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Hi there hey there ho there, friends and neighbors.  It's the other half of Cook Local here, the Mister to the Missus.  And I'm here to talk about bisexual Scottie dogs.

...

Sorry, I've just been informed that there wasn't actually a space in the email, scotti wasn't a typo, and I'm actually supposed to be talking about biscotti.  My bad.

Which, I guess, is good, because I wasn't sure how cornmeal and apricot worked into the dogs and I'm not sure I actually wanted to know.

Recently, during a bout of worklessness in my life, P and I sat down and looked at what we spent money on and we realized that coffee and our morning snack was a serious money drain, but we weren't particularly willing to give up that daily passion of ours.  As our wedding rolled around, we started looking at home espresso makers.  Since I was unsure of my ability to learn how to make a proper espresso with a manual machine, I was pushing for an automatic machine, which we promptly put on our registry.  While we didn't get it for our wedding, we did get it for Christmas, thanks to my wonderful in-laws, a scant 3 days later, along with a small outlay of cash from our own accounts.  We realized that the machine we put on our registry wouldn't be sufficient for our needs, but the most inexpensive machine we could use was still too expensive for a gift.  So, the in-laws got half, we got half.  Happy news is that we have actually paid it off already in savings on our daily purchases of coffee.  Hooray for us!

But, this is all background, a rich Columbian (and Costa Rican, Konan[?], Rwandan, Panamanian and who knows where else) tapestry, if you will, leading to what I'm supposed to be talking about.

So, in addition to making our own coffee, we still needed our morning treat.  After all, my blood sugar tends to dip in the morning after our workout and a little protein snack we've previously shown you how to make.  So, we started making our own biscotti.  We've gone through probably seven or eight different recipes trying to not only find a great one, but also not to get bored.  And we think we finally have one we'd like to share.

But wait, there's still more background.  Seattle has a very, very wonderful bakery called Cafe Besalu.  One of their items is a cornmeal, apricot and sage cookie, and it was such a novel, unique taste, we've tried to replicate it in so many different ways.

Which lead to me doing a Google search for cornmeal biscotti and, eventually, led me to this recipe (which, of course, we'll be writing up below in our own style, along with a couple changes and planned changes.  In fact, make sure you read to the end first, because this recipe wasn't as perfect as we wanted it and I'll share some tips about what we're going to do next to, hopefully, make it better.

So now, to make a long story even longer... The recipe. 

Cornmeal Apricot Biscotti

adapted from Pittsburg Needs Eated who adapted from Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies

Ingredients

1.5 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
.5 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
.5 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 cup chopped dried apricots

Now, looking at that list, we didn't do too well on the locavore front.  We didn't use a local flour, we don't even have a clue if you can get local cornmeal (we're working on it tho), salt and sugar are both non-local staples.  Heck, I think, generally speaking, the only local in this was the eggs, the butter and the apricots.  We can do better, of course, with a local flour and cornmeal.  We could fudge the lemon if we have my in-laws zest some of their lemons next January and we figure out how to store lemon zest for the long term.

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar just until blended.
4. Add eggs, vanilla and lemon zest and beat until light and fluffy.
5. Add mixture from step 2, stir until all ingredients are moistened.
6. Add apricots and mix just until blended. 
7. Spread some cornmeal on a cookie sheet.
8. Flour up your hands and form the dough into a log, about 6 inches wide, an inch tall and whatever length it comes to.  It isn't that hard to figure out when you're doing it.
9. Throw the cookie sheet on the middle rack for about 35 minutes.  The top should be cracked and golden brown.
10. Carefully slide the biscotti onto a cooling rack.  If the innards of the biscotti loaf didn't fully cook, it will break apart.  But it will still be good to eat.  Let cool for about 5-10 minutes.
11. Using a serrated knife, cut the loaf diagonally in slices about half an inch thick.  Give or take.  It isn't science.
12. Now you have two options for crisping the biscotti
    1. Lay the pieces cut side down on a baking sheet, bake for five minutes or until browning at edges.  Flip pieces, bake for five minutes, or, again, until browning at edges.  Remove and cool on a rack.
    2. Lay the pieces cut side down on an oven safe rack, bake for 10 minutes, or until browning at edges.  Remove and cool.

Makes roughly 18 pieces, give or take, and should last for 2 weeks in an airtight type container.

You know, even if you screw this up, it'll still be tasty and, honestly, it's a very inexpensive recipe, especially if you go to the bulk section.  Heck, the most expensive thing are the apricots, and those are barely $7 a pound.

Now, if you look at the 'original' recipe we used, you can see that we changed it a little bit.  To be honest, the above recipe is our second attempt at the recipe, the first just followed the Pittsburg Needs Eated recipe. 

The next time we make it, we're going to cut .25 cup of flour and add the same amount of cornmeal.  The above ingredient list produced a biscotti that was just a little... dry?  That's not the best word.  The best word I can come up with is it just tasted too much of flour and not enough of cornmeal.  The original recipe had equal amounts cornmeal and flour, so I think we need to switch back to that ratio.  Cutting back the sugar, however, didn't seem to have a negative effect.  Perhaps we'll use stevia or agave nectar instead.  I'm also thinking these could be made into excellent cookies, something I'm going to try this Sunday, I think.

Many months ago we told you about our new breakfast experiment: mini frittatas. Ever since then we have been constantly refining the recipe.  We've played around with a number of different variations and this is what we've come up with.

Ingredients

• 8 organic, free range eggs *
• a generous splash of fresh cream
• 2-3 tablespoons of pureed chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
• 5 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 bell pepper, preferably purple, diced and cooked
• 4-5 ounces of low fat feta cheese
• 1 tablespoon of flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

*If you have been using the older recipe, you'll notice that I'm using full eggs now, rather than mostly egg whites. Well, there are two reasons for that. First, it was just a hassle to separate out the eggs. I did it because we both have cholesterol issues and I wanted to be as healthy as possible. However, then I found out something very interesting about our eggs. The eggs we buy have significantly less cholesterol than normal supermarket eggs. The chickens eat a varied diet and run around outside all day long. Skagit River Ranch had the eggs tested and the levels of Omega 3 fats in the eggs were high and the levels of Omega 6 fats (the bad ones) were very low. So I've given up separating the eggs and just started using the whole thing.

Directions

Chop the bacon and fry it until it is crispy.

Chop the bell pepper and fry it in the bacon fat. Yes, really.

Set both aside to cool.

(We tend to make the bacon and peppers around 3 and we don't make the frittatas until after dinner. We've found that having cold ingredients to start with actually does help the consistency of the frittatas.)

In a large mixing bowl (or a kitchenaid) beat the eggs into oblivion. The eggs should be foamy and bubbly before you add a splash or two of cream. Beat for another 2 minutes at least (longer is better).

Add in 2-3 tablespoons of pureed chipotle.

Add in a tablespoon of flour and a little bit of baking powder. This serves to make the frittatas just slightly dryer and fluffier. We got this little tip from a bed and breakfast we stayed at in Hawaii.

Add the bacon and the bell pepper and stir to combine.

Divide among 10 muffin cups and bake at 375 for 7 minutes.

Remove from the oven and distribute the feta evenly over the 10 muffins.

Return to the oven and bake for another 25 minutes.

Cool and place in a ziplock bag with 2 paper towels. These will last in the refrigerator for a week if you replace the paper towels midweek.

I'm not a big breakfast person. I'd rather have coffee and a biscotti than a full, cooked to order breakfast. However, John likes pancakes. Since he's diabetic, he rarely gets them. A few weeks ago, I saw a recipe that looked like it would give him pancakes without a dramatic blood sugar rise and well... we were right. So here we present: Ricotta Pancakes.

Ingredients

• 1.75 cups of Organic Valley ricotta cheese
• 2 local and organic eggs
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup Splenda
• Zest of one orange (we used 2 satsumas)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup local and organic Emmer flour
• Organic Valley butter

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, but be careful not to overmix. A whisk works best for this.

Melt the butter on a griddle over medium to medium high heat. Add a generous teaspoon of pancake batter for each pancake. The batter will be thick, so smooth over the tops after dropping the batter onto the griddle.

Cook until golden brown (about 4 minutes per side).

We served these with a small amount of tayberry jam, but any syrup or jam would work.

They were smooth and almost creamy. I think they would be even better with Sea Breeze Farms ricotta cheese.

Breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day. Yet we rarely eat it. Our schedules just don't allow it. When you get up and immediately go to the gym, you don't want a heavy breakfast and when you go from the gym to work, you can't really take along scrambled eggs or oatmeal. So I've been pondering what I could make for breakfast that would be portable, have a good mix of protein and carbs, and would work for J. Hence... frittata-a-go-go, or Muffin MacEggs, or OmFins, or Scrambled Quickfins, or Atkins Muffins (we had trouble coming up with a name).

Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 4 oz reduced fat feta cheese
• 4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled 
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 diced red bell pepper, sauteed
• 1 bunch green onions, sauteed
• Salt and Pepper (to taste)
• Crushed red pepper (to taste)

The eggs were local, from Skagit River Ranch. If you're in the Seattle area and want eggs from Skagit, you need to get to the farmers markets early, especially in the summer. There is usually a line for their eggs. During the winter though, they can usually be had relatively easily. The bell pepper was organic, but not local. The green onions were local (from the Ballard farmer's market). The crushed red pepper that we used was actually a locally grown and dried purple cayanne pepper. We used a mortar and pestle to pulverize it. The bacon was also from Skagit. We bought the heavy cream from Sea Breeze Farms. The cheese was from the grocery store and I doubt it was anywhere near local.

As I pulled this recipe out of thin air, I didn't have any instructions and had no idea if these would even work. The first time we made this recipe, we also used mushrooms, though we felt that these made the frittatas a little too watery. J cooked up the diced peppers and onions and I handled the bacon. When everything was cooked, I started beating the eggs. I beat the living hell out of those eggs. Seriously, the beating lasted 7 or 8 minutes. Then I added the cream and repeated the excessive beating procedure. I added all of the other ingredients and mixed for another couple of minutes. I then filled our greased muffin tin with the result. This recipe made 10 muffins.

We baked them for about 25 minutes at 375. Here's the result.

So, how did they taste?

These were a success. We eat them for breakfast every day during the week after our workout. J doesn't like eggs, but even he was willing to eat these. We have been making them weekly for over a month and have tweaked them slightly every time. I rarely measure the crushed peppers so the spice level varies slightly. One interesting variation that I discovered completely by accident went a little something like this.

I slide the muffin tin into the oven, set the timer, and go sit down on the couch. Five minutes later I leap up, utter an expletive, and run to the kitchen. I'd forgotten the cheese! I pulled the muffin tin out of the oven and started hastily spooning cheese into the partially cooked frittatas. This produced a very interesting result. The cheese ended up hovering near the top of the cooked frittata. Every bite produced a concentrated burst of feta that gave the frittata a bit more substance. Since then I've started mixing in half of the cheese in the KitchenAid and then leaving the other half to be spooned into the partially cooked frittatas.

Nutritional Information

• Calories: 143
• Fat: 9 grams
• Carbohydrates: 2 grams
• Protein: 9 grams
• Sugar: 1.3 grams