Berlusconi Loves to Dip His Biscotti

Oh, Italy. So NOT sexy....

Italian Prime Minister Silivo Berlusconi has been indicted for purchasing sex from an underage girl, the latest in his long list of tawdry behavior. 
This time he was found out in having an affair with an underage prostitute, whom he bailed out of jail for theft at one point. 


I almost want to feel bad for his wife of 20 years, except that she met him while dancing naked and had an affair with him that ruined his previous marriage. It is always a wonder how people could be surprised when their cheater cheats on them. You may recall that he has also placed "showgirl" style TV hosts into politics. What a cad!


What you've got to love about the guy is his defense, saying, it is "better to be passionate about a beautiful girl than a gay." 
While this was not intended to offend gay people, he was saying that at least he's not some evangelical Republican having gay sex while pretending to be straight and narrow. I get it.

Italy photos taken by the Guavaras in 2005 on vacation

To sum it up, he's offensive to women, derogatory, creepy, just unlikable.Women all over Italy and the world are holding protests over this behavior, while he seems to blow off his crimes like they are just campy and not criminal. The men of Italy might agree, as they don't want to be called out on their bad behavior, either. Benedetto Bruno, a retired chemist with Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, says in the New York Times about the issue, “I hate to say this, but Italians don’t want to respect laws, they don’t want to pay taxes, they want to do as they like, and he personifies this.”


To "celebate" Berlusconi's indictment, we break bread with Italian Biscotti. Interesting thing about biscotti is that it is phallic, you pop in some cherries, bake it twice to let it harden, but you have to dip it in something warm and wet, like COFFEE, and only then is it really yummy. Otherwise it is just a dried up, crusty & kind of stale. Like some politicians.
What's sad about this, is Italy could be so sexy, if only the men weren't such COWS. 

UPrising

We find this technique in the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, however Chef Guavara has modified the recipe here:


 1-3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 TBS butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
3/4 whole almonds, toasted and chopped
2 TBS orange zest
Chef Guavara added dried cherries, about 1 cup chopped, but use what you like


Set oven to 350.
Whisk dry ingredients in a bowl.
In a large bowl cream butter and sugar to fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and almond extract. Slowly add in dry ingredients until combined. Fold in cherries and almonds until combined.


Cut dough in two, press each into a 2"x13" log. Bake for 35 minutes, turning halfway through.

Cool for 10 minutes. Set oven to 325.


Cut logs into 1/2 thick slabs. Bake again, for 15 minutes, flipping halfway.


I was going to dip in white chocolate, but lost my steam. They were OK without. I have had better, but good for a first try and with of course, all natural ingredients!


Dip it in something hot!



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/11/02/2010-11-02_italian_premier_silvio_berlusconi_amid_uproar_over_teen_tyst_says_affairs_better.html#ixzz1E2cNBBlx
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/world/europe/14italy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Happy Valentine's Day, Bradley Manning!

The Guavaras celebrate V-Day with lots of sugar and even more love. While we had a beautiful weekend of perfect weather and fun baking, we remembered that Bradley Manning is not having such a great time. As we enjoy our cookies this U.S. citizen is being tortured by being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day.

Does anyone else find it odd that we violate this man's rights in some twisted attempt to prove that we are the biggest hypocrites in the world? Let's just forget about it for now, wipe up our cookie mess with the Bill of Rights and move on to the recipe.

The Guavara Family wishes Pvt. Bradley Manning a Happy Valentine's Day. You are not alone.

UPrising

I happily swiped this recipe from good ol' Martha Stewart. Here is a link to Martha's Valentine's Cookies. 

I used royal icing to decorate.

Our two cents on the recipe is that it was a tiny bit dry and the frosting a little boring. We added some almond flavoring to the icing to jazz it up. Will probably try a different one next time, although sugar cookies are not our  faves. It has been so long since I made them, I couldn't find cookie cutters. These are free formed cut with a serrated knife.

BoneApe ATeat

Buh-Bye, Mubarak - What's Next?? CROISSANTS!

BREAKING BREAD BREAKING NEWS - MUBARAK STEPS DOWN!
Let's bake and celebrate with Croissants and discuss timeliness....
With our minds and hearts in Egpyt, it is easy to get caught up in the urgency we read in Tweets, the stress in the voices of those being interviewed and the impatience that we all feel with Mubarak ignoring the wishes of the people. However, one thing that everyone must understand is that we have to show patience in these trying times. We have to have calm decisions and clear direction in Egypt and that comes with well thought out planning and vision, not rash decision making.
Consider the French Revolution, it was three years from the UPrising to the creation of their new republic and four years to the "removal" of their leader, Louis XVI. Rome wasn't built in a day and a government shouldn't be, either.
In this age of Twitter and Facebook, the youth of Egypt and the world watching want instant gratification with this UPrising, the same kind we get when our Facebook posts get a lot of likes, or when our Tweets are re-Tweeted. Maybe in this instance, we should slow our pace and change our expectations. But of course, never give up what is RIGHT. Prosecute Mubarak, give his wealth back to the people, remove Suleiman, elect a fair leader. With grace. 

 While we wait, let's bake something from France. But of course, CROISSANT!

UPrising

France is famous for their pastries and the first thing I ate upon my arrival was a delicious croissant. The evaporation of the water in the butter, the layers and layers and layers, the way they tear apart, cracking open to let out their magical, steamy perfume. There is nothing like it. A known lover of all things French, it is a wonder that I, Chef Guavara,  have not yet tried this at home. The idea of it was daunting!  Plan for a two day process, and if you are having them for breakfast, you will love this recipe!

The fun and exciting part is the BUTTER. The recipe here used more butter than I did, I used only 3/4 pound. Browsing through recipes, it seems that there is  kind of a contest to see how much butter one can smash into a croissant. Although I did use less, they were absolutely scrumptious.

CROISSANTS RECIPE LINK:

Tracy's Culinary Adventure


I used this recipe because I thought Tracy did an excellent job of showing the process and her instructions were easy to follow from a recipe by James Peterson from his book, Baking. I am also linking to her because the instructions are super long.

All of the pics on this page were of our own creation. No mixer and less butter being the only difference besides practice and technique. Does anyone want to do the math and tell us how many layers are in this thing? (Yes, we already did the math, but it is fun to figure out. You will be surprised. Learn.)

I am sure these could have been more beautiful, but as this is a blog about LEARNING, our baking skills are a work in progress. 

EGYPT!

Will Mubarak ever leave? Today it seems that he is set to stay until his term is up, even though the people have spoken loud and clear. He has put into place the exact person that the U.S. and Israel want there, the new VP, Omar Suleiman. Wikileaks has shown they have strong ties.
It seems that the "thugs" we hear about are once again becoming apparent as the U.S. bullies everyone and is trying to use this UPrising to get what they want out of Egypt, again. Let us not forget that the U.S. sent suspects to Egypt to be tortured. We have a sordid history with this regime.
I wonder how long it will take for Suleiman to obtain his billions in real estate across the globe as Mubarak has, with the help of the U.S.

Egypt takes $2 Billion in aid from the U.S. each year and spends it on weapons and apparently, personal real estate in Beverly Hills for their President. Is that corporate welfare at work for U.S. companies? Much like Israel, the bullets sprayed by the Egyptian army are shot by U.S. weapons and are flown in U.S. planes. Seems that all of the American War Machine Corporations also have a lot to gain by keeping Egypt and Israel in the pocketbooks of the U.S. government, regardless of their politics or human rights abuses.

While this artist was hoping to break bread over the victory of the people of Egpyt in ousting their president, we will have to settle for waiting to see who wins this - the U.S. and Israel, or the people of Egypt.

UPrising

Egypt is a wealth of bread. The birthplace of yeasty bread is the perfect place to start our exploration of breads and pastries. Here is a basic recipe for EESH BALADI, it's pita-ish.

3 cups flour (from whole wheat to white, or I recommend, a blend)

1 cup warm water

1 tsp yeast

1/2 tsp salt

Heat over to 475.

Mix ingredients to form ball. Knead for 10 minutes, rise to double in size. (1 to 3 hours).

Punch down and knead for 2 minutes. Cut into 8 individual pieces, roll out and place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Lay cookie sheet on bottom of oven, or lowest rack for 6-8 minutes until puffed up.

Finish on broiler to brown, or flip, your choice.

I took these, cut them into triangles, basted in olive oil, salt & pepper and toasted for hummus. 

I have no one to credit for this recipe, as the one I tried gave the basic dough recipe (no credit needed for that) and their oven technique was wack, causing me to do my own experimentation.

Enjoy and please, break bread and discuss!

Bon Apetit!

sahha o afyaa

Yeasty UPrising has Risen!

Welcome to Yeasty UPrising! The contributors of this blog are artists creating baked goods and discussing  topics of our choosing. File under contemporary art.

Break bread with us.

Chef Guavara