The Two Rivers football team finished with a 7-1 regular-season record and the top spot among teams in Class 5A Section 3 — and fifth overall — in the Class 5A Quality Ratings Formula put together by Minnesota Scores.

Yet the Warriors were assigned the No. 4 seed when the section bracket was revealed Thursday.

The top spot went to St. Thomas Academy (6-2), which finished the regular season one spot behind Two Rivers in the QRF. Bloomington Jefferson (7-1) received the No. 2 seed. The top two spots come with first-round byes.

Most surprising was that Two Rivers, a section finalist last season, was seeded behind three-win Apple Valley.

The Warriors will now play Tuesday in the section quarterfinals, where they will host fifth-seeded Hastings (2-6). Hastings handed Two Rivers its lone loss way back in Week 2, edging the Warriors 9-7. That lone data point was likely heavily relied upon during the seeding process.

The winner of that game will meet St. Thomas Academy in the section semifinals.

In Class 5A, Section 4, Mahtomedi (4-4) did indeed earn the top seed by virtue of its dominant Week 2 victory over Central (6-2). Central, the No. 2 seed, had the better QRF number, but the head-to-head result carried the day.

So Mahtomedi gets the section’s lone bye, while Central will meet Academy Force (1-7) in the quarterfinals.

Third-seeded Certin-Derham Hall will host Harding/Humboldt, while Highland Park, the No. 4 seed, will host fifth-seeded Tartan. Highland Park edged Tartan 6-0 earlier this fall.

CLASS 4A

Hill-Murray (6-2) earned the top seed and Section 3’s lone bye. Despite sporting a lower QRF, Chisago Lakes (6-2) received the No. 2 seed over defending state champion Simley (5-3). That really only affects the site of the potential second-round matchup between the two teams.

Simley will host sixth-seeded South St. Paul (3-5) in Tuesday’s quarterfinals. The Spartans beat the Packers 35-12 in late September.

Johnson (5-3) will host Como Park (4-4) on Tuesday in the No. 4-5 matchup.

CLASS 2A

St. Agnes (8-0) is the top seed in Section 4, and will meet the winner of Randolph and Rush City in the section semifinals.

More importantly for the Aggies, they’re on the opposite side of the bracket from Norwood Young America (8-0) and Cannon Falls (6-2), two state-quality teams in their own right.

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Jim Jordan’s improbable rise to the cusp of Capitol Hill’s top job has delighted many conservatives, who see an accomplished infighter bent on impeaching President Joe Biden.

He’s a model presence on Fox News during an era in which success for many Republicans is measured in cable news hits, instead of old-fashioned legislating. His installation as speaker would mark the first time the GOP’s top lawmaker hailed from the party’s growing hard-right contingent. He’s in good standing when it comes to one of the GOP’s most important yardsticks — his relationship with former President Donald Trump.

Yet for all those reasons and quite a few others, he would be badly miscast as speaker of the House, and Republicans should be relieved he has, for now, fallen short of the votes. Jordan on Thursday abandoned a third speaker’s ballot for the moment, instead endorsing a measure to let acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) run the House temporarily.

Set aside the fact that Jordan has virtually no legislation to his credit despite 17 years in Congress. The speaker’s job requires a very particular set of skills — an ability to build bipartisan coalitions, to work with one’s adversaries, and to learn to accept half-victories. That makes it a particularly crummy job for Jordan because the very essence of the position requires compromises that are anathema to the right wing and to the conservative media ecosystem that powered his ascent.

In this moment, there are violent thunderstorms on the horizon — the job comes with a daunting roster of unfinished must-do business, including keeping the government open and providing tens of billions of dollars in aid to Israel and Ukraine. Passage of a bipartisan stopgap funding law last month cost then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy his job; Jordan opposed it.

Jordan’s critics worry that he would allow Trump to meddle in House business, an especially worrisome prospect since Trump, as president, drove the government into a lengthy shutdown in 2018-19 only to emerge empty-handed.

Then there’s the question of which Jordan would Washington get? There’s the prototype who, in a prior time, helped orchestrate government shutdowns and was once described by former Speaker John Boehner, a fellow Ohioan, as “a legislative terrorist” and an “asshole.”

Then there’s the pragmatic insider version who embarked on a leadership track a few years back, forging a close relationship with McCarthy. He sided with McCarthy earlier this year by voting for a debt limit deal that the California Republican made with Biden. He’s managed to win support from GOP pragmatists like Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) after promising that he would shepherd passage of must-do legislation including defense policy, agency budgets, and next year’s reauthorization of food programs and farm subsidies.

Previous GOP Speakers like Boehner and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) came from the party’s governing wing. Boehner worked with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to pass the No Child Left Behind education law in 2002; Ryan negotiated a 2013 budget accord with veteran Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and went on to chair the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Jordan has nothing remotely similar on his résumé. Now he’s hoping to get thrown in the deep end, taking on a Democratic president and a twin Senate threat of top Democrat Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who are allied against Jordan on aid to Ukraine and government spending levels. Jordan has vilified Schumer in the past and has virtually no history with McConnell.

Conflict in the Middle East has further upended the equation. Biden is sending Congress a huge aid package request for both Israel and Ukraine; Jordan is a skeptic of Ukraine aid and his party is badly split on the question.

A pessimistic take on Jordan is that he’d simply be unwilling to cut compromises with the Senate and the Biden White House, especially as the House slides toward a possible Biden impeachment. A partial government shutdown is in the offing if gridlock hits.

For those seeking it, there’s ample evidence in Jordan’s past battles with leadership figures such as Boehner to suggest he won’t play well with others now. Jordan helped drive Boehner from the speaker’s chair in 2015. He and other Freedom Caucus figures gave Ryan fits during the first two years of the Trump administration, including a drawn-out battle over repealing Obamacare that almost led Ryan and Trump to abandon the idea. Instead, the repeal died in the Senate.

When Boehner quit the speaker’s chair he left himself time to “clean out the barn” — passing politically difficult bills like a debt limit increase before handing the gavel to Ryan.

Now, the barn is a mess. Jordan wouldn’t get the grace period afforded Ryan. Critical deadlines loom. Hard feelings permeate the competing leadership camps of Jordan and Majority Leader Steve Scalise. (Scalise bowed out of the speaker’s race despite besting Jordan in a nominating ballot, complaining about bad faith from Jordan partisans.

More than 20 Republicans, however, including several from the compromise-seeking Appropriations Committee, have united to block Jordan’s path in two separate votes this week.

Some of the pressure tactics employed by Jordan supporters irritated holdouts such as Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-Texas), a leadership loyalist whose opposition raised eyebrows. “This was a vote of conscience and I stayed true to my principles,” Granger wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Intimidation and threats will not change my position.”

McHenry may now end up cleaning out the barn, but it’s clear Republicans would still be mistaken if they handed power to Jordan afterward.

“We need amaretto with these,” my cookie tester opined.

I agreed. So much so that I’d have had it as a shot in my honey-vanilla chamomile as I wrote this. I’m not, though. Because there’s no amaretto in the house. With the holiday season fast approaching, that’s about to be remedied, but even so, I now have two notes to write to myself this morning.

Always have amaretto, Amy Drew.

And, since the years have clearly done a number on your priorities, always have pignoli cookies.

Keep your frostings, fillings and whipped toppings. For me, the pignoli cookie is pretty darn close to perfect. (Amy Drew Thompson/Orlando Sentinel)

I just finished baking a batch, and these sweet, chewy-delicious pine nut cookies — with that beautiful lacquer of toasty pine nuts on top — are the stuff of nonna’s kitchen, which may be tied to the holidays (they’re so festive!) or just baking with her on a Sunday while the sauce is going. Maybe it’s your uncle they remind you of. Or mom. Doesn’t matter. The point is pignoli cookies are evocative of family.

And can you think of a better way to celebrate National Nut Day (Oct. 22) than with a salute to your family?!

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I kid, I kid, but when I heard this food holiday was upon us, my first thought was pignoli cookies. It had been forever since I’d had them, so I made a batch. And while doing so, I wondered whether other people had similarly strong feelings.

“OMG! That is literally my favorite cookie!” Denny Tornatore wrote after I sent him a pic. “I don’t care how much they cost when I am in N.Y.C. I pay the price. Pignoli cookies are the best!”

He agreed to discuss them with me for the price of two cookies. Which, if I were selling them, would be a lot.

Pignoli are expensive little buggers. Tasty, too. And calorically dense. But it’s a good fat. No, seriously, it really is. (Amy Drew Thompson/Orlando Sentinel)

Pine nuts are expensive. There are a multitude of reasons why. The types of trees that produce them (a limited number of pine species actually produce edible nuts) don’t do so until they are quite mature. The harvesting process is laborious. Most pine nuts are imported, and because they can spoil, extra prep and care go into their transport. They’re also in very high demand.

“I think the cookies were $24 a pound last time I went to Ferrara in New York,” Tornatore tells me. (They’re currently clocking in at $42.95 a pound via Goldbelly.)

As the chef/owner of Tornatore’s Restaurant in Orlando’s College Park neighborhood, he’s also a regular consumer. Pine nuts are the prime ingredient in pesto, after all, which he has on the menu. “They’ve gone up consistently since COVID,” he says. “Lots of things have started to come back down since then, but not pine nuts.”

It was around the holidays that Tornatore remembers the cookies showing up.

Diamond brand pine nuts are less expensive than these, but sometimes you have to go with what’s in stock. Case in point, there was only one tube of the Odense almond paste on the shelf, so I had to get a Solo-brand box, as well. (Amy Drew Thompson/Orlando Sentinel)

“My nonna would make them and put a little powdered sugar on them, and we’d just eat them warm, oh my god…” he trails off, lost in food memory. I get it. As I type, mine are just about cool. I’ve already had three.

“Pignoli cookies!” Patrick Tramontana replies when I send him the same pic. Again, there’s a similar time warp.

“They make me think of my childhood on Long Island. Going to pick up my mom after school with my dad when she worked at the bakery. She was the cookie lady.”

Erga Italian Bakery was a neighborhood staple in Bethpage, New York, for decades. (It’s since become another bakery, Moscato‘s.) Little did the cookie lady know that one day, her son would be heading up the kitchen at Antonio’s of Maitland before taking the helm at The Mayflower at Winter Park.

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Every time he went, Salvo, the baker, would come out and let him pick whatever he wanted.

“I’d always pick the strawberry eclair because it was the biggest thing they had!” he says, laughing. “My mom would come home with loaves of semolina bread all the time. And every once in a while, and always during Christmas time, she’d come home with pignoli cookies. They’re so delicious! They have this wonderful chewy thing, but they’re also crisp at the same time.”

Yep. It’s a texture thing, courtesy of its prime ingredient — almond paste — that’s at least equal to the rich almond flavor it imparts. There’s a balance of crisp and gooey in these flourless cookies that’s matchless.

“Pignoli cookies!” was the universal reply when I sent this pic out. My neighbor said the same when I brought over a plate. (Amy Drew Thompson/Orlando Sentinel)

“I’m a big almond fan. I go crazy for almond desserts,” says Kevin Fonzo, whose La Tavola dinners at the Emeril Lagasse Foundation’s Kitchen House in College Park sell out as fast as he posts them. “But for me, this is a history thing. It’s the feeling of warmth and comfort and love.”

Growing up in upstate New York, Fonzo would regularly visit his grandparents in the Bronx. And though his great aunts made pignoli cookies all the time, they still remind him mostly of the bakery behind their apartment building.

Pulse almond paste for a bit in the food processor before adding the rest of the ingredients. This recipe, by the way, is entirely gluten-free. (Amy Drew Thompson/Orlando Sentinel)

“When we’d spend the weekend with my grandparents, it was a daily stop for us. We’d walk around the corner to this bakery, and there were all these amazing cookies that weren’t chocolate chip or Oreo or things you’d see at the supermarket.”

To date, Fonzo still orders many of his cookies from his favorite places in New York, like Ferrara in Little Italy.

“Every year, I order like for my sister, who is crazy about the pine nut cookies, too, and for the holidays, I’ll get an assorted cookie tray. And I always get pissed off because there’s never enough pignoli cookies.”

That’s why you have to make your own.

Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, For more foodie fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.

Pignoli cookies pair nicely with tea, coffee or espresso (with or without Amaretto).

Pignoli Cookies

Recipe by Angela Allison courtesy of This Italian Kitchen (thisitaliankitchen.com/pignoli-cookies)

Some notes: This recipe made 24 cookies. I baked them at 350 degrees instead of 325, and they browned beautifully. Try out a couple of testers and see if the higher setting suits your oven as it did mine. And if you want to stretch your pine nuts farther, which you might when three ounces go for about $13 at Publix, press them into one side of the dough ball instead of rolling the whole thing.

Ingredients

6 ounces pine nuts
14 ounces almond paste (two 7-ounce tubes)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.* Line two baking sheets with parchment; set aside. Place pine nuts in a small bowl; set aside.
Open tubes of almond paste and break into one-inch chunks using your fingers. Place paste into food processor and pulse until the it has broken apart.
Add granulated sugar, powdered sugar and salt to the food processor. Pulse until well combined and mixture forms a crumb. Add in the egg whites and process until a dough forms. (Dough will be slightly sticky).
Use a cookie scoop to measure out equal amounts of dough. Form dough into balls using your hands (wet hands slightly if dough begins to stick). Place the dough ball in the bowl of pine nuts and gently press in the nuts so they stick to the ball.
Place cookies on lined baking sheet, leaving about an inch and half between each (you should be able to fit a dozen cookies on each baking sheet.) Bake on center rack in oven for 15-18 minutes, or until the cookies start to spread and lightly brown.
Remove the cookies from oven and cool on the baking sheet completely before moving. If you move the cookie while warm, you risk it falling apart. Dust cookie with powdered sugar before serving (optional).

A man has died following a stabbing this morning in a residential area of Mattapan.

Boston Police responded to 18 Rugby Road in Mattapan shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday and found a man suffering from a stab wound outside the home at that address, according to BPD Deputy Superintendent Paul McLaughlin, who spoke from the scene in the afternoon.

Boston EMS treated the victim at the scene before transporting him to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead, McLaughlin said.

A Honda CR-V crossover SUV was towed from the scene, but McLaughlin did not provide details on how the car may relate to the incident.

While the investigation is in its early stages, McLaughlin said that the suspect — who has not been found — and the victim were known to each other, which he said reduces possible concerns for the safety of other residents of the neighborhood.

This is a developing story.