Italian Bakery

We have a very internationally influenced town that I live in. Quite a mix if I do say so. I love living here, especially where my house is located. The Gulf Gate Neighborhood has been voted number 1 several times in Sarasota "best of" in the Sarasota Herald Tribune they have each year. Anyway yesterday I went to the Oriental, Food & Gifts to look for ingredients to make Moon cakes. Next door (I mean literally next door) is Tastefully British store and tea room (had fun going to tea there we'll have to do that again). We skipped the Italian deli today, I get my Parmesan- reggiano there, and great sandwiches and baked ziti etc... they have a few products, it's where I get this pasta I forget the name but I can only find it there. We skipped it because we wanted to check out the new Danish Bakery that just opened. This is all on one street. The Danish Bakery was a little too new and pricey, so we went to our Italian Bakery, just a couple of blocks over then a little bit down. On the way we stopped at my gas station and picked up some fresh made Feta Cheese, (this is so good you can just sit down and eat it) and some spinach pie. She always makes them fresh in the morning, sometime I take it home and warm it up on my stoneware. So the bakery is just a block over, they used to have a fresh vegetable market next door, but the closed a few years ago. Okay so I didn't get all that much at the bakery because we have a small family and I have to do Martha Mondays challenge which is a dessert this week. I got the Sicilian Bread (I love this) hermits, the owners dad asked where I was from and why did I get the if I wasn't from New Jersey! My mom used to make them. So the owner gave me a sample of something that had dates and figs in the filling, that's the thing with the sprinkles. Maranda had to have the Red Velvet cake. The bread is so good I have it for breakfast with Apricot Jam. It is a huge loaf so I had some dukkah left in the freezer and served it with that. Yumm. Dukkah is a blend of nuts, seeds and spice, originally from Egypt. I made mine with pistachios, hazelnut and almonds, spices like coriander, mint, peppercorns and cumin and sesame seeds. When I find my recipe I'll post it. You dip the crusty bread in a good olive oil (I get a good Greek olive oil at my gas station) then you dip it in the nut mixture. You can also use it on chicken or fish. the recipe makes a lot so I keep the extra in the freezer and pull it out when I need it.