tea...he is indeed..I always tell him he was a diamond in the rough..and he has smoothed out beautifully :) Thank you.. have had a wonderful day..DH is making me homemade pasta and Cantucci di prato ( a biscotti) so a glass of wine and a fire are where I am while letting him do the work. He is too good to me. Thank you ML...I will need to get out and run tomorrow after all this food !! The decorations are like Spring veggies..here today and gone tomorrow...we have to really enjoy them that way so they stay new. Thank you !! Your are the most wonderful gardener/decorator/old house owner I know...and you find COOL stuff at auction ! c

Well, now, dcarch, why in the world should I bake biscotti, bake it again, then steam it to undo the baking, LOL, that would just be an extra step. Here is the King Arthur recipe. They do give options for flavoring, I'm thinking orange flavoring and a dunk in dark chocolate would be nice and of course I'll have to try that gingersnap thing, although they do not give that as an option. I did not spray them with water and they still sliced just fine. You know how those days goes, I couldn't even find a spray bottle for water! American-Style Vanilla Biscotti Here it is, a biscotti recipe everyone can enjoy � unlike classic Italian biscotti, which are quite hard, these are light and crunchy. Biscotti bake twice rather than once, and thus take a bit longer start-to-finish than normal drop cookies. But the dough is put together exactly like drop cookie dough. And if your kitchen skills include shaping a meatloaf and slicing a loaf of bread, you've got what it takes to make delicious, gorgeous biscotti. 6 tablespoons butter, salted or unsalted 2/3 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 to 3 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon almond extract, optional 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 2 large eggs 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour coarse white sparkling sugar, for sprinkling on top, optional 1) Preheat the oven to 350�F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) one large (about 18" x 13") baking sheet. 2) In a medium-sized bowl, beat the butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, almond extract (if you're using it), and baking powder until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Beat in the eggs; the batter may look slightly curdled. At low speed of your mixer, add the flour, stirring until smooth; the dough will be sticky. 4) Plop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Divide it in half, and shape it into two 9 1/2" x 2" logs, about 3/4" tall. Straighten the logs, and smooth their tops and sides; a wet spatula or wet bowl scraper works well here. Sprinkle with coarse white sparkling sugar, if desired, pressing it in gently. 5) Bake the dough for 25 minutes. Remove it from the oven. 6) Using a spray bottle filled with room-temperature water, lightly but thoroughly spritz the logs, making sure to cover the sides as well as the top. Softening the crust just this little bit will make slicing the biscotti much easier. Reduce the oven temperature to 325�F. Wait 5 minutes, then use a sharp chef's knife or serrated knife to cut the log crosswise into 1/2" to 3/4" slices. Or cut the biscotti on the diagonal, for fewer, longer biscotti. As you're slicing, be sure to cut straight up and down, perpendicular to the pan; if you cut unevenly, biscotti may be thicker at the top than the bottom, and they'll topple over during their second bake. 8) Set the biscotti on edge on the prepared baking sheet. Return the biscotti to the oven, and bake them for 25 to 30 minutes, until they feel very dry and are beginning to turn golden. They'll still feel a tiny bit moist in the very center, if you break off a piece; but they'll continue to dry out as they cool. 9) Remove the biscotti from the oven, and transfer them to a rack to cool. Store airtight at room temperature; they'll stay good for weeks. Yield: 30 to 40 biscotti, depending on size. Tips from our bakers Variations: Add up to 2 cups nuts, dried fruit (dried, not fresh), or chips to the dough, along with the flour. Adjust the spice to suit the add-in, if desired; e.g., add 1 teaspoon cinnamon with 1 cup chopped dried apple and 1 cup diced pecans. Or substitute hazelnut, butter-rum, or your favorite flavor for the vanilla. A classic Italian anise biscotti is made with 1/2 teaspoon anise extract (or 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon anise oil, to taste), and 1 tablespoon fennel seeds. I am getting better with the computer, I actually finally figured out how to open two browser windows at the same time, copy and paste from the King Arthur website, and hopefully it'll end up here without strange symbols. I'm switching to a cable internet service next Tuesday, it should cut my bill in half and maybe give me internet access all the time, instead of getting a "not available" message about once every five minutes. If I get that message in the middle of a post, the whole post is gone, I have to close the browser window and start all over again. It's frustrating as heck. Grrr. Annie

Biscotti Di Prato for one thing, and I make a ginger cookie that uses veggie oil and I have (somewhere!) a recipe for a chinese almond cookie that uses lard...but Crisco will work....and during WWII we made lots of cookies using crisco...because you couldn't even get enough butter to use on your toast. We bought it a quarter of a pound at a time. Google recipes crisco, cookies....if you have crisco in the house...! LOL! Chocolate cookies hide the lack of butter well as do ginger cookies. 3 3/4 C all purpose flour (stirred till fluffy before measuring) 2 C sugar 1 tsp double acting baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 4 eggs 2 egg yolks 1 tsp vanilla ( or 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp almond extract if using almonds) 1 2/3 c almonds or hazle nuts coarsley chopped and litely toasted. eggwash Mix flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. whisk together eggs, yolks and extracts, add eggs, etc to flour mixture and stir until a dough forms (looks like it can never happen... but keep working it...it will. I sometimes add a VERY little sprinkling of water) add nuts, turn out on a non-stick surface ( I use a marble board or my formica rolling board) and knead 3 or 4 times. Divide into fourths and shape each piece into a 11 x 2 in. log ( make it "tall" as they flatten while baking) Place on buttered and floured baking sheets, brush with egg wash (egg yolk whisked with 1 T water). Bake at 350 for 35 min and cool 20 min. Slice 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Place on clean baking sheets ( cut side down) and bake 10 or 12 minutes at 275. turn pieces over and bake another 10 minutes. If you want to make them extra fancy, dip half a slice in melted chocolate and sprinkle with finly chopped nuts. You can make bigger 'scottis by making two thicker logs, but be sure to leave room for spread. Best dipped in tea or coffee....or best yet in a sweet dessert wine!

Will check out the suggested recipes. I spent some time on the King Arthur site and took note of the graham crackers, as it happens, and also of the animal crackers. One of the problems with baking in Italy is how many ingredients that are common in the U.S. can't be found here, at least not in the country: Milan or Florence might be a different story. Our local small supermarket is not currently carrying oatmeal (it was expensive anyway). Also unavailable: molasses, wheat germ, buttermilk, sour cream, buckwheat, rye, hard wheat flours (buckwheat flour used to be available, but not lately), dried currants and cherries, pecans, cranberries fresh or dried. Water pack pie cherries, though there's an abandoned orchard down the road. Pumpkin pack, though we get a fine substitute by roasting winter squash. Reliable dried yeast: I only use fresh now. Walnuts are very expensive. Vanilla and almond extract come in miniscule individual vials: my last trip to the U.S. I brought back bottles of both. We still eat well, but I really had to revise a lot of my cooking, and baking in particular. Also I'm a healthy cook, and getting older, both of which have caused changes in my cooking. We have good produce here, and the cheeses are sublime, though mostly I limit myself to a bit of Parmesan.