Cat Food

Old Bus Stop

Too cold to shoot! This is all I got on my way to picking up lunch yesterday.

Evening Romp

No food. Just a cold day. Fun with my iPad.

Chaource

The day's sunny and warming. Scent of French drip coffee and ripe French cheese. Sounds of snoring pug. Ahhh. A day off.

Photo Fun

In addition to posting to Cat Food more regularly I'm also uploading to ShutterCal every day. Here's one that didn't make it today.

Biscotti Finished!

A low fat treat to start the year off right!

Heading to a little party tonight and wanted to bring something baked. I'm going with biscotti. Mine don't have any fat except for what's found in the almonds that I added to the cranberries and orange zest in this variation.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup sugar
2 lg. eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups flour

Small handful of dried cranberries
Same amount of whole almonds
Zest of 1 orange

Method:
1. Beat sugar(with orange zest previously added to it) with the eggs till pale and fluffy. Then add vanilla.
2. Sift together dry ingredients and add to above. Add a couple drops of water if the dough seems dry (doesn't come together).
3. Add cranberries & almonds.
4. Tip on to a board and roll into a log.
5. Pop in to a pre-heated oven ( 350 degrees) and bake till golden, about 25 min.
6. Remove from oven, let cool slightly and then slice. Pop back into oven and bake till a bit dry. About 10 minutes.

Happy New Year!

It's "resolutions" time! I resolve to post to my blog once a week and get back on track!!

Looking forward to sharing lots with you all in 2012! To start. Oysters!

Haven't been here in awhile!

Trying to post from my iPad. Haven't had anything to do with my blog in ages. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new trend in posting!!!

Culinary Scotland

I get the Travel section of the New York Times delivered to my inbox every week. It comes on Fridays. Since money's tight these days I tend to treat reading this section as my weekly vacation (there probably won't be one this year). This week Frank Bruni has a piece on his culinary tour of Scotland in the early Spring during lambing season.

The first time I visited Scotland it was early Spring during that same season because I had a crush on an accordion player that I had met through friends here in New Jersey. I was young and silly and when he mentioned that I should come for a visit I took him up on it. Hell, I had a passport with very few stamps - that needed to change! Needless to say I fell in love ... not with the accordion player but with Scotland. I traveled around the Trosachs (lower highlands) with him and his band staying on ranches and wandering the little towns, mountains and pastures. I bartered my limited culinary talents for room and board and was even given lamb feeding duty on one ranch. Now I haven't traveled around the world but I have been to quite a few places on the planet and hands down, Scotland is my favorite. It's natural beauty and diversity, the hospitality of it's people, it's food ... if you've never been - you must go.

Read the New York Times piece HERE.