Strawberry Picking

Last week our family went out of town a bit to Wold Strawberries to pick our own berries. There is usually only a week or two a year when you can do this so we were glad we didn't miss it while we were traveling. We picked one tray/basket which came to 11 pounds. Originally I had wanted to pick 2 baskets but it is a good thing I did not. Berries don't stay fresh very long so you have to preserve them right away. I chose to wash and dry and then freeze them. I also made some jam and a strawberry crisp. The crisp recipe was from the Crisco website. I am not a fan of Crisco but I just substituted butter for the Crisco. It was a good recipe and passed my husbands test. His mother makes a lot of crisps so he knows what he likes. The strawberries are so beautiful it was fun to photograph them.

Health Food People and Fudge

I come from health food people. My memory of peanut butter as a kid is going to the health food store and scooping out peanuts and then dumping them into the grinder(it looks kind of like the coffee grinders you now see in stores). Then you would catch the ground up nuts in a plastic tub. Voila, peanut butter! In fact, I now use Skippy All Natural Peanut Butter and it drives my mom nuts(pun intended). Every time she visits I hear the lecture about how it is not real peanut butter because it has sugar added and you don't have to stir it. I swear it makes her twitch just being in the same room with it(well, maybe I exaggerate a little). Anyway the point of this anecdote is that I am a born and raised health food person. As an adult I have chosen to be more moderate, hence, the Skippy but it is instilled deeply in me to eat naturally.

So recently I saw a cookbook at the thrift store called, Taming the Candy Monster by Vicki Lansky. It is a book of recipes of healthy treats for kids and recently we have been trying to cut down on sugar so I bought the book. In it was a recipe for Super Fridge Fudge(pictured above). I had to try it. I wont put the actual recipe up(because I am lazy) but I will describe it. It starts with warming up some peanut butter and honey. Then you add cocoa powder, lots of nuts and then coconut and raisins. You spread it in a pan and then chill it. It is nice and chewy and sweet. It will definitely appear again at our house soon.

My Friend Vyd's Italian Ex-Boyfriend's Mother's Tiramisu - Part 3

So I completed the Tiramisu several days ago but have not had the time to put up the photos and the recipe. But finally here it is. And as I made this I came to realize that Tiramisu is not an exact science. The recipe is really a guide. As the title suggests the recipe is from my friends ex-boyfriend's mother. It got rave reviews from my husband. He kept saying "This is really good." So here is the recipe.

My Friend Vyd's Italian Ex-Boyfriend's Mother's Tiramisu

Yield is one 13 by 9 inch pan or plastic container:

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2+ cups Mascarpone(or ricotta)
1 tsp vanilla
Lady fingers or Biscotti
1+ cup strong coffee or espresso(if using a Mocha espresso maker do 3 Mochas worth)
1/2+ cup Liquor(Rum, Khalua or Amaretto)
Unsweetened Cocoa powder(to generously dust on top)

The first step is to separate the eggs. Mix the yolks with the sugar, mascarpone and vanilla. Then beat the whites until stiff peaks form. Slowly fold whites into egg/cheese mixture.

In a separate dish mix the espresso and liquor together.

Spread a small bit of egg/cheese mixture on bottom of pan. Put biscotti in espresso to soak aprox. 15-30 seconds(turn to let it soak into both sides). Then layer biscotti in pan. Then top with egg mixture. You can do 1 or 2 layers of biscotti depending on how amounts are working(with this recipe I suggest 1 layer). If you do 2 layers, lay biscotti the opposite way the second time. End with egg mixture.

Top with a generous layer of cocoa powder and any other decorative food item i.e. chocolate shavings or chips(or coconut like I did). You can also stencil designs with cocoa powder and powdered sugar.
Refrigerate 4 hours to one day. Enjoy!

A few notes about this recipe:

I put too thick of a layer of egg/cheese mixture on the bottom of the pan and I ran out of topping before my second layer of biscotti was completely covered so I had to make more egg/cheese topping to make up for it. So the first layer(of egg/cheese) needs to be thin or you should do only one layer of biscotti.

I used Amaretto because I happen to have some. I really liked how the flavor turned out(I do love Amaretto flavor, though). Also you could just use extra coffee if you wanted to skip the liquor.

I used biscotti because I couldn't find ladyfingers but I think that ladyfingers might work better.

If you are timid about raw eggs you could use some pasteurized egg substitute in the egg/cheese mixture(or leave egg out altogether) and then use whipped cream instead of whipped egg whites.

Also, in case you are wondering the sugar I used was called Demerara and it is an almost brown color. I tend to use this type of sugar rather than just white. Theoretically, it has a bit more nutrition and really great flavor.

I think that is all. Thanks, Vyd!

Here is a little poem about Italy to finish off this entry:

Italy

We had no idea
that the Duomo stood
resolutely behind us.
We would have talked of much
grander things, I am sure.
I suppose if we had been listening
we could have heard the Bell strike in its tower.

But we were children
listening to the crackle of leaves
as we kicked them out of the gutters into the air.
We had no idea of such elevated things
as High Renaissance Art and Ghiberti.
We were too busy rolling lemon gelati around in our mouths
and drinking out of fountains.