Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone!
Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate!

Here's a silly little poem I wrote for this holiday season. Hope it makes you smile!

Thank you to everyone who visited my sites, read my blogs, and bought my merchandise! =)
Best wishes to you all!

Mariya

Blackberry Biscotti

Happy Friday!

Not bread, biscotti. They're more pink inside if you snap them in half.

No art to post today, though I do have a few small things in the works. Therefore, instead I'm posting recipe I tried out today. Desserts are better than art anyway, right? ;)`
I took this "Raspberry Lemonade Biscotti" recipe by MCBARTKO and adapted it to my tastes/ingredients/servings. Here's my adapted recipe below: (Makes about 20 pieces, hopefully. I was taste testing too much to keep an accurate count.)

Maybe I should have dusted them with some powdered sugar so they'd look more like dessert...

Blackberry + Lemon Biscotti

1+ cup fresh blackberries     2 tablespoons  brown sugar     1 teaspoon of lemon juice

1/2 cup unsalted margarine 2/4 (1/2) cup brown sugar 1/4 cup white sugar 2 eggs 3 teaspoons grated lemon zest 1 tablespoon blackberry jam 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour  1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1.      Place the blackberries and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar with a splash of water into a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice. Cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced by about 1/3. Remove from heat, and strain through a sieve or cheese cloth to remove the seeds. Set aside to cool.

2.      In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 3/4 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one. Stir in the blackberry sauce and blackberry jam and lemon zest until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into the batter. Cover and refrigerate for about 10 minutes.

3.      Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease the cookie sheet(s) or line them with parchment paper. Shape the dough into a log, or a couple of small logs. *The wider and flatter the log - the longer your biscotti pieces will be. The longer and taller the log - the rounder your biscotti pieces will be, like mine turned out. Looking more like some crostinis, as mine turned out be. But hey, the taste is the most important part...isn't it?

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4.      Bake for 27-30 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm but not crisp. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.

5.      Place the biscotti bars on a cutting board, and use a serrated knife to cut into 3/4 inch wide slices. Return the slices to the baking sheet(s), cut side down.

6.      Bake for 8 minutes, then turn the cookies over, and bake for an additional 8 minutes, or until lightly toasted on each side. Cool completely, then store in an airtight container. 

7.      Enjoy with coffee or tea =)

They look like little bread pieces, but they're not!

Plum Cake

While I'm completing some art, why don't I share a dessert I've made a couple of weeks ago. This is a recipe which I modified from my mom's recipe, and it's a perfect one to celebrate the start of the autumn season.

I give you - Plum Cake!

I also tossed some blueberries in :)

Plum Cake

Ingredients:

- 3-4 large eggs

- ½ cup of sugar

- 2/3 cup white flour

- 1/3 cup of whole wheat flour

- 10-12 small plums

- 1 tablespoon of almond butter

- 1 teaspoon of baking powder

- 1 teaspoon of lemon zest

- ½ teaspoon of cinnamon

- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

- ½ teaspoon of lemon juice

- pinch of salt

-unsalted margarine for greasing

- bread crumbs for greasing

Directions:

1: Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease the pie pan with some unsalted margarine and dust it with some bread crumbs.

2: Slice the plums. Set the sliced fruit aside in a bowl. Feel free to add any other stone fruit, like apricots into the mix too – it’ll be delicious! This time I thought I’d add some blueberries.

3: Pour the sugar in a large bowl and whisk it together with the eggs using a mixer on low speed until the two are well combined. Add the almond butter, a pinch of salt, lemon juice, and vanilla, then mix for a few more minutes at a medium speed.

4: In a smaller bowl combine the cinnamon, flour, baking powder and lemon zest. Now, slowly add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, a little bit at a time, while the mixer is at a low speed. Mix until the batter looks creamy and smooth.

5: Pour about half of the batter into the baking pan. Arrange about half of the sliced plums on top of the batter, and set the rest aside to decorate the top. Pour the remaining batter as evenly as possible over the fruit. Finally, take the last of the fruit and arrange them nicely on top.

6: Cook for 30-35 minutes at 350F until the top is lightly golden. Check to make sure the pie is baked by taking a tooth pick, bamboo skewer, or knife and piercing through the middle of the pie. If it comes out clean, then the dessert is ready. However, give the cake some time too cool before attempting to take it out. If it’s too warm, it will stick to the sides and break as it comes out.

Enjoy! It pairs perfectly with tea :)

Buckwheat Bread

I made bread for the first time yesterday. I used a recipe for rye bread from "Fat-Free Cooking" by Anne Sheasby (pg 236). I cut the recipe (yield) in half and instead of rye flour I actually used buckwheat flour and I sprinkled oatmeal on top instead of caraway seeds. First of all, I didn't have any rye flour (or caraway seeds) and second of all, I always have this need to change something from almost any recipe.

The bread turned out a little denser than I thought I would be. Maybe its's the buckwheat, maybe I over kneaded it, but I still liked the results.


Happy Friday!
I'm off to bake something else!

Highlights of New Year's Eve

I've decided to share a few quick photos I took yesterday during my family festivities. They're mostly of food=)

Me, shelling some boiled eggs. I was mostly the sous-chef that day. My dad was in charge, since we were cooking his recipes=)

Some lamb being caramelized for the "Plov" dish.

Carrots, also for the "Plov" rice dish.

Some sauce going in=)

And here's the "Olivie"/Russian Salad being made

Of course my custom Munny dragon toy had to join the celebration

A little red wine

Our humble dinner arrangement consisting of components often found at Slavic winter spreads, like smoked salmon, pickled peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, pickles, olivie salad and plov rice.

My plate=)

And when the ball drops you've got to have some (more) chocolate and champagne!

My favorite chocolates ever!!

Some chocolate/alcohol cherries=)

And some left overs beginning to pile up!

Hope you had a lovely New Year's Eve as well!

Happy Sunday!