chips away from the table just 10 minutes into a taco dinner, because I simply couldn't tolerate the sound anymore. 🌮😅 Is it wrong that I've actually banned the consumption of certain breakfast cereals in our house because of their ultra-crunchy nature? 😬 The one crunchy food that hasn't been added to my list of taboo foods though, is biscotti. Maybe it's because I can dunk it in my coffee or tea when I get tired of hearing myself crunch it. Or maybe my love for biscotti is so great that it actually overshadows my noise sensitivity. Despite its ulta-crunchy nature, biscotti is something that I've never been able to resist. Brown Sugar, Pecan and Kahlua Biscotti 2 cups flour 1 cup brown sugar 1 tsp. baking powder ¼ tsp. salt 3 eggs 3 Tbs. Kahlua (or coffee) 1½ cups chopped pecans 2 Tablespoons coconut sugar
I'm a straightforward biscotti eater. I've always felt like the crunchy cookie is best enjoyed paired with a cup of tea but, I've never been a dunker. I eat biscotti for breakfast, as afternoon snack and for dessert after dinner but I've never tried to use them to create other desserts.
It's recently come to my attention that there's a whole world of biscotti desserts out there that I've yet to explore. Recipes using crushed biscotti to make crusts for cheesecakes, as a crumbled topping over ice cream, in yogurt parfaits for a crispy layer or and used instead of graham crackers for a new take on traditional s'mores. Send me your favorite recipes using biscotti. I'd love to see them. Ciao! I don't normally blog a new recipe when I'm cooking for guests. I don't think that people would necessarily object to waiting an extra 15 minutes for their meal while I take a ridiculous number of pictures but they might be offended when I put their dinner plate outside on my back porch in 30 degree weather in order to get the best lighting. 🥶 There's nothing like serving ice cold steak and mashed potatoes to a house full of hungry dinner guests. 😅 Time is also a factor when I'm preparing more than one thing at a time. My brain gets so consumed with getting the meal on the table that I forget to take pictures along the way. It's one thing to prepare and blog a perfectly roasted tenderloin, it's a whole new level to try and do it while also making sure that my potatoes don't burn, the asparagus is cooked to perfect crispness, the cesear dressing gets made added to the salad at just the right time to prevent wilting, the yeast rolls are given time to rise and bake, the carrot souffle is warm but not overly hot and and the apple pie is cooked at precisely the right time so that it's the perfect serving temperature at the end of the meal. In case you're wondering - that perfect dinner scenario almost never happens at our house. There's always at least 1 thing that gets overcooked or even catches on fire. 😂 I actually made this beef tenderloin twice last month just so that I could capture the steps and put it on my blog. If I write a recipe down, I'll probably forget where I put it so blogging is really the only reliable way for me to record recipes for future use. 🤷🏻♀️ The first time I made it - I got so wrapped up in the rest of the meal that I forgot to take about half of the pictures for the blog. The second time - I tried to fill in the gaps but I still never managed to get a picture of this beautiful beef on the dinner plate with all of the colorful sides. 💁🏻♀️ Oh well. When the company of my dinner companions takes priority over taking photographs of the food - I know it's was a special meal. I love making fancy dinners but I love the people that I get to share them with even more. After the food is long gone, it's the memories of our time together that I'll remember. I adapted this recipe from a recipe that I found in a Cook's Illustrated magazine. Full disclosure: I didn't eat any of this beef - on either occasion. I'm just not a beef eater. 💁🏻♀️ Anywhooo - What I can tell you is that everyone that I served it to, really enjoyed it. Beef Tenderloin with Madeira Dijon Sauce 3 Tablespoons olive oil 2 (1 pound) center cut beef tenderloin filets 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper 1/4 cup minced onion 1 thyme sprig 1/2 cup Madeira wine 3 cups beef stock 2 Tablespoons butter 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped 1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
Thinly slice beef and serve with sauce. An accurate meat thermometer is really key in this recipe. It's really the only way to tell when the meat reaches that critical 125 degree temperature. Serve the center of the tenderloin to guests who prefer their meat more rare and the ends to guests to like their beef a little more well done.
Ciao! I spent last weekend bundled up in a cozy sweater, baking gingerbread cookies and drinking hot cocoa with LOTS of marshmallows. (Throw in a winter festival and you would have thought that I was filming a Hallmark Christmas movie. 😂) Before you picture Martha Stewart, you should know that it was nearly 60 degrees in Georgia last weekend and I may or may not have been a sweaty mess in my already tacky Christmas sweater. 😅 So, why add hot cocoa to an already overheated situation? I guess it's because gingerbread doesn't taste the same without it. It's not a dunking situation but they're a combination deal. Gingerbread and cocoa go together like Oreos and milk, biscuits and tea or cake and coffee. One year I baked an entire batch of Gingerbread men and hung them on the Christmas tree. They were the most amazing smelling ornaments EVER! One morning I woke up to find most of the gingerbread missing from the tree. I immediately blamed my sweet toothed husband who I was convinced had somehow snuck out of bed in the middle of the night without me knowing, and eaten them. There was not even a crumb or a metal ornament hanger left on the floor - not a shred of evidence. Turns out - I was a little hasty with my judgement. 😬 (Not the first time.) My husband had been falsely accused because the true gingerbread bandit, was the dog. 🐕 She somehow managed to remove and consume an entire batch of gingerbread ornaments while miraculously keeping the Christmas tree from tipping over. (And just in case you're concerned about our beloved canine - she was just fine. Metal ornament hangers and all.) 🤷🏻♀️ Dairy Free Gingerbread Cookies
Bake 10 minutes at 350. If you want to make your gingerbread even a little sweeter - add some royal icing to your cookies. This dairy free gingerbread cookies are delicious and even though we do eat dairy, these are the gingerbread cookies that my family prefers. If you put a hole in the top, these would make great ornaments on your Christmas tree too. Just keep an eye on the dog. 😂
Ciao! Engrossed. That is the word that I would use to describe my life in December. Engrossed in sprinkles, in icing, in cake batter, in buttercream and in chocolate. 🧁I did a whole lot of baking but only about a very small percentage of all the deliciousness that was created in my kitchen last month was actually consumed by my own family. (It must be torture to live in my house.) 😂 Since I didn't do any Christmas baking for myself during the holidays, I've decided to do my holiday baking now. So here we go - Christmas Rum Cake in January. (This is fair warning that I won't be posting Valentine's Day cookie recipes until March either. ♥️😂) Anyone want to join me in baking a delicious boozy cake during this less hectic month when we actually have the time to sit down and enjoy it? And we can all agree that the best place to spend a chilly January afternoon is in the kitchen - baking a cake. I was a bit apprehensive about making this cake because when I hear Rum Cake, I picture a soggy boxed mix cake saturated with alcohol. I'm not averse to boozy cakes, I just don't want the flavor of the alcohol to overpower the taste of the cake. A homemade almond cake baked with a hearty dose of rum and drizzled with a lemon glaze seemed like the perfect way to reinvent the traditional Rum Cake. I found this recipe in an issue of Cook's Illustrated. They are genius at revamping recipes to create new and better versions of the original. French Almond Rum Cake 1 cup butter 6 eggs, beaten 2 Tablespoons lemon zest 2 1/2 cups almond flour 1 1/2 cups white sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons flour 6 Tablespoons dark rum Syrup 3 Tablespoons white sugar 1 Tablespoon whole allspice 1 teaspoon black peppercorns 1/2 cup dark rum Glaze and Garnish 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 Tablespoons lemon juice 1/2 cup sliced almonds
Pour glaze onto center of cake and spread to edges with an offset spatula. Sprinkle with toasted almonds. Let stand 1 hour for glaze to set. The original recipe was baked in a 9" round cake pan. Individual mini bundt cakes seemed more appropriate for the event that I wanted to take these to though. So voila! Almond Rum Cakelets!! As an added bonus, our house was smelled AMAZING while there were baking. I can think of no better way to kick off 2020!
Ciao! |
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