Day #2 Without Sugar

This may be just a coincidence, but I feel like I'm already seeing the effects that processed sugar has had on me. First and foremost, I am spending more time in the kitchen, but thankfully some time up front gives me a lot of snack options that I know are OK. Secondly, I had a headache at the beginning of the day (I ate an apple, chewed some sugar-free gum and it went way). Thirdly, I can see my energy level changing. For example, it's almost 4 PM. I've usually already had an afternoon crash in energy which I used to attribute to lack of caffiene or whatever else. I am blogging and making homemade cheez-its (!!!) while my roomate is snoozing on the couch! I feel like I have a ton of energy. On that note, here are a few more snacks I have tried (and really liked!)

First of all, my roomate (the one who is sleeping on the couch!) had an ice cream craving, so I went to the store with her to get supplies for cheez-its and (hopefully) find some ice cream with no unnatural sweeteners. I was in luck! I found "So Delicious" Coconut Milk Ice Cream in Toasted Almond Chip. It is seriously better than regular ice cream and all the sweetness comes from organic coconut milk. In any case, here is something to tide you over if you're feeling munchy. It's nice because it's super customizable and can be as healthy as you want using substitutions!

Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

I don't think it's really a secret that I love food. I love trying everything, but I've never really thought about what was going in my body until recently when I stumbled on a blog about sugar free eating. Sugar free? That's nuts! I love to bake! And sugar is in everything. I do mean everything: from crackers to vegetable soup to oatmeal (this surprised me the most). While reading I came upon a common theme on a few sugar-free blogs: they all challenged their readers to go a period of time (a week in most cases, but sometimes more) without processed sugar. I think that's a great idea and I'm going to go for it!

It's day one and I seriously CANNOT believe how much sugar permeates everything I have in the pantry. However, with the resources I found on these blogs for recipes and what to look for on labels that is just sugar cleverly disguised, I feel confident. I'll share my first few recipes with you so you can go along as well! It will take longer, but make sure you check the labels as you shop. Naturally derived sugar from plants is fine, but anything else is cheating (I learned this the hard way.)

Slowly, slowly springing.

We've been on a winter hiatus because winter is generally a dull time and we were very busy baking, spending time with our families, and getting back into gear with school. But let's get on with better things than winter (baking, new collections, sunshine- you get the idea!)

Can we seriously just die together over J. Crew's new Spring collection?! It came into stores Thursday and I've already dog eared my Style Guide to death and bought a thing or two! Unfortunately, this winter, J. Crew was not really pushing the envelope as much as they usually do which resulted in many staples in some (semi) new colors, but a total lack of inspiration.

While this was good for my wallet and closet (let's be honest, it has been overflowing for months), I am glad to see them back in the swing of things! From the neon-pastel cashmere (you can really never have too much) to taking the Liberty floral colabbo up a notch to making tweeds a total Spring staple-- LOVE is in the air! Here are the pieces I'm stoked about.

Boy Shirt in Mint Strawberry Tartan

Basic Biscotti

Hello there!

I'm big on biscotti. Its one of my favorite things to make, and its definitely one of those treats that people turn their heads to see when you announce what you're bringing to the holiday table.
Biscotti means "twice baked," but I bake mine 3 times. My biscotti is also a touch softer than the packaged variety you buy at a grocery store or in line at Starbucks. Below is a basic recipe, that I tweak and add to in order to create new flavors.

Basic Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened 
3/4 cup white sugar 
3 eggs 
3 cups all-purpose flour 
2 teaspoons baking powder

Here is how you change this up, and finish off the recipe!

Typically, biscotti has almond extract in it, but I do a combination of extracts, and depending on their strength, add up to about 1-2 teaspoons of extract total. Just two examples:

Peppermint Biscotti: 1/2 tsp peppermint extract, 1 tsp vanilla extract
Birthday Cake Biscotti: 1 tsp almond extract, 1 tsp vanilla extract

And so on, but any combination works, its what you like best. You can also use orange, strawberry, lemon, or any other type of extract at all- just make it fit the combination of ingredients you put in your biscotti. You're simply flavoring the dough.

To change up to a chocolate biscotti, I use 2 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup cocoa powder.
Then, the fun part- the goodies inside the biscotti. Use 1 cup worth of extras for this recipe. I use chocolate chips of any variety (minis work well for this), chopped nuts, dried fruit, sprinkles, candy, etc.

Once all of your ingredients are sorted, here is how to actually MAKE the biscotti:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a large cookie sheet. 
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the extract(s). Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in extras. 
With lightly floured hands, shape dough into two 10 inch long loaves. Place rolls 5 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet; flatten each to 3 inch width. 
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until set and light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes. Using a serrated knife, cut loaves on a bias into 1/2 inch slices. Arrange slices cut side down.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until bottoms begin to brown. Turn, and bake an additional 5 to 7 minutes. Cool completely.
I usually melt a little chocolate, drizzle over the top, sprinkle on a topping of sorts, and voila! Delicious biscotti for all to enjoy! Or not, no one says you have to share it ;)

-Rachel

Keep rollin' on...

It just occurred to me that this blog hasn't been updated in nearly a month, Ack!
But, I thought a delicious roll recipe would be perfect to rectify this little problem.

I'm all about a combination of easy and homemade, and these garlic and parmesan rolls are just that. Its also a very "forget about it," easy recipe as well.

To start, you'll need:

1 whole garlic bulb
Olive oil
1 ramekin
Aluminum foil
1 can of Pillsbury Flakey Layers biscuits
Grated parmesan cheese
Cooking spray, like Pam
1 baking sheet
Dried parsley
Salt
Pepper

Notice the lack of measurements? That's how simple this is.
Preheat your oven to 350, in the meantime peel back the first few layers on skin on the garlic bulb, not all of them- you want it to stay whole, but just a few outer layers- I think I took 4 off of mine.
Then, cut across the top of the bulb, about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch down, to reveal the cloves tops inside, the bottom of the bulb should be intact, and you'll be able to see the inside of the bulbs.
Place the bulb in the ramekin, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then cover the ramekin with aluminum foil.
Bake for 60-75 minutes.

When that's done, seperate your rolls and stretch them out into long skinny rectangle shapes. Spread the soft roasted garlic on the inside (if its not spreadable, put it back in for a few minutes.) Then sprinkle a tiny bit of parsley and pinch (or more, if you're so inclined) of parmesan cheese on top.
Roll them up, maybe smush them into a more roll shape if they're a bit tall.
Spray your baking sheet, place the rolls on top, bake for 14 minutes, then remove, sprinkle a bit more cheese on top, put back in for about 2 minutes.

When they come out, you will have irresistible, warm, soft, garlic (did I use enough adjectives ) rolls- and your kitchen will smell incredible!!

Enjoy,
Rachel

Obsessions

Okay, I just have to freak out for a moment.
I LOVE glitter. And suede. Mostly glitter.
Neiman Marcus is having a sale online (and in store, but I don't have one near me), so of course I clicked on the link. And then of course went immediately to the shoe section. Guess what greeted me?

These babies.

Suede & Glitter Bootie (Rachel Roy at NM)

They're perfection in shoe form. Gorgeous suede bootie with a fun sparkly twist. If I had the option (and the endurance), I'd wear these every.day.of my.life. At any rate, I have no where to wear them. I think they're a bit dressed up for statistics class, don't you?

Regardless of my shopping shortcomings- check out the awesome sale at NM, and purchase these (or other) fabulous shoes so that I can live vicariously through you.

XO,
Rachel

The Gold Standard

There comes a time of year when we have to put away the Scharffen-Berger (bummer, I just bought a bunch and it's amazing) and pull out the pumpkin desserts. It is a wonderful time filled with pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake gelato (it's best from Coolato Gelato!), and pumpkin spice whipped cream (yeah, I know!) However, my favorite thing of all time ever is pumpkin cheesecake. When I go home for Thanksgiving, I try to get some from The Cheesecake Factory (I recently heard we're getting one in Knoxville: score!!), but sometimes I just can't wait. I really don't have the patience or brain capacity to do the whole water bath, springform pan routine that goes into real cheesecake, so I made pumpkin cheesecake bars and, bonus, I got to use my Goldtouch pan that I recieved for my birthday!

These were uber delicious and I can't wait for you to try them. And, for the record, the Goldtouch was totally awesome and lived up to its reputation. My edges and corners came out perfectly brown (not burnty brown like normal) and it was super non-stick. If you're in Williams-Sonoma soon, I would definetely suggest picking one up in every size!