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.

susie squirrel

10 / 8 / 12

OK. Woke up this morning (early) with an “out of control, too much to do, Help! It’s Monday!!” sort of feeling. You know the kind. Don’t even think about maybe going back to sleep. Ha! Like that’s gonna happen. But your body is just too tired to get out of the bed. And the blanket of darkness outside? Well that’s certainly not helping. I don’t feel like my feet should even touch the floor before there is sunlight. Lots of sunlight. This, however, is the stuff that fairy tales are made of.

The hubbie wanted decaf this AM; but I knew that this was not an option for Moi. Made a short pot for him, and a pot of the leaded stuff once he was out the door to work. OK. Confession. It was actually “half-caf”, but that was only so that I can drink MORE and not bounce off the walls. Let’s just say right up front that caffeine is not exactly my best friend. Sometimes, however – it is a necessity!! This morning was one of those times.

So I was sitting at the kitchen table working on a grocery list for the week, minding my own business, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye out on the deck. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was “Susie Squirrel” . Now Susie is not really a welcome visitor on our deck. She took it upon herself to “remodel” our roof in the form of a huge hole. I was instantly glad that the hubbie was already off to work. He is not Susie’s biggest fan. But as I watched her darting back and forth in her hyper, erratic sort of way, I realized that Susie had an edge on me. She had absolutely no issues with her energy level on this Monday morning. She was on her game. No caffeine necessary. A puzzling thought crossed my mind. Oh my gosh… Was I actually jealous of a squirrel? The thought was quite troubling, so I opened the porch door and (politely) asked Susie to relocate before going upstairs for a nice hot shower. I needed to clear my head, and a shower always seems to help.

It was a cold morning and the hot steamy water cascading down my back was an instant “Ahhh…” moment. Out of the blue, an image suddenly popped into my mind. It was this (squirrel) pic from my pinterest board. Ha – That’s it! I just need to think like a squirrel! Still in a towel, I grabbed my list and began writing. I suddenly felt ready to tackle the “to do’s”. The sun was up and shining brightly and the air was crisp and cool. A beautiful fall day, and a perfect night for soup. Ya – things are lookin’ up. So, thanks to Susie, I’m off and running on this Monday morning – ready to conquer this crazy list. (Task #1: Gather nuts for winter…)

live happy… laugh, love, dream, create

but first, coffee

9 / 29 / 12

Yes – You heard right. Today, September 29, is “National Coffee Day”, and there are deals to be had…! To get you “in the mood” ~ a little “cupping” video and a little coffee collage…

Now someone just needs to invent “Smellavision” (wink, wink)!!

cleaning sinks; making muffins

8 / 29 / 12

Some things in life are straight forward, clear cut, black and white. You know what to do, maybe you’ve even been there before. Everything just seems to make sense.

Some things don’t.

Last Friday morning my friend’s husband passed away very suddenly. He was only 58. We are a group of friends and neighbors, all in our 50’s, kids close in ages. We “girls” get together regularly for “coffee”… which is really just codeword for “therapy”. We have been there for each other through thick and thin, laughter and tears… We are a diverse group. Very diverse. And that really works for us. Never, however, have we had to be there for each other like this.

So what to do…? Your mind fills with a laundry list of things you can’t do. You can’t bring him back. You can’t turn back time. You can’t take away her pain. So you do what you can. Whatever “that” is. For me, it was helping to clean her house for the onslaught of people who would converge on her in the coming days. Then I made muffins… and casseroles… and phone calls… and trips to Target. In my state of “helplessness”; I found great strength in the “doing”.

So our little group has suffered a terrible blow. Times two. The devastating loss of a treasured husband and father last Friday, and then our friend, Mary, left on Monday to follow her heart, and her dreams, to Maine. (See previous post; the “Maine” goodbye) We will, obviously, never be the same – but we will survive. This is definitely unchartered territory, so we will just have to “wing it” I guess. We will be there to help in any way that we can in the days, weeks, months to come… Though we are all very different, we will do whatever we can; what we do best… whatever “that” is.

Banana Nut Muffins

2 c. flour

1 T. baking powder

½ t. salt

½ c. butter

3/4 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 1/3 c. ripe banana, mashed

1 c. chopped toasted pecans

Sift together dry ingredients and set aside. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in mashed bananas. Add dry ingredients all at once, stirring just enough to moisten. Gently stir in nuts. Spoon into greased muffin tins, filling about 2/3 full. (about 15-18 muffins) Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.