A Little Something Sweet

My finished version of Tiramisu di Pasty

I know money has been tight for everyone. It's been especially tight for us since I have not been able to work for going on two years now. So, since we have limited income and severe expenses we have to start cutting corners. One thing we can't afford to do is go out to eat - so we have to learn to be creative in the kitchen.
I was missing Tiramisu. It is one dessert that I really love. I don't know if it's the coffee or the filling or the entire thing together. I do know that if you go out to a restaurant and you are lucky enough to find it on the menu it will cost you over $5 usually. Way out of my budget right now.
Making this dish isn't cheap either. It has ladyfingers, which run about $5 or more at the store, more if you shop online and have to have them shipped. You can't always find them in the grocery store. Marscarpone cheese is another ingredient that isn't cheap either. If you are lucky you can find 8 ounces for about $8 or so, depending on where you live. Again, it isn't found in all stores. Regardless, the dessert was out of budget. So, what do you do?
Well, first you can become creative! I decided to see if I could find a substitute for the Marscarpone. I did. Here it is:
1 8 oz package of cream cheese (regular not the low fat)
1/4 c whipping cream
3 TBS sour cream (I used light to cut down on calories)

I then had a brilliant idea for the lady fingers. First, I didn't want a lot of calories. Second I wanted something inexpensive. So, I found a loaf angel food cake for only $1.98.

So, these two ingredients that would have cost me about $13 is now less than $5. But, I didn't want to get too excited. I still had to figure out the best way for me to make this low cost and lower in calorie. The original recipe called for a lot of eggs - which means a lot of cholesterol. Not good for me.

So, I put the cream cheese, whipping cream, and sour cream in the bowl and started whipping. I let it sit for a bit. Then I read the recipe for Tiramisu and decided to go ahead and add the liquor. We have a bit that has been around her for ages. I found an orange liquor left over from last Christmas. I decided to use it in place of cognac or rum. Now I figured that if I really wanted I could even put in a vanilla extract, coffee extract, or even a rum extract if I wanted. I started whipping and then realized that I probably wanted to add some sugar. I added about 3/4 cup of sugar to the mix (give or take because I just sprinkled it in until I liked the flavor.) I realized that it was getting fluffy without the egg. Brava!

I had sliced the angel food cake into three long pieces. I then started dipping them in some strong decaf coffee - strong so that it would hold a coffee flavor and because the original recipe calls for espresso. I noticed that the angel food didn't absorb the coffee like the lady fingers. No worries. I just dipped them and turned them, and then I sprinkled a little more on top and let them sit for a bit.

After this I went ahead and layered the dessert like the original recipe. Angelfood on the bottom, cheese mixture, angelfood, cheese mixture, until the cheese layer was on the top. I didn't have the chocolate bar to make the nice pretty curls on the regular recipe so I improvised.

I sprinkled the top with cinnamon instead of coacoa powder, and then I just used some of the kid's chocolate syrup to make a squiggle. I decided to do this because as yummy as it sounded I still wanted it to be a family friendly dessert.

I let my youngest, who is skeptical about all foods that aren't pizza, have a small taste before chilling (which I recommend doing for at least an hour before serving.) He liked it!

So, not only was I able to make an affordable nice dessert, but I also managed to cut on calories and fat. I'm feeling pretty darn good about that right now.

My Day In NYC - Part II China Town and Little Italy

The awesome thing about NYC and going to Chinatown is that when you walk up from the subway onto Canal Street and you're there. It's so easy.
The first thing that happened when we entered the street was a very nice old Chinese lady that I thought had to be confused. She was talking to me in Chinese and I was saying to her, "I'm sorry, I don't understand." Evidently in her dialect of Chinese this means, "Please repeat what you said louder." To which I replied again, as politely as possible, "I'm sorry, I still have no idea what you are saying." Which again, must mean, "Just say that one more time to make sure I get it right." The last time she was just disgusted with me and walked away as two other young Chinese women looked on in great amusement. Later I discovered that "Gucci" is not a coincidental word in Chinese. In an aha moment, and about three other very nice Chinese women later, I realized that they were walking the street trying to sell us purses or perfume, or whatever else they may have had hidden in an unknown location. This brought to mind the words of wisdom from the hotel clerk who said, as we left the hotel, "Remember, don't pay more than $30 for a purse."

The stores were narrow and very crowded, even though it was the middle of the week. The standard phrase of every single clerk was, "I'm going to make the best deal for you." However, you soon learn that they are all mostly the same price with the same deal. A silk scarf is $5 on either side of the street. Yet when you walk around the corner onto Mulberry Street toward Little Italy, which connects with Chinatown, the prices increase. Chinese motive is interchanged with signs for pizza, tiramisu,  and the Italian flag. Italian men are on the street in front of the restaurant offering you a seat and a glass of wine. They are quite charming. But most interesting was the monk I saw walking down the street in a brown robe heading to an unknown location. It was like something out of a movie watching this heavy set bald topped man in brown wool with a rope belt moving through the city streets. Leaving the restaurant we found nestled in between two buildings was a Catholic Church down what could have been an alley lined with statues of saints that were hoarding offerings of food and coins to answer the prayers of the believers.
Besides finding excellent pizza, the best tiramisu on the planet, and a place where I could buy fresh cannoli's I was most intrigued by a man that did Chinese calligraphy on the street. He held a small cartoon book with yellowing pages in one hand and a pen in the other where he carefully stroked images onto a white piece of paper. For $5 you can get a picture with your name. For $10 he will frame it. The trick on this one is, however, the name pictures are put on pre-printed factory pictures and not on his beautiful artwork. It is worth $5 to just stand there for a bit and watch him work, however. Not even the people that sold the same name drawings on Staten Island offered the same talent as this man. When I return to NYC I will look for him again.
Although I did not buy a painting we did buy enough in our little trip to have to buy not one but four burlap bags from Nepal to fit our goodies into. Two of these can be seen in the photo from the previous post as Brenda has them wrapped around her neck on the subway as we travel toward our adventure to the Statue of Liberty.