Monday, January 28, 2013

Tiramisu for Children

I love making tiramisu and it is so easy to make. What I do not like about it is that I cannot give any to my son because of the raw eggs, brandy and coffee. Since I think it is much healthier to give him sweets that I make at home, rather than bought, I had to come up with something to replace the classical tiramisu.

It goes like this:
- 20 pieces Savoiardi (lady fingers)
- a bowl of chopped strawberries (I don't have a precise quantity for this, but the more, the better)
- 500gr mascarpone
- 200gr vegetable liquid cream (spelt d'avoine in my case)
- 2 Tsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp agave syrup
- 1 mug good quality naturally decaffeinated coffee
- vanilla

- Start with brewing the coffee, add some vanilla and let it cool. I don't add any sugar, as the lady fingers are sweet enough to my taste.
- Secondly, put in a bowl the mascarpone, the liquid cream, the sugar and the vanilla and mix well. When it looks quite compact, let it rest in the fridge until you prepare the rest of the cake.
- Chop the strawberries into small cubes and add the agave syrup if they are not really sweet. If they are naturally sweet, don't add anything. Set aside.
- Put the cooled coffee in a recipient that allows you to dip the lady fingers one by one. Don't let them stay too long or they get too juicy. Just drop them in and take them out. In a tray, arrange the moist lady fingers in a mosaic.
Add the strawberries
....and then the cream from the fridge.
Leave the entire thing in the fridge for a couple of hours or more. Enjoy!
It does not taste much like the real deal, but it is still pretty yummy. If you want it to be with winter fruit, you can make it with oranges and replace the vanilla with cinnamon.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Rose-rich new year

That's what I hope for in terms of gardening: a new year with plenty of roses, roses for indoors and roses in the garden. Of course, there's more to gardening than roses, but I tend to develop an obsession about them. Well, I've heard of worse obsessions than this. I also have a few other things I wish for in the new year: - a better garden in terms of plants arrangement and quantity of blooms - taking more regular notes about what's going on - taking more photos with my camera instead of my phone And to prove that the third line is more of a wish than a resolution, here's a first one I took using the new version of Instagram, so yes, using my phone. There is a smal arrangement I made with some cypress twigs and oriental hellebores
On a different note - there's been a lot of bulb planting that I did in October and November and the first leaves are showing. However, the most developed ones are those I planted last spring and now they give me a surprise, a nice one indeed, since I was not sure they were going to bloom after being planted in April while in full bloom. Now, I am afraid of ugly forsts that would most certainly kill them - I am talking about hyacinths and tulips. Another very nice surprise came today, while I was cleaning a bit and I noticed two bunches of snowdrops that are fully grown and are about to bloom any time soon. I did not plant those, mine cannot be seen yet, I planted them kind of late. After a 3-weeks holiday, I came back home to a garden all prepared for spring. During my entire absence, there hasn't been a single night below zero. Now all the roses have buds for new branches, the delphinium is trying to send new shoots and the irises are also showing new growth. It is not supposed to be so at this time of the year and I do pray for warmer months, dreading the frosts we had in February 2012. L.E. a couple of pics taken with my camera :)