Another muffin to keep....

I've been wanting to use some more rhubarb since we made the Rhubarb Pudding Cake a few weeks ago. I thought about maybe a crumble or pie, but I wanted a more individual snack... so I went with muffins!

Rhubarb Crunch Muffins have a moist and tender interior with a crunchy crown from chopped pecans. Freshly squeezed orange juice helps to cut the tartness from the unique tangy rhubarb and adds a sunny sweetness to these golden treats. I would normally toast the pecans before hand, but since they are scattered on top of the raw batter, they are exposed to the heat long enough to get that toasty flavor.

Tonight's DVD for the weekend from Netflix is Ray with Jamie Foxx. As the move gets closer, I am trying to be more diligent with the menu planning to get things from the freezer and pantry used up. I will be going through some cookbooks and recipe piles tonight and see what we can dig up for this upcoming week.... until tomorrow!

Recipes
Rhubarb Crunch Muffins

Pizza night...

It is not often that we have pizza and when we do it is usually something pretty different. But after tonight's version, I can see us making this recipe a few more times!

Roasted Garlic, Tomato, and Basil Squares has a not too thin, but not thick crust, that is crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. The homemade dough was a pleasure to work with - it was elastic enough that I was able to easily stretch the dough into the large rectangle over the crunchy cornmeal instead of rolling it as the recipe called for. If your pizza stone is large enough, just prepare the dough on the peel instead of using a baking sheet... but alas ours is a smaller round one. Before the dough is placed in the oven, a light coating of olive oil in brushed on to add a bit of richness to the dough and to ensure a golden color.

After the prebake, the crust is smeared with a daring mixture of soft roasted garlic, tangy mayonnaise, fresh basil, salt and pepper. Very ripe fresh tomatoes are chopped and thrown over the spread. To finish, sharp Parmesan and shredded mozzarella are scattered on top and then the heavy slab of tantalizing flavors is placed back in the oven to soften the tomatoes and create that appealing golden finish to the cheese. This was suppose to sit 10 minutes before cutting... ummm yea... right - our mouths had already started to salivate from the smell alone coming from the oven! Fresh, sharp and delicious - not much else to say!

Recipes
Roasted Garlic, Tomato, and Basil Squares

Adding some style to a classic treat...

Rice Krispie squares are always a favorite classic treat, but sometimes adding just a little something else takes them to a whole new level.

Green Pumpkinseed and Cranberry Crispy Bars add a sweet and salty twist to the plain ol' bars. To enhance the flavors of the seeds, the pepitas are toasted in a dry skillet until they begin to pop and turn a light brown. You continue on as you normally would with the melting of butter and then the squishy marshmallows. When ready, the cereal, toasted pepitas and dried cranberries are mixed together with the melted marshmallows. Then you press the mixture into a baking dish, but be sure not to press too hard as you want an element of airy-ness to them. Coat your hands with cooking spray or a bit of soft butter to keep the sticky mass under control. Crunchy, chewy, sweet and a hint of salt make these excellent for such a simple combination of commonly on-hand pantry ingredients.

While the combination of ingredients for tonight's dinner is something we would have probably not done before, we were both surprised with how much we enjoyed it. Especially since we just recently came to the conclusion that we both actually like beans (even though *someone* still "says" he does not like them...)

Chilaquiles Casserole is also the first time we have made anything with enchilada sauce! Quartered corn tortillas are layered with a jam-packed vegetable mixture of grated zucchini, onion, fresh sweet corn, black beans and fire roasted tomatoes. Since we tend to like things on the fiery side, I mixed hot enchilada sauce with a mild and Jeff rated it still quite high on the heat scale. If you want to forgo the heat altogether, use some tomato sauce instead. Sharp white cheddar cheese can also be found in the middle layer as well as being the final topping. After it is baked, the mixture is allowed to rest and then can be easily cut into squares. Cumin added a subtle smokey flavor to the vegetable mixture, which brought such a fresh taste to the spicy sauce. I can't wait to see how the flavors marry overnight when we have this for lunch tomorrow!

Recipes
Chilaquiles Casserole
Green Pumpkinseed and Cranberry Crispy Bars

Fresh and healthy dinner...

The last few times we have done tofu, it was more down the list of ingredients rather than being the main portion. Tonight's dinner on the other hand, uses tofu steaks dipped in a flavorful coating and then simply pan-fried as the star ingredient.

Coconut-Crusted Tofu with Peach-Lemongrass Salsa begins by making the bright spicy salsa. Fresh chunky pieces of peaches are mixed with red jalapenos, fresh lemongrass, basil, brown sugar, vinegar and salt. If you prefer this to be more mild than spicy, be sure to de-seed the jalapenos. The tofu is cut into steaks and then coated in a mixture of unsweetened coconut, flour and cornstarch to create a crisp golden crust. Jeff thought we should have added a little more of something to the coconut mixture, as the tofu was still kind of bland... but this was somewhat expected as the only seasoning was salt. We did both agree that the blandness was a good match for the sweet lemon scented salsa. When you drain the tofu, be sure to use a few layers of paper towels to get out as much extra moisture as you can for a firm texture. Very fresh, healthy and a fairly quick weeknight meal.

Recipes

Coconut-Crusted Tofu with Peach-Lemongrass Salsa

Rich chocolate treat...

Jeff was suppose to fly out to Frederick today for work, but the trip was cancelled... so we will have another Wednesday Treat Day for his former co-workers!

This treat, Dark Chocolate Raspberry Breakfast Muffins, are dark, rich and decadent muffins that could easily be a dessert on its own. The muffins are tender, rose fairly high and have a deep chocolate color. I used Dutch-process cocoa which darkened the color and brought a smooth chocolate flavor - if you only have natural cocoa though, feel free to use it in this recipe. Instead of using chocolate chips, I used raspberry creme filled dark chocolate chunks. They look a little ordinary on the outside, but as you take a bite you find that the chocolate chunks turned into creamy pockets of a mild raspberry flavored surprise. You could take these over the top and spread on a thick fudgy icing turning these into wickedly sinful chocolate cupcakes. You certainly don't have to eat these for breakfast, but oh what a way to start the day.

Tonight's side dish is a pared down potato salad. The recipe, Yukon Gold Potato Salad, called for using only one kind of potatoes, but I used half yukons and half purple potatoes to add some fun color. Besides, we found them at a great price in the market this week! I did leave the peels on, but if that bothers you, feel free to take them off before mixing them with the dressing. The vinegar in the dressing was a little strong, so I might add a dash of sugar next time. There was a good amount of creamy dressing to coat the tender potatoes - we both thought this was excellent for a such a simple dish.

The main dish, Grilled Peaches and Pork, was a little more challenging than I had planned on. The peaches ripened a lot faster than I expected, so trying to pit and peel them was kind of messy. The pork chops are first pounded thin and then marinated in a zesty mixture of Balsamic vinegar, fresh lime juice, thyme, salt and pepper. They are then grilled and sliced into thin strips. The peaches are drizzled with a bit of balsamic and are then placed on the grill. Since mine were pretty soft already, I didn't get a chance to get them distinct grill marks, but I was able to leave them long enough to start and caramelize. I just wish they would have been a little firmer for a better presentation. They had a killer sweet taste though and the balsamic was a great touch. The sprinkling of crunchy turbinato sugar before serving was a fun and different finish to the salad.

Recipes
Grilled Peaches and Pork
Yukon Gold Potato Salad
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Breakfast Muffins

What more can you ask for?

Quite a bit to talk about tonight - so let's dive on in!

I posted about the watermelon yesterday and I used most of it today in a drink called Watermelon Agua Fresca. This vibrant red blended mixture of watermelon, sugar, water and lime juice is combined with chilled seltzer to create a fizzy and quite refreshing drink. To keep the drink smooth, it is strained to catch any seeds or large fibers. This was a great way to cool down after doing yard work in 110 degree temperatures! Be sure to serve this well chilled - if you wanted to serve this with ice, you could make extra and freeze it in ice cube trays so the drink would not get watered down.

I was excited to make tonight's dinner as it called for an ingredient we have not used yet - Tempeh!

Green Salad with Grilled Tempeh and Maple-Soy Vinaigrette was a nice light dinner that came together pretty quickly. I had no idea what the tempeh was going to taste like, but when we sat down to eat we were both pleasantly surprised! It was nutty and slightly chewy which paired well in a lightly dressed salad. The tempeh was spiked with a mixture of pure maple syrup and soy sauce after being grilled until browned. The sweet and lightly spiced dressing brought together the spinach and bitter arugula. Red and yellow bell peppers added color along with a fresh crispness. We will have to try the Tempeh again in another dish!

To go along with the salad tonight, I also made Parmesan Skillet Flatbreads. A combination of all-purpose and whole wheat flours with fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese make these savory flatbreads delectable. They are mixed together just like any other bread dough recipe - but after being stretched thin, they are quickly cooked on the stove-top instead of in the oven. They only take about 1 minute on each side in a hot skillet and then you have warm, chewy and cheesy pieces of bread to have along side a salad or to just enjoy by itself! This will be made many more times!

Recipes
Watermelon Agua Fresca

Parmesan Skillet Flatbreads

Green Salad with Grilled Tempeh and Maple-Soy Vinaigrette

Grocery day...

Just under 3 weeks to go before the movers come and pack up the house! This week was exceptionally busy as we started to deal with showings of the Phoenix house again (sigh....) We did talk about 7 new recipes, but I made 3 more that I just did not have time to write about yet. I don't think we could pick out any favorites from this week, they were all very good!

I have a bunch more new recipes planned for this week and hope we are able to get to them. I finished the grocery list this morning and we were able to get just about everything - I wanted to wait on a couple items so they could be as fresh as possible. Here's a peak at a couple of the things we bought today that you will see used this week.


Tonight's weekend DVD from Netflix is the animated film Valiant with Ewan McGregor and Tim Curry. Check back and see what we end up cookin' and bakin' from the kitchen!

Freezer finds...

I was going through the freezer last night trying to figure out what I could get used up today. I saw a couple frozen bananas and knew I had a recipe set aside for them somewhere. It took me a bit to find the recipe in the monster known as "the stack" but I finally found it.

Toni's Banana Chocolate Chip Walnut Bread is a moist flavorful bread and depending on what brand of yogurt and chocolate you use, I think could be considered vegan. The recipe uses whole wheat pastry flour to keep it light, but I think a mixture of half all-purpose and half whole wheat would be ok here. You could also use all white whole wheat flour if you have access to it. The banana flavor was pretty subtle even though mine were pretty ripe, so I would add a touch of banana extract next time. You can taste a hint of cinnamon and the amount was just right for us. I used mini chocolate chips as I find the distribution of them to be better in breads and muffins. To help the chips and walnuts from sinking to the bottom, be sure to coat them in a tablespoon or so of the flour.

It has been awhile since we have been home all weekend so we can finally get caught up with Netflix again. Tonight's movie is Oliver Twist. I hope to carve out some time tonight to get the menu for next week done and the grocery list started for tomorrow. Until then...

Recipes
Toni's Banana Chocolate Chip Walnut Bread

Buying without a plan....

There seemed to be lots of fresh corn at the market this week, so I bought some ears without knowing what they would end up in. While we love to grill them whole, I wanted to try something just a bit different for a side tonight.

Sweet Corn and Parmesan Flans have a savory and silky texture that mingles well with the roasted whole kernels. Roasting the kernels before using them intensifies the sweet flavor from the corn. The flan is a mixture of eggs, pureed roasted kernels, milk, seasonings and nutty Parmesan cheese. Colorful halved yellow and red cherry tomatoes add a vibrant freshness to the creamy rings of corn. *To help them cook slowly and evenly, the flans are baked in a water bath. Place a layer or papertowels or a dish towel in the bottom of your baking dish before adding in the ramekins and water - this keeps them from knocking into each other while you move them from/to the oven. To be safe, place the baking dish on the oven rack before adding the water to reduce the risk of sloshing hot water on yourself or into the ramekins.

I decided to serve a quick dish of Pork Chops with Ginger-Cherry Sauce as the main portion of tonight's meal. To add a different depth of flavor to the chops, they are first sauteed in toasted sesame oil. Once they are done to your liking, they are removed from the pan while chunky cherry preserves are mixed in with soy sauce, vinegar and freshly grated ginger. After being allowed to reduce, the tender chops are added back in to warm up and start to soak in the flavorful sauce. The tangy cherry mixture may seem a little thin at first, but it starts to thicken up as it cools down. The sweetness in the cherries is tempered by the salty soy while the fresh ginger adds just enough of a snappy bite. I also steamed some broccoli as an additional side . Boy are we full and happy now!

Recipes
Sweet Corn and Parmesan Flans
Pork Chops with Ginger-Cherry Sauce

Needed some tinkering, but good in the end!

Cavatappi with Arugula Pesto and Cherry Tomatoes is a light pasta dish saturated in a peppery and nutty pesto. Corkscrew shaped pasta is the perfect vessel as the ridges are able to catch and hold onto the sauce. Upon first bite, I found the bitterness of the arugula to almost be overpowering, so next time I would use a bit more lemon juice or replace half of the arugula with spinach. The original recipe called for water in the pesto, but I used chicken broth instead to punch up the taste.

To add another layer of flavor, I pan roasted the sweet cherry tomatoes in a touch of olive oil, just until they burst, instead of leaving them raw. To round out the dish, a smattering of toasted pine nuts added just enough richness to pull together the flavors.

Recipes
Cavatappi with Arugula Pesto and Cherry Tomatoes

Don't pass on this sauce...

Burgers are always a favorite around here, but they can be a little heavy when you want something light for dinner. Tonight's recipe fills that burger craving without leaving you feeling guilty.

Turkey Burgers with Special Sauce has a few twists and turns to it that take your tongue for a fun ride. Sometimes burger recipes that use turkey breast can easily come out dry, but these stay moist by mixing in tangy sweet orange juice and soy sauce. Green onions, garlic and fresh grated ginger ensure these thick patties will not be bland. But what makes this recipe, in my opinion, is a versatile "special sauce" that will be made again and used to top other burgers. The sauce is thick, sweet, tangy, and the best part - it makes a generous amount so you can play around with it on other recipes. Jeff and I are eagerly awaiting lunch tomorrow so we can finish the other two off!

Recipes
Turkey Burgers with Special Sauce

What were those nuts?

On Sunday, we posted this picture and asked if anyone would toss a guess as to what they were.

Erin was the one who guessed correctly! These are Avellanas, otherwise known as Chilean Hazelnuts! They came already skinned and most of them were halved - they seem to be almost half the size of a normal hazelnut too. When I went out looking to get some hazelnuts for the recipe today, I spotted these at Trader Joe's and had to try them out. I'm going to miss having a TJ's so close when we move!

This bar cookie recipe, Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Bars, takes a basic chocolate chip cookie to an adult level. Two generous amounts of chips, semisweet and bittersweet, along with the Avellanas make sure that you have a variety of each in every bite. The Avellanas have an unusual sweetness to them and bring a very crunchy texture contrast against the soft chips. The bars themselves have a crisp outside (not crunchy) with a dense and almost a sticky chew as you work your way into the cookie. Be sure to cut these while they are still a bit warm; if you wait, they might crumble some and loose the clean outer finish.

Treat day continues! Even though Jeff is no longer working at the Phoenix campus, it does not mean we have to stop with the Wednesday Treat Day tradition! We will sneak these bars over tomorrow morning and hope his former co-workers enjoy them.

Recipes
Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Bars

Dinner without heating the house...

The new season of Hell's Kitchen starts tonight. We liked the last season and have been looking forward to seeing what this one brings. I can't imagine how stressful it must be to be in his kitchen! Anyone else going to watch?

When it is this hot outside (108 today!), it is nice to make things for dinner that do not require you to heat up the house with the stove. I made tonight's recipe in The Griddler, but this meal would be great on an outside grill.

Spicy Jerk Chicken Kebabs with Bell Peppers and Pineapple are sweet with a spicy bite to them. To start off, cubed chicken breast is marinated in a pungent combination of toasted spices, brown sugar, lime, soy sauce, Worcestershire, paprika, thyme, garlic, shallots, fresh ginger and jalapeños. I left the jalapeño whole to pump up the heat, but if you want a more mild version, seed them before using. For a fun flare, diced pineapple in addition to chopped red and yellow peppers are threaded onto the skewers between the juicy chicken breasts. As the fruit and veggies caramelize, the sweetness is brought to the surface. When you reach a piece, it helps to calm down the bite from the racy marinade.

*If you opt to use wooden skewers, be sure to soak them for a bit in water to reduce the chance of charring them.

Recipes
Spicy Jerk Chicken Kebabs with Bell Peppers and Pineapple

Glad to be back in the kitchen...

We had 6 new recipes posted last week, which is pretty small for what we would normally talk about. Since we are home for the next 4 weeks, expect the number of recipes to increase to about what we used to do. The countdown to the big cross-country move is on; 27 days until we fly out to Maryland for the last time and wait for the packers to bring up the stuff from Phoenix.

Thankfully, US Airways came through and actually delivered our missing luggage to us this evening. Whew! Since we have been back and forth to Maryland for the last month, we had nothing fresh in the fridge... so today we did a pretty big grocery shopping trip. We picked up a couple new-to-us items and here is a quick snap from one we will be using in a sweet item later in the week. Care to toss a guess as to what these are?

I waited until this morning to get the menu planned out for this week. I picked out some recipes that I'm sure will leave Jeff saying "Oh god, what are we trying now!" Stay tuned... lots of fresh ingredients will be showing their charm this week!

What a day....

Well, after another long 5 hour plane ride and a 2 hour wait to find out one of our bags (along with 78 others from the DC flight) were not going to be at the airport tonight, we are back home in Phoenix. Hopefully this will be the last flight until we go leave for the final time. The move is scheduled to happen mid July, so that leaves us with plenty of time to get our extra pantry items used up! The one thing I will definitely miss is our walk-in pantry. The new kitchen is probably half the size of our current one, so until we have the time to renovate it to our liking, it will be an interesting adventure getting used to the smaller space. If we could have only moved some of the kitchens we saw into this house… but we had to compromise on something to get the acreage we wanted.

By the time we arrived home, we were pretty tired, but I had been itching to get something made in the kitchen. I opted to go with a no-fuss quick dinner, that again, uses up some pesky pantry goods. Sloppy Joes with Corn uses canned corn, but since it is that time of the year, use fresh sweet corn if you got it! Ground sirloin makes up the main portion here, but I would not hesitate to use some ground turkey breast for half to lower the fat some.

Once the meat has started to brown, thick tomato paste is added for richness and does a good job of holding the mixture together. Smoky cumin and chili powder add that classic smell of sloppy joes I remember while growing up. A dash of cayenne brought the heat up to a respectable level, but you could add a dash or two of Franks Red Hot and I wouldn't mind! After the mixture is thinned with some chicken stock and allowed to simmer to concentrate the flavors, corn is stirred in to add a different texture to your ordinary joes. This made a generous six servings, so we opted to save the mess and have them open faced.

Recipes
Sloppy Joes with Corn

Spicy... but not in a hot way

The sweet item I'm posting about today is one I made before we left for Maryland last week. I have had this one in my to-try stack for a long time and in looking through the pantry, we had just enough plump golden raisins to get used up for this recipe.

Raisin Spice Bars have a dense and chewy texture that is somewhere between a cake and a cookie. The spice part from the recipe name comes from a delicate and fragrant mixture of ground ginger, Vietnamese cinnamon and allspice. An in-your-face deep and rich flavor comes through from thick molasses. I used chewy golden raisins, but I bet you could get away with chocolate chips or whatever mix-ins you like. I did enjoy the fact that even though these are baked in a 9 x 13 baking dish, there is only 4 tablespoons of butter, which helps to keep down the calories. On day one these bars were pretty good - but as the spices assimilated into the bars, they grew much more flavorful and had a more moist crumb to them.

Recipes
Raisin Spice Bars

Versatile side dish...

I had some Jasmine rice to get used up last week, so I went searching for a side dish I could make to go with dinner. I wanted something that would not have to be constantly attended to or too fussy.

Rice Pilaf with Toasted Almonds looked like it would fit the bill. After browning minced onions in butter, I added in some aromatic Jasmine rice to first lightly toast the grains. Once the edges started to turn clear, chicken broth is added and the mixture is left alone until the rice has soaked in the flavorful liquid. Toasted almonds scattered on top at the end bring a crunchy and nutty texture to the fluffy rice. Since simple flavors were used, the flowery aroma of the rice is allowed to shine through. The finished dish was a bit more creamier than if we were to have used plain long grain rice I think. This easy side will be repeated with many dishes I imagine!

Recipes
Rice Pilaf with Toasted Almonds

Breakfast Fig and Nut Cookies

Breakfast Fig and Nut Cookies (Adapted from CL)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/4 cup finely chopped dried figs
1/4 cup chopped dried cranberries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl, whisk brown sugar, melted butter and eggs. Stir in figs, cranberries and vanilla.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, bran, baking soda, cinnamon, and allspice. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, stirring just until moist. Gently fold in almonds.

Measure the dough out using a 1/4 cup measure and place on parchment lined baking sheets at least 3-4" apart. Sprinkle each with a heaping 1/8 teaspoon granulated sugar.

Bake until just set in the center, about 10-12 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on pans. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool completly.

Makes about 10 large cookies

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News we have been waiting for...

Let's talk about some good news we have to share and then back to the food! We put in an offer on a house in Maryland and it was accepted! We went through the home inspection already this morning and there were no major issues! We took some pictures to share.... Remember to click on them if you would like to view bigger pictures.

The house sits on just over 1 acre of land a couple miles outside of Frederick (oh my, I guess it is time to get a riding lawn mower!) Here is the front view...

And a view from the back... Can you guess what probably sold Jeff the most on this house? Our neighbors directly behind us have animals.... and not just any kind - right behind our fence are Alpacas!

There is even a good sized shed that matches the house in the back corner!

Have you ever seen that Chevy Chase movie where they release some deer when they try to sell their house? During the inspection this morning, guess what I saw wandering around our house and driveway? Hmm... I wonder if someone set that up - hee hee!

The movers will be coming to get our stuff from Phoenix the second week in July and we should close on the new place shortly after that. The ball is starting to roll and it seems to be going quite quickly now! It's too bad I feel like crap to enjoy it all (I've had a sore throat since Monday... sigh) - but I guess I shouldn't complain!

Sorry about that - we can get back to the food now! One of the dinners I made before we left again was Pulled Chicken Sandwiches. This has so much going for it! The chicken is first rubbed with a flavor-packed combination of spices and then grilled off until done. I used chicken breasts for this, but the original recipe did call for thighs - feel free to use what you like! Once cooled enough to handle, you shred the chicken and reheat it in a slightly sweet and spicy homemade barbecue sauce. The sauce was just so good that I will be repeating it for other recipes - just enough vinegar and spice to punch up the flavors. We had them on plain buns, but go crazy and dress them up if you so please!

Recipes
Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

Treat day coming back?

I asked Jeff if he thought we should make something to bring for the new co-workers and give them a little preview of what would be coming when we start their Treat Day after the move. He thought it was a good idea so I needed to find something that would survive the plane ride and not go bad.

Biscotti was the first thing that came to mind, so I went through my recipe stacks and picked out Pistachio, Dried Cherry and White Chocolate Biscotti. This recipe is similar to the many others we have made, but with a lot more mix-ins! Green pistachios, chewy tart cherries and chunks of sweet Callebaut white chocolate. The dough was a bit sticky, but if you wet your fingers before shaping, it was much easier to work with. I let these cool for much longer than I normally would in hopes of having them cut without breaking as much as they sometimes can. After about 25 minutes I started slicing with a serrated knife and was very happy with the clean cuts! The biscotti are pretty crisp, but do not require dunking to be enjoyed.

The day before Jeff was going to head into the new office, we went out to explore Frederick a bit and we came across this sign!

Which was, coincidentally, right next to this one... Hmm.. conspiracy to increase the Jam sales maybe?

We had to stop and check out this place - Mayne's Tree Farm. Apparently they also offer a ton of other fresh vegetables and have different events going on throughout the year. We were running late already, but there was no way we were going to pass this up! Here is a shot of one picking field.

Here are some of the sweet and deep red berries we were able to pick.

We picked an overflowing 4 quart box and paid around $6!

As we got back to the hotel, the intoxicating smell of the berries quickly filled the room. Since we had so many, I started to think of what else we could do with the strawberries. We went out later and got some good quality white chocolate and proceeded to put the microwave in the room to good use! I melted a bit too much so we went ahead and dipped the bottoms of the biscotti as well. This added just the right amount of a subtle creamy sweetness to the crunchy slices. Hopefully the new coworkers enjoyed the treats we brought in - not bad coming from a hotel room (well we did bake the biscotti before we left). The fresh strawberries were just too good not to share, even though Jeff tried to keep them all for himself!

Recipes
Pistachio, Dried Cherry and White Chocolate Biscotti