Good morning everyone 🙂
This morning the house hosted a small Sunday Brunch. The reason I don’t say “our house” is because I have been temporarily living with my boyfriend and his 4 housemates for the last month. They are all so incredible, I have been loving every minute here.
Sheeva is a pre-med student who says the most ridiculous, comical things and likes to talk to her cat, Caesar. Nader is the mystery of the house, during Ramadan we hardly ever saw him because he was essentially nocturnal. He is a talented filmmaker and can eat an entire bag of pasta in one sitting. Leah is a sweety with the most infectious laugh. She is a PSC activist and journalist in the making. And Caitlin is a firecracker. She is a whiz in the kitchen, loves to dance (especially to Gaga), and is working on her thesis concerning queerness in the Middle East. And Pace… its weird and impossible for me to summarize Pace. But I will just say that he is becoming fluent in Arabic, is a history major, anddd I have to beg him to take me on his motorcycle.
Anywhos! Brunch. Caitlin was the chef. She made this amazing dish called shakshuka, which originated in Algeria. It is essentially vegetables and tomatoes slow cooked in spices and with eggs poached on top towards the end and feta crumbled on top. To eat, you poke the egg and it runs all over the veggies and is delicious. She used the Smitten Kitchen recipe for it.
She also made this impromptu creamy potato dish to go with it. Twas’ incredible. I just made the fruit salad and the Vanilla Biscotti!
It is amazing how easy biscotti is to make! I based my recipe on Eating Is Arts‘ but I reduced the sugar a bit and made it whole wheat. And I also was too cheap to buy a vanilla bean, so I just used vanilla extract. Vanilla beans are 10 dollars each here!! The cheapest I found was 1 for 5.50$ but that is just ridiculous! So I had to sub in vanilla extract.
Recipe: Makes about 14 biscottis
Preheat the oven to 350.
In a bowl, combine 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour with 1 tsp baking powder.
In another bowl, combine 3 small or medium eggs (they MUST be room temperature! Place them in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes for speedy results) with 1/2 cup sugar, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and around 1/4 tsp lemon zest. Beat well.
Stir in the flour mixture until it is just incorporated into the eggs.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Form the dough into a loaf that is about 1 inch tall. Bake for 25 minutes.
Reduce the heat of the oven to 300 and let the loaf cool for 10 minutes. Slice it longways into thin biscuits. Lay them flat on the pan and bake for another 10 minutes. If you want to make pretty designs, brush vanilla extract over them before popping them back in the oven.
I’ve missed your blog! I’m back and ready to read the shit out of it. This is a great start…those look delicious. I need some new coffee treats!
It is APPALLING how flattered I am that a reader is comfortable enough to write “read the shit out of you blog” on my blog. That means I have succeeded. Yessssss.
Looks delicious! I was amazed at how easy it is to make too :).
I have so many of your recipes book marked to make! Slowly but surely, Ima do it!
Oh my gosh, it looks like an amazing bunch of ppl you’ve been living with there, not to mention an amazing batch of goodies that was whipped up!
One of my friends in my summer school classes was also doing Ramadan and I was sooo impressed with her strength and determination everyday. It must take so much mind and body commitment.
🙂
I know! I really question whether or not I could do it. I dont think I could. I would pass out. Its during school for petes sake!
Haha I love your descriptions of the gang you’re living with right now. It sounds like a pretty interesting group! Also, smart of you to whole wheat that biscotti. Obviously anything can be whole wheated but I don’t think I’ve yet come across a whole wheat biscotti. You could start a healthy biscotti revolution! I’ll have to try it sometime. I’ve never tackled biscotti in my kitchen. New adventure!
Whole-wheated. NEW WORD! Thats awesome! Im gonna use that one.And you should definitely tackle it, it is too easy not to be conquered.
brunch is the best meal! it is such a weekend treat. your housemates sound fascinating too. nothing like good friends to enjoy good food with 🙂
Yum! The biscotti looks so fabulous. I am so glad you are having a good experience with roommates- it could be much, much worse!
I know, right?! I get so lucky with room mates. I have used craigslist several times and always ended up loving them. Have you had any disasters?
I love biscotti! They sound so fancy-pants, but really are just amazingly simple to make. I think I’ll make some this weekend 😉
Do it! So easy and tasty. Other recipes also call for butter and more sugar, so its totally up to you what direction you wanna go. You can also do flavors! Like almond.. mmm.
biscotti brunch!! i love the idea!!!!
and ur bran muffins u posted earlier, LOVE THOSE- super bran/grain-like/nutty muffins are so yummy ❤
xoxo
I didn’t know it was so easy to make biscotti. It’s one of those cookies that looks a bit intimidating, but that’s good to know; they’re so delicious with a cup of coffee or tea.
Yah I thought they were more complicated! It makes since though to not have lots of butter in them since you dip them into coffee. You could Def add more sugar though..
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Who knew biscotti making was so simple. I figured more ingredients than that. Cool.
YUM!