Words for Wednesday : Anticipating the Weekend

My little sister is having her birthday gathering this Saturday.  And it's my favorite type of party - one where I get to bring something!

I have so many ideas on what I should bring!!!  Should I bring some Creamy Cucumber Salad, Broccoli Salad, Rice Krispy Bars, Oreo Truffles?  Maybe I bring a fresh Veggie Pizza thing!? I have no idea!  I just sent at text to her asking if cake/dessert/treats were covered.  There will be hot dogs/buns provided, option to bring your own meat.

I mean, think about it, there will probably be a bunch of bags of chips and probably pasta salad, because they are so easy to bring! 

Maybe I bring a beverage to share?  I have no idea!  Here is the little crummy thing though: I have to go to a baby shower at 1 on Saturday, and this party starts at 4 or shortly there after.  So that means, I need to be ready and out my door by like 10, so I can bring my stuff to my Dad's and then go to the baby shower.

It will all be fine though.  Once I figure out what I am going to make!

Any suggestions or ideas?

I am completely open right now.  Friday however, I will not be, I better lock and load by then so I can go to the grocery store on my way home so I can make whatever it is I decide upon!

Recipe : Almond Biscotti

Have you ever had a biscotti before? 

Well, usually when people bring these in and lay them out to share, I will avoid them. They are dry, and  crusty. 

I tried a scone once, that was gross.  And they look similar to a biscotti - dry, crusty.  My niece ate a scone once, she said it was good.  She is a kid, what does she know anyways?

At any rate, a lady at work brought in some Almond Biscotti back in December, and she came to my desk and said, "Please have one, I made these to share for Christmas."  I mean, what was I going to say? No?  Yeah right, so I took one.

Eventually I had some down time for some mindless eating.  Which would probably be why I am a chubster.  And I ate it.  It was mighty tasty!!

So tasty, that I asked her for the recipe.  And she sent it over.  I have been holding on to it ever since.

Until today! 

I made them.  They are just as delicious as I remembered.  Never you mind that I *might* have dropped a loaf on the floor.  Good thing I swept and cleaned the kitchen prior to starting any baking today.  I think I might make this a habit, for instances such as this.

The thing about biscotti, is you have to bake (and cool) them twice.  Once to firm them up, and once after cutting, to dry them out.

The recipe is pretty simple, the only really special things you need are the extracts.  Almond and orange extracts.  Oh, and the almonds, in the event you didn't have sliced almonds on hand.

Almond Biscotti

So basically what you do is you whip the eggs and sugar together, while this is happening, combine all the dry ingredients (including finely chopped almonds) in a separate bowl.  Once the eggs are a light/pale yellow color - trust me it does get there after about 5 minutes - then you start adding the flour mixture, slowly so it does not create a HUGE flour cloud.

After you get it all together, you plop it down on a flat floured surface and knead a little extra flour into it, and throw it in a couple of loaf pans, bake it, let it cool on a rack, and then cut it into slices, put it on a baking tray, cook for another 12 minutes, let them cool completely, and then BAM! You have biscotti that is perfect to enjoy while you are drinking coffee on a lazy morning.  You can find the recipe here, or check out my recipe page and see the other tasty morsels I have on there.

If you wanted to be real fancy, you could melt some chocolate and dip an end into it and let it cool, and enjoy with that little bit of fun too!

If you have tried the Biscotti Mocha at your local Caribou Coffee house, this tastes just like the crumbled biscotti they have on top.  I swear.  Super delish!

I am planning on bringing them to the nursing home. I am visiting the Hubster's Grandma B back in his hometown.  Taking a little mini-road trip, his buddy owns an Auto Shop, and is going to do an alignment on my car, and some other miscellaneous work, so I figured I could visit her while I wait.  When I was growing up, that's what you did.  When you happened to be in town, you stopped by and visit.

Generally you didn't call before you stopped in, and well, Grandma B doesn't really go out, so the chances of her being there are high, but I wanted her to invite me to eat lunch. So I called, and asked what time lunch was, she said 'dinner' was at 12, I said I would stop by around 1, she said, well you could come by at 12:30, I said sure not a problem (sad face).  Then she said, well would you like to have lunch here? I said, "If there is space at tehe table, I would be more than happy to join you." (SCORE!!)   She said she would let the staff know, that she would have a guest!

Hopefully it isn't gruel serving day.

***

Side note, I was at the gym for 2 hours today.  Yeah, for realz.  I did week 2 day 2 (W2D2) of the Couch to 5K program (C25K), a Body Works + Abs class, and some more treadmill and some shooting some B-Ball.  With the estimated calories burned on my LiveStrong.com Daily Plate, I burned approximately 864 calories.

And based on what I shoved in my face for the rest of the day, I still have 837 calories I *could* consume, and still stay under 1,134 for the day.

So basically a super win! :)

***

Happy Valentine's Day!

I do not quite understand people's draw to Red Velvet cake. I do not see anything truly special about it, other than most do not make it. Sure, it is a red colored moist cake, but, without the food coloring, it is still moist.

None the less, I made this Red Velvet Cake for the first time last year, and created a cream cheese/sour cream frosting to go with it. I will note, a little hint, is to the cake, and not getting red blood splatters everywhere, is to mix the red food coloring with the cocoa, and add the cocoa to the batter with the rest of the wet ingredients.

I think the frosting is what makes my Red Velvet enjoyable.

I have spent probably a total of 2 hours to try to find a good frosting for these, but never found one that looked correct. So I have joined a couple of recipes found on the Internet, to make what I feel is THE best Sour Cream-Cheese Frosting.

I made these filled ones, to make them extra special too!  Super simple, a little putzy, but, gives me more frosting!

For the Cream Cheese frosting, basically you need softened (room temp.) cream cheese, powdered sugar, and sour cream.  I used equal parts sour cream to cream cheese, and added powdered sugar to taste.  And then I added more sugar or sour cream based on my mood for the day.

To make them filled, it was pretty easy.  I used a paring knife, and cut a circle at about a 45 degree angle.  Popped the top off, and trimed a little off the bottom, and filled it, replaced the top, and topped it all with more frosting!  You don't have to worry about the top looking super pretty, because you are covering it anyways.

Finished Product

Update: I brought these in for the people I support at work, all said they enjoyed them, and nobody died. :) So basically a win in my book!