Twice Cooked

These little puppies were the talk of the season 'round these parts, boys and girls.

I decided that my contribution to the Christmas baking was going to be some biscotti, and I was going to do one savory and one sweet.  I expected to like the savory black pepper and parmesan biscotti much more than these chocolate orange pecan ones, but the opposite was true.  Where the parmesan ones never had quite the crispness that I wanted, these sweet concoctions were perfect every time.  They're just the right amount of hard, without being the pieces of shrapnel that will tear apart your mouth, they melt perfectly in coffee or hot chocolate, they keep well, and they're pretty easy to make.  I would seriously recommend trying them next time you've got a few hours free and want something to impress.  Either yourself, or guests.  If you must.

I just adore my mom's Kenwood "Chef", from the fifties.  With only a few mild tune-ups from over the years it's still the best mixer we own.  I've told my parents that this exact piece of hearty machinery is what I want my wedding present to be from them!

Perfection!

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur (I used Tripe Sec)

1 tablespoon grated orange peel (basically just the rind of a whole orange)

1 cup pecans, lightly toasted, coarsely chopped

6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate, chopped

I didn't actually end up using this Suisse chocolate, but I'm sure they'd be equally good with a bit of nougatty goodness too.

Directions:

Stir your flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using your electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter in large bowl to blend.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the orange liqueur and orange peel. Add the flour mixture and beat until blended. Stir in your chopped toasted pecans (I dry-fried mine cause I don't know how else to toast a pecan) and chopped chocolate. Divide your dough in half, wrapping each in plastic.  Freeze your little packages for twenty minutes to firm. Now you can preheat your oven to 350°F.

Orange-y goodness going in.

The addition of chopped chocolate and toasted chopped pecans.

Just a few turns of the mixer and there you have it!

All snug as some bugs in some rugs.

Using floured hands, form each package of dough into 14-inch-long, 2 1/2-inch-wide log on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing them two inches apart. Bake until light golden, about thirty minutes. Transfer parchment with logs to a cooling rack and let them cool for twenty minutes. Turn the oven down to 300°F. 

Ball-parking it should do it, there's no need for them to be too pretty or too uniform.

When your logs are cool, transfer them to a big cutting board and using serrated knife, cut the log on the diagonal into half-inch-thick slices. Stand slices upright back on the baking sheet and repeat with the remaining log. 

Slice and slice and slice.  It is your privilege to eat the ends and any pieces that don't maintain their structural  integrity.

Arrange nicely and then cram in whatever's left.

Bake again (biscotti means twice cooked, your fun fact for the day!) for about thirty minutes. Cool completely on rack.  While they're cooling, make a pot of coffee.  Devour whilst dipping into said coffee.  

To be consumed preferably three-at-a-time.

 There you have it boys and girls!  Simple, delicious, and arguably acceptable as part of this complete breakfast.  Enjoy!  And let me know how they turn out for you if you try them.  Variations too!

Love,

Your friend Lina

 

Merry Christmas!

I hope you had the Merriest of Christmases, boys and girls!

Because I sure did.

My Christmas this year was perfectly book-ended, and crammed, with all of my favourite traditions.  Just a few days before the day-of we had our Christmas tree decorating party with many of the old friends who have been in attendance for years and years.  This year also marked our first multigenerational festivus, as one of my sister's friends came complete with wife and tot in tow.  There was much cooing, much eating, much drinking, and a little bit of decorating to boot.

The tree pre-decorating

I made chocolate-orange-pecan (not pictured) and parmesan-black pepper (above) biscotti for friends and family this year

Hep-cats and Be-bops

Just a taste of some of our Christmas decor - the snow-globe with Santa we've had for as long as I can remember

Starting to get busy

The Tannenbaum in all it's glory! Note the first issue of my new favourite magazine!

The day after, we celebrated Christmas with my sister as she and her husband were leaving for his family do on the 24th.  I have to say it was pretty nice to split the festivities up over a few days.  Who doesn't want their absolute favourite holiday to last longer than is proscribed? I ask you.  My sister got me these hilarious flip-flop socks from her recent trip to Japan: they almost look like mittens what with the big toe in its own little compartment and the rest all smooshed together.  With those she and her husband also got me a subscription to Nylon (isn't Santa good at communicating my wishes?) and a copy of Kate Beaton's Hark A Vagrant!  I've been a reader of that most wonderful of all comics for years and years now, so I was not only delighted that I now have a hard copy of some of my favourite strips, but also that the fine girl gets supported!  What a good sister and broseph-in-law I have.

The next morning we saw them off after breakfast.  That afternoon took us to the yearly Christmas Eve open house that family friends have, where my brother and I usually just stake ourselves out next to the crab cakes, layer dip, salmon mousse, and bacon-wrapped-water-chestnut-stuffed prunes.  Can you blame us really?  As soon as we got home my brother got all suited up to play Santa for our neighbour's kids.  We've been doing it since their little girl was just an infant, and I think she must be about six or seven by now.  It was easier to pull off when they lived across the street from us but this year they moved a few blocks away, presenting Santa and his chauffeur with a new set of problems.  Along with the anxiety that this will be the year that they are discovered to be frauds, they also had to sort out how to hide the fact that Santa got into the Crompton's van and drove away after delivering the presents.  Not too sleigh-like our caravan.  Nor could my brother just walk home as he was wearing my boots and they're a mite too small for him.  So apparently my father was waiting a few doors down to pick him up with the headlights off, and they just threw the car into neutral and rolled down the hill, hoping the kids wouldn't notice.  They confirmed in the morning that the ruse was a good one when they exclaimed at the breakfast table that when they ran to the window to watch him leave, Santa had magically already disappeared!

Santa on his iPhone (my favourite picture of the season!)

As fore-mentioned, these same neighbours came over for Christmas breakfast first thing the day of.  We had already opened our stockings (a book, mascara, a chocolate orange, and a real orange for yours truly), but we postponed family gift-giving until after the feast of frittata, Canadian bacon, panettone, stewed cranberries and apples, and lots and lots of coffee.  The little ones really liked the presents my parents got them (these librarians really know what they kids these days like to read), and us old folks really liked a repetition of our lovely little holiday tradition.  After they left we opened gifts (a generous cheque to help pay for the DSLR that I've been saving up for plus a library of books), took naps, and talked to family near and far on skype.  Our close family friends came over for nibbles and drinks (again, of course, a long-lasting tradition), and almost as soon as they were gone, my aunt and uncle arrived for Christmas dinner. 

All my wrapping this year was green paper, twine, and handwritten green-on-beige cards

 

Can you tell what I got my brother?

After gifts with them (can you tell we're blessed?), we watched Joyeux Noel.  This one was actually a new Christmas film for us.  Normally our staples are White Christmas and the Alastair Sim's Scrooge (aka A Christmas Carol), but as this was playing on TVO we gave it a go.  And, boys and girls, I would be perfectly happy having it become part of the Crompton Christmas Canon.  It's a German/French/British film about the Christmas Truce of 1941, the first year of the First World War.  It follows a few key characters from German, French, and Scottish battalions, dramatizing real-life occurrences from along the trenches.  The men exchange drinks, gifts, and a few words of salutation, as well as sharing mass, a football game, and shelter in each others's trenches when the artillery starts to fire again on the day after Christmas.  Of course the censors get wind of this when the men write home about their Christmas comradery, and HQ cracks down on all sides to ensure such fraternization never happens again.  We were all in waterworks the entire time, as you can imagine, which is the stamp of a good Christmas movie in this household for sure.

This film was extra-special for me because The First World War is one of my favourite historical events to study

I wish I was trilingual and gentlemanly as well

On boxing day we drove down to Toronto to continue the festivities with all of the extended Cromptons.  Throughout our visit I was able to see my good friend Ariana (she had come home to the GTA from her stint in rural New Brunswick), and spend a whole day with my most excellent cousins and aunts and uncles.  We've now got four generations going strong, so our big family lunch and dinner is quite the party!  There's almost too many of us to be able to catch up with everyone.  Time really flew past and it's sad to think that we won't be all together again until next Thanksgiving.  But an awesome time was had by all, and even though it was too short, it also was too sweet!  After everyone parted for the evening the remaining Cromptons gathered round to watch Scrooge, my favourite Christmas movie if not just favourite movie in it's own right.  It was the perfect end to a perfect Christmas!

First night in T.O. - my cousin's lil'est guy pulling apart the Christmas tree

Crompton arms, and can we talk about the wallpaper!

Soup and Vessel: Marvelous

Some awesome signage downtown (speaking of el cheapo?)

I'm glad this exists

Four generations of twenty-four Cromptons

We drove back to Ottawa this morning, so I guess now Christmas is officially over.  But, as the Spirit of Christmas Present says, Christmas does not live in man's hearts but one day of the year, but three-hundred-and-sixty-five!

I'll be keeping my heart full for the upcoming year, boys and girls.  I hope you can too!

Love, and Happy Christmas,

Your friend Lina

Twist and Shout

Much baking, much applying, much HP audiobooks read by Stephen Fry, much organising of strands.

I finished up my circle scarf the other night, got all my wrapping done tonight, and then tried out the Orchid Grey heidi braids. I'm not too too sure about these on myself, but I love love love them on her. I'm a devoted follower of quite a few style blogs (mostly from the Delightful Dozen), and Julie at Orchid Grey has never been knocked off the plinth of favourite. Her hair is kinda like mine, and since she always wears it so well, I thought I might give one or two of her styles a try. Not to sure if I have the gumption to wear these out of the house yet (yet all over the internet is ok? Be reasonable.), but they're fun to try nonetheless.


A little too Alpen? A little too frauline? Or good to go for a season of big scarves and thus long hair up?

I've got lots of Christmas parties this week, and I can't wait for them to begin! Don't you just love the season? Definitely my favourite time of year.

Happy Holidays,

Your friend Lina