NYE 2019: "Kathy's Song" and Tiramisu

In an effort to keep my parents and their passions near even when they're home and I'm here, I present a series of songs and recipes from my dad and mom, respectively. Sometimes they go together. I find that that music always works its way into the dish if played in the background.

Monday, December 30th, 2019
Sockless in the kitchen, 10:30pm
for loved ones meeting at Vivian's on New Year's Eve

Dad deploys Simon & Garfunkel's "Kathy's Song"

Lyrics:
I hear the drizzle of the rain
Like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing
Tapping on my roof and walls

And from the shelter of my mind
Through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets
To England, where my heart lies

My mind’s distracted and diffused
My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you’re asleep
And kiss you when you start your day

And a song I was writing is left undone
I don’t know why I spend my time
Writing songs I can’t believe
With words that tear and strain to rhyme

And so you see, I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you

And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I

© 1965 Words and Music by Paul Simon

Mom taught this to me in middle school. Adapted from Megan's Tiramisu Recipe

Make zabaglione:
8 large eggs yolks, ½ cup cane sugar, 1½ cups Marsala wine
Whisk eggs and sugar together in a heatproof bowl, then place over simmering pot of water, and whisk fiendishly while gradually streaming in the wine. All done when it can form ribbons.

Make the cloud layer:
750g mascarpone cheese (four tubs of the kind from Trader Joe's!), 500ml heavy cream
whip mascarpone, whip cream, then fold your three creamy components into each other in order of increasing airiness (zabaglione into mascarpone, then that into whipped cream)

Assemble the treat:
2 cups strong espresso, 3 tbsp Kahlua or any other liqueur, 2 Tbs sugar, lots of lady fingers (about 3 packages of the kind from Trader Joe's)
Combine all but the cookies into a Pyrex pourer or just a mug. Make a bed of lady fingers by soaking them one by one* until their centers just give way and placing them side by side in a lasagna dish. Paint them with more of the Kahlua coffee, then top with half of the cloud layer. Repeat. Refrigerate overnight, dust with cocoa, and serve!

*Tip: before dipping, unwrap all the cookies you foresee fitting into the dish (recycle plastics and flatten cardboards! Disturbing thought from the break: do Bay Area things actually get recycled?). Allows for uninterrupted dips.

Wish I had a photo of the tiramisu, but it went away quickly, as tiramisus should! Here instead I present to you a mom's fridge so happy to see you that items topple out in greeting.