Amarena Cherry Tiramisu

and slowly making a home.

Bonjour!

I hope you are well and slowly starting your week - it was bank holiday yesterday in the UK - so today feels like a slow Monday :) My weekend has been rhythmed by the children and the garden! My husband and I are working hard (well he is!) on making our overgrown new garden to be more kids friendly and a peaceful place where we can have our friends over. We looked into getting some help, but it was a very big expense for something we felt we could do ourselves. It has been so fun to see the transformation over the weeks and I am so very proud of my non gardener husband for taking it in his stride to get it done!

I feel that we are so used to see things happen quickly, a quick transformation here and there, but building a garden and a home for yourself takes time, and I am here to enjoy the journey! It is also worth to say that when you get the dream home you have worked so hard for and saved every single penny you have to get it, it means things will have to wait. I keep taking photo memories in my head, printing my children being so small, crawling over the garden or my kitchen floor. Thinking about what it will feel like in 10 years and how PRECIOUS those moments are.

Because I remember my parents buying their dream family home when I was 5 years old. My little brother had just come along and our little 2 bed house wasn’t big enough anymore. His moose basket lived in the bath because that was the only place. My sister and I shared a double bedroom since I can remember, and I can only recall how happy we had always been there. We got our own room in the new house, but every Sunday I was back in her bed, feeling safe and ready to restart the week, next to my big sister. My parents had been putting all their savings into their farm for a decade (the egg farm my mother took over from my grandparents) and 3 kids later, they finally had enough deposit for their dream family home. Crazy to think they’d borrow at 12% interest at the time. I remember the first night we all slept in a couple of double bed on the floor in my soon to be parent’s new bedroom. Something my husband and I did with the children when we got our new home. Felt like a butterfly moment. (No I am not getting emotional writing this at all…!)

When I take new friends to my family home, I always tell them my house is very much eclectic and especially filled with life and memories. There is a wall dedicated to trinkets my parents brought back from their world travels (built by my dad of course). They used to go on a 10 days “research trip” every 2 years with a group of farmers, To explore the methods of egg farming practiced globally. It allowed them to explore countries they would have never thought of going to. I am so happy they embraced those opportunities, as I firmly believe it broadened their perspectives and, in turn, made us more open-minded as well.

This is how I want our new house to feel. Not to look picture perfect and with ‘things’ that have a meaning and represent memories. We like to buy small original arts when we go away on big trips and I am definitely a sucker for Antics and vintage pieces. We also already have inherited some of my husband’s family small furniture and that makes me so happy!

Anyhow, I really went on a tangent here, but I just wanted to remind myself (and I guess you) that making a home takes time, and the journey is all worth it! So don’t sweat it, make rush decisions or get into debt for something you can’t afford right now. It won’t increase your happiness. The longing for it and the small steps along the way will :)

La recette : Amarena Cherry Tiramisu

Since I am talking about my home and my family home. Amarena is mine and my dad’s favourite flavour. The sweet almondy nuttiness of those candied cherries is everything my taste buds can dream of. Paired with a soft biscuit and a luscious mascarpone cream only makes it even more decadent.

Serves 4 to 5

• 2 tubs of Mascarpone (2 X 240g)

• 2 tbsp double cream

• 100g soft light brown sugar

• 3 eggs

• 100g Amarena cherries (two dozens of cherries and their juice)

• a dozen of boudoirs

• pinch of salt

• pistachio to sprinkle on top

Method

1. Separate the eggs into two bowls, adding the sugar to the egg yolks and the salt to the egg whites - reserve this one. Use an electric mixer to whisk the egg yolks until pale. Add the mascarpone and the double cream and whisk for a few minutes until smooth and slightly thicker.

2. Whip the egg whites to hard peaks with the electric mixer. Gently add the egg whites to the mascarpone cream with a spatula.

3. Drain the cherries into a bowl and keep the liquid. Add a couple of table spoon of water to it (you can also add Amaretto here if you want alcohol) and this will be your dunking liquid.

4. Assemble the Tiramisu by soaking the boudoirs into the liquid and spread at the bottom of you tin. Top with a dozen of sliced cherries and cover with the mascarpone cream. Repeat with another layer. Make sure the boudoirs are well soaked.

5. Keep in the fridge for at least 3h or overnight. Sprinkle with pistachio on top.

Le mot de la fin

I wish you have a good week this week and thank you as always for reading me. I have a big deadline coming up this week so this will take my entire focus! Last week was also filled with creating fun content for some amazing partners and hosting my own event with Yse’ which was fun and rewarding. AND this week is my daughter’s Nursery Graduation party … which I will of course cry to. I can’t believe she is starting school in September. My baby girl. Anyhow, love to you and bisous,

Manon xxx