Flare's Flavorful Food

[Flare]

.....So anyway, since I sometimes like to take pics of the food I cook up if it turns out good, I decided to make a thread for it that I'll probably only post in every now and then, but I don't want to clog up other threads with my food and annoy people.

Channy you're welcome to stop by here and drool sometimes.

Anyway, my disclaimer is that I'm not a huge chef. I oftentimes don't want to cook because I'd rather be doing something else. But funny thing is, when I start cooking, I enjoy it. I especially love making new things, so trying out new recipes is something I do often. Usually they turn out good, thankfully... though I've had a few meals that I'll never make again.

Okay, enough blathering, and time to get to the good stuff. THE FOOD.

Here's mah dinner last night, and as an added extra, I even made dessert, which is rare (because making dessert means at least another hour in the kitchen).

First up:

This is the main dish, a wonderful pasta recipe that makes everything just go in one pot. Ah, the simplicity. We have a bunch of tomatoes actually growing in the garden this year for like the first time in my life, so I'm trying to use 'em up.
This picture I took when it was just starting to cook, so the colors are still real pretty. <3

And, all cooked now! That creamy look comes from the montery jack cheese you add in at the end, which makes it creamy and tasty. Oh gosh, this tastes great. <3 The basil and tomatoes have broken down more, so it's not as colorful, but it still has a good visual to it I think.
Anyway, it's mainly about the taste with food, in my opinion!

Now, on to dessert!

(Yes that pink surface is my countertops and no I don't like the color but it was built here before I was born and we haven't been able to replace it yet grrrr. Salmon counters....)

Anyway, here's the dessert! This is called an easy tiramisu mousse, and it is fairly easy to make and oh heavenly mother of all that is holy, this tastes beautiful. It has coffee flavor in iiiiitttt!!

Both of these dishes are easy to make, and the dinner one especially takes only an hour to throw together and cook, so if you need to make something quick but good, I'd recommend this.
I got the recipes off of pinterest, and if anyone's interested I can post a link to the blogs that had the recipes.


Okay, that's it for now! I'll probably write back in here a month from now. Hope you guys enjoyed this.

 

[trash panda]

Ohhhh muhhh gooooaawwwddddd. Stop talking and put that in my mouth.

 

[Joe]

That Tiramasu looks so good I don't even.

 

[Flare]

Ooooopen wiiiide Howl!



Howl> <Me

 

[Flare]

That Tiramasu looks so good I don't even.

Aw, thanks~! And it's tiramisu mousse, so there's no cake involved. It's just mousse. Everywhere.

Very rich, I warn you, but tasty!

 

[Jason Tandro]

You need a cooking show Flare.

 

[Octo]

poast...poast link to tirimoooseooo I need it. Please.

 

[trash panda]

Flare...please just keep posting pictures here.
Food is my crack. <3

 

[Mayo Master]

I support food threads!
Like others, I'm curious about the tiramisu mousse. I'm used to making tiramisu (based mostly on this recipe, just with moar coffee and get the ladyfingers really soggy), but there's no mousse (with egg whites) involved.

 

[Joe]

Flare...please just keep posting pictures here.
Food is my crack. <3

^ This. You're feeding a habit here. Keep it up.

 

[Mayo Master]

^ Well, food withdrawal can be pretty bad

 

[Kionae]

Anyway, here's the dessert! This is called an easy tiramisu mousse, and it is fairly easy to make and oh heavenly mother of all that is holy, this tastes beautiful. It has coffee flavor in iiiiitttt!!

Yeah... you can't say that and then not post a link to the recipe. That's just cruel.

 

[trash panda]

^ Yeah..."it's fairly easy" makes me think of this:

 

[Flare]

Okay guys, here ya'll go! http://www.crazyforcrust.com/2015/04/easy-tiramisu-mousse/

That's the link to the tiramisumousse (name courtesy of Octo).

Mayo, I'm curious about the tiramisu with the ladyfingers, it looks super good! Thanks for the link. We don't have ladyfingers, so that's something I'd have to find first.
I thought Tiramisu was usually made as more of a cake, with a layer of mousse stuff in the middle? I guess it depends on where you get it.

And Howl, as far as fairly easy goes... the steps are pretty simple. Now it does take me longer to make then the recipe claims; she says it takes 20 minutes, but it took me an hour.
Also, to give it a coffee flavor, she uses instant coffee, but I just brewed up a pot of strong coffee for my own, and put in about twice the amount that she does. It made it excellent. I also made whipped cream from heavy whipping cream, and didn't buy it premade; it's worth going the extra mile, so to say.

 

[trash panda]

So the pictures in this thrad inspired me to try to make something similar for dinner and...I pretty much think I'm just eating noodles and cheese for dinner.

 

[Flare]

And before/in case anyone asks, here's the link to the actual meal! http://diethood.com/one-pot-caprese-pasta-dinner/

Shame on you guys for only focusing on the 1,000,000 calories part of the meal.

 

[Flare]

So the pictures in this thrad inspired me to try to make something similar for dinner and...I pretty much think I'm just eating noodles and cheese for dinner.

I just posted the link to the dinner part of the meal last night, in case you want to take a look!
Just some advice, I added the cheese after the noddles were all baked.

 

[Channy]

Channy you're welcome to stop by here and drool sometimes.

Now, on to dessert!

 

[Mayo Master]

Thanks for the recipe!
Actually the other big difference with regular tiramisu is that your recipe has no egg. I felt misled by the "mousse" in the name, because mousse usually involves whisked egg whites until peaks, like one would use for mousse au chocolat.

I completely agree with you on the use of loads of strongly brewed coffee and whipping heavy cream yourself, it's worth it
I really like the recipe with the ladyfinger cookies. You have pretty much 3 layers: cookies soaked in coffee, mascarpone/sugar/egg yolk mix, and the whipped cream, and I usually stack 2 sets of 3 layers. In Canada, the ladyfingers are often branded as "tiramisu cookies", I could get them in Safeway (often in the baking goods section, instead of the cookie section, go figure) - if you're able to find Mascarpone somewhere, I don't think it would be too difficult to find the cookies either. If they really seem hard to find, maybe you'd have better luck in an "Italian" grocery store. My advice for the recipe with the cookies is to use plenty of coffee to make them soggy, and also keep the whole tiramisu in the fridge for a long time (it helps the flavors to diffuse) - best to prepare it the eve of when you want to serve it.

 

[Flare]

Oh, mousse usually has egg whites in it? See, I'm still not too knowledgeable on food terminology yet. In this recipe, the mousse is made with heavy whipping cream and mascarpone or cream cheese; I have cream cheese handy so I used that instead of mascarpone, which I don't know if I've ever used before, actually.

Thank you for all the tips too! There's a safeway in my town, so next time I'm in there I'll take a look to see if they have ladyfingers. Mmm, soaked in coffee...... *drool*

 

[Mayo Master]

For mascarpone, I was also able to find it in most grocery stores, carried by a brand called "Tre Stelle" (which also often carries fresh bocconcini and mozzarella). In comparison to Philadelphia cheese, mascarpone is creamier and is actually sweet.

If you're curious about mousse au chocolat: you need eggs, sugar and chocolate. On the one hand, melt the chocolate and mix the egg yolks and the sugar with it. On the other hand, whisk egg whites until stiff peaks. Finally, incorporate the chocolate mixture in the whisked egg whites, and then refrigerate for a few hours - you're done!

 

[Flare]

Oh, if it's sweet, than maybe it would taste even better in that mousse recipe I made. The cream cheese went in it pretty good, so I'm guessing either one will work great.
If you make it with mascarpone, please let me know how it turns out!

That mousse au chocolat sounds delicious. 0.0 Does it matter what kind of chocolate you use?

 

[Mayo Master]

I've made tiramisu with mascarpone quite a bunch of times - next time I can try to take pics when preparing it a post the documented recipe!
For the mousse au chocolat, you can make it with pretty much any kind of chocolate, but I personally prefer the dark side. I've found it hard to get good chocolate at reasonable price in North America - in France good chocolate is dirty cheap. Same problem with cheese and wine

 

[Flare]

Oh yes, dark chocolate all the way. I just wanted to be sure; I also like white chocolate, but for something like this, dark chocolate sounds awesome.
What France has that stuff cheap? Whenever I visit France, sometime in the future hopefully, I'll be sure to stock up and mail it all to my house in America ('course I'll still be paying taxes for it if I do that, but it's probably still cheaper... maybe..?)
I'm not a cheese connoisseur, but I do like a good mild/sweet wine now and then.

 

[Mayo Master]

I would recommend wine and chocolate; it wouldn't be possible for you to get cheese on the way back through the border anyway (they'd probably frame you for biological warfare).
For wine, I strongly recommend you at least get a liquorous white at a 10-15 euros price range, such as Sauternes or Jurançon. They can be found in regular supermarkets (in France, the wine section in a supermarket is pretty big). Alternatives in a similar style would be Loupiac or Montbazillac. I only was able to find that kind of wine in Quebec, where it was priced above $50. If you can get this kind of wine, then things will never be the same.