Change Is In The Air

Hi folks! I just wanted to give you the heads up that the look of my little blog will be changing shortly. It was one of my very thoughtful Christmas gifts from Brother Dean. The other was that you can now visit The Daily Cynema directly by typing:

dailycynema.com

***While the cite is in transition, the www.dailycynema.com URL isn't function, but it works if you drop the "www" part.

I feel like such a big girl now that I'm dropping the .blogspot from my address. The blog content will remain the same (recipes, Parker photos, thoughts about running and cycling and other random musings), I'll just have a customized look. Fun stuff!

In other news, the Irishman and I are obsessing over the weather. We're supposed to do a quick jaunt to Asheville for my friend's New Years Eve wedding, but we need to make sure that we can leave town by 6am on New Year's Day to make it to Jacksonville in time for the Gator Bowl. On the one hand, I would hate to miss her wedding. On the other, I remember what it was like trying to get out of town with the last snow storm and certainly don't want to be stuck in that for a day or two. Oh and when I say, "quick jaunt," what I mean is that we'll be driving 24 of the 56 hours that we'll be out of town.

Parker and the pups will be living in Hotel de Parentals while we're gone and enjoying the glorious weather while we truck up and down the east coast to attend a wedding, ring in the New Year and attend Bobby Bowden's last game. Wish us luck!

Soul Cleansing

I went out for a run this morning after taking a little over a week off. Whenever I take any amount of time off, a small seed of self doubt sprouts and I start to wonder whether I'm losing conditioning, losing muscle tone and losing my mental edge. In other words, I needed to go out this morning to make sure that I was still in the game.

I tied on my shoes, strapped on my iPod and headed out into the cool morning air. My immediate feeling was one of relief. Nothing had been lost. I looked down the familiar stretch of road and settled in for an easy 4 miles. You know, the asphalt is such a familiar companion that it almost feels like a friend. Regardless of the city or the state, it pretty much feels the same under my feet and that is quite comforting, particularly in the predawn hours when you're only companions are the trees and the road.

As the miles slowly ticked along, my muscles loosened and my mind wandered. The stress that I carried high in my shoulders slowly dissolved and without though, my stride lengthened as if my burden was lightened.

Each step of my run was like the passing of a rosary bead. Caught up in the grace and redemption of the run, I came down the home stretch feeling as if my soul was cleansed. There's a certain lightness that those miles bring to me that I have never felt within the walls of a church. Thankfully, my ritual of the run comes more than just once a week because it is my peace between stretches of chaos.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a wonderful and restful Christmas! My mom is in the kitchen cooking breakfast, Christmas music is flowing through the house, the AC is cranked high to give the illusion of a cold Christmas morning and Parker is systematically learning how to use all of his new toys.

The rest of us? Well, we're plowing through a pot of coffee to compensate for Parker's early wake up call.

Melomakarona

Melomakarona are a delicious little spice cookie that's dipped in a honey infused simple syrup and topped with chopped walnuts. Like the other recipes I'm posting this week, these are traditionally only made at Christmas. Greeks are quite particular about reserving certain dishes for specific events, which is sometimes quite unfortunate because I'm in love with a sweet dish that's only made for funerals and memorials and my mother refuses to teach me how to make it when our family gets together during the holidays. Even though she has a Ph.D., the superstitions of her homeland are still alive and well.

Alright, let's make these little guys. Our ingredients are:

1 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cognac o brandy
1/4 cup orange juice
3.5 cups flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of cloves

Syrup:
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
2 Tablespoons honey

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts for garnishing

Using a mixer, mix together the oil and sugar. Add in the cognac and the orange juice. In a separate measuring cup, mix together the baking soda,powder, cinnamon and cloves and add it to the mix. Now, slowly add in additional cups of flour until you can roll the dough into a seamless ball (without it cracking). I usually stop using the mixer at this point and start mixing by hand so that I can make sure to get the consistency right. This is the consistency and shape that we'll be making.



Truly, you can mold them into whatever shape you'd like, just make sure that they're all the same size. Of course, this is the traditional shape of the cookies in Greece and, you guessed it, the only shape that we make them here. Once they're all shaped, lightly score the tops with the flat top of a fork, which both slightly flattens them and makes criss-cross marks across the surface.



Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Just like yesterday's recipe, we're going to allow the cookies to cool completely before proceeding.

Once they're cool, let's put the simple syrup together. In a sauce pan, add in the sugar, water and honey and allow the mixture to softly boil for 10 minutes.



Turn the heat off of the syrup. Using tongs, we're going to drop in 5 cookies at a time, allow them to soak in they syrup for about 30 seconds, and then put them back on the cookie sheet.



After they've all been dipped, sprinkle the tops with the chopped walnuts. Using a ladle, spoon the remaining syrup on top of the cookies.



Like the other cookies, these are meant to get better as time passes so while you're definitely free to pop a couple into your mouth immediately, they'll be phenomenal the following day.



If you're serving these to others or taking them with you, put each cookie in a muffin liner and put a piece of wax paper in between each layer.

Revani

My absolute favorite part of the holidays are the traditions. In Greece, it's all about the baking. We make cookies and cakes and sweet breads. My goodness is there a lot of baking, but that's all right by me because I love being in my mom's kitchen.

This year, Parker was old enough to get in on the action. Here he is reading my mom the recipe.



When she asked him what the ingredients were, he recited the recipe for blueberry muffins. While Parker and I do make them quite often, that's not what we're sharing with you today. Nope, today, we're making Revani, which is a simple syrup infused cake and unbelievably simple to make. Let's get started.



We need:

5 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup corn oil
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 cup cream of wheat
1/4 cup orange juice
3 teaspoons baking powder
zest of 1 lemon
dash of cinnamon

(for the simple syrup)
1.5 cups sugar
2 cups water
1/4 chunk of lemon

First, separate your eggs.



(Notice that Parker is mixing his own batch of "cookies". My mom and I just kept throwing random stuff in there to keep him occupied. We almost died when he tasted it and said, "Mmmmm"!)

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and set aside.



Now, beat your egg yolks with the sugar and slowly add in your other ingredients (wet ingredients first- oil, milk, OJ- and then the flour, baking soda and cream of wheat and dash of cinnamon).



The final step is gently folding the egg whites in by hand. (I don't have a picture of this because my mother works crazy fast and keeps forgetting that I'm trying to take pictures of it.)

Once everything is mixed together, pour the batter into a greased 9" by 13" pan and bake for 35 minutes in a 350 degree oven. It will be a beautiful dark gold when it's done.



Before we make the syrup, we want the cake to cool completely so let it cool for about 30 minutes before you start making the syrup.

To make the syrup, add the sugar water and lemon into a sauce pan and bring to a boil.



Adjust the temperature so that it maintains a soft rolling boil for about 10 minutes. It will thicken to the consistency of corn syrup.



Let it cool for about 5 minutes and then drizzle the warm syrup over the cool cake. Now this is the hard part - cover the cake with foil, put it aside and forget about it until the next day. It's tormenting, I know, but trust me on this. Once the syrup is absorbed by the spongy cake, it becomes absolutely divine.

Fast forward to the next day. You now have my permission to cut into this beauty.



Simple, sweet, moist, delicious. I hope you enjoy!

Greener Pastures

In a span of 36 hours, we went from this...



to this.



My plans for this holiday season include the following things:

1. Work on my tan.
2. Make Greek Christmas cookies.
3. Drink beer, egg nog and wine...in moderation, of course.
4. Work on my tan.
5. See a movie. Or two.
6. Visit with family and old friends.
7. Workout.
8. Eat aforementioned cookies.
9. Polish off my tan.
10. Watch football.
11. Take lots of beach and sun pictures to make my January self jealous.
12. Relax.
13. Have fun.
14. Miss home.
15. Be Merry and Bright.

First Snow

Here are some pictures from our first snow here in North Carolina. It's so beautiful, but incredibly inconvenient as we're trying to figure out how to leave for Florida in the next couple of days.

Magic

Check out Parker, er, I mean Woody from Toy Story. I love character pajamas. Getting to play make believe is one of the best parts of childhood. I mean, at Parker's age, movie characters are still real, Santa Claus comes down your chimney and the tooth fairy...well, we haven't gotten to the tooth fairy yet, but he'll certainly believe in that too.

I must say that having a kid definitely makes all of the holidays fun again. Before Parker, Christmas had turned into a day of obligation where we would drive around from one set of relatives to another making sure that everyone felt like they were getting enough of our time. It was exhausting and quite frankly, a little bit depressing.

Now? Well, now Christmas is magical again. We've been watching all of the movies and reading all of the stories and Parker is about to burst with excitement and anticipation of what he might find under the tree. Quite frankly, I'm a little curious myself about what might be under there since I haven't started shopping just yet. Thank goodness for Santa. I do believe, I do believe, I do believe!

PS. Mom, er Mrs. Claus, if you're reading this, we need "Santa's" help asap.

Oatmeal

Before I lived in a state that actually has four seasons, I never understood the purpose of oatmeal. I mean, why would you bother to take the time to heat oats up when you could have cold cereal and milk in a heartbeat? In fact, I don't eat any of the same breakfast foods here that I did in Florida. There's just something wrong about eating something cold first thing in the morning when you've already been forced from your warm cocoon of a bed and thrust into the harsh realities of the frigid morning. That may sound overly dramatic, but at 5am when it's in the teens, I feel very "woe is me."

So, I decided to make oatmeal. Great. But I didn't have a clue what to top it with. I had already decided against the sugar laden pre-sweetened varieties and settled on the Irish Steel-Cut Oatmeal (fast cooking of course), so I went out looking for inspiration and went no further than the local Starbucks. Since I almost never buy anything other than beverages there, I'd never had the occasion to look at the toppings they served with their "Perfect Oatmeal." So last time I was there, I took a peek at it.

It included brown sugar, cranberries, raisins, pecans and walnuts. Sounded good to me and since I had just bought a bunch of dried fruits and nuts for my super salads, I gave it a whirl. It was warm, it was filling and it had a stick to your ribs quality that kept me satiated all morning. Thank you, Starbucks, for your inspiration and your holiday peppermint mocha.

Weather Proofing

So, before I begin with my weather-proofing tutorial, I have to admit that I thought everyone was pulling my leg over this one. It all started when I was telling a coworker how drafty our house was. It was built in the early 1900s and still has the original windows. While they certainly add a certain authenticity and charm, they also let in a ridiculous amount of frigid air. We had a particularly windy day last week and a gust of wind through the crack of the window in my home office blew papers across my desk. Um, yeah, that's bad.

My coworker nonchalantly said, "Why don't you just shrink wrap the windows?" I looked at her dumbly, but not wanting to show my natural Florida ignorance, I just mumbled a reply and walked away. I then called my mom and said, "My coworker just said the weirdest thing. She actually suggested that I shrink wrap the windows. Bizarre, no?" To which she replied, "Oh yeah, we used to do that in Virginia every winter. It works great."

I can't believe that we'd never even heard of this in passing. So, I sent the Irishman to Lowe's and said, "Since everyone else seems to know about this, they should know what you're talking about. I guess." And they did. In fact, he came home with two different products.

The first was the shrink wrap.



The second product was a weather strip that you use to cover slight gaps in the windows. Here's the box.



And here's what it looks like covering the gaps in our windows.



Grey was the only color they had, but if it was white, it would have looked seamless. As it stands, we didn't really care what it looked like as long as it kept the cold air out. One thing to note about the weather striping, make sure that you put it on top of the gap and not in it. You'll notice in the picture above, we needed to use a double strip of it for the first part of the window and a single piece for the second part.

Okay, back to the shrink wrap. This is how it works: First, clean the window sill very well. Then, apply a strip of the double sided tape around the edge of the window (or series of windows) that you want to seal. Next, put the clear material (which looks like Saran Wrap) over the window and trim it so that it's hanging over the edge by a couple of inches.



Don't worry if it's a little loose and wrinkly because the next step is hitting it with the blow dryer. But first, make sure that it's securely stuck to the double sided tape.



Here's the Irishman using the blow dryer on the highest and hottest setting. We actually ran a single piece of plastic across all of the windows that you see because this was the room where the papers were being blown all over the place. Did I mention that the high yesterday was 35 degrees? While that's significantly warmer than a lot of the U.S. right now, us Floridians are shivering in our boots!

Just a couple of users tips:

1. If the window/window sill is particularly cold, you may need to heat the tape with the hair dryer before applying the plastic, otherwise it won't stick.

2. This process is a bit tedious, particularly the first time you try it, so be certain to have any children in a separate room while you're doing it because certainly, expletives will be spoken with reckless abandon.

I'll let you know what the results of this little "Welcome To Winter" experience are, but we're pleased with it so far.

Childhood Phobias

Sleep has been rather elusive in my life lately. Specifically, I don't think I've gotten consistent, solid sleep since February 26, 2006, the date of my positive pregnancy test. Strangely enough, that is also my ex-boyfriend's birthday as well as the date (in 2009) when I received this job offer. Bizarre.

Anyway, the problem is, Parker is (and has always been) a poor sleeper. But you know what? I don't and can't blame Parker for being a bad sleeper because I was a notoriously bad sleeper. I think I was probably 7 or 8 before I consistently stayed in my bed and went to sleep on my own.

As a result, I clearly remember what if feels like to wake up and be alone. And to be afraid. I'm not sure exactly what I was afraid of. Was it a fear of the dark? A fear that my parents wouldn't hear me if aliens decided to abduct me? Or possibly a fear that my brother was lying in wait in my closet until the exact moment that sleep took me before he sprung out to scare the bejesus out of me? While those are all possibilities, the reason didn't really matter. I just remember the fear.

As such, I simply cannot let Parker cry out for me in the night without going in there. I mean, it's not like he's going to need me forever. In fact, in approximately 10 years, I'm going to have to drop him off 3 blocks from school so that he won't be seen with his very uncool mom. I know these things are coming, so for now, I'm chronically sleep deprived so that my little boy can feel safe for just a little while longer.

I also don't buy the argument that I'm making him needy and dependent by responding to his needs. He's just a little boy. He's allowed to need his parents. If he didn't, 3 would be the age of majority and not 18. Besides, my parents held my hand when I needed it and I'm clearly independent and just a bit headstrong. Okay, a lot headstrong. Regardless, I don't think that I was screwed up in that particular department.

Now please excuse me while I go hook myself up to a pot of coffee. Oh, who am I kidding, I'm just going to dip into my canister of NesCafe for the 4th time today.

Salads

While I was visiting my brother in Orlando last weekend, we went to some pretty cool restaurants. As I scanned the menus, I noticed that they offered an awful lot of salads with pretty interesting ingredients. Even though I'm a vegetarian, I almost never order salads as my main course. It's probably because I'm usually still hungry after I finish them due to the lack of protein. These salads, however, had nuts and a variety of cheeses that would probably solve that problem.

I made a mental note to experiment with it and ordered the three-egg omelet filled with veggies and served over home fries (I had just run 13.1 miles after all and I was starving).

So, last night, I decided to make a fancy cafe style salad at home. I started with baby romaine lettuce and added the following:

pecans
walnuts
dried cranberries
1/2 diced apple
golden raisins
onion

I then topped it with an excellent balsamic vinegar (this is one thing that you should definitely splurge on) and extra virgin olive oil. I hit it with some seasoning salt and gave it a taste.

It was rather excellent. I would have given anything for some Gorgonzola or some goat cheese, but I didn't happen to have any at the moment. I made a pretty big salad and I'm happy to report that I wasn't hungry again for 67 minutes. That's pretty remarkable for me.

My new mission this winter is to add one of these ingredient-laden, gourmet salads into my menu daily. They contribute heavily towards my 5 a day goal and I just feel better eating that much green stuff.

OUC Half Marathon - The Run Down

I had been checking the weather updates every 30 minutes for the 24-hour period leading up to the race. It was not looking good. The map of Orlando showed a solid green mass coming into the area on race day. Now, I don't want to sound wimpy, but running in a torrential downpour with the temperature around 55 degrees just didn't sound all that appealing to me.

So, I prayed and it sounded something like this. "Pleeeeeease don't let it be pouring at the starting line. It's okay if it starts raining an hour into it, but pretty, pretty please, don't have it pouring when we're standing at the starting line, okay?"

And you know what? My prayers were answered, although it started raining 30 minutes into the race instead of 60, but beggars can't be choosers, especially when it comes to answered prayers. Actually, other than the slippery roads, the rain wasn't too much of hindrance during the race.

My aching hip, on the other hand, was. We were running in downtown Orlando and they were keeping the runners on the right side of the street (to let traffic pass on the left). Well, after 30 minutes of running on severely sloping roads, my left hip (which was taking the brunt of the pressure) wasn't too happy with me. So, I scooted over as close to the middle of the road as I could and was constant aware that a text-messaging driver could take me out at any time. Talk about killing my runner's buzz.

I was actually ahead of pace for the first 7 miles (which took me about an hour and 10 minutes). Just as I was thinking that I should probably pull back to save my legs, I got a sharp cramp right under my diaphragm, which was making breathing quite painful. Things were definitely not looking good at this point. One of the necessities of running long distances is that you retain some ability to drift off into daydreaming, otherwise, running for more than 2 hours feels exactly like you'd think it would. Painful.

But, on this particular day, I would apparently get no respite because that lovely, sharp cramp decided to accompany for my last 6 miles, which ended up taking me longer than the first 7 miles did. I reverted back to my marathon training and starting taking one mile at a time. It was a battle the entire last hour, but naturally, quitting wasn't an option. That's not to say that it didn't enter my mind, with a whole other host of vile and nasty thoughts about the weather, my traitorous hip, my blasted muscle cramp and the city of Orlando in general. But, you push those thoughts out of your mind and you simply tell yourself this, "It won't kill you, so just get it done."

Besides, my speedy brother was waiting for me at the finish line. In the rain. Hungry and cold, so I had to stick it out and get to him (and a hot shower) as soon as I could manage. So, as I limped and hobbled my way through the city streets, one mile melted into the next and finally, the finish line was near. So, I stood up straighter, tried to pull together some semblance of proper running form and finished as strong as I could. Truth be told, it wasn't a half bad effort considering that I gave myself all of 5 weeks to train for it.

So, I crossed the finish line looking much better than I actually felt. Then, I said a string of profanities and got to a hot shower and a huge meal as quickly as I could. There's something decidedly unpleasant about being sopping wet and starving. Brother Dean was in total agreement and we fled the scene immediately.

With all that said, I'm glad I did it. I have the medal and 3 blistered and black toes to prove it and I can't wait to ramp up my training for the Disney Princess Half in March.

PS - That night, I went to 2 Christmas parties with my brother and I stood in 3-inch, pointy-toed heels for 5 hours. THAT is a feat deserving of a medal!

I'm Back

Whew, I'm back! I have to give a final in 45 minutes that I have yet to print and photocopy, but I wanted to check in to say that I'll resume regular blogging functions this week, complete with recipes, Parker photos and the rest of my weekly shenanigans. I'll also be posting full updates from death row and the wet, soggy Orlando half marathon that I wheezed my way through.

Orlando Bound

Tomorrow, I'm flying to Orlando to take my first real mini-vacation in ages. I'm not going for work, I'm not going with Parker and I won't have the dogs in tow. I'm flying alone to spend 3 days with my brother, which I don't think has ever happened before. Just some good old sibling bonding time.

We're running the OUC half marathon together in what will most likely be chilly, rainy weather. But you know what? I don't mind at all. I'm going to pick up a running hat and some water resistant sleeves today and that will be about the extent of my accomodation to the weather. Of course, I'll send happy thoughts for sunny weather, but we're committed to running this rain or shine.

And then on Sunday, we're going to watch football. And do nothing else. I can't tell you how thrilled I am by an entire day of lounging around and doing absolutely nothing, but watching the tube. It's been over three years since I've done that.

Mini-vacations (even ones where you're running 13.1 miles in the cold rain) are a blessing indeed.

End Of Semester Craziness

With only two weeks remaining, I'm finally in the home stretch of the first semester. I am counting down the days until holiday break because I feel like I haven't stopped since I set foot on campus back in August. That's the best part of being a professor. You have a flurry of activity and then nice long breaks in between semesters in order to recharge your batteries (and work on research of course).

Yesterday, I took a group of students on a 10-hour road trip to Raleigh, NC, to take a tour of Death Row. This morning, I feel like I got hit by a Mac Truck, but it was definitely worth the effort. I'm eager to hear their impressions in class today. As soon as I get a chance, I'll share all of the fun and gory details. I'll also share some pictures of the outside of the facility. But for now, I'm off to teach class and squeeze out the last little bit of attentiveness from my students who are every bit as eager as I am for this semester to end.

PS - There was frost on the grass this morning! Still no snow, but everything at least looked white.

Naked Trees

Never in my life have I seen such obvious changes in the seasons. Having lived in Florida my whole life, I generally wore flip flops 9 months of the year and ballet flats the other three. I had a solid tan year round and Christmas generally required a cardigan thrown over my tank top.

As we're heading into our third season here, I can't help but marvel at the evolving landscape. When we first moved here this summer, the trees were a lush, rain forest green.



Of course, that was mostly do to the large amounts of rain that we got, but the mountains were teeming with life. Then, the temperature started to drop and in a matter of only a couple of weeks, the leaves changed into brilliant hues of gold, red and orange.



The mountains looked like a quilt that would, coincidentally, have matched my living room decor beautifully. Then, I went out of town for one weekend and when I came back, some of the trees had slowly started to lose their leaves. I was angry and sad that autumn should depart so soon. I was worried about what our trees would look like without their lovely leaves. Of course, I worried needlessly because even when they're naked, there's still a quiet beauty in the mountains, especially on days like this.



In contrast to the vivid colors of autumn, I almost feel like I'm shooting these pictures in a sepia tone. When you're driving on windy mountain roads, everything is neutral and mild and you almost feel as though you should whisper.



When the trees are naked and exposed, you can see things that would be invisible to you otherwise, like this gorgeous waterfall. The Irishman and I had driven down this road probably a dozen times and had never known that it was there.



I'm waiting anxiously for our first snow because I can just picture these branches dusted with white. Yes, it will be cold and yes, there are days when I'll probably be wet and miserable, but there will also be hot chocolate and warm living room fires and cuddling under blankets.

I know that I'll be ready to kick winter to the curb come March, but spring will be all that much sweeter after the winter days that are coming.

Thankful

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving! I spent the first 7 hours today in the kitchen cooking (and sampling) and then spent the 8th hour cleaning it up. When it was all done, I walked into the living room to find all of the boys sleeping (with the exception of my father, who retired to the upstairs bedroom because my brother takes up the entire couch). I'm not sure where my mother went off to, but she's probably upstairs sleeping too.

I decided to take a couple of minutes to write a stream of consciousness list of things that I'm thankful for.

1. My life in general. Seriously, I feel so blessed on a daily basis.
2. My boys.
3. That my parents are still with me for another year.
4. My brother, who over the years has become one of my best friends.
5. My health! Every time I step out for a run, I'm grateful for the strength in my body.
6. Stability. Having a job and a house and a full fridge.
7. Being a girl. That I can be both strong and vulnerable and no one will give me a hard time about either.
8. My friends, who allow me to step away for months on end and then let me back in.
9. Bold nail polish, which almost hides my discolored runner's toes. Gross!
10. My furry family, each member of which adds something of his or her own to our crazy little household.
11. Automobiles, because life is a highway and I want to ride it all night long. Seriously though, I love the open road and driving it alone.
12. Books that take me to another place and time.
13. The gym.
14. Liberty.
15. Chapstick.
16. Sunshine.
17. Football.
18. Having a motherland and a culture that I'm tied to so closely.
19. Beer.
20. Denim.
21. My Chi flat iron.
22. Photos.
23. A good memory.
24. Flannel sheets.
25. Central heating and air.

Now, please excuse me while I go curl up in #24 so that I can dive into #12, while enjoying #19.

Heat-Seeking Kitty

If you ever want to know what the warmest spots in your house are during the winter, just follow a cat. Please see exhibit A.



This is Payton sitting in the window sill. This is Payton sitting in the window sill directly above the heating vent. He realized that when the curtains are closed, the hot air is forced directly upwards and it creates a pocket of warmth in an otherwise incredibly drafty house. Clever, my bionic cat, very clever.

Biscotti

I was first introduced to biscotti back in my coffee shop days. I would occasionally buy one of the packaged ones that we sold and while it was okay, it certainly didn't knock my socks off. A couple of years later, my mother's friend dropped off a batch of her homemade biscotti using her secret family recipe. I smiled politely and plopped it on the counter top, where it sat forgotten for a couple of days.

(Fast forward a couple of days.)

As I made my coffee on that fateful day, I threw a couple of the Italian cookies on my plate and sat down to watch The Today Show. And then I took a bite. And then my life changed forever.

I called my mom and asked her to please call Debbie and to beg for the recipe. I would swear on my soul, on my mother's soul and on the soul of my beloved bionic cat Payton that I would never reveal the sacred recipe to anyone. She scoffed and was unmoved by my pleas (as relayed through my mother). Ok, so really she just politely said, "Fat chance, sister," but you get the point.

A couple of weeks later, she sent my mother an email with a biscotti recipe that she found online and said that it was fairly close to her own. So, I spent the first 6 months of Parker's life tinkering with it. Altering it. Improving it. And now, I'm posting it here for all of the world to see because I want everyone to share in my gleefulness. Hmmm, perhaps she was on to something by not entrusting her top secret recipe to me?

Anyway, here we go:

10 tablespoons butter, softened (a stick and another small chunk)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoons Anise seeds (in the spice isle of the store)
2 Tablespoons Pernod, Sambuca or Ouzo (licorice flavored liquor)
2 cups flour
1.5 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preheat your oven to 325 (if you have a convection oven, use that feature instead). Then, put your anise seeds and your Ouzo (or liquor of choice) into a ramekin and microwave it for 15 seconds.



Next, if you're like me and you NEVER remember to soften the dang butter, just throw it on a plate and microwave it for 30 seconds at 20% power.



Works like a charm. Now throw the butter and the sugar together in the mixer and mix on medium until it's thoroughly creamed (and coating the outside of your bowl).



I know that seems like a lot of butter, but you have to trust me on this one. I've tried to cut the amount down and the cookies just get too dry and brittle. It's definitely worth the calories in this one. Okay, now add in your eggs one at a time.



And then add in your seed/Ouzo mixture.



Finally, slowly add in your flour (which I've already combined with the salt and baking powder).



The dough is going to get pretty thick, but keep mixing it until all of the flour has been incorporated.



Alright, now stir in your almonds with a spatula, making sure to work them all the way through.



Once your dough is mixed, spread a piece of wax or parchment paper on the counter top and pile the dough on it.



Wrap the wax paper around it and form a tight ball. I usually then add a layer of plastic wrap.



Now, throw this sucker in the freezer for 30 minutes. It will be MUCH easier to work with when the butter has once again solidified, otherwise it's just a sticky mess. If you're thinking that this looks a bit labor intensive, it really isn't. When Parker was first born, I would make the dough the night before and refrigerate it overnight. Then, I would bake it the following morning. I literally did this on a weekly basis. Of course, you can also double or triple the recipe and keep dough balls in the freezer, but I was entirely too sleep deprived to think of that back then.

Okay, fast forward 30 minutes. Cut your dough into two pieces and start working them into two logs that are roughly 1/2 inch tall and 3 inches wide. I usually use a little bit of flour to help facilitate this process.



Now, bake for 20-25 minutes or until just golden brown.



Pull them out of the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes. Then, using a sharp, serrated knife, cut the log on a diagonal into 1 inch cookies and lay them on their sides.



Throw them back into the oven for 4-5 minutes, flip them over and bake for another 4-5 minutes. And then. And then.



There really are no words for what happens when you dip a homemade biscotti into your favorite coffee and then take a bite. It's just something that has to be experienced. So this holiday season, treat yourself and make some biscotti magic. You won't regret it.