Biscotti

Every week I am trying to find a new recipe to make. I am sure like most of you, you get stuck in a rut. This week I ventured to make cornbread chicken pot pie...and it was delicious. If you have a chicken pot pie recipe, just make cornbread your topping. The other new thing I made was Biscotti. It is David's Aunt's recipe, and it is great for the dunking, whether you like coffee or tea, this is a treat. See below for this awesome recipe.

Makes 3 dozen

3 large eggs
Grated peel of an orange
1 tsp. vanilla

For almond biscotti
½ tsp. almond extract
1 tbs. anise liqueur or anise extract

For hazelnut biscotti
1 tbs. Frangelico liqueur

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup nuts

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees and grease a baking sheet or cover with parchment paper
2. In a bowl, whisk eggs, orange peel, vanilla extract and any other extracts or liqueurs.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
4. Add egg mixture, mix just until blended.
5. Mix in nuts
6. Divide dough in half. Form each half into a log, 12 inches long on baking sheet, side by side.

Bake in center of oven for 50 minutes until golden

Cool for 5 minutes, then slice diagonally about ½ inch thick.

Lay slices flat on baking sheet, bake at 275 degrees for 15 minutes then turn and bake another 15 minutes. Let cool and store in an airtight container.

Surgery

Evan 2 weeks old.
Evan now. What a face! I could just eat those double dimple cheeks of his.

Well, I have spoken to Evan's ENT. It looks like Evan will have surgery. The way it was explained to me was that we will need to do the surgery in two parts. The 1st surgery will consist of lengthening his soft palate. It looks like Evan has a deep pharynx, which can then create the look of a short palate, even if it is not, because the palate and the pharynx never touch allowing air to escape out of his nose. It is possible he may need a 2nd surgery to add more skin to the back of the throat to create less of a gap. We are hoping the 1st surgery is all that is needed, because having the 2nd surgery often times causes sleep apnea. With Evan being a terrible sleeper as it is, I am praying the 1st one works for him. We scheduled the surgery for January 14th, after the holidays, and when Evan's ENT will be back in the country. Below is some more information for those of you who are interested on the medical part of it.

Deep Pharynx — This is the most difficult to recognize since the deficit is in the size of the nasopharynx and not of the soft palate. The soft palate may appear normal by oral exam. The velopharyngeal deficit can be identified only by lateral radiographs or lateral fluoroscopy. The primary features are the speech characteristics of hypernasal resonance, nasal air escape and possibly “cleft palate-like misarticulations” without obvious physical deficits. Other characteristics are nasal regurgitation as a newborn, difficulty nursing and delayed, hypernasal speech with normal language development. The speech-language pathologist is extremely important in the ultimate diagnosis and referral for appropriate evaluation and management of disorders of the deep pharynx. Speech deficits are the primary characteristics.
VPI is often not diagnosed or diagnosed late because the palate appears normal and the pharynx is not evaluated. When diagnosed after speech has begun, sparse adenoid mass may be a factor.
Hypernasality is the primary presenting factor. Hypernasality may be present from onset of speech — some children do not grow adenoids. After adenoidectomy — deep nasopharynx is unmasked (velo-pharyngeal mechanism seems able to adjust to slow involution but not the sudden increase with adenoidectomy).

The house....basically done

Front of the house
New concrete porch...no more plastic wood porch to slip on. Yahoo!
Back of house with new concrete slab, retaining wall and cedar deck off the master.
Retaining wall
Side view of yard...now I just need to get my grass to grow again.