Ever made a soup that every time you reheat it, it tastes even better?

What got me thinking about a soup such as this, is a memory of a favorite of mine, the Deconstructed or Unstuffed Sweet and Sour Cabbage. And then I came across the recipe for this Cabbage Roll Soup, that I figured would be much like that beloved dish, but in a soup form. Well, it wasn’t exactly – I may have to go tweak that cabbage recipe and see how to make it into a soup. Shouldn’t be all that difficult. Next time . . .

Since I had a big, fat Savoy cabbage in my vegetable drawer in the frig, it got me to thinking about ground beef, vegetables, in a kind of spicy tomato-y broth and bingo, I thought about cabbage rolls. But no, I wasn’t going to make cabbage rolls. Way too much work. I wanted soup, besides. Sure enough, I had this untried recipe in my arsenal.

It took relatively little time to make – chopping up the vegetables, cooking down the ground beef, finding the various cans of things in my pantry, heating up broth, measuring here and there. Tasting. Chopping up about 3/4 of a cabbage, tasting again. Tweaking the flavors a little bit (a tetch of sugar, a can of tomatoes instead of tomato juice, more dried thyme). Rice went in at the end. I don’t eat much rice (though I love rice and I miss it, hence I decided to put some in this soup). I used Basmati, because that’s about the only rice I have in my pantry anyway. Be sure to make this a day ahead. It really improves with an overnight chill.

More than half of it was bagged up and given to my neighbor, Josee. She’s been a God-send to me, for me, since this pandemic, as she visits Costco at least once a week, if not more often, and gladly buys what I need from there. If I ask, she’ll go to Trader Joe’s for me too, though I try not to ask. In between I buy a $50+ of groceries at Ralph’s and they bring the bags out to my car and put them in the trunk. That way I don’t have contact with people. But anyway, Josee doesn’t really like to cook, and is always so grateful when I send over a big pot of something for her young family. She feels pampered because I cook for them sometimes. I feel blessed and appreciate her errand-running and shopping for me, so it’s a good and fair trade.

This soup made a TON. Way, way more than I could ever eat, but I knew I was going to give some of it away, so what was left fed me lunch for about 6 days. After 6 lunches, I’m ready for something new. Up soon will be a wild rice soup with chicken. Reminiscent of a casserole my mother used to make when I was young. That used cream of mushroom soup, something I never use anymore.

A little aside here . . . I’ve finally had my first Covid vaccine, as I write this. When this recipe posts, I’ll be a week away from having my second vaccine. YEAH! Then, I’m laughingly talking about my freedom – to go to the grocery store. And Target, maybe. Maybe sit outside at a coffee place, even.

What’s GOOD: good, stick-to-your-ribs kind of soup. It was nice to have some rice since I so rarely eat any. Liked the flavor combination – the thyme, the little bit of sour (lemon juice) and the little big of sweet (sugar and tomatoes). Great lunch for these cold, winter days. Try to make this a day ahead – it’ll taste better.

What’s NOT: can’t think of anything. This isn’t off the charts kind of thing you’re going to tell all your friends about – just good comfort food in soup form.

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Nice, refreshing salad with Meyer lemons.

We had a gathering at my house a week or so ago, finally celebrating Christmas with my two families who live here in Southern California. All done outside except for some food prep. My son Powell brought a beautiful, big smoked ham he’d done in his fancy barbecue. I made Ina Garten’s zucchini gratin, a favorite of mine. We had a casserole of smashed sweet potatoes, and then I made this salad. Karen brought some fresh strawberries that could be dipped in crème fraiche and brown sugar, and I’d put out a big cheese platter ahead of time.

An entire package of sugar snap peas is in that salad, above, but I don’t think you can see a single one of them in the picture . . . but they’re there. And there are more lemons than I thought, but each serving maybe had two slices of them (halved). I used a combination of Romaine lettuce and baby spinach. Then tons of radishes (an entire bunch) were added too. But the crown of the recipe is the lemon cream dressing. It starts with a minced shallot, then Meyer lemon juice, EVOO, salt, pepper, and lastly, a big glug of heavy cream. The dressing made enough to dress two big salads, so I used it on my dinner salad for a few days. Taste the dressing with a leaf of lettuce – if you think it’s too tart, add another little jot of EVOO. The recipe came from Sunset Magazine some years ago.0

All of the salad could be made ahead and tossed at the last minute. And it could easily be taken to someone else’s home and assembled there.

What’s GOOD: the lemony flavored tart dressing. I actually enjoyed eating the little thin wedges of lemon too. It made a very pretty salad with lots of crunch (from the sugar snaps and radishes) and the dressing was just lovely. Definitely I’d make this again. Loved the mint in the salad too. Such a nice addition to salads.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. I might put in even more radishes and sugar snaps next time.

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OH MY Goodness! This may be my favorite mushroom soup to date.

How can I exclaim loud and wide enough for you to try this soup. SO good. SO deep with flavor. You may have to buy a couple of unusual items to make it the way I did, but it’ll be worth your time and the expense.

The original recipe came from a website called vindulge. My D-I-L found that website when she began making smoked beef brisket chili using their left over smoked beef brisket. Such a fabulous recipe, so ever since I’ve been following vindulge’s blog. This recipe popped up awhile ago, and since I had an abundance of mushrooms, I thought I’d try a new recipe for it.

What intrigued me was the quantity of sherry – 3/4 cup. That’s a lot of sherry. Was it too much? Absolutely not. Just be sure to use a good sherry – either dry or medium. Don’t use a sweet sherry. Although all sherry is a bit on the sweet side compared to white wine.

Awhile back, in watching a Rachel Ray show (I think this is when I ordered this product) she used some dried porcini mushroom powder. I bought Organic 100% Porcini Mushroom Powder Milled a 200?m Kosher Certified Made in France Vegan Vegetarian, 2oz from amazon. She mentioned that it added a ton of flavor to things.

The recipe called for an ounce of it (there are two ounces in the package). I’ve found less than that is sufficient, so I used about a tablespoon. The porcini powder is mixed with the sherry and sits for awhile, so the powder absorbs the sherry. Don’t know exactly what difference that makes, but sounded like something different. Meanwhile, I sweated some onion in EVOO, then added garlic, then a lot of chopped mushrooms. I always buy whole (uncut) mushrooms – somewhere, sometime in the past it was recommended that you should not buy already sliced mushrooms because too many hands have been in contact with them. So I do chop and mince my own mushrooms. I also think mushrooms last a tad bit longer if they’re left whole. Long-lasting (mushrooms) is a relative term, however, as no mushrooms will keep for very long.

The vindulge recipe called for chicken broth, but I have this wonderful mushroom soup base (a kind of thick gel that must be stored in the refrigerator) that adds a lot of flavor to mushroom dishes too. I’ve had the soup base for more than a year, and it still seems to be good and has not developed off flavors or mold. I’m sure it’s for the restaurant trade, but I love the flavor of it.

The soup comes together quickly – providing you have all the ingredients at hand – and you could probably have it on the table in about 45 minutes including prep time. Crème fraiche is added at the end, and I also added about 1/4 cup of cream just because I had some that needed using. At the end, I added a bit of water to the soup because it needed thinning just slightly.

This is a very rich soup – so portions should be smaller than normal. Sprinkle with a little chopped parsley on top, just to make it look pretty. In the original recipe, some of the cremini mushrooms were chopped up, fried in butter and set aside to add as a garnish.

What’s GOOD: the mushroom flavor just jumps on your palate. Very hearty soup. Rich. Delicious. I loved the sherry in it – the quantity used certainly makes the sherry flavor very prominent. A keeper.

What’s NOT: only if you don’t have the mushroom soup base, or the dried porcini mushrooms. I know it wouldn’t taste as good, but it might still be delicious.

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What an easy entrée! Easy to make and amazing flavor.

Remember, I’ve mentioned that sometimes after I make something my fingers just can’t wait to get to the keyboard to write up a post? This is one of those times. What looks to be a relatively pedestrian kind of preparation for salmon, turns out to be something quite special. The recipe comes from Ted Allen, one of the founders (I think) of Food Network. The recipe was written up in Food & Wine, and as the story went there, with testers sampling the salmon, what was expected to be something ordinary, everyone agreed was really extra-delicious. There isn’t anything that unusual about what’s in it – fresh tomatoes, capers, shallot, red wine vinegar. A dash of cumin, some EVOO, with parsley and basil as a garnish.

Ideally, get everything ready before you begin as it comes together very quickly. The recipe has you pan-roast the salmon in a hot, 425°F oven. That’s assuming you have a really nice, thick piece of salmon. Mine wasn’t all that thick, probably 5/8” at the thickest point. So I chose to continue cooking the salmon in the pan on the stove, rather than doing the oven roasting part. I’ve included directions for both in the recipe, so you can decide which one to use.

The vinaigrette: minced shallot, chopped cherry/grape tomatoes, a tiny splash of red wine vinegar, some capers. And a dash or two of ground cumin. For some reason the cumin is not added into the vinaigrette. I don’t know why – try it – I can’t imagine adding it to the mixture rather than sprinkling it in the pan would make any difference .. .but I’ll let you be the judge of that. It was surprising to me that the vinaigrette included red wine vinegar, since the capers have some brine action going on, but it certainly enhanced it.

The salmon (salted and peppered) is seared in oil on the stovetop, skin side  up at first. If you make this all on your cooktop, you may use a nonstick skillet. But if going in the oven, you’ll need to use a flat sauté pan that can handle high heat. I didn’t use a nonstick, and yes, the salmon stuck some. Either means the pan wasn’t as hot as it should have been or there wasn’t enough oil in there. Anyway, after browning on that side, you turn it over, skin down. That’s when you would put it into the oven, but I left it on the stove, and used a lid for part of the cooking. I turned down the heat too, as it was way too hot for the kind of gentle heat I thought it should have. Once the fish registered 140° with my instant read thermometer, I removed it to a platter.

Then you make the vinaigrette. The oil in the pan is drained, then you add the vinaigrette mixture and cook it for about 2 minutes. It’s poured onto the top of the salmon and then garnished with the chopped basil and Italian parsley.

I’d made Brussels sprouts to go with this (pan sautéed in halves, with butter, EVOO and dried oregano) which was a good choice.

What’s GOOD: everything about this dish was fabulous. I liked it so much, it’s going to go onto my favs page. It’s also very easy to do. Just have everything ready before you begin. The dish may not look all that exciting, but something about the combo of flavors just works brilliantly.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever. It’s a winner.

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Looking for an easy weeknight salmon? Try it.

This recipe was so easy to prepare – the salmon just needed 30-90 minutes to hang out in a marinade. (Don’t marinate overnight or the acidity in the marinade will “cook” the fish, something you don’t want.) And the marinade was very easy to make too: bourbon, some orange juice, soy sauce, a tad of brown sugar, green onions, chives, garlic and lemon juice. Easy peasy. My file says I put this recipe in my file in 1999, from Cooking Light.

It was a cold night (well, cold is relative; here in California anything under about 50 is cold for us, and it was about that temp. I didn’t want to fire up the grill outside, so I made this in my toaster oven on the broil setting. Very easy.

After draining the fish, I put it on a piece of foil and onto a small baking pan that fits in the toaster oven. I preheated the oven for about 10 minutes and stuck the pan in there. The fillet I had wasn’t all that thick, so first I did 4 minutes, then removed it, turned the salmon fillet over and broiled it another 2 minutes. Done. You can brush the fish with the marinade during the broiling or grilling process. If your salmon is thicker, it might take another minute on each side.

Onto a heated plate it went. The green onions and chives were sprinkled on top and I added some cilantro too as a garnish, although cilantro wasn’t in the original recipe.  I had the cilantro out to go with the green beans you can see in the photo.

What’s GOOD: how easy this was. You do need to marinate the salmon for an hour or so, but am sure it would be fine with less time if you don’t have it. The fish was so moist and flaky. Loved it. Liked the pretty garnish too. I try to keep cilantro in my frig all the time. I had green onions, and I found some chives in my garden. Altogether delicious.

What’s NOT: only that you should marinate it for 30-90 minutes. Otherwise, this salmon is very easy to do. I can’t say that I could taste the bourbon as the other citrus juices seem to be the predominant flavor.

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New and different way to make green beans.

Do you love green beans? I sure do. I think I could have them at least once a week. But I don’t want frozen ones – only fresh. I’ve been buying groceries online, then having the grocery store deliver the filled grocery bags to the trunk of my car. My last visit I ordered a pound of green beans.

Preparing a nice dinner for myself the other night, I wanted to do something interesting and different with these green beans. The recipe I’ve had in my to-try file for awhile seemed to fit the bill. The recipe came into my recipe file in 2010 from The Wednesday Chef. Luisa is no longer updating her blog (looks like she stopped in 2018, about the time she began writing a novel). She’s written a couple of cookbooks too. And she credits Julie Sahni for the recipe.

Julie Sahni is a Brooklyn chef and writer and runs an Indian cooking school there, and she’s of Indian descent. And I learned something – the word masala means “spiced.” And Bihar is a state in India. So, this is green beans with Bihar mixed spices, or in the style of Bihar, I suppose. It’s a winner.

First you make the topping (toasting the almonds), then you make the sauce which includes coconut milk. Onions are sweated first, then you add garlic, cumin, coriander, paprika, red pepper flakes and then the coconut milk. Once that is done, you add the green beans and steam them in the spicy coconut liquid until they’re just crisp-tender. Lastly, some lime juice is added in. The green beans are served with the toasted almonds sprinkled on top. When I pulled the beans out, I merely put them on the serving platter and didn’t include the lovely lightly orange colored coconut sauce. In Bihar this is an entrée, served with rice and you’d want all that lovely liquid drizzled over the rice. A vegetarian entrée, if you will.

What’s GOOD: loved the flavors from the cumin, coriander, garlic and onion, and the hint of lime juice at the end. Altogether lovely dish – whether you serve it as a side dish, as I did, or as an entrée with rice. A keeper. Easy to make, and quick, too.

What’s NOT: nothing at all.

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Parsnip soup is in itself a bit of an anomaly here in the U.S. I don’t know why, but most of us don’t know how to cook them, or even how to eat them. Some times of the year you can’t even buy them.

Many, many years ago (1981 to be exact), I’ve mentioned it here before, my DH Dave and I took a trip to England. It was his first trip there, so I planned out the driving and off we went. Our first night out of London we stopped in a small village called Ilminster, checked into a nearby B&B and asked the owner where we should go to dinner. He pointed to “town,” and said turn left at the little square, there’s a nice pub down the street. We walked, in the pitch dark and finally found the pub. It was there that we met a wonderful couple, Pamela and Jimmy. They subsequently invited us to their home. Pamela was a superb cook. In fact, she worked as a chef/cook at a nearby manor house and entertained the young titled family who lived there, plus groups of people for hunt weekends, etc. We were fast friends and visited them every few years. They’re both gone now. But I treasure some of the recipes Pamela gave me, this one included. One year I wrote to her asking for some recipes for cold soups. This one was included. She’s the one who taught me how to make a proper pot of tea. You can read that long story here.

This soup doesn’t have to be served cold – in fact I’ve been eating it hot. With a tiny dollop of sour cream on top. I was lucky enough to find parsnips recently and knew I wanted to try this soup. Pamela didn’t include cream in her version, but after tasting it, I felt it needed some cream and milk. You could add coconut milk instead, or you can thin it with water if you’d like to not include the richness or dairy in your version.

Potato isn’t something I eat much, so I included a celery stalk in the soup instead. Not that celery acts the same as potato – it certainly doesn’t. You can add any amount of curry powder you want. However, a warning: there is cayenne in the recipe; be sparing with it as a little bit goes a long way. Then if you add curry powder too, it usually contains some kind of hot chile powder (or even cayenne) in some form or another, so then you’ll have a double-whammy of heat.

The soup comes together quickly enough, but requiring about 35-45 minutes of low simmering to get the parsnips tender. Parsnips look like carrots in shape, but they’re a pale beige, more an off-white color. Usually they’re cooked, not eaten raw.

What’s GOOD: just that this is a different kind of soup. Loved the soft, creamy texture and flavor. Parsnips are a carb-resistant starch, so it isn’t absorbed like a traditional carbohydrate. Sweet potatoes are the same thing.

What’s NOT: only that you might have trouble finding parsnips! The finished soup would freeze well, but raw parsnips would not, so you can only make this when your grocer carriers the rascals.

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Long ago, when I was a teenager, my best friend lived a few doors from me. Linda and I were fast friends for all these years. Sadly, Linda passed away of pneumonia about 2 years ago. She was severely handicapped and lived most of her young life at home, being home schooled. She eventually broadened her world, learned to drive a specially outfitted van with hand controls and a lift/gate, attended her last year of high school at the one I attended too, then she attended college, had several jobs too. Her dad was a Navy dentist; Van was a stay-at-home mom to Linda and her sister Joan. Once in awhile Linda’s mother Van and her dad would entertain a big group of friends, and one of her favorite things to prepare was lamb curry. This lamb curry. (It was my first introduction to lamb, as my dad wouldn’t eat lamb. He wouldn’t eat chicken, either. So my mom was kind of stuck with pork, beef and only very occasionally some fish.) Anyway, as we got old enough to handle knives, Linda’s mom would recruit us to help prepare the condiments. And they are legion. Van usually served about 25-30 condiments. So our job was to clean, dry, mince, chop and put things in tiny bowls, covered with waxed paper (I don’t think we had plastic wrap back then) and carefully refrigerated or stacked on a large tray, ready to serve. Van always made the curry the day before – the flavors are so much better with an overnight chill.

Over the years I’ve made this dish a multitude of times, always for guests because it makes a lot, and usually I’d serve about 10 condiments. Lamb lends itself well to a curry style sauce. And it’s not difficult to make. I’ve just not made it since I’ve been writing my blog. No real reason. Hence I don’t have a photo of it and needed to use someone else’s (at top).

To cut to present day. A couple of months ago I was asked if I’d be willing to do a food oriented speech/talk and/or food demo on zoom, for my branch of AAUW (American Association of University Women), an organization I’ve been in since my 20s. First, it was discussed about Christmas cookies. Ho hum. And I’m trying not to bake them since I’m a family of one. My friend Ann, who was talking to me about this, asked if I’d cooked anything unusual recently. Oh, yes I had. That was the Food Cart Curried Chicken. And the Curried Shepherd’s Pie (click links in next paragraph). So I suggested I do a talk about curry. Ann thought that was a good idea.

I did some online research and wrote up my speech. Ann had hoped I could do a food demo on zoom, but with only 25-30 minutes to talk, I thought that was not feasible. Plus, lighting would be a problem (this was a nighttime zoom session). I ended up propping up my iPad a few feet away on the island, turned on the lights over my head, set up all of my props (various curry powders, and individual ingredients that go into them). And at the end, in talking about the two dishes I had made, the Food Cart Curried Chicken plus my recent Curried Shepherd’s Pie, I pulled them out of the oven and moved them closer to the iPad, steaming hot and tried to scoop up a big spoonful, so the guests could see how delicious they looked.

I talked about the history of curry – starting in India – then incorporating some of the surrounding countries, then into Japan (the Japanese fell head over heels in love with curry when it was introduced to their culture a long time ago). I talked about the Colonial Period in India, when British officers were running the country. About how they hired local cooks (usually men), and when they were transferred to a new station, sometimes their cooks with them, as well as the spice combination that cook used. At the new post, new British military families would be introduced to the curry of the last place, etc. Eventually curry made its way to the United States, probably to Savannah, or Charleston, and in the early decades of the last century, the south was introduced to a pivotal dish called Country Captain. I also mentioned my friendship with Kunda, my microbiologist friend, who taught me how to make Shrimp Khichdi, a favorite in her family. And about the gift Kunda made to me, a bag of her mother’s garam masala (also a combination of specific herbs and spices). Kunda’s family in India makes it once a year, it’s an all-day family work-party gathering, and one of her family usually flies to California to visit Kunda and that person is the courier of Mom’s garam masala.

You know, of course, that “curry powder” isn’t a powder made from a curry tree. Right? Curry powder is a combination of spices (also can be called a masala), and probably every curry cook has his/her own special mixture. I talked about the heat in curry (which can be mild to hot, to very hot). I’m certainly no expert on curry – I’m a white Anglo-Saxon female with Scottish, Irish, English and Welsh roots, but gosh, do I ever love curry. My speech went well, so many people told me. I went long – nearly an hour. There were numerous questions at the end, and then I got to eat my curry. Yum.

So here’s the recipe below.

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My family room – I should have lit the gas logs . . .

Recalling back many years ago when I first began reading blogs (about 2005, I think) I was always intrigued when the writer shared some little window into their family life. Whether it was a man, a woman, a couple, or a family. So here, above, you can see a little window into my world. My family room. Love my tree. It’s one I bought many years ago that comes in a flat box and you pick it up from the top, insert two interconnected metal tubes inside and set it into the stand. Plug it in, and it’s all ready for Christmas. My trick is trying to keep my kitty from playing with the lower edges. I’ve had to stack piles of cookbooks around the bottom to keep him from doing that. And I’ve had to resort to spraying him with water to keep him away. Poor little guy. His world is kind of narrow – he’s blind – and so anything at all that comes into the house that’s different is inherently fascinating to him. His sense of hearing is profound. And sense of smell. So this foreign “thing” that suddenly comes into his world once a year just has him intrigued. Now I have gifts stacked around the edges, so it’s even harder for him to try to reach the lower part. He likes to chew on artificial flowers or greenery, so obviously this tree meets all of his requirements!

There’s Angel (age 3) – he rarely perches himself next to my keyboard. In case you don’t remember, Angel was about 5 weeks old and was found one rainy night in a gutter, shivering and hungry. He had pneumonia, but he recovered. The vet said the mother cat probably abandoned him (presumably because of his blindness). He developed an eye infection en utero, so his eye socket is partially visible, but his eyes receded. He has no sight at all. But he doesn’t know better – he has a good life! Never fear. He knows every square inch of my house. Occasionally he accidentally runs into a wall, but his whiskers are his radar and as long as he’s not trotting too fast, his whiskers barely tell him to deflect and not run into a wall. He’s learned that warmth (the sun) comes through the front door and in the afternoons when the sun is streaming in, he knows to find a warm spot to sit.

Back to the picture at top .. . Most evenings you’ll find me sitting at right on the sofa (the sofa is covered with a blanket because Angel loves to sharpen his claws on the sofa itself). I do my every-other-day outdoor 30-minute walking routine around my house at about 4 pm, while it’s still light, but the sun has nearly waned. If I go later in the day I don’t have to put on sun screen. Once back in my house I give Angel his evening dinner, pour myself a cocktail or a glass of wine (most nights anyway), and I watch the network news. I was watching the weather report on tv last night when I decided to take this picture. We are supposed to have rain this weekend. Wow – first real rain of the winter.

On Friday, Christmas Day, I’ll be home by myself. My cousin Gary, who usually spends Thanksgiving and Christmas with me (he lives in Northern California) isn’t coming south this year because of Covid. Daughter Sara invited me to come for Christmas Day with them, but decided not to.

Because – the next day I’m driving to Palm Desert and will meet Sara and her family there. The three of us have just bought a small 2-bedroom condo, and it’ll be our first visit to the house since closing escrow. It’s fully furnished, so all we have to do is move in our clothes and food, and we’re all set. I’ll take some pictures once we have it situated. If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, early on, my DH Dave and I still owned a house in the desert. We sold it in 2010 because Dave couldn’t play golf anymore, and it was a big house to manage. Even though it was the right choice at the time, I’ve missed having a place there. I’ve shared pictures of staying at a friend’s home there for a week every winter for the last several. It was staying in Maggie’s house there that got me strongly interested.

Anyway, real estate in California is just going crazy. Hard to believe, but true. Anyway, we found the right place (just like Maggie’s) for us and now I’ll be able to go stay there whenever I want to. The condo is over 30 years old, but has two 18-hole golf courses on it, and every home has a golf course view. Ours doesn’t have a water view, unfortunately. Sara and John need a get-away from their stressful work week. I’ll use it more on weekdays, and they’ll use it almost exclusively on weekends. Sometimes we’ll both be there. We plan on having a steak dinner on Saturday, grilled on the outdoor grill that we hope is working properly (the home inspection didn’t include outdoor equipment, like the golf cart, the fire pit and the barbecue).

My grandson John returns to Virginia Tech in early January, so he’s hyped up about playing golf before he heads east. He’s definitely got some of his Grandpa Dave’s genes – he loves playing golf. And we’ll likely take drives in the golf cart to acquaint ourselves with the neighborhood. It’s a gated community, just like the place Dave and I owned, but a different one. There are numerous neighborhood pools dotted all over, many tennis courts, plus a clubhouse and dining area. I wasn’t thrilled with the food when my friend Ann and I ate there, so don’t know that we’ll use it much.

Yes, I believe. Remember the reason for the season, my friends.

Thank you for reading my blog and hope you enjoyed this little window into my world.

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Finally, I gave in to my wanting to bake something for Christmas. I really tried not to, but one morning I just knew. And oh, are these nice! Love my island with Christmas décor.

There’s no special baking marathon going on at my house this year. Usually, my friends Cherrie and Jackie spend a good part of a day baking all manner of Christmas cookies. But Covid has interrupted that venture. I have such a big kitchen, there is room for all three of us doing whatever needs to be done. And I have two ovens. But not happening this year. Boo-hoo. I’m not even doing Christmas cards this year. Perhaps the first year since I became an adult. My heart just isn’t in it.

But, I gave in to my cravings and decided to make biscotti. The recipe in my file says this one came from Giada. I haven’t gone searching, but it sounds logical since biscotti are an Italian invention, and she is Italian, for sure. Many eons ago I worked with a woman my age who was Italian, and every Christmas her mother made anise biscotti. Doreen would bring in part of the batch and share it with the people in the office. I had never had anise – well, other than in Italian sausage, I suppose. I have a special anise cake here on my blog – if you’re interested and didn’t catch that recipe when it appeared. It’s my variation on Mark Miller’s recipe from Coyote Café in Santa Fe, New Mexico. But back in the mid 1970s, I’d never had anise in a baked good, for sure. I was enamored, and for some years I made them myself. But I found the dough kind of hard to work with. Well, not really the dough, it was the baked log – I found it so hard to cut it without each slice crumbling apart, breaking, particularly on the ends. My DH didn’t like anise cookies much – he didn’t eat them, so I stopped making them. Then I visited my friend Linda a few years ago and she served me her Almond-Anise Biscotti. Oh, gosh, they are good! In fact Linda sent me home with a little jar with Sambuca in it – I’m so glad I remember this . . . I’ll have to make them too. Then a couple of years ago I started making chocolate biscotti, and that was when the tide turned for me about how easy biscotti can be. Farmgirl Susan’s recipe was by far the easiest dough (biscotti type) I’d ever worked with.

However, I wasn’t sure when I started making THIS recipe that the dough would cooperate. But it did. I think I broke 3 slices of the biscotti during the slicing process. DO USE A BREAD KNIFE.

The dough is mixed (I used my stand mixer, but a hand mixer would work) and at the last you add in the chocolate chips. The dough was just barely on the sticky side, so I did sprinkle my countertop with a tiny bit of flour, molded it into the shape you see at top left, then carefully transferred the log to the parchment lined baking sheet.

Into a 350° oven it went for 30 minutes. At that point it was just tinged with golden color. The tray was removed and allowed to cool for 30 minutes. Do set a timer on this – you don’t want the baked log to get cooled down completely or you’ll have trouble slicing it. Slice – remember, serrated knife – into thin slices, lay flat (mostly flat – I had to stand a few of them up on their edges because the sheet pan was full) and bake for another 15 minutes. Then cool completely. I stacked these into freezer bags and that’s where they are now.

What’s GOOD: love the flavor. The anise is subtle here – if you wanted it to be more predominant, double the amount of anise. I liked it just fine. My anise seeds are a bit aged, so I actually used about 1 1/2 tsp, ground up finely in my spice grinder. And for me, the chocolate chips put them over the top. Delicious.

What’s NOT: they’re a little bit fragile to handle – be gentle! Otherwise, they are a perfect biscotti specimen!

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook file (click link to open recipe)

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