Baking Biscotti

I'm still learning from my culinary catering class. This morning's class was all about learning how to plan events and select a theme and match the food to the chosen theme. Piece of cake, right?

Speaking of cake - well, sort of .... yesterday I decided to try out a new recipe I found. Cherry Almond biscotti! I've baked many a biscotti in all flavors, but never cherry. So why not try something new? Yep, a new recipe. I gather everything I think I will need - the standard eggs, flour, butter, all the usual stuff. Now, according to the ingredients, I needed amaretto - which I had none of. So, off I went to the local red dot store (you know what those are, right? Maybe in some areas they are package stores, or just plain LIQUOR STORES). I bought the amaretto in a big 750 ML bottle, then two stocking-stuffer tiny bottles to be consumed at yet another time, then had to stop for dried cherries, which I could not find in the first store (that's GROCERY, not liquor). After TWO more stops, we finally found them. It took me several hours to make this, as biscotti (which means twice-baked in Italian) has to be baked twice. Duh.

There was much mixing, blending, chopping, reconstituting, and finally baking done. With parchment paper, and later without. Without baking racks, but at the end WITH. My oven was fired up all afternoon long.

They look great - and I have not yet tasted them, but biscotti lovers would be proud. This Southern Girl can hang with the Italian mama-mias anytime and bake with the best of 'em! What do you think?

Here they are - if there WAS espresso in that cup, they'd be dunked but this was just for effect and photographic purposes (and the biscotti jar is just for fun - they ususally do not hold flowers, in case you're wondering, but I still had beautiful mums and some sugar maple leaves that were begging to be part of a fall arrangement...and one lone rose)!!

Mangia!!

Bathrooms and Biscotti

Don't let the title of this post fool you. These two things are in TOTALLY separate rooms in the house. Whilst the bathroom was being outfitted with the brand new supposedly CLEAR shower doors, I was in mia cucina creating cranberry-almond biscotti AND Italian cookies; the latter resembles a shortbread cookie - it has almond, lemon and orange flavoring, is a twisted pencil thin cookie with an egg wash & sesame seeds on top. It cooks fast - and has a glossy finish thanks to the eggwash. These delicacies were prepared for the Italian Festival, which is tomorrow. They were packaged in clear 'baggies' which were then tied with red, green and white tiny ribbon, which also held a 'tag' announcing what the contents were. These will be sold at the Italian Fresh Market tomorrow. It was hard to bake all that without eating any. I guess if I want some, I'll have to buy them.

Now, back to the bathroom shower doors; you are all aware of how long this renovation has taken, right? A renovation that we didn't plan on. One we didn't budget for. One we didn't think would take most of the summer to complete. Today we had all hoped that the end was in sight. The shower door was delivered yesterday; the installers came by this morning to put it together. As yours truly was in the cucina, creating gastronomic delights, I was unaware of what the installers found when they opened the package. My beautiful new Tuscan Bronze-finish shower door was the WRONG ONE. The clear glass I wanted was not there. Instead, the doors had this etched finish. Both doors had vertical stripes over the entire finish. They were very BUSY looking. I was so disappointed. The workers were disappointed - I think mainly because they knew they'd be installing a replacement as soon as it could be gotten and delivered. I tried to like it - I mean, it's not like it was UGLY or anything; it's just that it's not the one I had my heart set on. I wanted CLEAR. I like being able to see out when in the shower; or in the tub. I have a clear shower curtain too. Maybe I have 'Psycho' phobias or something. Anyway, the doors are up; they slide beautifully; and they are etched. And awaiting their replacement. One of these days.

The renovations continue.....STILL.

But, until they do:

Il Festival italiano è domani. Vieni a giocare con noi.

(The Italian Festival is tomorrow. Come play with us.)

Ciao, a presto, mia amici. Chi vuole un bicchiere di vino rosso?