Fun with Green Beans!

So! Green beans. I love 'em. Here's TWO ways you can make plain green beans a little more...interesting

Marshmallows! Fluffy Bits of Sugar!

Since it is close to Christmas and getting colder, I feel now is a good time for hot cocoa and of course....MARSHMALLOWS!! A favorite of my family and many people I know. This recipe comes straight from my Christmas present from a few years back: Alton Brown's Cook Book "Good Eats 3; The Later Years."  I am a HUGE fan of Alton Brown and have loved just about every recipe I have tried of his. I am by no means a baking or candy making expert so the recipe is straight from the book, but I re-worded some of the instructions to fit the way I make them. Enjoy!

Biscotti Mostaccioli

This semester in college I took Italian 101. For the last day of class our teacher (who is from Italy) made lasagna and we had a little party. We were all given the option to bring something or not; naturally, I wanted to try my hand at a traditional Italian recipe so I volunteered to bring something. My teacher suggested some sort of cake or cookie or desert, since those were easiest and she was already going to bring some lasagna. Being as it was close to Christmas and we had just learned about Natale, I decided to look up Italian Christmas cookies. (Which, by the way, in Italian "biscotti" means cookies, not just the bread-like-ish things we think of.) One of the first recipes that show up was for a biscotti (cookie) called "mostaccioli."  The best way I can explain how to pronounce this is think "mustache." It sounds like kind of like "moss-sta-chi-OH-lee" but fast and the emphasis of the "oh" (hence the capitalization.)  Anywho! It sounded good and easy to make, so I looked around at a few different recipes and gave it a try! To me, they taste like chocolate gingerbread cake-like cookies. Warning, the original recipe said this would make 5 dozen cookies, so be prepared to have many!

Ecco la ricetta!

Cinnamon Sugar Apples

This recipe was basically my own creation, inspired by some things I have seen on the Internet. They are super easy

Ingredients*:

• Apples of any kind that are good for baking (take the number you want to make and divide by 2)
• Brown Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Butter**
• Water**

*=amount will vary

How to make any box Jambalaya BETTER

One classic dish associated with Louisiana and the South is Jambalaya. Depending on the recipe, it may take a while. My family loves Jambalaya and when we eat it, usually it came out of a box. This is not a problem, however, because I have discovered little tips and tricks to make it taste a little less "out of the box." Here they are: