T Stands for Pizzelles

Since Himself and I are following a Keto Diet, it means no carbs. No goodies. I'm a carbivore so I've found this hard to give up. Since Keto also means no grains, I've had to give up baking with wheat flours and have found some recipes that use either almond flour or coconut flour. I was thrilled when I found a recipe for Grain-Free Pizzelle (pih-zay-lah) an Italian waffle cookie.

Baking with almond flour is different from baking with wheat flours. Since there is no gluten in almond flour, baked goods don't have the same rise or texture. This recipe also called for Arrowroot Powder or Flour which I couldn't find at my local grocery store. A Google search claimed Tapioca Starch or Flour was a good substitute, and I did find that in the gluten free area of the market.

Reading through the recipe, there was no sweetener. Stevia is okay to use on a Keto diet. I was pretty sure Ma's recipe for pizzelle called for sugar. Without a sweetener, I was sure the almond flour pizzelles would taste like cardboard.

Ma made pizzelles to feed an average size Italian family or a small nation. Her recipe used 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar. Stevia is supposed to be way sweeter than granulated sugar so I opted to use 1/4 cup of Stevia.

The dough was similar in texture though a bit grainy.

I used the large disher, but that didn't quite fill the space on the pizzelle maker. The dough may have been a little thicker than Ma's recipe.

Pizzelles cooling on the rack.

Since I was planning on bringing some pizzelles to Red while we watched Outlander, I flavored the cookie with vanilla extract. Traditionally, the cookie is flavored with anise, but so many people don't like the licorice flavoring. 

The pizzelles turned out ok. They were thin and crisp as the traditional cookie even if the waffles were a tad small. They needed more Stevia and even though I used 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract, they needed more flavoring, too.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Bliss

It's that time of year again, a favorite time of mine. Black jelly beans are in season. And joy that black jelly bean manufacturers fill entire bags with the licorice delights. No longer do black jelly bean connoisseurs have to wade through several bags of jelly beans harvesting the black ones. Life is good.

Six years ago, my friend, Andy Fish blogged about a treat he had while on a trip to Japan. Dark chocolate and licorice together. Brilliant. Two delicious tastes together. Andy recreated the sensation by combining Snow Caps and Good n' Plenty which can be found any time of the year. (Well, the Snow Caps aren't always easy to find). For a festive flair black jelly beans and semi-sweet chocolate chips (until I can pick up a bag of chocolate eggs) are on the menu. Bliss.

Changes

Halloween has changed for us over the years. The girlies are all grown up and going their separate ways. The area I live in is rural. There are no sidewalks even though I live on one of the main roads in town. There are no street lights to speak of. The stree tlights are located at cross streets which are 1/4 to 1/2 mile apart making things dark and treacherous.

When the girlies were little, we'd go across the street to Prissy's house. She'd have candy for them. When her husband was alive, he'd have special candy like Halloween themed lollipops. Afterwards, we'd go to my mother's house. I'd take my girls trick or treating around the neighborhood and then we'd have dinner with Grandma and Grandpa.

As the girlies got older, to take the sting out of a lack lustre Halloween, we celebrated Ink's birthday. We got him in December and the woman we got him from said his litter was born sometime in October. The girlies decided since Ink was an all black cat, his birthday had to be on Halloween.

So, even though Himself and The Eldest were working, the Young One sequestered in her room killing aliens, monsters, or going on quests with friends, I still kept up the tradition. I baked cupcakes for Ink's birthday. He has a sweet tooth and is partial to yellow cake. He also likes vanilla ice cream and yogurt.

One thing I did think of. I am so glad I didn't have to make 60 of these black cat cupcakes for the girlies to take to school. Cutting licorice nibs to make the pupils was a royal pain.Cute as the cupcakes are, changes aren't always bad. And M&Ms and licorice nibs together are heaven.

Did you celebrate Halloween?

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Himself went hobnobbing with the other Wizards. They went for their every couple of months dinner out. Himself brought all the Little Princesses dinner though one of the Wizards ragged on him. Couldn't even go out to dinner without being on a short leash.  Don't blame me! Himself offered to bring dinner home.

2.  To stave off going off the deep end with yet more snow, I enjoyed some point and click retail therapy. Bought some Easter trinkets for the girlies and art supplies for me.

3. Bough an Ott standing lamp for the painting corner.

4. Easter trinket arrived for The Young One. Sadly, The Easter Bunny will have to include an I.O.U.  egg to The Eldest

5. It's black jelly bean season!

How was your week?

Bunny Bags

If you were wondering what happened to my blog post for yesterday, it's here. I didn't really have anything to write about. Not that I really do, but yesterday the well ran dry. Instead, it occurred to me that Easter is only a few days away.

The days of Easter baskets and egg hunts are long gone. (Though we had a lazy Easter bunny who hid the entire basket) Still some traditions are hard to end. I still hard-boil and dye Easter eggs. A colored egg is nestled into bread dough and baked (an Italian tradition) for Easter breakfast, if the monk who bakes the bread doesn't over-sleep, otherwise, the bread and egg nests are for lunch..There will always be chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, jelly beans (especially black ones). And there are always a few trinkets for the girlies. No matter how big they get, they still enjoy an Easter basket.

The Easter baskets did faithful service for many years, but are no longer with us. The Easter Bunny will need something to hold the bits of candy and trinkets. Gift bags would work, but the Easter Bunny could only find Christmas gift bags and didn't want to run out to buy gift bags. The Easter Bunny can be quite cheap frugal.

While trolling the Interwebs for inspiration, I came across Bunny Juice Box Wraps and decided bunny bags would do the trick.

You'll need a lunch bag. (I had white on hand, but brown bags would work just as well). The lunch bag measured 10 1/2 inches so using the paper cutter, I cut 5 inches from the top of the bag. Out of the bag scraps, I cut 2 ear shapes, and 2 paws for each bag Scrap paper in the girlies favorite colors (pink for The Eldest and red for The Young One) was used for the inner ear, large paw pad, and a hole punch was used to punch 3 small paw pads. I also cut a heart shape from the colored scrap for the nose. The colored scraps were glued to the bags with glue stick. Drew a bunny face on the bag with a Sharpie marker and a dab of chalk for blushing cheeks.

A pretty ribbon bow and a cotton ball tail glued on with white PVA glue (Elmer's) completed the ensemble.

The End.

Creating Memories

For The Young One's eighth birthday, the cake request for a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. No problem until the baking went horribly wrong. The cake layers baked uneven. So uneven, it would have taken a tub of frosting to even things out so the layers would stack on top of each other. What to do?

The gap between the layers looked like a mouth. I grabbed items I had hanging around. Desperation is the mother of invention. White chocolate chip bits, glaced fruit, and red licorice laces became the features on a monster cake and fortunately, The Young One loved it. Whew!

Twelve years later, The Young One's cake request was for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. And then a surprise. I wish I could have a monster cake?"

"Seriously? "

"I loved that cake."

Ok. This time I went out to buy candies to use for decorations. I had to buy white chocolate chip bits because someone had opened up the package to snack on and only left two bits. Hugs, gummy worms, peach rings, M&Ms and red licorice laces jumped into the cart. The hard part was to intentionally bake uneven cake layers. without burning one side or the other not baking through. It worked and The Young One loved the result.


We spend a lot time, effort, and sometimes cash to create memories. Nostalgic memories  from when we were kids, or expose them to opportunites we never had as kids. Sometimes odd what we think what should be a memory, and what actually becomes a memory. Some thirty or forty years from now, The Young One will be saying, "That crazy, old, broad was hell on wheels with a tub of frosting and a bag of gummy worms."

Wordless Wednesday