Spring Biscotti

In honor of spring, I decided to make this biscotti recipe. I had found it several years ago when I made Christmas gifts for friends, because the cranberries are kind of Christmas-y. However, this recipe is so delicious and the oarnge zest mixed with cranberries and white chocolate is delicious! These don't take very long to make either.

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 egg white
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 1/4 cups pistachio nuts

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar, orange zest, and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs and egg white one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; gradually blend into the creamed mixture using a wooden spoon. Stir in the white chocolate, dried cranberries, and pistachios. Cover, and chill for 30 minutes, or until dough is no longer sticky.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface, and divide into halves. Form each half into a flattish log about 12 inches long by 3 inches wide. Arrange logs at least 3 inches apart on baking sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes in preheated oven, or until pale gold. Allow logs to cool on the baking sheet until cool enough to handle. On a cutting board, cut logs crosswise on a diagonal into 1 inch thick slices. Arrange on baking sheet.
Bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until golden. Transfer biscotti to wire racks, and cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

(I found this recipe on allrecipes.com)

Chinese Cabbage Salad

Recently, for Ethan's dedication lunch I begged my mom to make this salad. Oh, my goodness, it is one of my favorites! A lot of people asked for the recipe and now, 6 weeks later, I am finally getting around to getting it from my mom. Sorry for the delay.

Directions:

1 head of napa cabbage, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 bunch of green onions, chopped

2 packages of crushed ramen noodles (Uncooked)

1 cup of almonds (sliced)

2-3 tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted

Put the above ingredients into a bowl.

In a jar with a lid, combine 1 cup of oil, 1/3 cup vinegar, 2 packages of chicken seasoning from the Ramen noodles, 1/2 tsp. pepper, and 1/3 cup sugar. Mix well. I recommend a lid so you can shake it up, but stirring does just as well.

Pour over cabbage mixture and toss well.

Serve to your guests or make a smaller salad and only pour part of the dressing over mixture and save the rest for later.

Apple - Cinnamon Muffins

Valentines Day in the Klassen house is incredibly busy and I still wanted to do something nice for breakfast. I tend to make a lot of bread items for breakfast since Jon is against the idea of anything that looks or tastes "egg-y." In other words, no quiche, egg casseroles . . . not even french toast. And, I don't like making the same things all the time. As a result, I am often in a search for new recipes.

This recipe I found on the blog, Two Fat Als. And as I am typing this blog entry, the muffins are in the oven and oh, my goodness, deliciousness is filling the air. I hope they make it to morning!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/4 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups shredded apple

1/2 cup chopped apples

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cups walnuts

Strudel topping:

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tbsp all-purpose flour

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375. Line muffin pan with muffin cups. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a medium-sized bowl. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and then vanilla. Stir in apples and walnuts. Slowly stir in flour mixture until just combined. To make strudel topping, use your fingers to mix the ingredients until it feels coarse. Spoon batter into muffin cups, and sprinkle strudel on top. Cook for about 18 minutes for regular-sized muffins, or about 20-25 minutes for larger muffins.

My notes about the muffins:

~ When dealing with apples, I tend to be very lazy. I went ahead and didn't even bother with pealing the apples in this recipe. It didn't seem to make any difference. They tasted great and probably had an added health benefit of added fiber and nutrients found in the skin.

~ In addition to the strudel topping, I sprinkled some of my Pampered Chef Caramel crunch sprinkle on top.

Bibs

I have been having so much fun making things on my new sewing machine. One thing that I found to be very useful and easy to make was bibs. Now that Ethan is beginning to eat food, I just can't get enough bibs. Here are a couple that I made with a pattern from Nested.

Crayon Roll

I have been so excited to get to make things for gifts with my new sewing machine, I looked . . . and found the coolest little thing for my newphews (soon to be 5 and 2). I got this idea from the website Skip-to-my-Lou. It gave a tutorial on how to make it with very detailed instructions. I hope they enjoy them . . . oh yeah. . . don't tell them what they're getting. . . Their party is next week (Valentine's Day).

A Quick and Easy Valentine Eclair Treat

This week I had some leftover puff pastry to use up and decided to get a bit creative. I rolled out the remaining sheet of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry (located in the freezer section of your local grocer) to about 1/8 inch thick. Using a heart cookie cutter, I cut out hearts and placed them on a cookie sheet. I use a silpat, so there was no need for greasing my pan. I baked them for about 10 minutes and let them cool. While they were cooling, I mixed up a small sugar free Jell-o vanilla pudding mix, 1.5 cups of milk, and 4 oz. cream cheese. After the hearts had cooled, I split them in half and put a spoonful of the pudding mixture onto the bottom of the heart. I then, placed the top of the heart on to the mix, making a sandwich. I used a smaller heart cookie cutter, so I did 4 on a dessert plate. To make them look pretty I dusted them with powdered sugar, drizzled with chocolate syrup, and put a smidge of whipped cream (Redi-whip) in the center. It was so easy and Jon really enjoyed the pre-Valentines Day treat!

No Knit Scarf

Just before Christmas, my good friend Audra decided to host a craft night and found this absolutely simple scarf pattern. Since, I was busy feeding Ethan and then had to leave early due to dense fog, I just watched and thought to myself, "I really want to make one of these!" After several days of trying to figure out what to get my sister for Christmas, I remembered this scarf idea and quickly made one for her. It took about an hour! No joke! So easy! If you can tie your shoes. . . then you can make this scarf.

You can find the directions here. The directions on Martha's website call for really thick yarn, happens to be more difficult to find, even if shopping at your locan JoAnn's superstore. I used some thinner yarn that had little knots sewn in and just made each section with 8 strands. It comes out super cute!