Bits of Green, Saturday's Auction and Black Biscotti

We're still celebrating GREEN! For more info on this project, and to see the list of bloggers and their photography, click on Anna Carson's Photography.

I thought I'd combine the green project with some items from Saturday's auction. There were some wonderful old mini-pitchers that I couldn't pass up. The first two pictures are of some of my favorites. The box lot that I ended up with included them, along with souvenir pitchers from the Smokey Mountains, Stone Mountain, various places in Florida and Mexico. I love old textiles and ended up with a couple dozen vintage aprons (some are already in one of our shops but my favorite ones will stay with me as well as being shared with some friends). Then, of course, there is always beautiful glassware and I was fortunate enough to end up with this piece and a few others: . The furniture was auctioned for more money than I was willing to spend, but I still enjoyed watching the bidding and visiting with two ladies that sat on either side of me.

That was Saturday. Yesterday was spent with my hubby and today has been mostly rainy and chilly. And I've been craving chocolate biscotti. Being a woman of strong mind, I decided to treat myself to a moment of weakness and searched out a recipe on Allrecipes.com.

First, let me ask: How many of you have made biscotti? Hold up your hands so I can see. Hmmm. Not that many of you. Well, let me tell you - the ingredients are simple but there are a few steps you have to take that don't accompany most cookie baking. For example, after you mix the dough, you cover it and let it chill for about ten minutes. Then, you spread it onto your cookie sheet, bake it, let it cool for a few minutes before removing it from the cookie sheet, cutting it into strips, and transferring it to a cooling rack for about an hour. Then you return the strips to a cookie sheet, bake on one side for about seven minutes, flip the strips over and bake for another few minutes before storing them in an airtight container.

Have I ever told you how badly I need a new stove and oven? Well, I do. My oven is unpredictable and anytime I use it I always use a timer that is set for several minutes before time to remove your goodies from the oven. Today the timer went off about the same time I started smelling something burning.

Well, long story short, here's my biscotti:

(Beneath the platter, by the way, is one of the aprons I kept)

I'm thinking that it will probably be a very long time before I decide to bake biscotti again. This is one of the few times that store bought will be not only easier, but tastier than home made. Rest assured, the winner of this month's giftaway will not be receiving home baked biscotti from me.

This batch was so much trouble, that I think I'll just break off the burnt edges and dunk what is left over into a very strong cup of tea. Strong enough to hopefully out-strong the burned biscotti.