Killing Time

Yep, I'm still pregnant.  Remember a few blog posts ago when I said this baby could just keep on cookin' and cookin' and cookin'?  Well, I'm EATING those words right now.  I'm now 9 days overdue.  I think part of the reason that I'm so ancy (besides the fact that I'm huge and the baby is only growing and pinching a nerve in my back that is killing me) is that I sincerely, sincerely thought I would have a 3 week old at this point.  Everyone and I mean EVERYONE I talked to during this pregnancy seemed to have their second baby two weeks early.  Knowing I should base no faith on this, I naively thought this would happen to me...which only makes these last 9 days seem longer.  Sydney was a week late, so I shouldn't have expected anything other than the experience that I had already had.  And I was ancy with Sydney- but it's heightened this time by the fact that we are delivering at a Birthing Center where state law mandates that midwives may only deliver a woman in her 37th-42nd weeks.  So really, I'm not looking at it as "9 days overdue"...I'm looking at it as "I only have 5 more days until we have to consider other options."  I feel pressure, and that's the part I don't like.  I know lots can happen in 5 days, and only 3 in 100 women go past 42 weeks, so I'm trying to chill out, enjoy the side jabs for a few more days and get all the one-on-one snuggle time I can with my two year old.

I've been purposely NOT making biscotti these last few days because really- I have NO will power and I feel as though every biscotti I eat will go to the baby's head size and then, well....you know...it's gotta come out somehow.  BUT, I couldn't resist any longer and caved last night.  Not just some recipe I picked up from the internet or some Betty Crocker cook book...my Grandma Jo's Biscotti Recipe.  It's so freaking good I would only be doing a disservice to all of you wonderful blog readers not to share it.  You know how when you eat 5 cookies you get that voice in the back of your head (or the sick feeling in your gut) that tells you- "Whoa, slow down, mama...that's 5 cookies!"  Yeah, well there's no biscotti sensor- so a batch doesn't last long around here.

Give it a try, let me know what you think...do you have a biscotti sensor?

You'll need:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups flour
3 eggs
1 T almond extract (no, you cannot skip this and you may not sub with vanilla!)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup granola (my favorite to use is Pumpkin Flax by Nature's Valley...but anything works)
1 cup slivered almonds

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs and almond extract and mix well.  Add flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and mix.  Fold in granola and slivered almonds.

  Next divide the dough in half and roll into to long logs- about 10" long by 2" wide- or about the length of the cookie sheet.  (You'll need flour on your counter to prevent sticking.)  Once you have laid the two logs on the cookie sheet (I put parchment paper on my cookie sheet to make cutting/flipping easier), gently press them down with your hand so they are flattened to about 3/4-1".  The log will now be two oblong pancakes.  (Hmmm, should have taken a picture of this!)

Bake on 350 for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and drop temperature to 275.  Slice biscotti so it's 1" thick and turn on it's side.  Bake for 10 minutes, flip biscotti to other side and bake 10 minutes more. 

 Oh, and I promise your belly won't get THIS big after you eat a batch!

That would be SARCASM, folks.