November 11 Happy Holidays!
I just entered the Bon Appetit "Blog Envy Holiday Bake-Off" and would love it if you took a few moments to log on to bonappetit.com and voted for my Pistachio and Dried Cherry Biscotti Dipped in Dark Chocolate
The winner will get a trip for two to New York City and dinner with Bon Appetit Editor-in-Chief Barbara Fairchild.
Click on the link below to vote.
You have to vote in each category (my category is cookies)
and scroll all the way down on each screen to move through and submit on the last page.
Contest ends December 13.
Thanks so much.
Sydne
A Versatile Holiday Cookie to Love
Pistachio and Dried Cherry Biscotti
Dipped in Dark Chocolate
It’s the gift that keeps on giving this holiday season…Pistachio and Dried Cherry Biscotti dipped in Dark Chocolate. Find an evening to prepare these delicious dipping cookies ahead of time, then store them in your refrigerator (up to 5 days) or freezer (up to 2 weeks). You’ll have something scrumptious for the annual Christmas cookie exchange, a tasty treat for coffee breaks at the office, or a greatly-appreciated hostess gift when wrapped up with a bottle of Vin Santo, the dessert wine traditionally served with biscotti in Italy. Happy Holidays!
Pistachio and Dried Cherry Biscotti dipped in Dark Chocolate
(makes 3 dozen cookies)
These crisp cookies are meant to be dunked in coffee, tea, milk or Vin Santo (Italian dessert wine) when eaten.
Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup pistachios, shelled, and coarsely chopped
1 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. With an electric mixer, beat together eggs, oil and almond extract until
combined.
4. Sift together dry ingredients and add to eggs, oil and almond extract.
5. Stir in pistachios and cherries until evenly distributed.
6. Using rubber spatula, spread dough onto parchment in 2 12-inch long strips.
7. Wet fingertips in a small bowl of cold water and form each strip into a log about 3 inches wide. Smooth top of each log with wet fingertips.
8. Bake in preheated oven until lightly browned, about 30 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and cool on cutting board for 30 minutes. Discard parchment paper.
10. Cut each log into ½ inch wide slices.
11. Line 2 baking sheets with new parchment and stand biscotti up in rows, leaving room between each cookie.
12. Bake for about 20 minutes, until light golden.
13. Cool.
14. Melt dark chocolate in a double boiler or in microwave, being careful not to keep it over the heat too long. Stir until smooth.
15. Dip half of each biscotti in melted chocolate or drizzle chocolate over biscotti.
Enjoy!
October 07 On the FLAVOR page of the
Great Falls Tribune, Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Here’s the scoop
Great Falls neighborhood wins national contest
by Sydne George
 SYDNE GEORGE PHOTO
Ann Whittlesey, left, and her neighbor Paula Olson celebrate at the ice cream party
Whittlesey won in Dreyer’s Slow Churned Neighborhood Salute.
By SYDNE GEORGE For the Tribune
Chuck Olson calls his westside neighborhood “the best-kept secret in Great Falls.”
Ann Whittlesey calls it home.
“It’s not about the house you live in, but the neighbors you have,” Whittlesey said.
Whittlesey recently won the Dreyer’s Slow Churned Neighborhood Salute contest this year after writing an essay about how she and her neighbors help one another. Whittlesey’s essay was one of 1,500 winners selected from more than 28,000 entries from across the country.
Dreyer’s sent her ice cream and fixings for her whole neighborhood, and they celebrated their big win in midSeptember in the Olsons’ backyard.
“I don’t know what she tells them, but it must be something good,” neighbor Beverly Steen said. “She’s a real gogetter.”
Whittlesey actually has won the contest three times since Dreyer’s began awarding neighborhoods ice cream block parties in 2004.
Hazel Goodau, who has lived in her westside house since she was born, said Whittlesey is one of the nicest neighbors she has ever had.
“She often comes over to see if I’m OK,” Goodau said. “She’s a wonderful neighbor.”
Chuck and Paula Olson, who have lived in their house for 33 years, nicknamed Whittlesey the “Angel of the Neighborhood,” and the name seems to have stuck. “People that live around here have a tendency to stay,” Whittlesey explained.
She moved into her house eight years ago and has been helping her neighbors ever since.
“She cleans the walk and mows our lawn,” Steen said. “We don’t ask her, but she just does it. We’ve been in our house for 40 years, just across the alley. We bought it in 1969 after we were married and raised our three children there.”
What comes around goes around.
“I may mow their yards,” Whittlesey said, “but they are always helping me out, too.”
This summer Chuck and his friend DeeJay Robinson helped move a deck onto Whittlesey’s house, and last summer they put a new roof on her house.
Robinson and Olson have been friends since high school, and Robinson said he has been adopted into the neighborhood.
“Everybody helps when a project needs to be worked on,” he said. “Ann’s a sweetheart. She’s a joy to be around.” Whittlesey said people joked after the ice cream block party saying, “Hey, Ann, are we going to do this again next year?”
She assured them she’ll do her best.
September 30
 Guest writer
— Sydne George
Check out my tailgating article and recipe
in the Great Falls Tribune FLAVOR page Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Is it the game or the grub tailgaters go for?
by Sydne George
 SYDNE GEORGE PHOTO
Great Falls resident Lani Witt enjoys a barbecued beef sandwich at a recent UM tailgate party.
Fall has arrived, and football is in the air. For many diehard fans, attending games on the weekends means partaking in the tailgate parties before, during and sometimes after the game.
While the origins of tailgating remain debatable, some claim that fans who traveled by horse and buggy to the very first college football game between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869 were in fact grilling sausages and burgers at the “tailend”
of the horse as they enjoyed the game.
Others contend that tailgating began at Yale in 1904 when a train brought football fans to a station close to the game, and they walked the rest of the way. Arriving hungry and thirsty, these spectators were said to have vowed to bring picnic baskets to the next game they attended. Green Bay Packer historians will tell you that tailgating started in Green Bay, Wis., in 1919, the same year the team was formed. Wisconsin farmers supposedly backed their pickups to the edge of the field, dropped their tailgates to sit on and ate a prepared basket of food while watching the game.
In any case, the long-standing tradition endures.
And while you’re likely to find burgers, hot dogs and brats at most tailgate parties wherever you are, portable party fare varies greatly by region.
Louisiana hospitality might mean serving gumbo, jambalaya and etoufee, Texans barbecue beef, and Buffalo fans traditionally lay out the white pizza and wings for their guests.
New England tailgating includes lobster and chowder while Pittsburgh is famous for its pierogies (Polish dumplings with various fillings).
In South Carolina, you can try a Low Country Boil, a seafood and potato stew.
Atlanta fans showcase traditional Southern food and deepfried turkeys. In Seattle it’s salmon and seafood, and San Francisco is one of the few places you’ll find wine and cheese at tailgate parties.
As a seasoned tailgater myself, I’ve found that doing most of the prep work at home before leaving for the game works best for me. Cooking without a kitchen can be dicey, and I prefer to be as stressfree on game day as I can.
My husband and I, along with three other couples, own an RV and tailgate at the University of Montana Grizzly home games in Missoula. Recently it was our turn to host the party.
When planning the food, I wanted to do something I could make ahead and assemble at home, an all-in-one meat-andpotatoes offering that could be brought to the game and reheated briefly before serving.
While admittedly it took some time to bake the barbecued beef, caramelize the onions, assemble and wrap the sandwiches, it was time well spent when all I had to do at the game was remove the foil-wrapped bundles from the cooler and line them up on the propane-powered grill to heat.
Opening the foil packets revealed hot barbecued beef, melted smoked Gouda cheese and warmed caramelized onions, all nestled between pillowy soft potato rolls. Before we knew it, all 72 bundles were gone, and people were asking for the recipe.
You might want to double the recipe. These go fast.
SYDNE GEORGE PHOTO
Barbecue Beef Bundles are stuffed with smoky gouda and carmelized onions.
BARBECUED BEEF BUNDLES WITH CARAMELIZED ONIONS AND SMOKED GOUDA
For Barbecued Beef
1 5-pound beef roast (I used choice angus blade roast)
2 tbsp. olive oil
½ cup brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. Worchestershire sauce
1 cup orange juice
3 cups ketchup
Preheat oven to 350°.
In a Dutch oven or other large heavy pot over medium high heat, heat olive oil and brown roast on all sides.
Combine brown sugar, garlic, Worchestershire sauce, orange juice and ketchup, stirring to combine.
Pour sauce over roast and roast in preheated oven for 3 to 3½ hours or until fork-tender.
Remove roast from oven and break meat apart with a spoon, stirring to combine meat and sauce.
Let cool, cover and refrigerate until ready to assemble sandwiches.
CARAMELIZED ONIONS
¼ cup butter
¼ cup olive oil
6 Vidalia (sweet) onions, peeled and sliced in thin rings
In a Dutch oven or other large heavy pot, melt butter and olive oil over medium heat.
Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened.
Increase heat to medium high and caramelize onions, stirring frequently to prevent over-browning.
Let cool, cover and refrigerate until ready to assemble sandwiches.
To assemble sandwiches: Ingredients: Barbecued beef Caramelized onions Smoked Gouda cheese, 36 slices, cut to fit rolls 36 potato rolls, from grocery store bakery Directions: Slice potato rolls in half horizontally with serrated bread knife, making sandwich tops and bottoms.
Top sandwich bottoms with barbecued beef, cheese slice and caramelized onions.
Individually wrap sandwiches in foil. (Sam’s Club carries precut foil sheets which save time.) Refrigerate Barbecued Beef Bundles until ready to serve or keep cool in a cooler.
Re-warm bundles on barbecue over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes or until beef is hot and cheese is melted.
Makes 36 small sandwiches
September 27 The Autumn issue of Signature Montana is out now.
Check out my food spread, Fabulous Flavors of Fall
http://signaturemontana.com/index.php?p=kitchen
FROM THE KITCHEN
Fabulous Flavors of Fall
By: Sydne George
Menu
Serves Eight
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Caramelized Pearl Onions
Maple Braised Short Ribs with Browned Butter Noodles
Pastry-wrapped Baked Apples with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Salted Caramel Sauce
Nothing says fall quite like soul-soothing soup to start,
a short rib dish simmering in the oven for dinner
and pastry-wrapped baked apples
anticipating a drizzle of salted caramel sauce for dessert.
Usher in autumn with this Fabulous Flavors of Fall menu.
Enjoy!
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