Note: our temperature today is scheduled to be 105 degrees. I am NOT baking this day!

My close-out, or ‘outro’ in podcast parlance, always invites you to stop by for coffee and homemade biscotti. Too few of you live close enough to stop by, and in this day and age, we’d have to socially distance, but it could be done. However, I usually have breakfast about ten a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, feel free to join me with biscotti and coffee at that time, at your own table or desk if you can’t make it to mine.

At any rate, I thought I’d share a couple of links for biscotti and cake that I’ve tried and love. If you’ve got cooler weather, or air conditioning, you can make your own, and we’ll socially distance by miles. 😉

From Giada De Laurentis: Holiday Biscotti. I’m always leery of professional chefs who are skinny, and when they are beautiful on top of it, I’m really suspicious. What kind cooking do they do? And, if you don’t know who she is, she’s part of the movie De Laurentis family. Anyhow, a couple of years ago, I wanted a holiday biscotti, and made this one. Holy Moly Guacamole! This is one of the bestest biscotti I’ve ever made. I do tend to put in closer to a cup each of pistachios and cranberries, but you have permission to make it to your liking. I’ve also made it with almonds (I had them on hand) and one time, I had about a cup of mixed nuts from a biscotti baking marathon, and about the same of leftover dried ginger and other fruits, as well as cranberries. Too many to throw away, not enough to keep separate. Yep, I threw them all into this recipe. I also divide it into two loaves, thereby having shorter cookies. By the way, the ‘leftover’ biscotti were the biggest hit.

I usually make at least five batches of biscotti for the holidays, mix several from each batch into tins and give as gifts. Most of my recipes come from cookbooks, and are copyrighted, but a little judicious searching can find you recipes closely resembling what I make. Or, perhaps a kind email?

As I said, I make several for the holidays: coffee biscotti, triple ginger, white chocolate and macadamia nut, and I like to try one new one I’ve not tried before. My ‘go to’ books are: The World Encyclopedia of Coffee by Mary Banks, Christine McFadden, Catherine Atkinson and Biscotti by Lou Seibert Pappas. The latter is a fun book chock full of biscotti recipes.

The other thing I love to bake is cakes. 

King Arthur Flour’s Farmhouse Buttermilk Cake. For some reason I don’t remember, I bought a half gallon of buttermilk a few years ago. Now, buttermilk is the only milk I like to drink (I know, I’ve never claimed sanity as my strong suit), but that was too much. I wanted to use it before it went bad and went in search of a buttermilk cake recipe. Most called for anywhere from a half to a whole cup of buttermilk. Nope, I wanted to use more. And because I love King Arthur’s site, I checked there. The Farmhouse Buttermilk cake calls for 2 cups of buttermilk—2.5 if you forego the butter! Oh, joy of joys! The absolute best 9×13 cake ever, and perfect for potlucks and social gatherings! In fact, I took it to a potluck and one of the gentlemen who attended was a visitor from the Dakotas, a farmer. It was a ‘cut your own slice’ affair and he had two huge ones. When he discovered I’d made it he asked if I’d give the recipe to his wife. I did, and presumably she’s keeping him happy with it. Made it a while back for a friend who celebrated his 80^thbirthday, and he and his girlfriend loved it. They got the recipe, too. As well as a whole left-over cake.

From My Recipes: Margarita Cake.  This one is a tad more labor intensive, but not all that difficult. I made it for a bunch of us gals who got together for ‘happy hour’ — their verdict: I had to bake and BRING IT EVERY TIME! This cake contains unbaked tequila, so be aware before you let your kids help and cut their own slices ;-). When complete, this is to die for. It also contains homemade Fresh Lime Curd, a delightfully easy recipe, and simply wonderful to use as cake filling or with cookies or to just sit and eat. And, last but not least, we cannot forget the candied lime slices. Also, easy to do, and oh, such a treat. I admit, it was difficult to not just eat the batch myself, but that would have meant another trip to the store for more limes. Sigh.

I swear (or affirm if you prefer) the icing recipe (at bottom of the cake recipe) made twenty pounds, easy. However, there was no booze in it, and my neighbor (who LOVED the cake) had two starving teenage boys. She took the left-over icing and put it between graham crackers. They ate it for a month. They were and are still starving.

I have several other recipes I dearly love to bake, and I follow my cardinal rule when baking them. I MUST make them for a social gathering that I will attend, eat ONE SLICE, or maybe two biscotti, AND LEAVE THE REST! I only bring home empty plates, containers, or cake pans. (I was at a potluck one time, and there was left over Arctic Chili left that I brought, and I told everyone if they liked it, to take it home, or I’d throw it in the garbage. Three guys fought for it. When I brought the buttermilk cake, there was about half a cake left, and I said I was ready to leave, if anyone wanted the leftover cake to get it before I scraped it into the garbage. I went home with a pan so empty I almost didn’t have to wash it! Now I live in an apartment complex, and before we were in lockdown, I’d bake and take it to the office.) And all those leftover crumbs from sweet things? Don’t throw them away, let them dry out, store them either in a jar or the freezer, and use them on ice cream, or hot cereal. Let them eat cake!

These Canada geese are dabbling for baked goodies. They’ve heard of them, and want to try them, but they aren’t good for geese (or ducks, or any fowl), so they’ll have to settle for salad—or fish—all the more for us!

Did you know if geese and ducks get enough bread they will starve to death with full bellies? Feed them grapes cut in half, find out what kind of seeds, or meal worms they eat (Google is your friend!) and if you’re really into being nice to ducks, get some duck chow, but please, Mother Nature and Auntie Lenora, will bless you if you DON’T FEED THEM BREAD!

Entertainment:

Neflix—binged on another Korean 20-episode drama. Great fun, a lot of humor, but definitely more drama than the last one. Immortal Classic loosely follows four generations of a well-respected family and one not so well known or respected. As www.asianwiki.com says, “There are two families, one family runs a restaurant and the other family are acknowledged master chefs. The drama” depicts relationships, misunderstandings, and forgiveness through these families. We have heroes and villains, and some great acting. It’s a modern story, but many of the women wear traditional dress. I wonder if they do in Korea, or if that was thrown in for people like me who love to see it. Food plays an integral part throughout the series, and I am now sooooo hungry for Korean food. We have a couple of Korean restaurants in town ;-). I am now on the search for a good Korean cookbook. In English. Did you know there are about 200 varieties of kimchi, and they are not all hot? I’ve eaten sweet kimchi, mild kimchi, and hotter than… kimchi. I’ve never met a kimchi I didn’t like, and most I love. Of course, every family has their own recipes. 

Books—check our Rainy Day Reads for the new book reviews.

Show your love; wear your mask. Show you care for your family, your friends, and your neighbors. Show those nasty old flowers you don’t care for their pollen. And y’all come back next week, same baked time, same baked place. The coffee is always on, the biscotti are home made, and we’ve always got time for a coffee break and a visit. (And, we’ll be socially distanced, so you may remove your mask. 😉

Auntie Lenora