Biscotti and Friends and Ovaltine

Hello All! So, here I am, sitting in from of the T.V. watching one of the best shows of all time...Diners, Drive-In's and Dives. I'm really hungry. However, I'm ALWAYS hungry watching this show! I am getting some good (and artery clogging) ideas for future posts...redneck sushi anyone?? Doesn't that sound incredible? Sushi made with pulled pork. In other words, two of my all time favorite foods together in one beautiful meal. I will try it!

What I tried today, however, was a little more traditional. The only thing I baked today was some biscotti, although it may just be the most delicious thing I have ever baked to date. I am about to share with you the most incredible biscotti recipe I have ever come across (with a few modifications I tossed onto the original recipe). Get ready to seriously impress anyone who tries these!

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

1/4 cup light olive oil

1 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup water

3/4 cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup pistachio nuts

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Mix together the olive oil and sugar until well blended.

Add the vanilla and almond extracts, and the 2 eggs.

Combine the flour, salt and baking powder, then gradually mix into the egg mixture.

Add the 1/4 cup of water , the dough should be very sticky, yet thick.

Mix in the cranberries and pistachios.

Heavily flour your hands before working with the dough. Divide the dough in two, and form a log out of each half and place these on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the logs are a golden brown colour. When they come out, they should already be fairly hard at this point.

Remove from oven and set aside to let cool for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven heat to 275 degrees F.

After 10 minutes, cut the biscotti diagonally, into 3/4 inch thick slices. Replace the sliced biscotti onto the lined baking sheets, placing them on their sides (like in the picture).

Bake for 10-15 minutes in the oven, or until dry.

Cool and enjoy!

If you wanted to dress up these biscotti you could dip or drizzle them in melted white or dark chocolate. They are phenomenal on their own too though! Honestly the most delicious and rewarding biscotti recipe I have ever tried. They come out so professional looking! Trust me, I have tried different biscotti recipes every Christmas, and the damn things always come out so "home made" looking (which isn't a bad thing), but it is nice to have such pretty little biscotti for once, to give for gifts etc!

Anyways, that's the only baking I did today! I had such a relaxing day, and now I am continuing to relax with these little food network evening I am treating myself to! I am also sipping on a nice mug of Ovaltine (the best night time drink ever). And look at this gorgeous mug I get to sip it out of! I love this so much...Adrienne made it! Gorgeous home-made Christmas present. Thank you Adrienne!

I think it is so pretty so I had to take multiple pictures...

Yum! Anyways thats all I've got recipe-wise for today! I have a feeling I will be baking up a storm tomorrow trying to bake some things to bring to Parksville (I work really well under pressure/last minute). Goodnight everyone!

xoxo

Mariel

Presents!

Hello Everybody! This is a bit of a late post, but today has been quite interesting to say the least! I didn't bake or cook a lot, but I do have a lot to dish up still! Information wise...

I'll start off with a nice little photo of one of the only things I made today...a latte to start off the day. You see, when I woke up this morning, I was feeling pretty excited since I had my last exam scheduled for today at 2 PM. Well, nervous and excited! So I thought it would be a good idea to get a little caffeine into my system before I rushed out the door to get to the university to cram as much as I could before my final!

I just had to put it in a Christmas mug, I mean it IS December 14th! If you haven't noticed, I am getting extremely excited for Christmas...

Anyways, so this is when my day got a little bizarre. I got to the university just fine, and the cramming went extremely well, that part of the day was all normal, but when I got to my class...the prof never showed! At all! The class was absolute chaos...it was horrible! After we all waited for about 45 minutes, finally someone from the English department came down to the classroom and went through all the technicalities of what will happen in this certain situation etc. Anyways we were all given the option of writing a whacked out english exam right then and there, or writing the real exam at a "later date", which we wouldn't be penalized for or anything. Obviously I chose the latter...I was in no state of mind to write a final after waiting for over an hour in a room full of debating, chaotic young adults! So I am still not finished my finals as I thought I would be at this time...very annoying! It was a very odd situation.

So after that I headed home feeling very confused, and then commenced putting together a couple Christmas presents for a little gift exchange I did tonight with friends! I guess I can finally admit why I had been baking SO excessively much lately: hefty boxes of baked goods were a part of my gifts!

I am so happy with how all the goodies looked in the little boxes! I took quite a few pictures just because I liked how all the colours etc. looked together! So festive.

Here is one of the gifts all wrapped up!

The little gift exchange was so fun! I have the best friends in the whole world...and look at all these early Christmas presents I got... I love them so much!

These are my new socks. They are handmade! And so beautiful!

Anyways, not too much baking or cooking went down today, but lots of eating did (at the gift exchange...so much pizza), and it was an interesting day regardless. I am so happy that I had a really fun night to head off to, so I could forget about the stress of the test situation!

On a side note, when I was walking home tonight (from a couple houses away), I had a run in with a COYOTE! I thought that was pretty exciting. At first (when I was kind of far away) I was confused to why someone would be walking their dog at 1 AM on a Monday night...in -50 degree weather... but nope, it was a humongous coyote. Yeah, I won't lie, I was definitely scared! Especially since I saw it turn down the street towards my house, then when I finally rounded the corner all bundled up with my new socks and scarf and hat , it was nowhere to be found (obviously lurking in some yard somewhere)! Scary!

Hopefully my final isn't anytime too soon, so I can start baking and cooking up a storm with a whole week of free time! I still need to try out the hippie cookbook!

xoxo

Mariel