Holiday Inn a la Debi

We just had a very hectic and fun weekend hosting guests. My uncle and his colleague came from Taiwan on a business trip and stayed over this past weekend. I didn't want to disappoint them with my culinary skills, so I started practicing making puff pastry doughs days before they arrived. I was surprised at how simple it is to make pastry dough at home! Best of all, you can cut them the amount of butter that goes into the dough, and still have the end result tasting the same. I made a total of three batches with decreasing amount of butter in each batch. In the last batch, I used slightly over 1/2 of the butter called for in the recipe, and it was still great.

Christmas in July

I'm overdue for another update! The longer I'm keeping up with this journal the more respect I have for those serious bloggers who post daily because it really is a difficult task to come up with anything worth reading.

I have sadly bowed out of the Daring Baker community simply because I could not keep up with the monthly bake with everything that is going on right now. Though I have to admit the lack of world cup has returned some valuable time back to me. I am still baking, but without pressure.

Football and Almond Biscotti

I almost felt like I had a football overload because of the craziness of today's matches! First of all, Holland eliminated the 5-time champion Brazil. I always say statistics and history mean absolutely nothing in football because the teams don't play the same players that make the record. But when it comes to Brazil, I just feel that they will win just for being Brazil... just like Manchester United will win just because they are Manchester United. I'm talking nonsense here I know. Holland was my third favorite team coming in this World Cup just behind Spain and Argentina (though I'm having doubts about this right now). The Dutch squad can boast players of equal caliber as Brazil's in my opinion. I thought after the first half, they put in a very convincing win, and probably could've gotten a couple more goals.