Stop staring and start sewing!

Our annual batch of biscotti.....a recipe!

Here's another great recipe we make every Christmas season and it's a huge family hit.  Plus it makes oodles of big cookies (5-6 dozen) so it's great to share.  Although you can use almonds instead of hazelnuts (AKA filberts) I prefer the hazelnuts just because I have so many other recipes with almonds and like a little variety.  Hazelnuts aren't always easy to find but I have had luck at Trader Joe's and in the bulk section of my favorite health food store (which also has the anise seeds in bulk).

 

You can print out the recipe here (on an 8.5 x 10 sheet), or by clicking on the picture below.

Ingredients:

6 eggs at room temperature, separated
2 ¼ cups sugar
1 ½ cups hazelnuts (or almonds)
1 cup butter (melted and cooled)
3 Tbl anise seeds (whole)
Zest of one orange (chopped small)
1 tsp anise extract (or vanilla)
7 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

Toast the hazelnuts on a baking sheet at 350˚ for 10 minutes, rub briskly in a dish towel to remove peels.

Chop your toasted hazelnuts and zest your orange (I then chop the zest into smaller pieces).

 

Beat egg whites until stiff, fold in 1 cup + 2 Tbl sugar.

Beat egg yolks w/ remaining sugar until thick and pale yellow (5-6 minutes).

Gently stir both egg mixtures together...

...fold in the nuts, butter, seeds, zest, and extract.

In a separate (large) bowl sift your flour, baking soda and salt together.

You're ready to mix everything together now!

Gradually fold in the egg mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until everything is moistened and there are no spots of dry flour.

Turn your mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and knead just enough to make sure everything is evenly mixed and pliable.

Divide into 6 even parts and roll each part up into an 8 inch cylinder, then flatten down so you have an 8” by 2” rectangle (about ¾ inch high).



Place on a baking sheet (lightly oiled or on parchment paper) at least ¾“ apart and bake for 25 minutes at 375˚.

Remove from oven.  Let cool.  Slice at a 45˚ angle (each being about ¾” wide).  I like to use a bread knife for this part.  Lower your oven’s temperature to 325˚ and lay each slice flat on a baking sheet and bake for another 25 minutes.




Enjoy!!  Let me know if you try it (and if your family loves it as much as mine!).

I love to volunteer.....my husband

I was asked if we could make dessert for the small group leaders in our church for their annual Christmas party last weekend and I said "Sure!  We'd love to!".  And then Joey ended up doing all of it.  I love when things work out that way.  Well he did have a partner in Peety since she is in the baking program at the local technical school ("vo-tech" as we called it back in the day) but he did most of it and really knocked it out of the ballpark. 

I'd seen this recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles on Pinterest and knew those needed to be included.  They turned out to be delicious! 

Joey also made Peanut Butter Truffles (which were my favorite) and a basic Chocolate Mousse Truffle.

There ended up being about 230-ish truffles all together (it's hard to remember how many "rejects" we may have snacked on in the process) when he was finished at a cost of around 65.00 for all the ingredients. And he had a lot of fun doing it actually (those Italian guys like to cook!).

I wasn't totally useless in the whole process, mind you.  I took pictures and then made these cute label cards for the table.  I printed the ingredients on the back too since some folks are gluten sensitive these days.

Don't be afraid to try making these if you've never made truffles before.  It seems exotic at first but it's actually a very simple, and fun, process.  Go to it!  Oh, and I've updated my tutorial page if you're needing quick Christmas sewing ideas!  I hope you're having a great week so far!

It's that time of year again....here's your Christmas gift!

Download pdf file here (6013.4K)

I had the hardest time coming up with a tutorial gift idea this year and finally it hit me (and I'm so grateful because I was drawing a complete blank)!  So here is my gift to you, my dear reader bloggy friends...a tutorial for an iPhone/iPod wristlet.  I know not everyone has an iPhone but it seems like every other person I know got one this year so maybe I can take care of half my gifts this way and you can too?

It takes very little fabric and I've used felt for the padding because I love the way it works for little projects like this (and batting tends to fluff up my nose and make me sneeze sometimes).  You are free to use batting if that's what you've got on hand (just keep your tissues nearby).  Just use the link at the top of this post to downloade the file (it's 6 pages of detailed photographs and instructions).

The pocket is for stowing your necessary cards when you want to go out but don't want to take your whole purse (you can fit a few bucks in there too).
 


Let me know what you think!  And if you make some please add them to my flickr group!  Have a wonderful Christmas season and don't fret yet, you still have plenty of time to get your shopping and baking done!

It's December....where's my egg nog?

Just a quick stop to show you the Christmas version of my door frame.  Isn't it cute?  I like it even better than my fall version here.  I'm almost done with my annual gift to my readers (just getting into pdf format so you can download it easily).  You'll have plenty of time to whip up a few for gifts since they are small and simple (but oh so stylish!).  That's all I'm saying.

In the meantime not much laundry is getting done, which doesn't seem to bother Mr. This Looks Like a Nice Place For a Nap.  No, he hasn't been dipping into the egg nog....he's just big boned. 

Back soon!  Stay warm!