Linorstore.com News, Vol. 1 No. 6 Jan 2006

2006 is the Year of the Dog in the Chinese calendar. According to my husband, every year is Year of the Dog - in our house.

Make this a memorable year. This could be the year that you set your mind to do what you??™ve always intended to do. What will you make of it?

Seek your own inspiration. If you want to laugh more, seek humor in your own situation. If you want to love more, give love to those around you. If you want to make the world a better place, seek ways to help those in need. In short, make 2006 the year that you will do more, be more, seek more. You will be the one reaping the rewards.

I have an 89-year old aunt. Healthy as a horse. Disposition like a wolverine. Surprised even herself when she looked after her 94-year old sister. The ache in her own knees disappeared when she had cookies to bake and a sister to entertain. It was 1940 all over again with Sinatra singing in the background while almonds and figs where boiled and squeezed until they gave up their essence into labor-intensive cookie recipes that are only appreciated by old timers from the Bari province of southern Italy. It??™s a Christmas cookie that is only made when true dedication is imposed, because of the amount of preparation that??™s required.

My cousin wrote down the name of the cookies, it sounded something like "cartadotta." I found the recipe on the Internet at about.com where someone asked for a similar sounding recipe that she phonetically spelled out as "in gaten dats" and turned out to be something called "ncartiddati." Here??™s the link to the recipe: