Sneak Peek: Anna & Travis

One sneak peek from the latest engagement photo shoot... congratulations Anna & Travis!

Homemade Tiramisu

Ingredients:
- 10 eggs
- Sugar
- Salt to taste
- Marscapone (roughly 2lbs.)
- Rum of your choice
- Package of Lady Fingers
- Freshly brewed coffee, cooled (or orange juice for a summer taste)
- Fruit of your choice, an option
- Cocoa (or cinnamon for summer taste)

Separate the 10 eggs, white from yellow (or red as they call the yolks in Italy) into separate bowls. Add 10 tbsp of sugar to the yellows and mix with a wooden spoon. I learned a very important note about eggs... always stir in the same direction you started! Add a pinch of salt to the whites and blend with a mixer until foamy (or like merengue). 

Mix the Mascapone into the yellows and stir until smooth. Take one shot of rum and add to yellows. This was originally meant to weaken the overall egg taste,  so not too much or it will be too bitter. Slowly add the whites to the yellows and gently mix, from top to bottom, almost folding into one another until color is a pale yellow.

Pour the chilled coffee into pan for dipping. You can use orange juice for a more summery taste. In a baking dish, pour some of the egg batter to fill the bottom. Open the lady fingers and gently dip into the coffee, then placing on top of the egg batter. The lady fingers will fall apart easily if they are soaked too much. Repeat pouring egg batter and placing lady fingers until dish is full. You can add fruit in between the layers for additional taste. Refrigerate for two hours or so. Upon serving, shower with cocoa overtop, cinnamon for a more summer dessert!

Humanae by Angelica Dass

"Humanae is a chromatic inventory, a project that reflects on the colors beyond the borders of our codes by referencing the PANTONE^® color scheme." A very cool way of looking at the Pantone world around us... thank you Angelica Dass. Now I just wonder... what PANTONE^® would I be?

Before you cook tonight...

Online Presence: The Great 2012 Purge

To go along with an earlier post about Online Simplifying, I've been off and on searching for sites I've joined and how each is benefitting my life, my past, and my future. The largest "purge" to date included my Groupon, Shutterfly, Ancestry.com, and Twitter accounts (along with other smaller sites!). Though I see the benefit by having these accounts, they aren't useful if you don't use them. I found myself spending more money, instead of saving with Groupon... I was buying gift certificates to places I would have never spent money in the first place. And with Twitter... I think the concept of sharing knowledge minute-by-minute is great, however I would rather continue my daily routines without the world knowing about it.

Have any of you tried to look at your overall online presence? It can be a bit overwhelming when you finally take a step back and realize how many sites have eaten up your time. I hope you can find some encouragement in this post to at least look into it! And talk about personal safety... all of your information floating around, whew. Be on the lookout for one additional Italian recipe this week and new picture from Venice!

Ciao, ciao.