It often seems a bit trivial or insignificant to share a recipe or a craft, when there are so many much more serious things, problems, devastation going on around us. These last few weeks have been horrendous for my County and State. I live in a beautiful little town, smack dab in the middle of Northern California, that you have undoubtedly heard about on the news, we have had the worst firestorms in our state's history in the past few weeks. So much devastation is heartbreaking. However, I am safe... My Family is safe and sound... I'm abundantly grateful to be able to profess to that fact and yet I worked at our church's evacuation center, with hundreds of others, volunteering, trying to do something...anything.. to help our community that was so irreversibly changed forever. Historical landmarks, that we grew up with, gone forever.
Thousands of families don't have a home to go home to. And so we do our best... we provide all we can, physically, for their needs and we pray. We comfort them as best we can, knowing we can't fully imagine the loss that they feel. We pray that somehow God will turn their tragedy into an unseen blessing. Because what else can we do? I continue to pray for them and to give thanks for my family's own safety. We continue a donation center for their ongoing needs. The one thing that IS certain, the community I live in is so incredibly awesome! The generosity of time, money, prayers, whatever the need they are all over it above and beyond. We express an evacuee's need and it is filled tenfold within a couple hours. Amazing! This has become quite a popular image in our county over the past month
and..I couldn't be more #SonomaProud.
I think it is in times like this that we truly must bake, decorate, do whatever it is that we can do to "feather our own nest" so to speak, to find some sense of normalcy. After all, it truly isn't the four walls around us that make our house a home. It's the love, care, people, memories and traditions that make us who we are, complete and define us.
With that in mind, I am sharing with you, today, my recipe for my Almond-Orange Biscotti. This is a newer favorite of mine. I've been making these for the past three or four years and they have been a huge success with my family and friends. So much so, that last year for Christmas a double batch was my gift to my Sister and her husband. :) So whether you are starting your holiday baking or just really want to add a yummy new recipe to your repertoire, these are delicious.
