Martha Monday: Jewelry Storage

Two Monday's ago I had chosen the Martha Monday project for everyone to do and then everyone went and did it but me. The idea was to use a watercolor paint palette to organize jewelry, especially earrings. I had actually bought the palette in plenty of time. My problem was that I couldn't find my earrings! That is why I'd chosen the project in the first place. By the time I'd found enough earrings to put in the palette the next Martha Monday had already rolled around. Anyway, I'm finally posting my picture. I liked this idea. It's not really the most attractive storage but, tucked into a drawer, it's perfect. The other problem is that it doesn't really hold a lot of earrings, if you are a real jewelry addict, but for someone like me who doesn't wear lots of jewelry it's just the thing.

Martha Monday: Chocolate Marble Bread with Ganache

Believe it or not, I actually accomplished this Monday's assignment on Monday and even took pictures. Finally, on Wednesday I'm getting around to posting about it. The task was to make this Chocolate Marble Bread slathered in ganache. Yum! How could anything so full of butter and chocolate be bad? The quick bread was fairly easy. The only thing I did differently was to melt my chocolate in the microwave rather than in a double boiler. Less dishes. I baked the bread for a little over an hour, turned it out and cooled it. Then I nuked the cream and poured it over the remaining chocolate chips to make ganache. Once I spread it on I couldn't wait to try a piece so I cut a slice, took a photo, and chomped away. It was quite tasty, moist, and fine textured. I had used bittersweet chocolate rather than the semi-sweet and really liked the chocolate flavor it had. I don't know that I'd add it to my repertoire of quick breads, though. It was impressive enough. Now, this recipe for Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze is a keeper and a fresh new way to use up those bananas you keep forgetting to eat. Try it!

Daring Bakers Challenge: Tiramisu

I'm a few days late getting my Daring Bakers Challenge posted because, of course, I procrastinated and finally got it put together on the very LAST day of February. This challenge, in my opinion, was not difficult but had many steps on the way to the final product. The challenge was to make homemade mascarpone cheese, ladyfinger biscuits, zabaglione, and pastry cream. Once assembled with a bit of whipped cream, espresso, and cocoa powder all these element became Tiramisu.

The first thing I tackled was the mascarpone cheese. Having made ricotta, I was a bit over-confident in my ability to make this. All I had to do was heat cream to 190 degrees, add a bit of lemon juice, heat a little more, cool, and strain. BUT, even though I followed the directions, the mixture didn't thicken like I expected. I strained it but almost all of it just ran through into my bowl. Sooooo, I put it in the refrigerator just like that. The next day I took it out and restrained it. Tah-dah! Mascarpone cheese! It had thickened up and the watery whey came away. It was very creamy, smooth, and yummy.

Then I made the lady finger biscuits, or savoiardi. These, too, were really simple. Just eggs, sugar, and flour. They really didn't taste like much but I knew they would hold a lot of flavor when dipped into espresso.

Finally I whipped up the zabaglione which is a custard made of egg, Marsala wine, sugar, and lemon rind. And a pastry cream, also a custard made from egg, milk, sugar, vanilla, and lemon rind.

Once everything was chilled properly, I whipped up a cup of cream with some sugar and folded this into the pastry cream, zabaglione, and mascarpone to make a delightful creamy mixture. I dipped my savoiardi into sweetened espresso and layered them with the cream. This was chilled for about 7 hours. After a sprinkling of cocoa powder I sliced into it and served. The verdict? Pretty good. Three of us sampled it and all agree it was tasty. I personally didn't care for the Marsala wine flavor and might make the zabaglione with coffee instead of wine were I to make this again. Or, honestly, I might just stop in at Olive Garden and order their version.

To find the recipes, learn about the hosts of this month's challenge, or to become a Daring Baker yourself go to the Daring Bakers website.