Piscachio Crescent Cookies
2 cups flour
2 cups pistachio (finely chopped)
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cup butter (softened)
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1. Mix flour, 1-1/2 cups pistachio nuts, powdered sugar, and salt. Mix well.
2. Beat 1 cup butter until fluffy.
3. Add flour.
4. Beat in mini chocolate chips.
5. Roll 1-1/2 teaspoon dough into 2-1/2 inch ropes and bend into crescent shapes. Chill 30 minutes on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.
6. Bake at 300* for 10 minutes. Let cool.
7. Melt semi-sweet chips and 1/4 cup butter in microwave on low for 1 minute.
8. Dip one end of cookie in chocolate, then remaining pistachio nuts. Let rest until set.
*Recipe Notes: Keep the chocolate melted, as dry/cool chocolate will make the cookies break. Only add chocolate to the top portion on one half of the cookie - too much chocolate (on the bottom) will cause the cookies to break. Display finished cookies in a bed of finely ground pistachio nuts to give the appearance of what my family lovingly refers to as "cat sh*t cookies" - if you bring them to a potluck meal, most people will avoid them, leaving more for you after the party! These are delicious and even doubling and quadrupling the recipe they're the first cookies to disappear at our family gatherings.
I also snapped a new photo of Bacon, our lionhead doe. She's not very tame and every day when I reach in to her cage to refill her food and water she runs panic laps around the cage. I have no idea what kind of treatment her former home gave her, but she's the one that came from an auction with 3" long nails. She's a pretty rabbit once you look past her plain chestnut color. She looks like she's bundled up in a parka for winter. She needs another nail trim, but I worry about cutting them too short and making them bleed, since they were so long before. Provided she looks good in January, we will be pairing her with one of the Jersey Wooly bucks for spring bunnies.
Little Amos is noticeably smaller at this point and I worry for him. He will be two weeks old tomorrow. I keep reminding myself he's four days behind the other kittens, but part of me is also trying to distance myself already and prepare for the inevitable day when Amos just can't function anymore.
Last Christmas Eve we lost two ducks in the same day to some kind of predator. They remain the only birds we've lost to a predator to date. By comparison, today was a much nicer day.
Kids opened presents, we had a nice family gathering with my parents and my brother, and tomorrow we will go back to spend another day together after Tony's side has their Christmas gathering in the morning.
This year, even Moose was invited for Christmas (at my parents' house). My brother's dog (Mitzu) is older and was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. He used to be Moose's best buddy when Moose was a half-grown pup. Playing with Moose helped Mitzu perk up after the loss of his brother (Bently) after he got hit by a car. Moose hasn't been over there for just over a year now because they got a new dog (Daisy the bloodhound) who is incredibly timid and scared of just about everything, and they had been concerned that bringing Moose over could upset Daisy. Today Daisy and Moose met for the first time. She put him in his place right away (something nobody expected given her demeanor normally), and then they were best friends. They ran around the fenced yard, up and down the deck steps, back around the yard, and over again. Moose is exhausted and actually slept most of the car ride home. It's been a while since he's had someone to run off his energy with. Even Mazikeen wasn't this interactive with him. I just looked at Tony and said, "Moose needs a friend."