a DIY: I made my own non-aluminum deodorant (and I smell so good!)

I'm going to start with the "2 Weeks Later" on this post, because I made my deodorant a couple of weeks ago and I've been using it every day since. So, this is not a brag or anything, but I smell great. Honestly. I've been using store (well Amazon) bought non-aluminum deodorant for a while now (Lavanila is just wonderful) and so I got over the fact that we aren't talking about antiperspirant here a long time ago. But your body is meant to sweat, it's good for you, and the aluminum in antiperspirant has been linked to breast cancer (if you think about it you're shaving your armpit, creating tiny cuts, then smearing a known carcinogen onto the area) as well as other illnesses. No thanks. The funny thing I found is that not too long after going off antiperspirant I wasn't sweating as much. Yep, sweating less! With antiperspirant there was always a point in the day where I'd start mega-sweating and end up with pit stains. That hasn't happened to me in so long. I sweat a little bit, the deodorant soaks up the smelliness, and I end the day smelling good and without aluminum smeared near my boobs. All good things.

I've also come to realize that I'm crunchy as fuck. It's true. I spent a good few years saying things to people like, "I'm kind of weird about food," or, "haha yeah I guess I'm on the crunchy side!" ::adorable shrug:: but the truth is that the more I know about the food I eat, the things I smear all over myself and my kids, the more I'm just like, "to hell with this." I suppose a crunchy lifestyle is among the last things that's it's still OK to just make fun of super openly and we're all supposed to laugh and be cool about it, hello truck and beer commercials! But guys... I am uptight. There, I've said it. I have a hard time being super cool about it. Everything in moderation but come on now. Ok, this commercial is funny.

Welp! Has the talking-too-much crazy-eyed chia seed eating lady scared you away yet?

So! Non-aluminum deodorant, it turns out, is incredibly easy to make and it works! This is based off a recipe I got at Crunchy Betty. Here's what you do...

You need
- wooden spoon & mixing bowl OR mortar & pestle if you have one
- 3 deodorant empties
- 1/4 cup baking soda
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 5 TBSP of coconut oil
- vanilla extract (for smell)
- essential oils (for smell)

Here's what you do

1. Melt your coconut oil down so that it's a liquid. This doesn't take much at all. I did 30 seconds in my microwave at half-power. You just need to get it to it's non-solid, oily state.

2. Mix in your baking soda, corn starch, vanilla extract (I am terrible about measuring, but I used about 1/2 tsp) and essential oils (I used honey buckthorn vitamin C serum because it is the only oil I own; it smells super citrussy and like honey which is awesome).

3. Here is where I'll do better next time. Really mix that stuff up until it's as smooth as possible. My deodorants ended up with the occasional little tiny lump in them which hasn't killed me yet, but it feels a little grainy going on which I will improve on next time.

4. Twist your empties down as low as they'll go. I didn't even clean mine first. And then just pour your batter directly into each, stopping when you get to the top.

5. Put in the fridge to set. It takes a couple of hours.

Done! 
Once set, I've been storing mine in the bathroom just like store bought. I suppose in the thick of summer I might store them in the fridge but for now they've been doing great in the medicine cabinet.

I had my husband smell test me the first few days I used my homemade deodorant. What a champ. And he confirmed, I smell really good. Like end-of-the-day, one application in the morning, and I smell GOOD. Not just non-bad, but good. The deodorant smells like citrus scones or something yummy and so do I. Nice!

Finally, I hear you can add shea butter, avocado oil, argan oil, or aloe to these recipes to get a more soothing, skin-smoothing result. I will try the argan oil next time and just add a bit more of the dry ingredients to offset the additional oil.

ps. Thank you, Brandy (from heart and habit) for getting me started on my deodorant journey and inspiring me in so many ways, as well as sending me deod recipes. I love you, lady.

egg drop veggie fried rice

Here is a super quick to make, easy recipe that became a staple around this house after the very first time I made it. See, Rob is a vegetarian with a love for non-vegetarian inspired dishes and I am a mom with an organic foods fetish, an organictarian (that's a thing), but I do eat meat and so do the kiddos. Finding recipes that satisfy Rob's love of classic, not-too-healthy tasting fare and satisfying my love of whole grains and non-science-altered food can be a challenge. This recipe does the trick and everyone in the house gobbles it down from the tallest to the smallest of us.

What you need...
- 4 cups cooked brown rice.
- 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger minced
- 2 cloves fresh garlic minced
- 1 yellow onion chopped how you like
- 1 cup frozen vegetables (mixed style or just peas)
- 1 bell pepper, chopped how you like
- 4 eggs
- 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
- ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup cashews, smashed or whole
- 4 green onions chopped

What you do...
- Take your cooked rice and put it in a bowl in the freezer, uncovered, while you cut and chop and fry the vegetables, this will dry it out (if you have previously cooked rice from the fridge that works great too)

- Heat oils in a BIG skillet or wok on medium-high

- Add ginger and garlic to hot oil, stir with a wooden spatula or spoon for about a minute

- Add onion, stir about 2 minutes, until soft. Push onion to the sides of skillet.

- Add frozen veggies to the middle and stir-fry for 1 minute. Push to sides.

- Add bell pepper to the middle and stir-fry for 1 minute.

- Add rice to the middle of the pan and stir everything together about 2 minutes

- Add eggs to the mix one at a time and stir-fry into the mix until they are visibly cooked. This might take a few minutes and some stirring to make sure the mix is coated and the eggs are cooked through.

- Add soy sauce, pepper, cashews, and green onion. Stir-fry for 1 minute.

Done!

ps. This egg drop veggie fried rice is savory and flavorful but you can also serve with soy sauce, sriracha, salt, and pepper on the table so everyone can season to taste if they really like their sodium/spice (Rob I'm looking at you!). I'd like to try adding sprouts, fresh tomato, and pineapple to the mix sometime. It also works as a side or a main dish. We like ours with steamed vegetable gyoza. Enjoy!

Vanilla Cinnamon Pear | Easy Ways to Spruce Up French Toast

Otto hates yummy food, especially french toast, and never food parties with his breakfast. He is an incredibly serious person who is also so so so very shy. We are all super boring and quiet at our house and our favorite pastime is to sit around staring at each other for hours with our hair in our eyes, while making frowny faces and whispering about rocks.

Lies! Anyways, here are some easy additions you can make to your favorite french toast recipe to really make that toast sing:

- cook in butter, no substitutes!
- sprinkle ground cinnamon or nutmeg or ginger or really any spice cake spice into the mix
- add a splash of vanilla extract, almond extract, or really any delicious extract into the mix
- dice up some fruit and sprinkle on top, then cook it right into the toast when you flip
- for a prettier version, cook the fruit up separately and ladle on top

There you have it. Simple food, made well, using really great ingredients. So delicious.

In recent news: I can't wait til Thanksgiving! This week is dragging already because IT ISN'T THURSDAY YET like every second until it is Thursday and then I will be happy. Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is on Wednesday night and I think that will officially kick off the holiday for me. We are making a Thanksgiving cake this year that I'm hoping is gloriously good looking. An ombre affair that I'm hoping is worth taking pictures of and sharing here.

What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish? Mine, by a mile, is green bean casserole. French's onions and me, we are life partners ♥

What's your favorite holiday movie? Mine, by a mile, is Love Actually. TNT needs to GET ON IT and start putting that shiz on heavy rotation already, yo!

xo, happy NOT THURSDAY YET.

simple lavender syrup

the house next door to us is uninhabited and overgrown with flowers, blackberries, and lavender. what luck for us! we have been scavenging the yard like nobody's business. and what i am about to tell you will change your life forever. you will be tap dancing and syrup guzzling and thanking me for the rest of your sweet sweet days. ok, here it is. you can make lavender simple syrup and put it on everything. it is easy and heavenly and smells your whole house up like heaven and you're just going to eat the crud out of it. it is THAT GOOD. yes!

first, find a partner in crime. make sure he's dressed really shady so if the cops show up they'll know at a glance which one of you was the mastermind behind the yard thievery.

next, assemble 3 tablespoons of the lavender flowers. i found that 2-3 stems equals a tablespoon so in order to get 3 tablespoons you'll want roughly 8 stems. we cut many more than that which meant we ended up with a batch of lavender syrup and a nice table centerpiece.

you can strip the stems of flowers by pinching the flowery tip and sliding your fingers down the stem. they come right off.

 next boil 1 cup of water with the 3 tablespoons of lavender flowers.

 once it boils, add 2 cups of sugar and reduce to a simmer. stir as it simmers for the next 5 minutes.

remove from heat. strain out the flowers. a tea strainer would have been handy. or cheesecloth maybe? i just used the big spoon you see there to get the bulk of it, then the tablespoon to ladle out most of the rest. a few stragglers were left in mine which doesn't bother me, but to each his own.

and what you are left with is a fragrant, delicious simple syrup that's just right for ice cream, yogurt, teas, waffles, toast, cocktails, homemade soda, lavender milk, or whatever else strikes you. we did ice cream.

 this lady joined us. i love her so much.

 yum!

i had one lavender drizzled ice cream bowl with Otto and then another immediately after he went to bed. i am jazzed up on lavender syrup right now! it is so amazingly delicious! and was so easy to make! i found the recipe here and look forward to trying the honeyed version as well sometime soon except maybe with agave instead of honey.

this keeps for about 1 week refrigerated. that is all the time i need to eat through it!

i will make this recipe again and again for the rest of my life. it is that good. really! i hope you give it a try too!

tank top outside food party july four 2012!

our fourth of july was just a big fat day of awesome. exactly how a fourth of july should be. i had the day off from work and we just filled the day with good food, outside eating, friends, and casualness. if you were not good food, outside eating, friendly, or casual then you were not invited. oregon played nice and brought the sun.

first things first, we slept in til about 7. on a normal weekday i'm up at 5 so on days when i can just snuggle in til 7 and wake up with some sun coming in the window, it always feels like a special occasion. we read a little in bed and then got up to have breakfast and make patriotic ice cream sandwiches!

if you are ever in a pinch and need a quickie/awesome patriotic treat feel free to steal this idea. we made standard chocolate chip cookies, except with red and blue m&ms (we got the dark chocolate ones and here is my review --> they are really good). Otto helped me sort out the red and blue ones and i even let him eat a few at 9 in the morning because hey, holiday. once the cookies were baked and cooled, we scooped vanilla bean ice cream to make sandwiches and then rolled the edges in patriotic sprinkles. easy and cute as heck and you heard the ingredients right? word to your mother, those were some good ass ice cream sandwiches!

around 11 we headed over to some friends' back deck for a nice brunch. Loretta took her shirt off and i was sporting some trashy tattoos and we agreed that between the two of us we equalled one awesome all-american :)

after brunch it was home for nap time. while Ot and Et snoozed i was wine cubing and took my bathroom self portrait because hey, holiday.

then onto the park for a picnic dinner in the grass. we were thinking of taking the kids out to watch the real fireworks but they don't even start until 10pm. too late for small toeheads who are prone to fatigue tantrums! instead we burned some cruddy sparklers (like the worst sparklers of all time) in the back yard. which Otto loved. and asleep by 9, myself included.

hope your July 4s were equally chill and full of good food and smiles. or for my more northern friends, that your Canada days rocked!

ps. Otto loved his tank top so much that he cried this morning because we didn't have another one for him to wear today. we ended up rolling up the sleeves on his t-shirt ala AC Slater so that he could have that "cool tank look" (items in quotes = irony) so i'm kind of excited to see if this is going to be Rolled Sleeve TShirt Summer 2012. do your kids have questionable fashion choices like this? do you go with it? i kind of love it but oof the rolled sleeves made me cringe, i won't lie!

our famous oatmeal banana bread recipe

about a month ago we got a big bag of organic oats from CostCo. since that day we have made nothing oatmealy at all except about eight loaves of this oatmeal banana bread. it's an experimental recipe i devised based on traditional banana bread. we've made loaf after loaf after loaf lately and i've fine-tuned the ratio of oats-to-flour and made a few other little tweaks and now i think it's just right.

i'm just acknowledging that my kitchen is a mess but that's about as good as it ever looks so whatever.

baking together with Otto is one of my absolutely favorite things to do on earth. it is real mommy-and-me bonding time for us. he loves to dump the ingredients in and stir and sample the ingredients as they go in (especially chocolate chips or dried fruits depending on what we're mixing in). he has embraced a nudist lifestyle of late but i am a stern mama and insist on at least underpants for all sous-chefs in my kitchen!

here's what you need to make our famous oatmeal banana bread:

- 1 cup dry oats
- 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/8 cup ground flax
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 6 Tbsp salted butter - melted
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 mashed ripe bananas
-(optional) 1/2 cup dried fruit, nuts, and/or chocolate chips
-(optional) 1/8 tsp vanilla extract, almond extract, or a little of each

here's what you do:

- grease a little bread pan
- preheat your oven to 350'
- get all of your ingredients ready because you're going to mix them all together at once
- ok, mix it all together
- pour batter into the bread pan and bake for just about 60 minutes

enjoy! this is such a yummy version of banana bread, super moist and the oats give it such a rich flavor and make it feel even more breakfasty. we've been eating it nonstop for a month and going strong. i pack it in Otto's lunches instead of a sandwich some days because he is a little finicky about sammies in his lunchbox but not even a little picky about this banana bread.

you might also like this egg free banana bread recipe from a couple of years ago. whenever i run out of eggs i use this method and have never had a problem. the taste is not affected at all!

wassup hippies? bbq tofu, that's what!

i mentioned in my last post that i have recently tried two, count em 2! tofu recipes that turned out perfectly and i'm going to be sharing both recipes here. word to your mother, it has been a long and painful road with me and the bean curd. way back when, when we were vegan, i tried multiple recipes and outside of one yummy olive dip, nothing tofu-based ever tasted right to me. and tofu without the right consistency is like the most unyummy thing ever. but as of late i've figured this bidg out.

this recipe for barbecued tofu is quick to make, easy, baked (not fried), and tastes as good as or better than bbq tofu i've had at vegetarian restauarants. also? cheap! and? the toddler ate it UP. so like one thousand points of winning on this recipe. without further ado...

bbq tofu: what you need...

- 1 package firm or extra firm tofu
- cooking spray (oil)
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 Tbsp peanut butter, almond butter, or for nut-free use sunflower butter
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 bottle of bbq sauce (we like Trader Joe's  Bold & Smoky Kansas City Style - has a little kick to it!)

the trick to a great tofu consistency...

the night before you make this recipe, cut a slit along the top and one side edge of your tofu package. drain all of the water out of the package, then gently press the still-covered top while holding the package over a sink so that you are squeezing and draining some additional liquid out of the tofu. don't press too hard or the tofu will buckle and start to crumble, but use a firm pressure with your whole palm. don't worry about getting all the liquid out, but do what you can.

then throw that bad boy in the freezer, still in its package, for at least 12  hours.

when you're ready to cook, remove the tofu from the freezer and remove it from the package to a microwave safe plate. cook the tofu on "defrost" (times vary depending on microwave, ours takes about 8 minutes on the defrost setting). once defrosted, use your whole palm to squeeze remaining liquid out of the tofu. you'll be surprised how much comes out.

voila! you've now created a tofu with that wonderful restaurant-style consistency that you get at good chinese restaurants. whoot!

bbq tofu: what you do...

- preheat oven to 350'
- cut your thawed/drained tofu into 1/2" strips
- do a nice layer of your cooking spray on a cookie sheet
- lay your tofu strips out on the cookie sheet
- in a small bowl mix together the ingredients water-through-black pepper to make a nice paste
- ladle the paste evenly over your tofu strips and then use the palm of your hand to mash the paste into the tofu
- bake for 15 minutes
- turn over the tofu strips, spray lightly with cooking spray, and bake another 10 minutes
- pour barbecue sauce over the strips (we use about 1/3 of the bottle) and then cook another 10 minutes

done! serve on its own, on a sandwich, over brown rice, or however you like to eat your barbecue. so good!

NOTE - if you stop at the 2nd to last step, you've made delicious tofu strips that are great in salads, over pastas, etc. even without the bbq sauce.

both this recipe and the other one i'll be sharing are modified from this awesome cookbook i found at the thrift store "Tofu Cookery" copyright 1982 & 1991. we've made several other of the recipes as well and they are all rock and roll. if you spot it in your travels, i would highly recommend picking it up!

now go eat your barbecue. enjoy! :)

biscotti with dark chocolate and blueberries

with my maternity leave quickly coming to an end (sniff, sniff, i go back to work monday) i have to admit that i haven't been up to a lot of projects, no great crafts, nothing major cooked, done, or made. i've just been spending as much time as possible with this baby and loving every second of it. that said, Otto and i have done some baking, one of our favorite things to do together.

we recently made this super easy (a favorite!) biscotti recipe except using organic turbinado sugar, throwing in a tablespoon of ground flaxseed for fun, and adding in organic dark chocolate chips and dried blueberries. as you can see from the pics, the end result was a bit more crumbly than traditional biscotti. but omg they were so good!

i love this recipe because it's so easy, Otto can help me measure and mix the ingredients, and as far as cookies go it's pretty much on the healthy side. let me know if you try it i'd love to see if you've become a biscotti superfan like we are around here!

fava or lima beans with artichoke hearts and peas, mmmmmmm

last weekend we had some people over for dinner and i tried out this new recipe that was a smash, bang, boom HIT! i don't know if i've really talked about this on here, but our house is 33% vegetarian (the hubs, a better man than i, or you know what i mean anyways) and so we eat vegetarian meals pretty frequently. almost always, actually, with sides of chicken, turkey, or fish for otto and sometimes me.

anyways, i've been aspiring to work more beans into our dinners menu. i didn't grow up eating many beans and when i did, it was gag town, usa, so this has been a real challenge for me. but i am determined, and finding that i actually do really like bean dishes when they're done right. and so, after all that jabber, here is an easy one that is just super delish!

what you need...

1/4 cup evoo (that's extra virgin olive oil for the recipe uncool)
1 yellow onion, cut into thin half-rings
1 2/3 cups frozen lima or fava beans (aka broad beans) (i used lima)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup water
2 cups frozen peas
14oz artichoke hearts, drained and cut into halves or quarters
2 Tbsp chopped dill
1 Tbsp chopped mint
4 scallions chopped
salt & pepper to taste

what you do...

1. heat the oil over low-medium heat, add the onion and cook about 5 minutes til it's soft and browning
2. add beans, lemon juice, water and bring to a boil
3. reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes
4. add peas, artichoke hearts and herbs. stir. simmer, covered, another 5 minutes.
5. remove from heat, salt/pepper to taste, serve hot or warm

this isn't my recipe, in fact i just barely altered it by replacing the broad beans with lima beans and cutting down on the onion content (the original recipe called for 2 onions, egad that seemed like wayyyy too much!) i found this recipe in a cookbook i picked up at CostCo last summer called Essential Vegetarian. so far it's been consistently decent with only one recipe that was pretty "meh" so if you come across it while thrifting snap it up!

speaking of thrifting, cookbooks and beans, i was really excited to find an old slow cooker recipe book while out thrifting with ot today. it's 365 recipes (::aside:: what's up with 365 being the magic # for crock pot books and blogs? so weird to me. that's far too much crock potting! my husband would kill me after day 3. but whatever.) anyways, i am dying to make the above orange-spice glazed carrots and a bunch of the soups and bean recipes, like all kinds of chilis and refried beans! i bought bags and bags of organic dried beans from the bulk bins at the grocery this afternoon. look out world my family will be riding high on magical fruit very soon!

if anyone has any awesome bean-y recipes they'd like to share, i would seriously love to hear about it. and hope everyone is having a great weekend. we're about to watch Drive with Ryan Gosling so my night is gonna be awesoooome (that last part said in a really high pitched voice) i hope yours are all at least as good!

xo,
lindsey

Easy Egg-and-Cheesy Crescent Comfort Breakfast Rolls {Recipe}

So I "invented" these recently and they've quickly become a weekend breakfast fave around our house...

I use the term "invented" loosely because there's no way I'm the first person who thought of this. But for reals, this is like the easiest, yummiest breakfast recipe ever and they are 1000% toddler approved (meaning Otto would fight you for one).

Here's what you need...
1 tube Pillsbury (or whatever) crescent rolls
3-4 eggs cooked in the scrambled fashion
Shredded cheese
Other fillin' ideas: cooked sausage, spinach, hash browns, bacon, you get the idea

Here's what you do...
1. Pre-cook your eggs and any other ingredients that would need to be cooked
2. Lay out crescent rolls on cookie sheet, add a layer of your fillins, then roll into crescent shape
3. Cook per directions on the tube

Voila! These were totally inspired by my friend Alana who was making tuna-and-swiss crescent melts recently. I thought, "holy sh*t I could be stuffing these bad boys?" and a breakfast classic was born.

These breakfast rolls are so so easy and so so amazing. I hope you like them too! And hope all my US friends are having happy Thanksgiving weekends and everyone else is just having amazing regular weekends!

xo,
lindsey  

sugar-crusted dried-fruit whole wheat muffin amazingness {a recipe}

the following is an experiment gone yummy. Ot helped me make these semi-sweet (think cornbread or scone-level sweetness) healthy fruit muffins the other day and i wanted to share...

this recipe is a modified version of Joy of Cooking's "basic reduced-fat muffins"...

What you need... vegan options in parentheses

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 egg (or 2Tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1Tbsp cold water)

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk (or 1 cup vanilla almond or hemp milk)

1 cup freeze dried fruit, crumbled (we used peaches)

What you do...
1. Oven at 400'F
2. Spray or line a muffin pan
3. Get everything measured and ready cuz you're gonna stir it all together at once
4. Stir everything together at once

5. Pour batter into muffin pan (original recipe says it makes a dozen. we made 9 larger muffins)
6. In a coffee cup (or whatever) mix another 1/8 cup sugar + 1 Tbsp cinnamon. Sprinkle on muffin tops.
7. Bake about 14 minutes (until a fork/toothpick comes out clean)

and voila! feed these to your friends and family. or hide in the closet and eat them all! bwahaha! for reals though, these muffins are so good, healthy-ish, and way easy to make. win to the win.

TGIF guys! this weekend we start hardcore packing (omg i'm so getting spammed by pornbots for saying that). anyways!

we move 2 weeks from sunday so we need to put our packing into high gear! my parents are coming down Saturday to entertain Ot for a few hours while Rob and i disassemble our house, get rid of stuff, pack, or do what i ended up doing tonight --> start packing up photo albums and end up spending hours just looking at photo albums. love photo albums.

oh, and we're going to a build-your-own-pizza party on sunday at a friend's house. i'm really excited about this. lots of kiddos and a fun activity, plus i get to see a few friends again before we skip town. plus pizza is no slouch.

what's everyone else up to this weekend? muffin baking? if you make these let me know what you think!

xo,
Lindsey

you should totally make biscotti

biscotti is your friend! make biscotti! i just found out recently that people don't realize how super easy it is. it's sooooo easy! and soooo nom! plus you can feel all european and cool telling people stories that start like this, "the other day when i was making biscotti..." (even cooler if you're smoking a long black cigarette at the time and your story is about how you almost peed on LL Cool J).

right? anyways... otto helped me make biscotti just last week and it turned out awesomeballs! we even used whole wheat flour and still awesomeballs!

so this recipe is modified but not a whole lot from the Joy of Cooking "reduced fat classic biscotti" recipe -->

what you need...
3 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 egg whites
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp orange zest
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla

what you do...
1. Preheat oven 375' & grease a cookie sheet
2. Get everything measured and ready cause you're gonna throw it all in a big bowl at once
3. Throw everything in a big bowl at once
4. Stir until smooth (confession: towards the end I use my hands to really get the last bits mixed in)
5. Flour your hands and shape dough into 2 cylindrical rolls, each about 12" long
6. Place on cookie sheet apart from each other and press so they're flatter (but not super flat)
7. Bake 25 minutes
8. Let cool like 5 minutes, cut into about 1/2" slices (I do this on the cookie sheet, but my cookie sheets are soooo not precious)
9. Lay the slices flat on the cookie sheet
10. Bake 10 more minutes

is all! they are so easy and sooooo good... you know who agrees with me? Dr. Freakincute!

Dr. Freakincute kinda needs a haircut but i don't want to! i'm hoping if i hang in there long enough they'll do some kind of side sweep thing and he can grow it out longish.

returning to the biscotti --> you can also mix in pretty much anything you want. we've used dried cherries, dark chocolate shavings, raisins, butterscotch chips... i know Rebecca made them recently with white chocolate & macadamia, um yeah!

ok, go forth and bake! smoke long blag cigs! steal my LL Cool J story and tell it like it's your own! oh, and have an awesome weekend!

xo,

lindsey