A Sweet Indulgence

As of late, one thing I have decided is there are just some things in the kitchen that should not be skimped on and my grocery bills have reflected it. Not that I’ve gone out and bought the most expensive everything and anything, but each trip to the supermarket, or maybe more like every other trip or every third trip, I pull out a list of what I consider “sweet indulgence” ingredients and buy something from the list — especially if I happen upon a sale.

Not everything on the list is expensive. Some items are just ingredients that I would not use very often, making it hard to justify purchasing them. Others are a bit on the pricey side but there are some ingredients you should NEVER buy imitation or knockoff’s of, it’s worth spending the extra money.

The other day while picking up a few items at a specialty fruit market (someplace I don’t usually go unless there is a sale of some sort), Hubby and I found a sale on mascarpone cheese. This cheese is best known for its use in tiramisu, but is a wonderful addition to many other rich desserts. A container that would normally be anywhere from $6.50 to $8.00, was marked $3.50 and the expiration date was not until the end of May. What a find! I picked up two containers knowing I would find a use for them.

Some nights I go all out on dessert for the family and spend half the day working on something special. Other nights they are lucky if they can find packaged cookies buried in the freezer. A day or so after finding the deal on the mascarpone cheese in between putting the finishing touches on dinner and serving it, I whipped up a mascarpone cream and soaked some fresh fruit in sweetened Marsala wine. Talk about a rich, decadent dessert!

Although this particular dessert was not something Grace could enjoy with her sensitivity to dairy, Hubby and Zeb devoured the custard bowls filled with the fruit and cream combo. If you’d like to see how I made it, check out my post on Simply Grateful Cooking for Mascarpone Cream with Sweetened Marsala Berries.

This dessert could probably be made with a less expensive cheese such as ricotta, but the rich, smooth mascarpone, albeit typically pricey, made this dessert “company worthy,” and for this sweet indulgence I am — Simply Grateful.

Advertisement

A New Spin On Chicken Marsala

I really had no intension of spending half a day working on dinner yesterday, but making homemade ravioli from scratch without a pasta maker takes a lot more time than I remembered. Check out the whole process and recipe on Simply Grateful Cooking, Chicken Marsala Ravioli.

I’ve made ravioli before, but forgot how labor intensive it is. I have an electric pasta maker, but that doesn’t work well when rolling out dough for ravioli, and the manual pasta maker I had I got rid of — why I’ll never know. Still, working with my hands and truly enjoying every aspect of this process felt good.

The only change I might make to the recipe next time is to double the sauce portion. Although there was “just enough” sauce, Hubby tends to like his ravioli/pasta swimming in sauce. And, since Marsala sauce is so tasty, dipping some bread in the leftovers wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Another new meal for the recipe book and enough for two more meals in the freezer, not a bad days work, and for this I am — Simply Grateful.