Lemon Biscotti

What is more springlike than a crunchy lemon biscotti with a sweet sugar glaze?  I love these little cookies and with Easter right around the corner, I may just have to make another batch.  I'm pretty sure that the Easter bunny that stops at this house would much rather have a couple of lemon biscotti to nibble on instead of carrots.  (I'm just saying.) 

 

Lemon Biscotti

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon canola oil
3 eggs

Glaze

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/8 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350.










In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder.















In a separate bowl bring together the lemon zest, lemon juice, canola oil, and eggs.






Add to flour mixture and stir until well blended.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly 7 to 8 times.  Divide the dough in half.  Shape each portion into an 8-inch long roll.
Place the rolls on a silpat lined baking sheet, leaving a few inches between each roll.  Flatten each roll to 1-inch thickness.

Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove the rolls from baking sheet and let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.
Cut each roll diagonally into 15, half-inch, slices.   Place the slices, cut sides down, on baking sheet.

Reduce oven temperature to 325 and bake for 10 minutes.  Turn cookies over and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Remove from baking sheet, and cool completely on wire rack.






Put the powdered sugar in a medium-sized bowl and add in the milk and lemon juice.
Whisk to combine.









Once the biscotti have completely cooled, dip the flat side of the biscotti into the glaze, or you can use a spatula and spread it – whatever is easiest for you.
Lay the biscotti cut sides down until the glaze is completely dry.

There is no telling where these lemon biscotti will end up - the breakfast table, in an Easter basket or on a plate for the Easter bunny.  Either way, they won't be around long.

Ciao! 

Herb Roasted Chicken

Anyone else out there struggle with menu planning, grocery list making and grocery shopping?  For some reason it seems to be getting harder and harder for me to sit myself down and plan out meals for our week.  Maybe it's because I'm trying to schedule meals around soccer games and baseball games or maybe it's because I just get frustrated that I take the time to plan and then it all goes out the window because of unexpected activities.  Either way, I am struggling to plan - and stick to - a meal schedule.  I'm not ready to forgo the meal plan altogether but I am trying to be a little more flexible in my planning lately. I'm planning 4 meals a week (two of which can be packed and taken to a ball game) and then filling in the rest of the week with leftovers and impromptu meals.  (I am learning to embrace the challenge of creating a meal with ingredients that I have on hand.)

Our menu for the week looked something like this:
Roasted Turkey Breast
Spice Rubbed Salmon
Stacked Turkey Enchiladas
BBQ Turkey Pizza

There is it, my menu plan for the week and I had a grocery list to accompany it.  The only thing worse than not having a grocery list is having a list and getting to the store only to realize that they don't have what you need!  Uuuggg!  Soooo frustrating.  You can see that my menu was centered around the fact that I was going to roast a turkey breast on Monday and use the meat for the rest of the week but when my supermarket had zero turkey breasts, so I had to make a quick change of plans. The supermarket did have whole chickens on sale so I decided to swap my turkey for chicken and just go with it.

I brought my chicken home and did a quick pinterest search to find a great roasted chicken recipe.  Honestcooking.com to the rescue.  They had this amazing spice rubbed chicken on their website that made me forget all about my plans to make a turkey. 

Herb Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken
1/2 tsp salt & pepper, of each
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika powder
1 tsp of each dried basil, oregano, thyme , rosemary,
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 cup (250 ml) warm water

Rinse chicken and pat dry.  Place in a baking dish.

Combine salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, basil, oregano, thyme rosemary and parsley.







Rub under skin of chicken.

Dissolve bouillon in hot water.  Pour into bottom on baking dish.





















Roast chicken 2 hours at 350.

 Transfer to a platter and tent with foil.

Slice and serve.

 

This was a great weeknight meal AND there are plenty of leftovers to use in my stacked chicken enchiladas and BBQ chicken pizza.  (Look for those recipes on the blog soon.)

Ciao!

Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken

It's hard for me to believe but I have been a food blogger for nearly 2 1/2 years already!  I've learned a lot about the food blogging world since first starting this journey.  I really had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into when I wrote my very first blog back in 2011.

Writing my blog continues to be a source of joy in my life but that's not to say that there aren't moments that it stresses me out too.  Everything that is worth doing will cause some amount of aggravation and I think that's even truer for anything that involves a computer.  Despite the frustration that I feel sometimes, I still LOVE my job as a food blogger.

When I sit down to write a blog I don't usually have a target audience in mind.  I tend to believe that my blog will only reach anyone my immediate circle: my mom, my brother, my close friends.  After 2 1/2 years, you would think that it wouldn't take me by COMPLETE surprise when I get a comment or an email from someone who finds my blog by chance. 

I am even more astounded when I get an email from another website or food blogger that has visited my blog.  My recipes have recently been featured on Foodista.com, mytaste.com and EasyItalianRecipes.org.  That is astounding to me because I never contacted any of these websites, they actually found me!

I am honored to be a part of the food blogging world and to know that there are actually people out there who are reading my blog and making my recipes.  Who would have guessed that I would ever have become a food blogger?  Not me, but I wouldn't trade it for any other job. 

People ask me all the time how long I am going to continue to publish my food blog and the answer I usually give them is; "When I run out of recipes, I'll know it's time to quit."  With the access to unlimited recipes on the internet these days, I don't know if I'll ever actually RUN OUT of new recipes to try.  I found this recipe for Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken on www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com.

Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken

2 cups panko crumbs

2 cups pretzel crumbs

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

1/3 cup honey 

1/4 cup water

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper

1 + 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts

1/2 cup flour, plus more if needed

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Lightly grease with oil a large, non-stick baking sheet or roasting pan. If you don't have a non-stick pan line a regular pan with foil and lightly grease with oil.
In a large skillet over medium heat toast the panko crumbs until lightly golden, stirring constantly. Remove from the pan and allow to cool.

In a food processor pulse the pretzels until coarsely ground (small crumbs with some small pretzel pieces) then add them to a medium bowl and mix with the panko crumbs.

 
Add the oil, mustard, honey, water and vinegar to the food processor and pulse until smooth.

Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the flavor to suit your own tastes by adding more mustard or honey.
Pound the chicken breasts out to an even thickness using a mallet. Season well with salt and pepper.








Pour half of the dressing into a large shallow bowl or dish,















put the flour on a large plate and






 





add half the pretzel mixture to a large, shallow bowl or dish (add the remaining half pretzel crumbs to the dish as needed).







Working one at a time and using tongs dredge the chicken in the flour then into the dressing allowing excess to drip off then into the pretzel crumbs patting them on if needed. Place on greased baking sheet.

Bake 16 - 25 minutes depending on their thickness/size or until cooked through (internal temperature 165 - 174 degrees F.).

Let the chicken sit 5 minutes before serving.

Slice.

Serve with the remaining honey mustard dressing.

Ciao!

Ingredients:

2 cups panko crumbs

2 cups pretzel crumbs*

1/2 cup neutral tasting olive oil

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

1/3 cup honey (Iike clover or orange blossom)

1/4 cup bottled water

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper

1 + 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts

1/2 cup flour, plus more if needed

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Lightly grease with oil a large, non-stick baking sheet or roasting pan. If you don't have a non-stick pan line a regular pan with parchment and lightly grease with oil.
2. In a large skillet over medium heat toast the panko crumbs until lightly golden, stirring constantly. Remove from the pan and allow to cool.
3. In a food processor pulse the pretzels until coarsely ground (small crumbs with some small pretzel pieces) then add them to a medium bowl and mix with the panko crumbs. Wipe the crumbs out of the food processor.
4. Add the oil, mustard, honey, water and vinegar to the food processor and pulse until smooth.
5. Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the flavor to suit your own tastes by adding more mustard or honey.
6. Pound the chicken breasts out to an even thickness using a mallet. Season well with salt and pepper.
Set up a dredging station:
7. Pour half of the dressing into a large shallow bowl or dish, put the flour on a large plate and add half the pretzel mixture to a large, shallow bowl or dish (add the remaining half pretzel crumbs to the dish as needed).
8. Working one at a time and using tongs dredge the chicken in the flour then into the dressing allowing excess to drip off then into the pretzel crumbs patting them on if needed. Place on greased baking sheet.
9. Bake 16 - 25 minutes depending on their thickness/size or until cooked through (internal temperature 165 - 174 degrees F.).
10. Let the chicken sit 5 minutes before serving with the remaining honey mustard dressing.

Read more at http://www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com/honey-mustard-pretzel-chicken/#mB0Cyl4SWz4RQjib.99