Glogg...it does a body good

Yes, it is freezing!  We luckily have not had the snow in Massachusetts that other places have gotten, but it is freaking freezing!  On days like this, there is only one thing to do and that is drink and I love to drink Glogg.  It is the Swede in me.  It connects me to my family.  The recipe was handed down to me from my grandfather.  It is the sure thing to send you off for a nice winter's nap and it doesn't hurt that it is so yummy!

I down loaded the app A Beautiful Mess

and turned the above picture of my Glogg into this...

Love!

Let them eat cake!

My last Cub Scout cake...

A daunting task to get inspired,

I Just didn't have it in me this year.

It was an emotional time, saying good by to Cub Scouts.

It has been such a big part of our lives for 5 years.

I dug deep and got a little inspired, 

but not very original.

It didn't seem to matter, the boys all enjoyed it.

I have never made figures out of fondant. I was happy with the 

Tiger and the Bear for the Cub Scout side of the cake.

I felt like I took the easy way out copying 

a lot of the same style of decoration from my cake last year.

Oh well.

I am getting used to relaxing my standards.

It makes life a little easier and enjoyable.

My youngest is a Boy Scout now.

Now time for me to relax and enjoy some 

quiet time.

In the kitchen...

I realize that as the 'cake chick' I really haven't blogged much about baking.

Honestly, I have been uninspired. But having a flock of 16 hens who are putting out
9 to 12 eggs in a day even in the winter is reason to find some inspiration and get baking.
Along with the beautiful weather this past weekend we had nothing going on for the
first time in a long time.

I perused one of my new cook books...

I'm not bragging BUT it happens to be signed by the author...

How could I not be inspired?

So I got baking.

I have made a lot of things in my day but never biscotti.

I gave it a whirl...

Terry(did I mention that I met the author? Oh yea I guess I did) says that the dough will be very sticky.  Well she isn't kidding.  I couldn't get the dough shaped exactly how I wanted because it was so sticky.  I will lay it out slower when I make it next to control the dough a little better.

I also baked it on my stone and did not use the parchment as suggested in the recipe. I bake on my stones all the time and knew I wouldn't have a problem.  The above picture is out of the oven before slicing it and baking the slices.  I was really wishing I had shaped that dough better, but as Julia Child says, "No apologies!"

Next was to slice and put back in the oven at 300 for 20 minutes on each side. I just put them in for 35 minutes and did not flip them.  Baking on a stone really makes turning things over unnecessary.

and then Viola! This was my coffee break this morning...

Cappuccino, thanks to my Tassimo and my Pistachio Apricot Biscotti.

and a nice view from my office window.

Thanks girls for the nice eggs to bake with!