Friday, December 18, 2009

500 cookies? Pizzelles

Holidays are about traditions and family heritage. Making cookies is has been a Christmas tradition as long as I can remember. But when you marry you combine traditions with your spouse and come up with your own traditions. My husband's mother always make these Italian cookies called pizzelles. No he's not Italian but the doctor who his mother worked for was so she picked up this tradition and added it to there family's traditions and we have too.



Makes 150 pizzelles
6 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla or anise extract (pure)
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar

1. Beat the eggs until smooth. Add the oil and vanilla or anise extract. Onto the mixture, sift the flour and baking powder. Add the sugar and blend vigorously all of these dry ingredients into the egg mixture until smooth. The mixture will be sticky and stiff. Test by dropping the mixture from a small teaspoon or demi-tasse spoon. As needed, add a few tablespoons of water so that the mix drops conveniently as a ribbon in two to three seconds. If the mix is too thin, add a few tablespoons of flour.

2. Set the Color Control Dial of the Pizzelle Pro® to about 3 - 3 1/2 and bake using the red/green light cycle for timing. Alternatively, bake for approximately 45 seconds, open the lid briefly to examine the color, and bake longer as desired to create a darker/browner surface. The baking time can be shortened slightly by increasing the Color Control Dial reading about 1/2 unit.


Please note that when we make the recipe we mix the eggs, oil and sugar and vanilla beat together. In a separate bowl mix the flour and baking powder together and slowly add to liquid mixture a cup at a time. It is best made and easiest if you have bread dough beaters as just a regular mixter you can burn out quickly because the dough gets really hard to mix.

I personally start with a quadrupled batch of dough to begin our cookies, my family only likes the vanilla ones so that is all we make. We had tried anise, almond, and lemon, which are good but vanilla is the best. It takes me by myself 4 hours to make this cookies, I find it makes about 250 cookies. I use my pizzelle press which only makes 2 cookies at a time and my daughter uses my mother-in-laws press as she is no longer able to make them. When I have help it only takes 2 hours to make these cookies.

This year we made 2 quadrupled batches of 500 cookies. We use them to eat and give away as presents. Everyone loves these cookies and look forward to them every year. You just can't eat one.


For your pleasure I have included the history.

History of Pizzelle Traditions
It is generally believed that pizzelles were originated in a middle region of Italy in ancient times to mark an annual celebration. Initially baked over an open fire with relatively simple but effective irons, the early pizzelles often were proudly embossed with the family crest or some hint of the village of origin.

Over time it became tradition to use pizzelles to celebrate any holiday or festive occasion, but inevitably there were pizzelles for everyone at Christmas and Easter. The modern patterns found on these delicious waffle cookies most commonly are floral on one side and a woven basket-like pattern on the other.

The recent increased popularity of pizzelles is the result of greater recognition of their delicious versatility. For example, pizzelles, when still hot, can be formed into cylinders, cones and mini-baskets that can hold a wide variety of delicious fillings for festive occasions. The range of taste experiences that can be created with fillings of formed pizzelles is virtually endless.

Monday, December 14, 2009

It's Beginning to Look like Christmas

I'm finally getting around to posting my holiday decorations. It took me forever to finish it all, even with it all being less than normal. Too much pretties to put out and then take down so this year I decorated sparingly but it still looks good if I say so myself. I started Thanksgiving weekend and finished it about a week afterwards but then I would add touch ups as the days went by.


Main tree in the living room


Fireplace in the living room


Dinning table decor



Buffet decor, if you haven't already noticed I love the Victorian look.


Patriotic tree in the family room



Nut crackers on the entertainment center. The family room is decorated in things my husband loves and my room is the rest of the house. hehe. Well at least I gave him a room. We did share the office but I just recently took it totally over too. I had to have a place for my business.

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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Top 5 Tuesday Treasures

Today's Top 5 treasures found are listed below. If you would like to have your shop featured here on my blog you will need to pick your favorite and list it in the comments along with your shop address. You may also include your blog address if you have one. The next 5 items and shops will be picked randomly from the "Raffle King." Next posting of Top 5 will be next Tuesday! All comments are welcomed but please note that unless your shop is opened you can not be considered as a contestant. Also all shops must have viable items for sale.

Be sure to invite your friends to be featured here and to check out the other shops great items.



Winner #1 Liberian girl painting by Sabbio Cinnamon Tree
Shop: sabbio.etsy.com


Winner #2 Merry Christmas Cards by The Art of Joy
Shop: TheArtOfJoy.etsy.com
Blog: stuff.joycharde.com


Winner #3 Royal blue vintage necklace by Noell Desiree
Shop: noelldesiree.etsy.com


Winner #4 Coffee Pot Christmas Cards by Coffee Pot People
Shop: CoffeePotPeople.etsy.com
Blog: coffee-pot-people.blogspot.com


Winner #5 Sandwich Buddie Bag Firefighters by The Green Haven
Shop: TheGreenHaven.etsy.com

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Easy Spinach Artichoke Dip




Ingredients2 pkgs frozen chopped spinach
1 jar Alfredo sauce
1 can chopped or sliced artichokes
1 8 oz pkg fine shredded Italian blend cheese
1 table spoon minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 300°F. Mix together all ingredients but half of the cheese in a oven safe bowl or pan.
Place in oven and bake for about 20 minutes cover with remaining cheese & bake till melted and slightly golden.

This was a good recipe but not as good as the one's eaten in the restaurants. I will look for another to try later. Bon Appetit!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Human Trafficking in America?


Slavery isn’t over; the reality is, nearly 150 years after the abolition of slavery in the United States, human trafficking remains a booming industry around the world. Because this is happening in America and no longer just in other countries its time we Americans wake up and look into ways we can help make people more aware and help those caught up in this terrible crime against humanity.

At the End of Slavery is filmed on location in India, Cambodia, and the Philippines with undercover footage from the front-lines of rescue efforts and first-person testimony of those freed from illegal slavery. The filmmakers hope to expose the atrocious issues of modern-slavery by making the compelling argument that with their success in finding and rescuing victims, and prosecuting those responsible, there can be a viable end to slave trade.

While this film focuses specifically on the slave industry in Asia, human trafficking is happening all around the world – even in the U.S. Also, sex tourism is on the rise; in a recent case, three U.S. citizens were arrested after traveling to Asia to have sex with child prostitutes.

Here is the trailer to "At the End of Slavery"


Much of this information was taken from the Causecast website.

Here are were you can go to help.

This video will be shown locally on December 3rd at LifeChurch.tv at 7pm and will be presented by OSU International Justice Mission

Tuesday's Top 5 Treasures

Today's Top 5 treasures found are listed below. If you would like to have your shop featured here on my blog you will need to pick your favorite and list it in the comments along with your shop address. You may also include your blog address if you have one. The next 5 items and shops will be picked randomly from the "Raffle King." Next posting of Top 5 will be next Tuesday! All comments are welcomed but please note that unless your shop is opened you can not be considered as a contestant. Also all shops must have viable items for sale.

Be sure to invite your friends to be featured here and to check out the other shops great items.




Winner #1 Memories scrapbook by Memories by Fionchadd
Shop: MemoriesByFionchadd.etsy.com


Winner #2 Panther Glass Cat Bead Charm Pendant by Beaded Tail
Shop: BeadedTail.etsy.com


Winner #3 Christmas Tin Full of Peppermint Bark by Heavenly Sweets
Shop: 1972baker.etsy.com



Winner #4 Set of 6 Jingle Bell Ornaments by Scrappin Stars
Shop: scrappinstars.etsy.com



Winner: #5 Boho Bag- Camo Chic by Pioneersis
Shop: pioneersis.etsy.com