Today is "National Anisette Day." I really appreciate that my west coast brother searches for these nifty bits of information. I have a two-part history with anisette, or anise as it's more commonly called in the US. Anisette is the Italian word. First the disaster. When I was in eighth grade our teacher brought a treat for Valentine's Day. His wife had made a large sheet of hard red anise candy in the shape of a heart. We were all excitedly looking forward to sharing in the treat. She had made one for us the year before so we knew it was delicious. Keep in mind that I was 12 going on klutzy. At one point in the day, before the candy was shared, I walked up to the teacher's desk, I don't remember why, and bumped against the candy in its pretty heart shaped pan. The pan and candy went flying off the desk and onto the floor where it shattered into a bazillion shards. At that point my face was as red as the candy. Our long suffering teacher (who was also the principal, church organist and choir director) took a deep calming breath (his restraint was admirable) and told me to go get a broom and sweep it up. Which I did of course. Could anything be more embarrassing?
On a much happier note, when I got to college I roomed for three years with a great roommate. She was great for many reasons. This is just one of them. Each year as Christmas and finals were approaching, her mother would send us a large tin of anise cookies. They were wonderful. Pressed into thick square shapes, almost jawbreaker hard, as anise cookies should be, and absolutely delicious. The real benefit of these cookies was that you had to nibble at them so slowly that one or two would last each of us through a whole evening of studying. Later in life I was given some so-called anise cookies but they just weren't the same. The flavor was ok, but they were soft and not nearly as satisfying as those college cookies. Ah well, maybe it's better for my teeth this way.
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