bah! humbug!

I have been feeling very un-Christmas-y this year. My sister and I had a conversation about it, and came to the conclusion that our combined 21 years in retail was the cause. For me, it was 10 years of the same damn songs played every 2 hours for 6 weeks, and the exhaustion caused by unending lines of rude people.

But yesterday the holiday spirit kinda kicked in, and this morning after many cups of coffee, it full on kicked in.

Was reading my dear friend Tracy's blog last night, and had she posted a picture that made me laugh and laugh. It made me laugh at the time it was taken, and 9 years on (!) it hasn't gotten any less funny. It did make me miss her though, and wish that I could go back to 1999 again and spend Christmas with Tracy and her dad.

And then this morning, I did some baking. Made spiced almonds and double chocolate biscotti for my friends Robert and Kari, in exchange for Kari's old treadmill. Maybe not a fair trade, but not one I'm going to argue with either.

So, in the spirit of the season, here are the recipes for the treats I made. Both very easy and both totally delicious!

Lohz (Spiced Almonds)

The almonds are adaptable to every taste. I'll give the general instructions, and then some spice suggestions:

• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cups of whole blanched almonds
• generous 1 cup of light brown sugar (though I prefer a scant 2/3 cup dark brown sugar)
• salt to taste
• spices

Heat the oil over med-high heat. Add the almonds and 3/4 of the sugar. Toss together and stir until the sugar is caramelized and the nuts are coated. (You have about 12 seconds when everything is perfect, then the oil comes out of the nuts and the sugar crystalizes again... but don't worry if this happens, everything still more or less sticks together.)

Remove the nuts from the heat, and toss in the spices. Spread the nuts on a cookie sheet to cool and dry. They can be served slightly warm, or stored for several weeks in an airtight container.

I use about 3 tsp of spices. Today I used cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cardamom, white pepper and cayenne. You could also try cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; cumin, cayenne and cinnamon; cinnamon, ginger, allspice and coriander; cumin and crushed chili... the possibilities are pretty much endless.

Double Chocolate Biscotti

This was my first attempt at baking this dry cookie. They aren't the prettiest, but man are they good thanks to a brilliant last second decision to add a Green & Blacks orange spice chocolate bar, rather than bakers chocolate. This obviously opens up the flavour possibilities greatly. Going to try an espresso chocolate bar next time!

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (I left these out)
• 3 oz dark chocolate chopped (this is where I used the chocolate bar)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped crystalized ginger (also left out because I didn't have any)

Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk the dry ingredient, except the sugar, together. In a separate bowl, combine the egg and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. With a mixer on low, beat in the rest of the ingredients until combined. (I found that my mixer couldn't handle the dough as it is very stiff. A food processor would probably work better). 

With moistened hands, shape the dough into 2 logs (9" x 2 1/2"). Place them on the parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes. Remove them from the oven and let cool on the pan for 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to 325. Using a serrated knife, cut each log into 16 slices (1/2" each, with the ends cut off). Bake for 20 minutes, turning them over half way through. Cool and store.