I could have made them from scratch by now. Twice!

Tiramisu is a pretty common dessert, right? I mean, tiramisu may not be something you eat every week, but at least you've HEARD of it... right?

So why, WHY, should finding the ingredients in my area be so, so difficult?

Is it because I live in the south?

I don't really want to make tiramisu. I want to make a chocolate torte - the

X-Treme Chocolate Double-Nut Caramel Ladyfinger Torte,

to be exact.

And for that, I need ladyfingers, or ladyfinger cookies, whatever the heck they're called.

(Excuse my French, please. I'm highly irritated.)

LADYFINGER cookies, which are the main ingredient in tiramisu. And I CANNOT FIND THEM. I have gone to four stores in my area, and please! I live in Raleigh. Not... oh, I don't know, Nowheresville, Alaska. Yesterday evening, I wasted an hour (time I DID not have to waste) driving from place to place, hoping that at the end, all my trouble would be worth it and I could justify the gasoline and unmade dinner on the counter. If I can only find some ladyfingers. That thought is what propelled me through rush hour traffic and that sick feeling in your stomach that you get from knowing you told your husband you were "just running out really quick to get something" when you knew that he wouldn't even care whether there were ladyfingers in his dessert.

Unfortunately, the only thing I came home with was a guilty, time-wasting conscience and a box of "Best Valu" graham crackers, which I threw into the cupboard with a scowl.

You see, if I'm going to take the time to make this dessert, I want to make it the right way. I don't want to substitute graham cracker crumbs or pound cake. I want LADYFINGERS, darn it!

I'm calling Whole Foods. And maybe EarthFare. My struggles have only made me more determined.

UPDATE: I was ecstatic. I'd called EarthFare (only ten minutes from my house) and... they had them! They had ladyfingers!

So immediately, I went and bought them. I told the manager (who helped me find them) how happy he'd made me. I told him I could have hugged him.

And then, when I got home and went to make the recipe, I realized there are two kinds of ladyfingers. Soft, and crunchy. Guess what kind the recipe calls for? And guess what kind I bought?

Yup! You guessed it!

Ugh. So now I've spent six bucks on stupid cookies that are kind of gross (I tried one) and absolutely useless in my recipe. Gosh darn it. I'll make it work.