"Meant to be served alongside a freshly pulled espresso"

That's how Buddy best described the recipe of the week, "meant to be served alongside a freshly pulled espresso." If only I had been able to carry around an espresso machine all day... I guess I should back up and start at the beginning.

This weekend I went home to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. As I mentioned in the last entry, my mom told me I couldn't bring home the pumpkin pie, but I felt like I should make something from the blog, so I ended up making the Chocolate Chip cookies from 2 weeks ago. If you can remember that far back then you'll remember how the chocolate chip cookie is a family specialty. It was great having people around campus taste them, but I knew the real test would be to see if my mom, sister and brother-in-law approved, and guess what?!?! They did!! It took a little convincing, but they agreed that it was a solid cookie (but still not as good as the family recipe.) Maybe I could have a cookie-off with Buddy and see who's the real cookie boss!

This week I made another recipe that I've never made or eaten before. The Classic Biscotti (Quaresimali). If you can image the most Italian, traditional biscotti, then you've imagined what I made. I also don't have an ounce of Italian blood in my body, so I'm going to go with there was no natural knowledge of this dessert. I was not sure how biscotti should look or taste, so I was strictly by the book for this recipe. Out of the 3 loaves I made only one was deemed serve-able by my roommate, Stacie. Unlike most recipes that I've seen for biscotti, this one was not double baked, and yet came out harder than anything I have ever experienced food-wise. I see why one would need coffee to enjoy it. My favorite part of making the biscotti was the smell, but I don't think that was enough to keep me coming back to the recipe for years to come. Overall the average grade for the classic biscotti was only a B, with the highest grade being an A, and lowest being a D, with lots of grades in the middle. Some of the comments I recieved were:

"I LOVE the cinnamon!!! Great idea for this time of year :)"
"Great flavor--very classic. Good texture-- would be best with coffee."
"Too hard, good flavor."
"Too hard and dry."

Here is the classic biscotti (taken with my beautiful new camera):

I'm finding that this baking is a great stress reliever (for the most part- except that stupid Italian custard cream!) so I've decided that I will be doing a second recipe this week. As I'm heading into the final weeks of the semester, and working on my thesis, a stress reliever is much needed. I'm going to make Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing tomorrow night and give them out on Friday, so if you're interested in having one let me know. This cupcake will knock off two recipes in my book, so I'm flying through at a pretty good pace so far. If anyone can tell me why they added red food coloring to the cake that we all know as red velvet, you will earn major points in my book! Also I think I will make the Modern Biscotti next week as a good contrast to the classic biscotti. Biscotti-off? I don't think so.

Expect another update in a couple of days! Thanks everyone for all your support. Remember that comments, suggestions, anything is greatly appreciated!