Less Nuts is Good (some logical notation and a few recipes)

This is something you would learn about me if you baked anything with me. I like to add more of stuff. TO everything. I somehow feel that I must make every recipe better so people say 'MMMmm this is the best cupcake/brownie/cookie/soup/turkey/chickencordonbleu I've ever tasted! it's kind of what I've got time to be good at around here, so I do what I can. It drives my brother crazy - he's a good cook and a decent baker when he wants to be, but he's worked in restaurants and is pretty much trained to follow the recipe. Me? I never make anything the same twice. It usually has to be 'improved'.

Which is probably why my bisoctti has NEVER worked.
Okay, so the first year wasn't that horrible (probably because Erika or Thea were there with me to keep me reasonable). But every subsequent year, we've had biscotti disaster. This year, it struck me.
Maybe when the recipe SAYS to use 3/4 of a cup of pistachios, it really MEANS 3/4 of a cup pistachios and I should not add an extra half a cup to make it 'better'.

WOW.

So I gave it a try this year, and followed the recipe. And guess what? Most beautiful biscotti EVER! It didn't crumble to a million tasty pieces when I tried to slice it because it didn't have too many nuts. It sliced and baked beautifully (and if I hadn't forgotten about that last tray I'd have four dozen lightly golden slices right now instead of three...we'll work on that for next year).

I guess I had formulated the fallacy in my brain that

I guess I had formulated the fallacy in my brain that if nuts are yummy then more nuts will equal more yummy (formal notation deleted, because it fights  with the html in my post and I don't have a clue how to rectify it)

. My logic’s a little rusty. But I wanted to share this because I can see this year that sometimes my desire to add more and more and more can sometimes impair my ability to enjoy Christmas also. Sometimes, maybe lots of times, less nuts is good. So with that, here is my really-delicious recipe for Christmas biscotti. Add only the amount of pistachios called for. J I’m not, however, going to instruct you on the amount of chocolate coating to use… Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

2 cups all-purpose flour1

1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon salt2 large eggs

3/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped

2/3 cup dried cranberries

12 ounces good-quality white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, lemon zest, and salt in a large bowl to blend. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Add the flour mixture and beat just until blended. Stir in the pistachios and cranberries. Form the dough into a 13-inch long, 3-inch wide log on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until light golden, about 40 minutes. Cool for2 hours.. Place the log on the cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the log on a diagonal into 1/2 to 3/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake the biscotti until they are pale golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer the biscotti to a rack and cool completely. Stir the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until the chocolate melts. Dip half of the biscotti into the melted chocolate. Gently shake off the excess chocolate. Place the biscotti on the baking sheet for the chocolate to set. Sprinkle with the sugar crystals. Refrigerate until the chocolate is firm, about 35 minutes. The biscotti can be made ahead. Store them in an airtight container up to 4 days, or wrap them in foil and freeze in resealable plastic bags up to 3 weeks.

So there you have it. Thoughts on being nuts at Christmas (a natural inclination of mine) and a pretty good recipe. AND for you lucky few who found your way here, a peek at my Christmas baking. :) If anyone wants any of my other recipes, I don't keep any of them secret - let me know if you want my sugar cookie, springerle, peppermint bark, chocolate mint cookies or shorbread recipes!)
I hope YOU are having a wonderful week preparing for Christmas too. :)

And so it begins...

I haven't written for a while, as I have been busy gearing up to December first (when 'Christmas' in my house begins..). At this moment all presents are bought, but a few still have to be made - as of yesterday the Christmas cookies are almost all done and the house is decorated. I LOVE this time of year, but what I am loving most is sharing the miricle of Christ's birth with my daughter. This is the Advent calendar I made for her - we're on day 4 obviously, and each day she has been excited to open the tissue and find a candy, an activity to do together and the day's Bible reading from our Advent plan. I must say that getting on a regular habit of family Bible reading is harder than I thought it would be - especially with Jason not usually coming home until after the rest of us have eaten supper (I was hoping to do this every night at our evening meal) and that being the height of the kinds cranky period. Any suggestions are welcome. :)
The Advent calendar was fun to make - I saw the idea on someone's blog, but the link to the person who made it first was no longer working. It was easy enough to save up 25 paper tubes over a few months, and wrap them with printed scrapbook paper and some elements I printed off and glued to chipboard. Add some cute numbers, and we're done! :) The hardest part was coming up with 24 fun things to do that were manageable for me in the month when so many other things pop up... Here's the list as it stands so far! (feel free to skip to the end if you like)

1. Set up Nativity and read the Christmas story

2. Make pinecone birdfeeders

3. Bakie cookies with Neena and Grandpoo (grandma and grandpa)

4. Decorage Gingerbread boys & girls

5. Go to church for prechool movie night : a Charlie Brown Christmas!

6. Make paper snowflakes and trees for the windows

7. Make Christmas Potpourri

8. Make Cinnamon Clay Ornaments

9. Grandpoo and Neena coming over to babysit

10. Make Shrinkydink 'jewelry'

11. Build Bethlehm out of blocks and read "The Something Wonderful"

12. Uncle Andrew coming over - bake/sing Christmas songs

13. Make Snowman Family (if there's snow!)

14. Take items we've been collecting for the YAC to church

15. Playdough Day

16. Friends coming over to play

17. Build an indoor "igloo" (fort day!)

18. Paint frames for Christmas gift pictures

19. Skaing Party

20. Wrap Christmas Presents

21. Church Day

22. Make Snowglass

23. Go for a drive to look at Christmas lights

24. Go to church Christmas Eve

We'll see how things go this month. :) The good thing about my daughter not being able to read yet is I get to read what the fun thing we get to do is! If I don't have everything ready, we'll call it a 'Red and Green Day" and my daughter will be equally thrilled. :) Is that cheating? Maybe. :)

Thinking of Christmas

So I actually do realize that it is still September, but every year I come to December first, and realize how unprepared I am to do all the things I really intended to do in the weeks leading up to Christmas. So this year, I'm getting a few things out of the way early. :)

I love advent calendars, and just the entire season of Advent and I'm SO excited that this year I have a child who is old enough to really participate in the whole event. So I'm thinking of making an advent calendar for us to use this year. I am hoping each day will contain a small candy or other item (thank you, Dollarama!), the passage of the Bible and corresponding questions for that day and an activity that is special for that day for her and I to do together. A few years ago when I was working at the church I put together a series of verses on the themes of love, joy, peace and hope that also told the whole of the Christmas story, with discussion questions for each verse. I'll be re-designing the whole thing this year, but the concept will be the same, so I'm half way there. But I still want to have little treasures inside too, because Miranda's greatest delight is finding things (even ones she's hidden herself!) So I really need to decide on something that is more than just a little flap, and has space to store the treasures.





These are photos I've grabbed from all over the place of different advent calendars I really love. Ali Edwards did the ones on the wall, (LOVE everything she does) the little matchbox one is Martha Stewart. And the little drawers shapped like a tree is apparently something Starbucks sold last year, with truffles inside. Since I don't have a budget for this activity, I'm really leaning towards the long advent chain made with toilet paper tubes (the pink one, at right). I figure I could at LEAST figure this out. And printing off digital scrapbooking papers to decorate this will be a breeze. (My girl Melissa Bennett will have a whole series of Christmas kits coming soon - I'm sure!)





When I was little my mother sewed us a big wall-hanging with pockets and little velcro bears that moved in between different rooms of the house, doing different activities to get ready for Christmas. I would love to be the kind of mom who just whipped up wall-quilts on a whim (wow, that's a lot of W's) but I am not, and I'm pretty sure that since I can't get around to pulling out the sewing machine to fix garments, it's not going to happen for this either. :) So paper and glue it is!



I'm still looking around for the *right* nativity set. I, being a girl who thinks too much and knows exactly what she wants, am finding nothing that meets my criteria. I don't want rubber ducks dressed as the three wise men, I don't want fuzzy bears bowing before the Christ-cub and I don't want chubby little children figures. That's just confusing. I also don't want something made of anything that will break easily, because really I want a set that my kids can play with a bit. But it also has to be pretty. Yup, I know I'm asking for a lot here!



Good thing I have a few months left to get everything together. :)