Sun, Smoke and Sunflowers
I went into the farmland near Woodinville this past weekend with my daughter to meet up with some of her friends and their moms. When I was on a bridge over Lake Washington, I could see a giant plume of smoke over the Cascades but it all was being blown north. So I made the lovely picture above but with a slight turn of the head, pink/orange/grey smoke. It was almost 90 degrees and every gust of wind was an oven-blast reminder that Seattle usually is cooler and wetter by the middle of October. My friend from NYC said - why is everyone telling me to move to the West Coast when it’s always on fire? Because nature is right there, and usually it’s great. Until it isn’t.
Aside from that hot farm outing our family went to the Mariners game that went 18 innings. It wasn’t a boring game. It was a game of emotional endurance. Oh, and all the vendors were closed so there were long lines to get water from the water fountains. My daughter and I started imagining plots to dystopian novels where thousands of people were trapped in a stadium. “What would you do Mom?” “I’d try to get out… how about that pedestrian bridge over there?” Little kids ran around the upper outdoor deck while the sunset was a beautiful but chokingly smoky sky.
Tiramisu
Dear Italians, tiramisu with or without cream and egg whites?
We hosted an au pair from Poland that loved to make tiramisu. To make the raw eggs safer to eat she would do the following: fill a small pot with water, heat until boiling. Briefly dip the eggs in the boiling water for a very short amount of time, maybe 20 seconds? I can’t remember how long. Her point was that she was taught most of the contamination was likely on the outside of the egg, and by heating in boiling water for a short time the likelihood of bacteria getting into the mix would be greatly reduced.
I am a fan of the original recipe I found on the outside of a Buonomi ladyfingers package. It has the classic ingredients: egg yolks beaten with sugar, then add mascarpone, then whip up egg whites and fold those into the main mixture. It’s so easy. I don’t understand why there are thousands of recipe results on the internet for this classic.
I also wanted ladyfingers, but they are not for sale at Trader Joe’s, QFC or Costco. I didn’t feel like making a special trip to Whole Foods just for that, and I didn’t want to pay Amazon just to have lady fingers delivered.
Stay tuned, this Thursday I’ll have a mini podcast on the delicious topic of Tiramisu!