sunrises and triple chocolate tiramisu

Life moves fast, and i'll be out of here before i know if, so I'm trying to get out of the house a little more and enjoy myself while i'm still in Tahoe.  In that spirit, Matt and I got up and watched the sunrise again today, this time from emerald bay (the same place i went to this summer when i watched the sunrise with Reyna).  Below are some pictures from this morning and it is followed by the photos of the tiramisu that I made for italian night potluck last night with the recipe.  Enjoy!

taken with old reliable - my canon point and shoot

taken with new and exciting - my pentax dslr

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Triple Chocolate Tiramisu

made from the recipe here, except garnished with shave white and dark chocolate instead of unsweetened cocoa powder, I also used chocolate covered coffee beans when I served it, but theres no picture of that.

Start by lining the bottom of an 8x8x2 in pan with lady fingers and then drizzle with coffee or espresso:

Next combine heavy cream, mascarpone, sugar, vanilla, and chocolate liqueur and beat until it forms stiff peaks:

 

then spread half of it over the lady fingers in the dish:

next sprinkle it with white and dark chocolate shavings:

another layer of lady fingers:

more coffee:

Then the rest of the cream mixture followed by some more chocolate, cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hrs:

Then enjoy!  it came out pretty delicious, and was much simpler than i had anticipated to make.  Some tips:  I bought the lady fingers, piping and baking them was too much work for me.  To find lady fingers at the grocery store ask at the bakery counter, they had them in the freezer and had to go back and get them for me.  Also, mascarpone cheese is much harder to find than i had anticipated.  Call around and figure out who has it before you start shopping so you don't have to do what I did and go on a three grocery store long epic grocery voyage to find it.  I eventually found it at a Raley's, not with the other cheeses in the cheese case or near the ricotta, cream cheese, or cottage cheese but by all the fresh salsa's and dips in one of the other refrigerator cases...of course that could just be Raley's because pretty much that whole store makes no sense to anyone who grew up with east coast grocery stores that have logical order.  Also, if you can't find mascarpone then there are a few substitutions that i've heard work.  I stopped at home to look one up on my way to the third grocery store on my epic voyage so that if I could not find it then i could at least buy a viable substitute, this is the one I picked: 8 oz of softened cream cheese, plus 3 tablespoons of sour cream, plus 2 tablespoons of heavy cream (liquid, not whipped)

give it a try, let me know how it goes.

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cookies and big decisions.

I don't know where to start but i'm going to try to spell this all out for whomever still reads this and for myself.  Recently, after a few glasses of wine, I got to thinking about what my life would be if I stayed here in Tahoe for another year, like I have been planning on doing for a few weeks now.  I made the decision to stay but the anxiety about what I am doing with my life didn't go away; it didn't feel like anything was solved or going away, it felt like I might be making a mistake.  Don't get me wrong, I love it here and it is quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire life, but it just doesn't feel quite like the right fit. I love my friends and of course potlucks are amazing, work is going well and I know I would have been content with another year at the conservancy BUT I feel like thats what happens to everyone here...once you get here its easier to stay and barely scrape by money-wise, and make do with the work and social life that you have instead of going in search of better because it is so beautiful here that its intoxicating.  When I go out and look at the mountains and the lake I can't believe I would ever leave this place, its truly an artist's and a photographer's dream!  The only problem is thats its just not me, I just don't fit, and how long am I going to put up with feeling like a square peg in a round hole because its easy and pretty and because so many others feel that same way and have put up with it for years?  I'm a woman of action and when things start to get uncomfortable or less meaningful or no longer ideal I do something about it.  I'm not going to wait for things to become meaningless or even painful before I go, the idea is to leave yourself wanting more, not less.  So its goodbye Tahoe for me, because I do love it here, but thats not enough anymore.  Now when I have a few glasses of wine I feel no anxiety, its sad that I'm going, and I'll miss everyone here terribly, but I know I'm doing what I need to do and I'm blazing a new path and and seeking out new experiences...and it feels right.  This is what I do, I keep looking until I find just what I want and then I go for it, its who I am, young and completely free, following my heart.  It feels right.

Sooooooooo with that said I will be peacing out of beautiful South Lake Tahoe come mid-February and hitting the dusty trail on a second epic cross country road trip...to visit friends and new cities and find out just where I want to go next.  Last night I baked cookies and this morning I got up to watch the sunrise, its time to start living up my last days here.  So here are my cookies, Ultimate High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies from this recipe, which came out great because I used a high altitude recipe (it'll be pretty sweet to be able to just bake things again, without fear of collapse or oily mess...).  Here are the resulting cookies:

Yayyyy cookies!  I have tons of them now, even though I made them HUGE soooo if you are in South Lake Tahoe and you want a cookie or 2 gimme a call and i'll be happy to share!  

This morning Matt and I got up at 6:30 to go watch the sunrise at the upper truckee marsh, it was so beautiful but not the best viewing spot, so perhaps tomorrow we'll look for a better one.  Anyway here are my favorite shots from this morning, not bad but I'm still getting used to my new camera and I'm pretty sure I can do better...so stay tuned, I'll definitely be taking more photos in my final weeks here because I want to take as much of the beauty with me as i can!  

First rays of dawn

Sunrise behind the trees and mountains

hey...its me!

Epic shot of Mr. Matt

The sun sneaking over Mount Tallac

Sooooo gorgeous!

Sun kissed mountains and lake and protected Tahoe Yellowcress habitat...this is the only place it grows in the WHOLE WORLD!  sweeeeeeeeeeet.

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if you can dream it you can do it

This week's potluck theme was "if you can dream it you can do it!" and for it I decided to challenge myself a bit and make something I have never made before.  I opted for Baked Alaska and the results were pleasantly surprising!  So heres a recipe with some photos so that maybe you can enjoy this too sometime!

I got the recipe from the Ghirardelli Chocolate Cookbook that came out in 1982 (I ave the revised second edition) that I found at the thrift store in North Lake Tahoe this summer.  Ghirardelli is a San Francisco based company so all of the recipes have a California theme and this one was called "Mount Shasta Baked Alaska" which seemed pretty appropriate.  To start you bake a sour cream cake:

Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

2 oz Ghirardelli semi sweet chocolate

1/4 c water

1/3 c butter

1/3 c white sugar

1/3 c brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg + 1 egg yolk, beaten

1/2 c sour cream

1 c cake flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

melt the chocolate and water together stirring constantly over low heat and set aside.  cream the butter and sugars together and then add the vanilla and eggs and beat until fluffy, mix in sour cream and set aside.  add all the dry ingredients together (sift them together if you can).  next alternate adding the chocolate and dry ingredients to the sugar/butter mix until all is incorporated, batter will be fluffy and stiff.  I used a 9 in spring form pan, buttered the bottom, then laid down wax paper and buttered that too.  pour the batter into the pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes, let cool completely.  

butter and sugar; dry ingredients; chocolate

 adding chocolate mixture to the batter

adding dry ingredients

the finished batter

Now I baked this dish over the course of 2 days so i'm counting these photos as one day...

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Next its time for the Alaska portion...for this you need a pint of ice cream, flavor of your choice, and you need to let the cake cool completely because that is one of the steps that I botched.  I chose vanilla ice cream and softened it and stirred in some blackberries.  Then you heap it on the middle of the cake, leaving about an inch of cake bare around the edges.  Throw the whole thing in the freezer and let it harden.  This is where I went wrong, my cake felt cool, but still had some residual heat in the center which melted the ice cream into a puddle in the top of the spring form pan even in the freezer.  I recovered quickly though, scraping the ice cream and blackberries off the top while it was still mostly liquid and into a tupperware.  I left both in the freezer overnight and then tried again with much better results in the morning.  I left it in the freezer all day until potluck, then I brought the cake/ice cream combo, a bowl, electric mixer, spatula, measuring spoons, half a cup of egg whites, half a cup of sugar, some vanilla, salt, and cream of tartar with me over to Geoff and James' house for potluck.  Right before we were ready to dig into the desserts (of which there were mannnnyyyy) I whiped the egg whites up to soft peaks, added cream of tartar, salt, and vanilla, then while continuing to mix I added the half cup of sugar and continued until it formed stiff peaks.  This is scooped out and dalloped all over the top of the cake and ice cream to make it look like a snowy mountain top.  I pooped the whole thing into a preheated 450 degree oven for 5 minutes and serve.  Here are the results:

ice cream and cake pile...you can see the mess i made when i melted it...

The Final Product

Yummm.  Yay for potluck!

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today, the day before yesterday, and the day before that...

I have been taking photosss, I am just so out of the habit of posting them on here that i forget completely.  I'm getting back into it though, and I'll get to 365!  So here is Wednesdays photo:

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Here is Thursday's photo, from a walk I took along the river:

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And heres one for today, this is the first loaf of yeast bread I have baked at altitude, I was very intimidated at first because I am a little intimidated by yeast breads anyway, but this one came out very well!  I made whole wheat oatmeal bread from a recipe in the Vegetarian Epicure cookbook that my momma gave me.  I'm pretty proud of how well these loaves turned out!  Take a look for yourself, I can share the recipe and more information about the cookbook if anyone is interested!

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deep breath...

Hello friends...I have been so absolutely terrible about updating this lately that I'm pretty sure no one still reads it, but for those of you that do I've decided to post a little update (and of course a photo!).  Its a new year already, holy moly how time flies when you are having fun!  I have made a resolution to finish my photo project (which I can hardly call one photo per day anymore can I?) in 2011 and dagnabit I will!  I have also made a resolution to get better at applying for jobs - I have been slacking a bit lately, applying to new opportunities with the same tired resume layout that I've been using since August and its time for a new look and some new luck, so a resume face lift has begun!  In other news I have a part time job now at a cute little dog and cat boutique called DogDogCat here in South Lake thats helping to hold me over on my expenses until I find out whats next, but really anything could be and thats the scary part.  I can't survive on what I'm making for long, so its job or home to mommy and daddy where I can hide from real life expenses like rent and utility costs until I get back on my feet.

The stress of being completely unstable 3000 miles from home with a steady income that can't support me and the looming end of my loan forbearance, not to mention the recent end of my AmeriCorps health insurance and Blue Cross is still reviewing my application for my new plan, added to the stress of finding something that I truly want to do next, instead of just something that pays the bills has tied the muscles in my back up in painful knots and now i'm spending most of my down time wrapped in heating pads with my eyes closed taking deep breaths and assuring my subconscious that everything is going to work out just fine.  Today I slept in until 11, worked on my new and improved resume in bed until 1 and then finally got up to clean my room, wash the dishes, shovel the driveway, and walk to the grocery store, only to be back in bed by 8.  I am trying to slowly go through my belongings and trim off some of the excess weight with thrift store donation piles so that if a trip back across the country does become necessary, I can still fit my life in my car.  I love Tahoe, but do I love it enough to go bankrupt trying to stay here?  No, I really don't.  I can already feel my muscles tensing up just writing about it all, its time for a change, and all change is good change in my book; its all about finding your next adventure, not matter how bumpy the road that leads you there.

Heres to hoping all of you are ringing in the new year in a (hopefully) less stressful but equally exciting way!  Much Love, Shelby

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