I’m guest blogging this week over at the Rocky Road of Love, where foodies Sam and Harry have finally married each other and are off on their honeymoon. I’ve been trying to guess where they are and what they might be eating. Today I’ve got them staying at a floating resort in Canada, accessible only by sea plane, feeding them a wonderful salmon quiche (recipe provided!) Come by for a visit!
Here’s to starting over again, beginning a second career chapter, and trying things a new way!
My mother often made Italian biscotti for Christmas. Traditionally made with nuts, anise flavoring, and very little fat, they have a long shelf life – as do many job skills! And like many a woman’s career, biscotti is baked in two stages. This version makes an old favorite into something wonderfully new by using pistachios and dried cranberries! Try serving these with coffee (or red wine!) for dunking…
Preheat oven to 300 degrees, and prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with parchment paper. Beat oil and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each. Add vanilla and almond extracts. Mix dry ingredients together, then gradually add to egg mixture while stirring. Fold in cranberries and pistachio nuts by hand. Wet hands with cool water and use them to shape dough into two 12×2 inch logs on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 35 minutes until light brown.
Remove pan to cooling racks for 10 minutes, meanwhile turning oven down to 275 degrees. Cut logs into ¾ inch thick slices on the diagonal, and lay slices cut-side-down on the parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake slices 8-10 more minutes until golden-brown and dry to the touch. Cool and store in air-tight container.
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Never tried biscotti, or no time for cooking? Order some from Peggy’s Biscotti – she’ll even let you try a couple for free! And don’t miss her wonderful COMMENT, below…
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Today my friend Emily over at The Rocky Road of Love has posted my recipe for sweet summer squash chowchow. Her blog continues to delight a growing audience with its ongoing love story-with-recipes. She’s another of my mentors, and I plan to borrow a few of her adjectives, if she’ll let me.
Just as I promised I would, today marks the first official occasion upon which Eeyore and I shall don our black aprons and present you with pensive prescriptions for such crestfallen comestibles as are commensurate with our shared and disconsolate dereliction. In a word: Food. Today’s featured recipe: “Sweet Sorrow Sourdough Chocolate Cake.”
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Creative Commons photo by divinemisscopa |
This delicious if doleful affair nearly always falls.
Which is why, in my extended family, we refer to it as “chocolate goo cake.”
Perfectly sympathetic fare for the joylessly jobless.
Cream shortening and sugar; beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in the starter. Sift flour, measure, and sift again with other dry ingredients. Add to shortening mixture alternating with water and vanilla. Mix at low speed. Bake 350 degrees (for two 9” layers, bake 35 minutes; for one 9” square, bake 60 minutes)
One of the reasons I married a professor is that I never quite understood anything in college, and hoped he’d fix that. I never understood, for instance, what an 18 year old person could possibly say about Shakespeare that hadn’t already been said, and much better, by several thousand other people.
And I wish someone had explained a little more about historiography: how to think about history. Who even knew that there was a “great man” theory? For me, history was always just a bunch of trees. I mean, I totally got what a thesis statement was. And I totally got that “facts” didn’t mean much just by themselves. But I never knew how to put them together, not really. And I always knew I didn’t know. Argh!
Even now, I still find myself very confused by things that don’t seem to give anyone else a bit of pause.
Maybe I should ask the professor’s mother for a refund?
I had a four-hour long interview yesterday, at the same place where I’d already had a 2-hour long interview the week before (which would have been even longer, had not my daughter’s school called…) And I’m very confused.
The only next-thing-to-do is make cookies. Obviously. Even if it is practically the middle of the night. And also to find the least complicated and yet most delicious recipe I can. So, Tada! Here it is, only three ingredients, and these are truly
The Best Peanut Butter Cookies Ever
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Mix. Drop on greased sheet, do the criss-cross fork thing, and bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes.
If one insists on complicating even this, one can double the recipe. Use crunchy instead of creamy. Use only ¾ cup sugar. Add a tsp of vanilla, or soda (both utterly unnecessary, I assure you)
((Next up: How (not) to self-medicate with food!!))
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Related Posts:
How (not) to interview for a job (this story begins)
Nope (this story concludes)
Hanging in, and blonder too (reflection)
