I am still playing around with the orange sorbet I made the other day.  And I am still using it to top off a drink.  This time, instead of the classic cocktail of Campari and orange juice, I poured Campari into a glass  along with ice cold club soda and finished it off with scoops of homemade orange sorbet.  That was served with Double Chocolate Almond Biscotti... and that was our dessert.

                        DOUBLE CHOCOLATE ALMOND BISCOTTI
                           Gourmet Magazine, December 1994

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• Confectioners' sugar
1.  Preheat the oven to 350˚F and butter and flour a large baking sheet, or cover with a sheet of parchment paper.
2.  In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.  In another bowl with an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and beat until combined well.  Stir in flour mixture to form a stiff dough.  Stir in the almonds and chocolate chips.
3.  On prepared baking sheet with floured hands, form dough into two slightly flattened logs, each 12-inches long and 2-inches wide, and dust with Confectioners' sugar.  Bake logs for 35 minutes, or until slightly firm to the touch.  Cool biscotti on baking sheet 5 minutes.
4.  On a cutting board cut biscotti diagonally into 3/4-inch slices.  Arrange biscotti, cut sides down, on baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 10 minutes.  Cool biscotti on a rack.  Biscotti keep in an airtight container one week, and frozen one month.

  Yes, I am feeling so bad about messing around and changing around things on LIVING TASTEFULLY yesterday, that I am posting a second recipe today... Yes, you heard me correctly -- 2 recipes in one day!  And this is a good one.  I made the blood orange sorbet by David Lebovitz the other day, and this morning I read Dorie Greenspan's post on fresh vanilla beans.  All of that inspired me to make Donna Hay's Apple, Vanilla & Ruby Grapefruit Soda (with a few scoops added of that gorgeous, raspberry-red blood orange sorbet of David's).  All I can say is, what a treat!  Perfect for all of those upcoming dinners out on the patio this spring and summer.

                APPLE, VANILLA and RUBY RED GRAPEFRUIT SODA
                                from DONNA HAY, issue 41

• 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• 1/2 cup apple juice (I used Simply Apple)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
• 1cup Ruby Red grapefruit juice
• 1 cup apple juice, extra
• 3 cups soda water
• 1 red apple, thinly sliced
ice cubes

  Place sugar, apple juice, water and vanilla bean and seeds in a saucepan over high heat, and stir to dissolve sugar.  Bring to a boil and cook for one minute.  Set aside to cool completely.  Pour the sugar mixture into a jug and add the grapefruit juice, extra apple juice, and soda water.  Add sliced apples and ice.

   Yesterday was a great day to be indoors.  Rain in the morning was followed by falling temps and a coating of snow.  I spent my time in the kitchen doing a little more baking, and preparing dinner.  We've gotten into the habit of taking our food into the sunroom Sunday evenings to watch the program On The Road Again in Spain with Mario Battali and Gwyneth Paltrow on PBS.  Our dinner of roast salmon, mashed potatoes and seared green beans was followed by an assortment of cookies and this holiday drink.

                                    PEPPERMINT-EGGNOG PUNCH

• 1 quart peppermint ice cream, softened
• 1 quart eggnog
• 4 (12 ounce) bottles Ginger Ale, chilled
• peppermint candy canes

Combine all ingredients and serve with candy canes.

As many of you already know, I am a big espresso drinker.  I start off each and every morning with a cappuccino.  Many days I follow that with another in the early afternoon.  But once the weather turns colder and the snow (or freezing rain as it's doing today) begins to fall, I start thinking about hot chocolate.  I actually have boxes of hot chocolate mix from France stacked in my pantry.  Every time I visit Paris I bring more home with me.  Although the boxed hot chocolate is better than most you are able to buy here in the States, nothing beats making your own.  If it's just me at home alone on a snowy afternoon I'll add the chocolate mix to the milk, but if it's a special occasion with family or good friends, I like to make my own hot chocolate.  The following recipe is from French pastry chef Pierre Hermé who developed chocolat chaud recipes for Parisien patisseries Fauchon and Ladurée.  WARNING:  It is very rich!  You may not want to eat anything else the rest of the day!  But once in a while that's o.k., isn't it?

                                        CHOCOLAT CHAUD
             adapted from Pierre Hermé, printed in Vogue February 2000

• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup bottled still water
• 1/4 cup (generous) superfine granulated sugar
• 1 100-gram bar (3 1/2-ounces) dark bittersweet chocolate, Scharffen Berger, Valrhona, or Lindt, chopped with a serrated bread knife
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder loosely packed ( 1-ounce or 28-grams), preferably Valrhona

1.  In a 2-quart saucepan, stir together the milk, water and sugar.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Add the chopped chocolate and the cocoa and bring to a boil again, whisking until the chocolate and cocoa are dissolved and the mixture has thickened.  Reduce the heat to very low. 
2.  Blend for five minutes with an immersion mixer or whisk hot chocolate in a standard blender for a half minute until thick and foamy.
                     Yield:  four six-ounce cups of hot chocolate

This week we picked our Edleweiss grapes; a variety developed by the University of Minnesota.  The rush is on when they have finally ripened to get them off the vines before the birds and squirrels eat them.  A couple of years ago we admired our grapes one night and woke the next day to find not a single grape on any of our plants.  At first we thought it was a cruel joke played on us by a neighbor, but soon enough realized it had been the community of wild animals outside our back door that robbed us of our Edleweiss. 

By my account, I'd say we ended up with about 2 bushels of very fragrant grapes. 

Growing up in Amana, my aunt had a large trellis covered with Concord grapes.  At the end of each summer she would make Trauben Saft or a concentrated grape juice to which we would add water.  I used  the Amana recipe for saft this morning to make a white grape version.

                                         TRAUBEN SAFT
                      adapted from the cookbook Amana Recipes

• 2 cups water
• 3 quarts grapes, washed
• Sugar, 1 cup per quart of juice

   Heat water and grapes to boiling.  Cook slowly for 20 minutes.  Filter through jelly bag or cheese cloth.  Measure juice and add one cup of sugar for each quart of juice.  Bring to boil.  Pour into sterilized bottles.  To serve, dilute with equal amounts of sparkling water.

Yes, yes, I know.  After July 4th you should not cut rhubarb and let the plants regenerate.  But really....

Do these plants look like they're suffering?  This is just half of my rhubarb.

I've done the rhubarb compotes, the rhubarb pies, the rhubarb upside-down cakes, so when my friend Kathy stopped by last week for dinner and told me about the rhubarb slush she drank at a wedding, I thought... this is it!  I'm going into rhubarb slush production!  I searched the web looking for recipes, and there were hundreds; the majority of which included strawberry jello.  I chose to leave that ingredient out of my slush.  What we drank out on the patio last night was very, very good; just what I hoped for, and even tho' we enjoyed a beautifully cool evening, this is a refreshing drink that is perfect for a hot summer day.  If you are inundated with rhubarb, I suggest you go into slush production as well.  Sit outdoors with family and friends and enjoy!

                                      RHUBARB SLUSH

8 cups rhubarb, diced
1 pound organic strawberries, halved
5 cups water
3/4 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice
3 cups sugar
8 tablespoons frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
2 cups vodka
1 cup rhubarb compote, optional

Combine rhubarb, strawberries, water, lemon juice and sugar in a large pot and simmer until rhubarb is tender.  Drain mixture through a fine mesh sieve, pushing on the solids to extract as much juice as possible.  Discard solids.  Return liquid to the pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Cool, then stir in lemonade concentrate and vodka.  Pour the slush into a freezer-proof container and freeze.  The mixuture will not freeze solid because of the vodka.  I stirred a cup of rhubarb compote into the slush mixture and I highly recommend that or possibly mashing up fresh strawberries and stirring that into the slush, but it's totally optional....  Scoop slush into large glasses and top off with soda of your choice.  I used Key Lime Soda from Whole Foods.