The Bay Area is doing a really good job of winning my heart.
I passed my one year mark a little less than a month ago, and I’m pretty sure moving up was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’ve learned and struggled a lot, formed plenty of new friendships, and shared life with people I’m pretty sure I’ll be friends with for a long time.
I’m currently reading Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung with C. My sister encouraged me to read this book last year when I was still deciding if it was a good idea to make the move up to the Bay Area. I finally got around to it a year later, and it’s been a pretty encouraging book, pointing out a lot of the flaws in the way I think and make decisions.
This quote stood out to the both of us: “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and then trust that He will take care of our needs, even before we know what they are and where we’re going.”
And it’s true. I’m a bit of a planner, so I feel the constant need to know what’s going to happen in life for the next day, week, month, year. I’m always planning the next step in life but forgetting the tasks I have in front of me. Farsighted, I suppose? In any case, that’s my spiel, my current struggle, my lesson–whatever you want to call it.
tl;dr: Happy one year, Bay Area. You’ve done a pretty swell job at winning my heart. One year down, hopefully many more to come!
One more spiel, just for these little suckers. If you don’t already know, I bake letters based on the main ingredient. In this case, quinoa was literally the only thing I could think of. I research a lot for these things, and I finally settled on tweaking a biscotti recipe by replacing the flour with quinoa flour.
Luckily, I found something that already had the work cut out for me; I just replaced the mix-ins with apricots and pistachios (which ended up being a lot tougher to chop up than I had expected). Overall, slightly nutty, a good mix of flavors with the pistachio-apricot combination, and not too rock hard (though that depends on how long you bake it for). Keep in mind though that quinoa flour can get a bit pricey, and slicing biscotti with a steak knife is definitely not ideal.
Other than that…work team and roommates approved!
Quinoa-Pistachio-Apricot Biscotti
Adapted From Power Hungry
Makes 16-20 cookies
Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups quinoa flour (I found mine at Whole Foods)
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped
⅔ cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
¼ cup olive oil
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 300F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the quinoa flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the dried apricots and pistachios.
In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, and stir until well-blended.
Transfer the dough to the prepared cookie sheet, and shape the dough into two 2×12-inch rectangles, about¾ inch high. Damp hands are helpful with this. Bake until golden brown and set, about 23-25 minutes. Let cool completely.
Once the rectangles are cooled, use a serrated knife (in my case, a not-so-helpful steak knife–not recommended) to cut them on the diagonal into ½-inch slices. Place the biscotti on lined sheets cut side down, and bake 15-17 minutes until the biscotti is golden and dry. Transfer the biscotti to a rack, and cool completely. It’s okay if they’re not completely crisp; they crisp up as they cool.
Until next time,
Soli Deo Gloria, and Happy reading, eating, and baking!
grace(full)eats 