Chocolate Bella Chow Biscotti, sinfully delicious

Cooking Demonstration in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
My marathon baking day concluded with Chocolate Bella Chow Biscotti. I am baking cookies for my birthday and freezing them, which coincidentally enough got me to thinking about Edward Cullen and his ability to be immortal. Well these cookies are good, and they may even go into the history books, but they aren't immortal, enough while you are a mortal and they are good for even the Vegetarian Vampire in your family. Well, maybe.

Chocolate Bella Chow Biscotti

2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of cocoa, unsweetened
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
6 tablespoons of butter, melted
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Directions: Blend all ingredients in a mixer on low speed, except the flour. Gradually add the flour and form into two balls. On an greased baking sheet and with your hands, form into a ball and then on the cookie sheet shape to look like a loaf and continue to pat down until it is about one and a half inches in thickness. Add colored sprinkles. Place in a 350 degree preheated oven and cook for 10 minutes or until loaf is cooked through, but still a little doughy. Next, with a serated knife, cut diagonally and place on one side. Return to oven and bake on sides another 10 minutes. Cool and eat.

Mushroom Ravioli, Stir Fry ala Swan, Charlie's Catch of The Day Crab Cakes, Time for Tea Cake Cookies, excerpts from Love at First Bite, by Gina Meyers

Love at First Bite Cookbook, something yummy to sink your teeth into.

Mushroom Ravioli

10 ounces mushroom ravioli or cheese-filled ravioli
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 ounces shiitake mushrooms, sliced
4 ounces button (table) mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup brandy
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions: Prepare ravioli according to package directions; drain. Next, over medium heat, pour olive oil in a skillet and cook mushrooms until tender. Add garlic and brandy, and cook for 2 minutes. Slowly stir in heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. When cream has thickened, stir in 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese. Then, stir in cooked ravioli, and gently simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Serve with parmesan, garlic bread, and salad. Makes 2 servings.

Bella left Charlie a note on the table explaining again where to find dinner.

Stir Fry ala Swan
½ Tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 pound of lean hamburger
2 teaspoons of minced garlic
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium head of cabbage shredded or cut into slightly larger than bite size pieces.
1 can (10 ¾ ounces) of tomato soup
1 can (8 ounces) of tomato sauce
¼ cup of water
1 Tablespoon of soy sauce and 1 teaspoon of salt (optional)

Directions: In a skillet, over medium heat, add 1/2 Tablespoon of vegetable oil. Next, add 1 Tablespoon of sugar, the uncooked hamburger meat, diced onion, and minced garlic. With a spatula, break apart hamburger meat and cook uncovered over medium heat until hamburger meat is thoroughly cooked. Once the hamburger meat is browned, take off the stove top and remove the excess fat. Wash the skillet out with lukewarm water and place the cooked meat with garlic and onion back in the skillet and add the cabbage, tomato soup and tomato sauce (optional: may add salt and soy sauce). Cook covered over low heat until cabbage is tender, about 20 minutes. Makes 6 to 8 servings and can be complemented with white or brown rice.

Helpful Hint: To remove excess oil from hamburger meat, scoop hamburger meat over a plate lined with paper towels, this will absorb the excess fat.


“Charlie came home with a large catch.”-Bella



Charlie’s Catch of the day Crab Cakes
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons of mayonnaise
4 teaspoons of lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon of dried tarragon
1 Tablespoon of minced green onions
8 ounces of crabmeat
1 Tablespoon of butter
Round crackers, broken up into cracker crumbs

Directions: In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, mayonnaise, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, tarragon, and green onions. Gently stir in the crabmeat, and mix in cracker crumbs, adding as much as desired. Next, melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Form crab patties and place in the skillet brown both sides until the patties are golden brown. Depending upon the size of the patties, makes about four crab cakes.




Bite at Twilight (Desserts)

Time for Tea Cake Cookies
(a London pre-vampire Carlisle Cookie)
1/2 cup of margarine
3/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of flour
1/8 teaspoon of salt
Food coloring-optional
Chocolate pieces, peanut butter chips, nuts, cherries.

Mix together:
1 cup of confectioner’s sugar
3 1/2 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Food coloring-optional

Directions: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly mix together margarine, vanilla, sugar, and three drops of food coloring (any color). Add flour and salt and work until dough can hold together. Mold dough by Tablespoonfuls around a few chocolate pieces, nuts, or cherries. Place cookie dough on a baking sheet approximately 1 inch apart for 10 minutes or until light brown.
Once the cookies are cool, dip tops of cookies into Galaxy Icing. Decorate cookies with colored sugar, sprinkles, candies, or coconut. Yields 25 cookies.

Make your new Christmas holiday tradition include an "Unofficial" & "Unauthorized" Twilight Cookbook  now available on I Tunes & Audible.

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Apple Oatmeal Bars, easy and sinfully delicious

Recently on an airplane leaving Charlotte, North Carolina, I met Dorothy Pfeiffer, a beautiful woman in her mid-seventies. She was heading to California to visit her niece to go to a bridal shower and camping! We immediately hit it off and ended up talking about being a Christian (she shared her love of the Lord and the awesome things he has done in her life), and FOOD, of course. We exchanged recipes, I conveniently had a copy of my Cook Like a Hot Italian Mama Cookbook and she had this winner of a recipe, Apple Oatmeal Bars. She talked about how she made it for a church function one afternoon and how all of the people at the party were raving about this simple recipe. She also confided in me that the engaged couple had requested that each person coming to the bridal shower bring along a time treasured recipe. They were going to collect them and use them as staple recipes after the nuptials. Pretty cool I thought.
We graciously exchanged a recipe book for a recipe. :)

Apple Oatmeal Bars
1 cup of oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of butter (cube)
1 cup of flour (if gluten allergies, use gluten-free flour, such as rice flour)
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 1/2 cups of chopped Gala Apples (3 medium sized apples)
1/2 cup of sugar (if diabetic, substitute for sugar for a sugar substitute like Truvia)
Directions: Combine first five ingredients and pat half into an 8-inch by 8-inch pan. Layer apples and sugar. Crumble remaining mixture on top. Bake for 35-45 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Cool, cut, and serve.

Eclipse Punch, excerpt from Love at First Bite, The Unofficial Twilight Cookbook, by Gina Meyers

Monday, August 21st marks the first time since 1979 that we will be able to see a total solar eclipse in North America. The total Eclipse begins on the West Coast at 10:00 a.m. PT and ends on the East Coast a little before 3:00 p.m. ET. 

Eclipse

1 cup of black cherry soda

1 cup of cranberry juice

1 cup of ginger ale

splash of pineapple juice

Directions: Mix black cherry, cranberry juice, and ginger ale in a pitcher. Add a splash of pineapple juice, and serve over ice. 

Nonie Julia's Anise Biscotti Cookies For Sale

Biscotti Cookie(s)

1 Jumbo Biscotti $3.99 USD

6 Biscottis $6.99 USD

Dozen Biscottis $9.99 USD

Twilight Inspired Cocktails, by Gina Meyers

Give into your libation temptation and take a sip of these surely mouthwatering cocktails, to quench your human thirst. Breathless, Wicked Gin and Tonic, Bloody Mary, Never Die, Forkshattan, Bellaholm, are just a few tantalizing, tranquilizing  taste bud Twilight delights. 

Howl at Twilight

To quench your human thirst

Don’t you want to know if I drink blood?

—Edward talking to Bella

Breathless

1/2 lime

1/2 ounce white crème de cacao

1/2 ounce Cointreau

1 ounce white Jamaica rum

Club Soda

Directions: Squeeze lime juice into a glass filled with ice cubes; save lime shell. Add to glass crème de cacao, Cointreau, and rum. Add club soda to fill glass. Stir. On the edge of the glass, decorate with a wedge of lime and fresh mint dusted with bar sugar.

Scotch and Water

Directions: Pour 1 to 1 1/2 ounces scotch over ice cubes in a 14-ounce highball glass. Serve a small pitcher of water alongside.

Bloody Mary

1 (46-ounce) bottle chilled tomato juice

3 tablespoons horseradish

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

3/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 cups vodka

Ice cubes

Lemon wedges (optional)

Celery (optional)

Directions: In a large pitcher, combine tomato juice, lemon juice, Tabasco, horseradish, Worcestershire, and vodka. Stir until well blended. Fill 8 to 10 glasses with mixture, adding ice and a lemon wedge or celery stalk. Sprinkle with pepper, if desired.

Never Die

1/2 ounce rum

1/2 ounce dry vermouth

1/2 ounce gin

1/2 ounce sloe gin

1/2 ounce triple sec

1/2 ounce vodka

1/2 ounce whiskey

6 ounces of cola or fruit punch

Maraschino cherry

Pineapple or orange slice

Directions: In a cocktail shaker with ice, add the rum, dry vermouth, gin, sloe gin, triple sec, vodka, and whiskey and shake.  Strain. Add cola or fruit punch to a tall glass and garnish with a pineapple, orange and maraschino cherry on a spear/cocktail stick.  

Twilight Inspired Cocktails

Give into your libation temptation and take a sip of these surely mouthwatering cocktails, to quench your human thirst. Breathless, Wicked Gin and Tonic, Bloody Mary, Never Die, Forkshattan, Bellaholm, are just a few tantalizing, tranquilizing  taste bud Twilight delights. 

Howl at Twilight

To quench your human thirst

Don’t you want to know if I drink blood?

—Edward talking to Bella

Breathless

1/2 lime

1/2 ounce white crème de cacao

1/2 ounce Cointreau

1 ounce white Jamaica rum

Club Soda

Directions: Squeeze lime juice into a glass filled with ice cubes; save lime shell. Add to glass crème de cacao, Cointreau, and rum. Add club soda to fill glass. Stir. On the edge of the glass, decorate with a wedge of lime and fresh mint dusted with bar sugar.

Scotch and Water

Directions: Pour 1 to 1 1/2 ounces scotch over ice cubes in a 14-ounce highball glass. Serve a small pitcher of water alongside.

Bloody Mary

1 (46-ounce) bottle chilled tomato juice

3 tablespoons horseradish

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

3/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 cups vodka

Ice cubes

Lemon wedges (optional)

Celery (optional)

Directions: In a large pitcher, combine tomato juice, lemon juice, Tabasco, horseradish, Worcestershire, and vodka. Stir until well blended. Fill 8 to 10 glasses with mixture, adding ice and a lemon wedge or celery stalk. Sprinkle with pepper, if desired.

Never Die

1/2 ounce rum

1/2 ounce dry vermouth

1/2 ounce gin

1/2 ounce sloe gin

1/2 ounce triple sec

1/2 ounce vodka

1/2 ounce whiskey

6 ounces of cola or fruit punch

Maraschino cherry

Pineapple or orange slice

Directions: In a cocktail shaker with ice, add the rum, dry vermouth, gin, sloe gin, triple sec, vodka, and whiskey and shake.  Strain. Add cola or fruit punch to a tall glass and garnish with a pineapple, orange and maraschino cherry on a spear/cocktail stick.