orange cranberry pistachio biscotti

1 / 8 / 15

Orange Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

Ingredients:

1 ¾ c. all-purpose flour

¼ t. salt

1 t. baking powder

¼ c. OLIVE TREE Butter olive oil

¾ c. white sugar

1 ½ t. vanilla extract

½ t. almond extract

2 T. fresh grated orange peel OR 1 T. dried orange peel

2 eggs (room temp)

½ c. dried cranberries

1 ½ c. pistachio nuts

For dipping:

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate; chopped

½ T. OLIVE TREE Butter olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil & sugar until well blended. Add vanilla & almond extracts along with orange peel, mixing well. Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Gradually add flour mixture & mix until evenly incorporated. Stir in pistachios & cranberries by hand.

Divide dough in half. (Dough will be very sticky!) Form two logs side by side (12” x 2”) on the parchment lined cookie sheet; several inches apart. (logs will spread during baking!) Bake for about 35 minutes, until logs are light brown and firm to the touch. Remove from oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 275 F. Set biscotti aside to cool for about 10 minutes.

Carefully transfer the logs to a cutting surface. Using a serrated knife, cut logs on the diagonal into ¾” slices. Arrange slices, cut side down, back on parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake approximately 8-10 minutes, or just until dry and golden. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Once the biscotti have completely cooled, place chopped chocolate and ½ T. OLIVE TREE Butter olive oil in a (DRY) microwave safe bowl. Heat for 30 seconds; stir; heat another 30 seconds; stir… until melted and combined. Dip the bottoms of the biscotti in the melted chocolate, and allow them to set, lying on their sides.

So why this recipe? Well… there’s a story. There’s ALWAYS a story. So my daughter and I don’t do dairy. It doesn’t like us. So when making my biscotti for Thanksgiving this year, I decided to try the butter olive oil from my dear friend, Mindy, at Olive Tree. (My very, very FAV place to buy olive oil and vinegars, BTW!) Loved the (buttery) flavor, so I took one in for her to taste. (Yes. One. Sorry Mindy. There were actually two left at the time. I ate the other one…) As it ends up, the very day that I popped into the store to drop it off is the same day that she had decided to team up with Jasper Mirabile (renowned chef, cookbook author, radio host and owner of Jasper’s Ristorante and Marco Polo Italian Market. Whew!!) for their first annual cookie contest together. So I decided to enter my Orange Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti (with my BUTTER olive oil from Olive Tree)… and I won 2nd place!! WooHoo!!! So exciting! So why not give the recipe a go, and let me know how they turn out! Better yet, bring some by and I would be happy to let you know what I think. I’m just nice like that. OK, Fine. Whatever. Just bring one. I understand if you simply must eat all the others. (wink, wink…)

A great big shout out and THANK YOU to Mindy and Jasper!! xoxo

jaspers cookbook — Check out Jasper’s Facebook page HERE

“Calling all bakers!
Live! From Jasper’s Kitchen Radio and Olive Tree have teamed up this year for our First Annual Cookie Contest. Submit your favorite holiday cookie using an Olive Tree olive oil and/or a balsamic vinegar and you could win BIG!
…
1st Place – $100 Jasper’s Gift Certificate
2nd Place – $50 Olive Tree Gift Certificate…
3rd Place – Signed Jasper’s Cookbook
4th Place – Bottle of Jasper’s Blend Olive Oil from Olive Tree

Must be an original recipe. Entries must be submitted by December 18th and winner’s will be announced on Live From Jasper’s Kitchen show on Saturday, December 20th at 11:00 a.m. 710KCMO. Please send submissions to office@olivetreekc.com or in person at Olive Tree 4937 W. 119th Street (Hawthorne Plaza).”

fancypants biscotti

9 / 10 / 13

Three reasons why I am lovin’ on this particular biscotti recipe… #1 Plain & simple –I LOVE biscotti; Especially with a good cuppa joe #2 This recipe is DAIRY FREE – Yay! Great news for my daughter and me (Grammatically correct… but it just doesn’t sound right!) #3 This recipe reminds me of those chocolate dipped, super hard and crunchy, biscotti that you buy at those fancypants coffee shops!!! Yep – Three really good reasons to give this recipe a whirl!! SO YUMMY, and very simple! Really!!!

I think people are put off by most biscotti recipes because they have multiple steps. So what. It really isn’t complicated, and it is so worth it when you are sitting down with a steaming hot cup of coffee and a delicious, crunchy, chocolate dipped biscotti that you made yourself!! C’mon friends – let’s do it…

Crunchy Biscotti

3 eggs

1 t. vanilla

¼ t. almond extract

2 c. flour

7/8 c. sugar

1 t. baking soda

Dash of salt

¾ c. toasted whole almonds, coarsely chopped

3 oz. semisweet or dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a small bowl, beat eggs, vanilla and almond extract. In a mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix in egg mixture until blended. Mix in almonds; divide dough in half.

On a greased & floured baking sheet, pat out dough into two logs about 1/2” thick, 1½” wide and 12” long. Space them about 2” apart. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 50 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer logs from the baking sheet to a cooling rack for about 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 275 degrees.

After cooling, place logs on a cutting board. With a serrated knife slice diagonally at a 45 degree angle into 1/2” thick slices. Lay the cut slices flat on the baking sheets and return to oven for another 20-25 minutes, or until toasted – Turning them over halfway through to dry the other side.

Place chocolate in a (dry!) microwave safe bowl and microwave on medium for approx. 2 minutes; until chocolate melts. Stir to blend out any lumpy bits, and spread over entire surface of cookies. When you’re completely done, lick any remaining chocolate off the spatula (required step) !! Let cool at room temp until set (or speed up a bit with a quick visit to the fridge!) Store in a tightly covered container. (Although they won’t last long!!)

URBAN DICTIONARY (def) “fancypants”: Sophisticated or impressive. See “posh” (very classy or sophisticated)

Oh ya. These crunchy, chocolatey biscotti are ALL THAT.. and more. And they are (GULP!) HOMEMADE… by you!! Go ahead; Impress your (oh so hard to impress) friends. And Dahling… be sure to serve your coffee in the “fancy” coffee cups.

live happy

maybe later…?

4 / 23 / 13

P-r-o-c-r-a-s-t-i-n-a-t-i-o-n……

Hate to brag… but I gotta say, I’m pretty good at it. I’ve got a garage sale/sample sale starting on Thursday. It’s Tuesday. Is that a problem? Yes. It certainly is. So what to do? Eat some chocolate. Dark chocolate. Ya, that’s it. It will give me endorphins… those “feel good hormones” that make you feel like you can do anything.

Or maybe a cup of coffee? With caffeine. Perfect! Instant energy once that caffeine kicks in! (Those who know me limit my intake to one cup. HA!) So last night the hubbie “tried to help”. Kinda... He suggested that we watch an episode of “Downton Abbey” (We’re trying to “catch up”) so that I could “price stuff” while I watched. (Notice how he said that… “WE could watch: I could price…” Hmmm.) Well, that didn’t work. You cannot watch that show and “multi-task”. You miss stuff. Important stuff. So what to do??? We watched TWO episodes. I don’t need to tell you whose fault that was now, do I…? He is, obviously, an enabler.

OK… really. Need to do this. You know, “Nike” kinda stuff… “Just do it”. Fine. I will. Right after I wrap up a couple of loose ends… Figure out what’s for dinner. Make my bed. Empty the dishwasher. Rearrange my closet. Organize my Pinterest boards. Buy a guinea pig. Solve world hunger. Write a blog…

about p-r-o-c-r-a-s-t-i-n-a-t-i-o-n…

Seriously – Some great advice from Marie Leslie – “The Perils of Procrastination —11 Ways to Put an End to Putting it Off”. Definitely gonna read this. Right after I make another cup of coffee. And clean out the guinea pig cage…

Do it first thing in the morning Mark Twain is reported to have said, “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” If that task is showing up on your to-do list every day, make it the first thing on your list and get it out of the way. Sometimes the dread of a task makes it seem worse than it really is. Getting it over with first thing in the morning will free up both your time and your mind for other things.
Get an accountability partner Find someone who is willing to hold your feet to the fire and keep you on task until it’s done. Sometimes all it takes to end the procrastination is knowing that you have to keep telling that other person you aren’t done yet. After a while, you just feel kind of silly, don’t you?
Be prepared ahead of time If you know it’s coming, gather everything you think you will need as soon as you know. Having it all there and ready makes the project a little less overwhelming and will make you less likely to be late or miss a critical deadline that could cost you both money and reputation.
Break down an overwhelming task into smaller, more manageable ones Does it just feel like it’s too much? Look at the task and see if you can’t divide it up into smaller, manageaable pieces. A bunch of little tasks often seems simpler than one big one. Plus, if it doesn’t have to be done all at once those little tasks can be spread out over a series of days.
Delegate If you are procrastinating something because you either don’t feel like you have time or just hate to do it, find a way to delegate it to someone else. If it’s a school project or a medical procedure, you’re stuck, but if it’s something else, there is almost always a way to delegate or outsource and have someone else do the deed.

Re-think the task Is this something you really need to do? If you’ve put it off this long, how important is it really? Re-evaluate whether it is something you need to do at all. Sometimes we procrastinate things because they aren’t all that important to us. Check your motivation and your need to get this done. If they aren’t there, perhaps you should just scratch it off the list and move on with your life.
Avoid Distractions Do you find yourself checking your email, visiting Facebook, doing the laundry, scrubbing the toilet or just about any other activity but what you need to do? Eliminate the distractions. Shut off the internet, send the phone to voicemail or go to the library and get rid of the things that distract you. Some of my writer friends will even check into a hotel for a few days so they work without any interruptions to meet a deadline or finish a project. Rid yourself of the reasons NOT to get it done.
Reward yourself Give yourself some incentive to get the job done. Reward yourself with something you really enjoy—and then stick to the deal. As soon as you’re done, you can go get that massage or have that cheesecake—or that afternoon off.
Be realistic Are you putting off this project because you feel overwhelmed or inadequate to the task? Step back and evaluate those feelings. Are they valid? If it really isn’t something you can do yourself then get the help you need. Is it too big for the time frame or for just one person? If the answer is yes, then adjust the time frame and your resources accordingly and relieve that stress.
Give yourself a deadline This one works for me. As I said before, I am deadline oriented. Whether the deadline is set by me or by someone else, knowing I have a drop-dead date to get a project finished means it will be done by then.
Suck it up and get it over with Most often, the best way around a problem is right through it. Just suck it up and get it done and remind yourself that the sooner it’s done, the sooner you can move on with life.

lavender hot chocolate

1 / 24 / 13

lavender hot chocolate

In Southern California, we’re blessed with a relatively mild and short winter season. Incredibly, while the rest of the country may still be under a blanket of snow, here it’s already warming up to the low 70s during the day. That doesn’t mean a nice, piping mug of hot chocolate isn’t welcomed in the early morning hours, or late at night (in my case, since I’m not much of a morning person).

Inspiration for this drink came from an amazing hot chocolate I had at a bar after a day of snowboarding at our local mountains. It was so incredibly rich, creamy, and comforting I found myself enjoying it more than the pale ale I had ordered for myself. After returning from my trip, I had to try recreating it at home.

For richness, I used whole chocolate instead of cocoa powder. I’m sure cocoa powder would have been fine, but the combination of bitter dark chocolate and creamy milk chocolate just seemed more indulgent and sinful. The addition of lavender was inspired by the lovely latte and waffles drizzled with chocolate lavender sauce from Café Medina. At this point you’re probably thinking, gross, I don’t want my hot chocolate smelling like soap. Trust me, with just the right amount, it’s wonderfully soothing and relaxing.

Give it a shot, and let me know what you think!

lavender hot chocolate

Since lavender is quite fragrant, adjust amount according to preference. For a creamier hot chocolate, a 1 to 1 ratio of dark to milk chocolate can be used. Makes 2 servings.

hot chocolate:

2 cups whole milk
3 ounces dark chocolate (70% cacao)
1 ounce milk chocolate
1/4 teaspoon lavender buds

whipped cream:

1/2 cup cold heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract or seeds from 1/4 of a whole vanilla bean pod
1/2 tablespoon granulated white sugar

For whipped cream, place cold cream, vanilla, and sugar into a cold mixing bowl. Beat the mixture with a whisk or mixer until stiff peaks form. keep refrigerated until ready for use.

For hot chocolate, heat milk and lavender over medium heat, whisking occasionally until the milk begins to simmer. Remove from heat and let lavender steep for 5 minutes. Strain lavender and return milk to saucepan. Over medium heat, add chocolate and mix until chocolate is melted and incorporated. Whisk milk mixture for 10-20 seconds until frothy. Pour into mugs or bowls and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

This delish & decadent recipe for “Lavender Hot Chocolate” came from a wonderful site that you MUST check out… a la mode. The photography on the site is just gorgeous… and this particular recipe is absolute PERFECTION on this COLD, COLD winter day!! Enjoy my friends, and thank you, “a la mode“!!