Mushrooms and dessert

Yesterday we found ourselves with a great big roast of beef, so of course we had to have extra everything to go with it. Nothing succeeds like excess. 

I continue to forget to take pictures of food that I make, most of the time. 

We cooked the beef low and slow, following this recipe. I have never cooked a piece of meat at 250ºF before, but it worked most excellently. The meat was nicely red, tender and delicious!

I found a side dish in my book of the month, Mushrooms in Lemon Marinade. It is easy and tasty, but sort of more a salad or appetizer than something to serve with a roast beast dinner. Cook mushrooms and garlic, add some herbs and lemon juice, salt and pepper, and voilà. We thought it might be good to cook the mushrooms more than the recipe says, but as it was, they were chunky and chewy and salady, which is nice. 

I have had this cookbook for 20 years or so, and I remember making the Coffee Ricotta Mousse and thinking it was super delicious and creamy and great. You just take a 454 gram container of ricotta cheese, add 1/2 cup of icing sugar, a couple of tablespoons of instant coffee and a splash of vanilla. Feel free to add a bit of booze as well. Mix it all up! 

This time, the first time I made it in years, I used low-fat ricotta and skimped a bit on the icing sugar, and it was not as great as in my dreams. The ricotta didn't get smooth, although I whipped it with my electric mixer. There were little grains of cheese and as it sat it got a bit watery. We didn't have any good booze for it (they suggest brandy, but Kahlúa would also work!) and I guess if you don't use the fat, sugar and alcohol suggested, you can't really complain if the dessert is not quite up to scratch! 

I could still eat the whole thing at one sitting, though. But didn't. 

This seems to be becoming a food blog, and I'll see what I can do about that next time!