It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas!

As an adult, Christmas stresses me out more than it did when I was a kid (duh, obviously Amanda!).  There is more to do - gifts to buy, decisions on whose family to see when, working full time, trying not to eat every sweet treat in sight so that the pants still fit come January 1...  Know what I mean??   

In truth, Christmas was wonderful in our family when I was a kid (it still is!).  We had a big family breakfast will all the aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents you could fit into my parents' cozy old house.  Then we'd trek over to my grandparents' home for an all day, open house - family and friends would stop by all day, we'd eat, nap, and eat some more.  Pasta, sauce, braciole (or involtini, to be accurate), cookies, cakes... It was amazing.  A big, loud, Italian-Irish Christmas.  I only regret one thing...

I never appreciated biscotti!  Silly, I know.  Those crunchy, twice-baked Italian cookies that my mom always made.  Now, as an adult, I don't know how I wasn't enchanted by the sweet, almond-apricot treats (that is the flavor I remember mom baking), the zing of the apricot brandy and chunks of dried apricots in the biscuits.  

A couple years ago my mom shared with me the Almond Apricot Biscotti recipe that she got from my aunt, Bethann, many years ago.  I dug it out and made a batch last night. Of course, I can't leave well enough alone and had to dip the finished cookies in melted white chocolate to make them even more enticing.  I instantly craved a strong cup of coffee and wanted to eat the whole batch.  

These do take some time to make, but trust me, it is all worth it! Check out the recipe at the end of this post. 

So, in addition to my Sunday baking bonanza, I made my annual hand-dipped, dark chocolate-covered Oreos.  Um...yes.  These are always a favorite of my colleagues.  I dipped close to five dozen cookies in some delicious Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips, melted until smooth.  My technique as improved quite a bit over the years. When I first started making the chocolate-covered Oreos, it looked like a toddler did them (true story!). 

And finally, I experimented a little and made my own biscotti creation - dark chocolate cranberry.  These taste every bit as good as they sound...even if I was a little heavy-handed on the chocolate. ;)  

Yes, that is a 3 pound bag! 

There is a bunch of sugar  in these cookies, so I opted for the reduced sugar Craisins

Chocolate cranberry biscotti - before the first bake

Almond Apricot Biscotti

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup chilled, unsalted butter

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

3 1/2 oz (about a cup) white chocolate (I use Ghirardelli chips)

1 2/3 cup sliced, toasted almonds

2 large eggs

2 tsp almond extract

1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp of apricot brandy

6 oz chopped dried apricots

Mix together in a food processor flour, sugar, ginger, salt, baking powder, and butter.  Pulse until blended.

Next, mix in white chocolate and toasted almonds.

In a bowl, mix eggs, almond extract, and apricot brandy.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the food processor.  Put the mixture in a large bowl and carefully mix in apricots.  It might take some muscle, as the dough will be quite thick now. 

On a foil-lined cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray, shape the dough into 3 logs - about 2" x 12" each.  Refrigerate for 30 min.  

Then, bake for 30 min. until golden brown.  The logs will be kind of squishy in the middle.  Transfer to a cooling rack and cool.  Reduce oven to 300 degrees.

Cut into 3/4" wide slices.  I use a serrated knife and cut carefully!  Bake for 10 min. on each side.  Cool, then store in an air-tight container for up to 2 weeks (if they last that long!)

*Dark chocolate cranberry version - use dark chocolate instead of white chocolate, and dried cranberries instead of apricots.  I eliminated the almonds, used vanilla extract instead of almond, and used Grand Marnier in place of apricot brandy. 

Fridge Dills!

Hey party people!  This year, I decided to purchase a CSA share from a local farm through a program at work.  For a set price paid in advance, I get a bucket of local fruits/veggies every week for 20 weeks (June thru October)!!! How cool is that?!?!  It worked out to be about $15 a week for hubs-to-be and I to get a bin of fresh veggies, locally-grown at Nourse Farm.  That's a win in my book!  

Anyway, for a couple weeks I got some pickling cucumbers in my bin. Being that I (and hubs-to-be) LOVE pickles, I figured "Why not try to make my own??"  I found a plethora of recipes for refrigerator dill pickles on Pinterest and the interwebs.  I decided to modify a couple recipes and create my own blend of perfectly "dill-ified" cold and crunchy cukes!

The finished product!

The process was super easy - as in, I was surprised it didn't take more work - but I'm not complaining!  The hardest part was waiting 3 DAYS to try these dilly, crunchy snacks.  

Here are some photos of the process, and the recipe that I used. 

The goods!

Boiling and waiting for it to cool was the loooonngest part!

Sliced the cukes and packed the jar while I was waiting for the liquid to cool.

All packed up and ready for the pickling liquid

Refrigerator Dills

3 ½ cups water
1 ¼ cups white vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp sea salt
4 cups cucumber spears or slices
3-4 cloves garlic, whole and peeled
3-4 sprigs of fresh dill
1 Tbsp black pepper corns

Mix water, vinegar, sugar, and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let it cool completely. Put all the cucumbers and spices into a mason jar or jar with tight-fitting lid. You might need to divide the cukes and liquid between two jars, depending on the size of the jar.  Pour liquid into the jar(s). Refrigerate for 3 days.  

Caution - once opened, the pickles are irresistible.  They will not last long. You have been warned. ;) 

Mangia!

CRB's Birthday and October Happenings

Again, I've been slacking in my blogging!  Big things have been happening around here - as in CRB turning the big 3-0 this month!  We had a small football/bday/come-see-our-new-place shindig at the end of September, for which I took on my biggest baking challenge to date - I made Jupiter.  Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, I am slightly insane. :)  

It all started when he "liked" a picture on Facebook. The picture was posted on the Space.com website, and it originally came from an Aussie baker's blog, Cakecrumbs.  I jokingly commented/questioned if he would like that for his birthday cake, his mom seemed to think it was a cool idea, and so it was.  Challenge accepted!  I had to do a bit of research to find the recipe, and realized that all the measurements were in metrics. Ack!  So, after a bit of online searching and recalculating, I had a plan.  

This girl on Cakecrumbs really is amazing. Her recipe and instructions were spot on.  Here is what I did....

First, make the center core of Jupiter (which is a rock core, scientifically speaking, of course) as a chocolate mud cake.  It was a dense chocolate cake, baked in 1-cup glass prep bowls.

Step 1 - Jupiter's core

Next up was the layer of "liquid, metallic hydrogen".... well, let's just go with a white sponge cake.  

Put the rock/ice core in the white layer - hemisphere pan did the trick for this part.

Last layer, "molecular hydrogen"...so blue sponge cake works here.

Yes, it is a little well done. The crusty edges come off in the shaping process.

Ultimately, I baked 4 times - center, middle layer, then outer layer twice, since I didn't have two pans big enough for the blue outer layer. I was toast after 5 hours of baking, so I left the assembly and decoration for the next day.

I shaped both hemispheres, trying to get them as round as possible. Using my Grammy's buttercream frosting recipe, I used that as glue between the two halves, did a thin crumb coat, let that dry, then did a thicker smooth coat of icing.

Crumb coat
(please ignore the mess behind the cake! lol!)

After the smooth coat of frosting dried, I set to work on making Jupiter look like, well, Jupiter. I thinned some frosting with almond milk, and added some orange and brown gel icing coloring.  I then painted on the stripes and swirls of the largest planet.  And of course, the Great Spot too!

Ta da!

And what did the Birthday Boy think??

I think he likes it! (Photo credit to CRB's Mom, Judy)

And the inside (Again, thanks Judy for the pictures)

The next weekend, we had the Smuttynose half marathon.  The one where I wanted to PR.  Well, not in the cards for this girl.  I had an awful head cold for about two weeks prior to the race, didn't get much running in, and didn't feel 100% that day.  Oh yeah, and it was raining. Again. Just like last year.  

More to come on my October racing...which involved another few "first races" for a few of my friends. Stay tuned....

Summer in a Bowl

So, I haven't posted much about my forays in the kitchen lately.  And in truth, I haven't had many!  CRB (Chief Running Buddy) and I recently moved into a new place, and between running, work, packing, unpacking, etc, I hadn't much time. 

Now, I don't think I mentioned this to y'all, but I volunteer for Habitat for Humanity on the Family Selection Committee in my local affiliate.  They are a wonderful group of ladies with whom I have the pleasure of spending a few hours a month.  We haven't had a social activity in a while, so our co-chairwoman, Rosemary, invited us all to her gorgeous house for dinner last Friday night.  At the request of a few, I made a lemon raspberry trifle (aka, summer in a bowl).  It is so light, the perfect mix of sweet and tart.....just delicious!  Many thanks to my friend Laura P. who originally shared this recipe with me. Share the sunshine - pass it on!

 

 

The beauty of this dessert (besides the luscious layers) is that it comes together SO quickly.  My CRB even wandered into the kitchen while I was constructing this and commented on how fast I made it.  It is easy - angel food cake, raspberries (fresh and frozen), and a lemon cream mixture that makes it very tempting to lick the bowl....just sayin'...

 

 

Alrighty - without further ado, the recipe!

 

 

Lemon Raspberry Trifle

 



1 tsp lemon extract

1 - 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk

1 - 8 oz. lemon yogurt

2 tsp grated lemon peel

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 cups whipped topping (Cool Whip, or if you are like me, store brand!)

 

1 angel food cake

1 package frozen raspberries

2 pints fresh raspberries

 

Combine the first six ingredients (extract through whipped topping) in a medium-sized bowl.

Thaw frozen raspberries and combine with one pint of fresh raspberries.  Sweeten to taste, if desired (I usually don't add any sugar, since I like the tart/sweet mix).

Cut the angel cake into 1" cubes and arrange one layer on the bottom of a trifle bowl.

Spoon half of the lemon cream mixture on top of the cake.  Spread evenly.

Spoon fresh/thawed raspberries for the next layer.

Repeat layer of angel cake and lemon cream.

Top with pint of fresh raspberries, and toasted coconut or powdered sugar, if desired.

 

TIP: If you are assembling this the day before serving, do a layer of cake, thin layer of lemon cream, raspberries, another thin layer of lemon cream, then angel cake, remaining lemon cream, and raspberries. This way the angel cake doesn't soak up all the juice from the raspberries.

 

 

 

I made this before raspberries were *really* in season, and if you live in the northeast like I do, fresh raspberries are SO expensive. So I bought 3 - 6 oz. packages of fresh raspberries and two packages of frozen.  Two fresh went in with the frozen, and the last package of fresh went on the top.  I also use low fat yogurt and whipped topping, but feel free to do whatever suits your taste! 

 

I hope you enjoy this bowl of summer....I know it was a hit over here!

 

Mangia!