Blue sky this morning over the House Summers! The good folks at NOAA suggest that we are to have a sunny morning followed by a snowy afternoon that is a prelude to a weekend series of winter storms.

Several gaggles of geese flew over headed north…apparently they are also a bit sceptical of NOAA’s forecasts…

Meanwhile, we enjoy clear sky, the rising sun and if you are Bear, a morning treat after the hard work of clearing the property of varmints!

And if you are me, you enjoy one or several “fresh out of the oven” orange pecan biscotti!

And if you are Bob…well, Bob is Bob… Happy Friday!

***re biscotti: I really like biscotti over cookies for several reasons. My favorite biscotti recipe which is adapted from Pam Anderson’s (the cook not the Baywatch babe) “My Favorite Biscotti” in her book “The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great” has no fat other than eggs and my adaptation is less sugar as well. The basic recipe allows for substitution of whatever extract or zest you feel like as well as dried fruits and nuts.

My basic version:
3 eggs
1 tsp extract of your choice
2 cups flour (I use a mix of King Arthur’s white whole wheat and Wheat Montana’s all purpose white)
2/3 cups sugar (I often use 1/3 cup white and 1/3 cup brown)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt finely ground
1 cup nuts and/or dried fruit or chocolate chips (dark chocolate bittersweet)

Mix the dry ingredients through salt in 1 bowl, the wet in a separate bowl. Mix together finishing with hand mixing. Toss in whatever else from the nuts/fruit/chips category and incorporate with your hands. It is a fairly sticky dough. Form into 2 logs (about 12 x 3 each) on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake at 300 for 50 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Slice and put back on the baking sheet on their sides. Bake on each side at 275 until your desired hardness. They will harden and crisp as they cool. I typically do 6-8 minutes per side for the second baking.

And that is the last reason I prefer biscotti over cookies….You bake the entire bit of dough in one fell swoop for 50 minutes meaning I am not up and down putting cookies in the oven and taking them out. Even the second baking, they are all on the sheet and you are just turning them. Easy!

They keep in an airtight jar, supposedly for a month. I wouldn’t know as they don’t last a month…

I’ve made lemon pistachio, cherry almond, coconut almond with chocolate chips and this morning the orange pecan. The orange pecan – actually clementine pecan….I used vanilla extract, 2 T clementine zest and the juice of 2 clementines in with the egg and extract.