Eating like I live in Italy Because I _Need_ Joy _ Biscotti, Focaccia, Pasta

Hello everybody, welcome back! Happy new year, I hope you had a lovely new year and you've had a good couple of weeks. I took a little bit of a holiday thinking that, you know, I'd get those creative juices going and I'd feel really good and rested and then Omicron just kind of squashed all of it. So it's been a little strange, not the holidays I was hoping for but that's okay. I thought today we are going to harness that joy and be happy again and I am going to do that by eating like I'm in Italy because that's like the easiest way to create some joy in my life. So we're gonna do that by having biscotti for breakfast. I mean, does that not just sound so precious? That's what I'm going to do, we're gonna make biscotti. I've never made vegan biscotti, I used to make it all the time when I was not vegan so I looked up a recipe, I'll leave it down below and we'll see how it goes. I'm gonna have that, I'm gonna have a coffee, it's gonna be good, it's gonna be good. Okay, let's get joyous, let's get joyous. Okay, things that we need, the obvious things, flour, sugar, almonds and cranberries actually. I am just going to make the classic lemon cranberry almond situation. It is about a million degrees here um but I'm also very happy to be doing this. When I started journaling, I decided that one of my words was romance and I think that one of the ways that I find it easiest to romanticize my life and find joy is to bake. So I'm gonna bake more this year, I'm gonna bake a whole lot more. Okay so I'm just gonna measure everything, I'm gonna use a scale this time so that everything gonna put them in the oven and biscotti bakes twice so it'll go in the oven, I'll take it out, rest, then cut it, then bake it again. There's something really nice about baking in the morning, first thing in the morning, I would highly suggest it if you have the time, maybe on a Sunday you can do this or maybe it doesn't have to be in the morning, you can do it at night and have your biscotti for breakfast the next day. Okay I'm gonna put these in the oven except the oven isn't ready so let's wait for the oven. Okay now it's ready, get in honeys, see you soon. So now I'm just gonna let these cool for 15 minutes and then we're gonna slice them and bake them again. Okay so here they are, they're looking really cute and I'm just gonna put them on a baking sheet and bake them again. So in they go! Cuties! Gosh they're so cute! Now I'm just gonna let them rest because this is when they get really crunchy. My biscotti! This was a great success actually and I'm very um I'm very excited, I don't think that this will sustain me for longer than an hour, we'll see how we go. Such a nice way to start the day, such a nice way to start the day. It is about a million degrees right now um and I'm gonna make myself a salad, well I was going to make myself a salad uh but I was gonna have that with focaccia and I just thought you know what I'm gonna wait a little bit and turn the oven on at night and cook the focaccia tonight rather than right now. I just cannot deal with having to turn the oven on in this heat so instead I'm going to make a pasta, a mint minty lemon pea pasta that should be really nice um so that's what we're gonna do. Let's go, let's make it! The blender makes an appearance again, you could definitely make this on a food processor um I'm just gonna put all the ingredients in here, blend it all together, it's very quick um I'm also going to use my fermented cream cheese situation, I'll leave a recipe down below for that, all recipes will be down below um so yeah let's let's get blending! whoo! Always check for seasoning! oh yum yum! So here we have it, the pasta, it is delicious and I would tell you to make it! That's the whole point of these videos! I'm feeling happy! So here I have my focaccia dough which I made earlier um it's been resting for like 12 hours um and now we are going to do this which is to gently fold it in on itself and then I'm going to put it onto its baking tray with some olive oil, let it rest for 30 minutes and then we're gonna cook it and it's gonna be a fabulous time! I'm just gonna gently stretch it out like that and then gonna let it rest, yay! And I'm just gonna drizzle a tiny little bit more for good measure, oh tiny little bit more, cool! So I'm now just gonna make the salt brine by combining salt and some warm water and then we're gonna pour it all over this beautiful focaccia, let it rest for 45 minutes and then we can bake it and eventually eat it, yes! So in my bowl some salt, some warm water, can you believe we put more salt on this? I honestly can't either but I'm doing it! In it goes, see ya! Oh, it is the perfect time to make this peach tomato salad which I've been having on repeat because it's so good and it brings me so much joy so I'm gonna have that, I made the focaccia yesterday so I'm gonna have that with focaccia and it's going to be a good time god damn it! Okay let's make it! It's a very simple salad, very Italian, focused on fresh ingredients, fresh good ripe ingredients. And some focaccini! Oh Can I do it? Can I do it? Yes! So one piece, two pieces, ow! Lovely! That is lunch my friends! This is a lunch that I love eating with my hands if I'm perfectly honest so I think I'm just gonna go do that, um yum!