Daddio's Biscotti for Veteran's Day
And why the new GI Reparations Bill needs to be passed. Plus: the best hot fudge sauces.
Hello all!
This special-edition of my newsletter is brought to you in honor of all our veterans past and present and also to point out that today is National Ice Cream Sundae day.
No, of course the two aren’t equivalent. But how better to honor veterans than with the best dessert there is.
Perhaps this sounds like heresy coming from a woman like me. I talk a lot about cookies. Heck, I have a podcast called “The Secret Life of Cookies,” and it goes without saying, I love cookies. Somewhere back in my family tree I’m sure I can find some genetic connection between Cookie Monster and me.
Desert Island Desserts
A conversation with my brother David made me ponder my dessert loyalties. Contrary to popular belief, my foreign-policy wonk and polymath of a brother and I don’t typically discuss the finer points of the Treaty of Ghent and why it was central to the United States’ rise as a world power. Instead, we seek greater truths, such as which one dessert we would take to a desert island.
Readers, without batting a flour-dusted eyelid, I proclaimed the hot fudge sundae my desert island dessert of choice. No nuts or cherry necessary, a simple dish of vanilla ice cream and borderline vulgar amounts of hot fudge sauce is all I require. My only requirement is that the hot fudge be quality stuff, by which I mean deeply chocolatey—not just the brown-colored corn syrup some places try to pass off as hot fudge.
Homemade hot fudge sauce is easy to make and worth the oh, 15 minutes max it takes. I typically use the recipe from the green-slipjacketed Gourmet Magazine cookbook (RIP). The key, no surprise, is to use quality chocolate and cocoa. I always try to have Guittard chocolate of all varieties in my house and their Cocoa Rouge. (Not a sponsored post!)
Note: I also keep an emergency supply of Herrell’s hot fudge sauce on hand. It’s one of the best over-the-counter hot fudge sauces available, and reminds me of my days as a student in the beautiful Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts.
Forgive the awkward segue, but my father, an immigrant (arrived from Vienna in 1939, age 13) and proud veteran of WWII (Blue Devils, 88th Infantry Division) also liked ice cream. Preferably coffee ice cream. But, it is from him I got my love of cookies. He loved cookies more than anything. He even had a special glass cookie jar, and it was my job to keep it filled.
One of my dad’s favorite cookies were these biscotti. Make them today in his honor, or make whatever favorite dish your favorite veteran loved. Our veterans deserve this treatment every day.
The GI Reparations Bill
My dad was a proud, grateful product of the GI bill, but not everyone benefited as he did. African-American veterans returned home to a country that actively tried to deny them what they’d earned. Racist politicians and their followers worried returning African Americans veterans would use Americans’ gratitude to get Jim Crow laws overturned. African Americans were frequently denied special mortgages intended for returning GIs, institutions that could help them were hard to find, and much of it because of racist Chairman of the House Veterans Committee, John Rankin of Mississippi, who insisted states administer the GI bill.
Today, Congress will be presented with the GI Bill Restoration Act, thanks to House Majority Whip James Clyburn, Representative Seth Moulton and Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock. The bill will give African American veterans past and present the reparations they deserve, and “provide the families of Black veterans of World War II a transferable benefit that their descendants can use to attend college, secure housing, start businesses and build generational wealth.”
That is a bill and a cause certainly worth celebrating, so bake cookies and make ice cream sundaes all for your favorite veterans.
Yours in hot fudge,
Marissa
Tell me about your favorite veterans and their favorite desserts in the comments.