Friendly Fill-Ins and Shopping!

WHAT????

Yes I know – Friendly Fill-Ins and Shopping have very little to do with one another BUT we pawticipate in both of these so we’ll have TWO parts to our Friday blog!    First up will be Friendly Fill-Ins which is a blog hop co-hosted by 15andmeowing and mcguffy’sreader!   If you would like to do some filling in of your own, you can do that and link up at mcguffy’sreader.

This week’s four sentences AND our fill-ins are below…………..this week Mom filled them in and her fill-ins are in RED!

1. I have seen 42nd Street on Broadway.
2. My Chinese zodiac sign is a PIG!

3. Celebrities lead a life that I wouldn’t want to have – I like peace and quiet! .

4. A  rainy   day is  great for daydreaming and/or reading .

Ta da!   Thanks Mom!   Next week purrrrhaps I’ll do the filling in!

Now onward with PART TWO of today’s blog…………….which is – SHOPPING AROUND THE WORLD!   This hop is hosted jointly by Fozziemum and Bacon!

Our assignment this month was to blog about and post a recipe for “something we are known for”………………well, I’m not known for a THING other than being an Angel at the Rainbow Bridge but my Mom is going to post a recipe that she’s posted BEFORE – which is for her world-famous biscotti !!!

Mom’s Biscotti Recipe

Mom makes biscotti using all kinds of dried fruit and nuts but THIS recipe is Dad’s favorite – cranberry biscotti.   You can substitute ANY dried fruit or almost any kind of nuts you like in this recipe!  If Mom makes Almond Biscotti she will substitute almond extract for vanilla extract.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups flour (Price this week at our grocery 5 lbs. bag of flour was $1.47)

3/4-1 cup sugar (Price this week at our grocery 4 lb. bag of sugar was $2.79)  Note:  if you like your biscotti on the SWEET side, use 1 cup……otherwise 3/4 cup

1 tablespoon baking powder (Price this week at our grocery for 10 oz. container was $1.27)

1 teasp. vanilla extract (Price this week at our grocery for 2 oz. bottle was $3.79)

5 oz. package dried fruit (can be more or less as you like) – (Price this week for 5 oz. package of dried cranberries was $3.39)

3 large eggs (Price this week for one doz. large eggs was $1.59)

1 stick butter – melted (Price this week for butter 16 oz. package $3.45)

DIRECTIONS:

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees……….use large cookie sheet (ungreased).   Mom lines her cookie sheet with parchment but that’s not necessary.

In large mixing bowl, combine sugar and melted butter……..then with hand mixer add one egg at a time and beat well.   Add the vanilla extract to that mix and set aside.    In second mixing bowl, combine three cups flour and one tablespoon baking powder.  Mix well.    Put the butter mixture into the flour/baking powder and mix well.    Batter will be STIFF.    Add fruit or nuts (you can add more or less than I’ve shown in the recipe – it’s totally to your taste…..sometimes I add a LOT more fruit or nuts than one 5 oz. package!).     Mix well.

On floured surface, divide the dough into three equal portions.    Shape each portion into round “loaf” about 9-10 inches long.   Transfer each loaf onto cookie sheet and flatten with your hand until each loaf is about three inches wide and about 3/4 inch thick.    Separate each flattened loaf by at least an inch on the cookie sheet – more if your cookie sheet is large enough!

Bake in oven for 18-20 minutes until light golden color………remove and cool for ten minutes on cookie sheet.    After cooling, transfer loaves to large cutting board and using very sharp knife, cut the loaves on a diagonal into pieces about an inch wide.   Cutting on the diagonal will give you “longer” biscotti.   Note:  Try to make one, swift cut for each piece because the cookies are pretty delicate at this point – don’t use a “sawing” motion or they will break up.    Put cut pieces back on the cookie sheet cut side down.  They can be crowded on the cookie sheet – no need to leave space between.    There will be room for all three loaves of cut biscotti on one cookie sheet!     Put back in hot oven for 10 minutes, remove from oven and carefully turn pieces over to expose other side – then back in the oven they go for another 10 minutes.   Keep an eye on them –  you don’t want them to burn but you want them to be browned up a bit.    Almost every time I make these I either have to add a minute or less (don’t ask me why – maybe my oven?!).

Let finished biscotti cool on the cookie sheet.    They are delicious warm AND if you want to, you can easily make a chocolate sauce (melted chocolate) to dip one end of each piece into and allow them to dry if you like your biscotti like that.

IT IS DELICIOUS!!!!   I promise – and so easy to make.

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There you have it peeps!   TWO blogs for the price of one today.    I’ll see you tomorrow for BACON day!

Love and Angel Hugs, Sammy