Wednesday, February 28, 2007

SHF #28 Food to Seduce

I absolutely couldn’t help myself — when I saw the theme for this month’s Sugar High Friday (food to seduce) I immediately had two great ideas: a Raspberry-Clementine Trifle and Raspberry-Prosecco Gelatin. The first recipe comes from my darling sister-in-law Tessa, who made trifles for our family’s winter solstice dinner. We called them “Get Laid” trifles — because they are so good and so tasty. The second is a recipe I love because it involves my favorite type of wine: prosecco. They’re an adult take on traditional jello and because the fruit is frozen while the gelatin is only cold, it creates a pleasing set of different temperatures in your mouth.


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Clementine-Raspberry Trifle


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Raspberry-Prosecco Gelatin


Clementine-Raspberry Trifle
Makes 6


The day before:


2 Pt. Raspberries
1/4 C. Sugar
2 tsp. Lemon juice
1″ Fresh Ginger, peeled and thinly sliced


Combine and toss, let sit two hours then refrigerate overnight. Discard ginger and reserve juice.


The day of:
3 Clementines, segmented and peeled
2 sprigs Mint, torn or chopped
2 tsp Honey
½ Vanilla bean, split and scraped [couldn’t find the beans, so I used Vanilla extract, which worked fine]


Combine all ingredients in small bowl and set aside

1/2 C. Water
1/2 C. Sugar
1/4 C. Clementine juice


Combine in small saucepan, bring to boil. Cool. Add optional splash of raspberry syrup

1 1/2 C. Heavy cream
2 Tbl. Sugar


Whip together to soft peaks.

1/2 C. Gingerbread cookies, crushed [or Shortbread cookies - I couldn’t find the gingerbread]
6 Lady-fingers or Italian coffee cookies


Garnish:
6 Gingerbread cookies
Sprigs of mint


To assemble, in six parfait/wine glasses:

Soak one half of lady finger in syrup for a few moments, place in glass
Top with spoonful of raspberries
Top with spoonful of clementines
Spoon in some whipped cream
Top with some crushed cookie
Repeat each layer and garnish with mint and a cookie.


Raspberry-Prosecco Gelatin
1 (6-ounce) package raspberry-flavored gelatin
1 cup boiling water
2 cups Prosecco or other sparkling wine, chilled
1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries, not thawed

Whisk the gelatin and boiling water in a medium bowl until the gelatin is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate until lukewarm, about 25 minutes. Stir in the Prosecco. Cover and refrigerate until the gelatin thickens but does not set, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour. Stir in the raspberries (bubbles will form in the gelatin mixture). Divide the gelatin among 6 Champagne flutes or individual dessert bowls. Cover and refrigerate until the gelatin is set, at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.

Friday, February 2, 2007

first spinning

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My very first skein of spun wool. Very exciting.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

granny square blanket

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The cat sortof throws the scale off — because he’s a very large cat on a relatively large almost-blanket. I made this blanket by simply making a really large granny square. The yarn is a really soft boucle, and it tends to bind to itself, creating a very flexible, soft fabric. Because it’s binding so well the checkerboard holes from the granny square pattern aren’t as big as they normally are in a granny square — so I think this will be a pretty warm blanket even with all the holes.