Has Anyone Seen My Brain?

My brain is officially MIA (missing in action). If anyone's seen a grey, squealchy thing, sulking in a corner and refusing to come out till the stress is over, please return it to me.

My son came home from college for a weekend to help us paint the deck. It's a 5 hour drive each way (although in his case it's probably more like 4). Such sacrifice is not to be sneezed at; it should have cookies made for it instead. When I offered fresh cookies to take back with him he was on that offer like a boy who hasn't had fresh cookies since the last time he was home.

He requested these cookies. No problem. I'd made them many times and they really are delicious. But he also wanted to catch an episode of a funny TV show he'd missed. No problem. We had it on the computer in the kitchen so together we watched and laughed as I baked. Then I pulled the first batch out of the oven. Problem. They were all flat and spread out.

My cookie baking experience told me that this was a case of not enough flour. But I'd made this recipe before and didn't have to add extra flour. I double checked the amount in the recipe and on my blog - same amount both places, just the amount I remembered carefully measuring out.

I sent my son home with a bag of cookies and apologies that they didn't turn out better. My mind still churning over why they didn't turn out, I set to cleaning up the kitchen. And I discovered the bowl with the carefully measured out flour, baking powder, and salt sitting behind the mixer. Aaaaahhhhhhh!

So, what's a girl to do with a batch of huge, flat, slightly greasy cookies that no one really wants to eat? The obvious answer, scrape them into the bin, is beyond me. I simply cannot throw away perfectly good perfectly adequate food.

I had recently made this luscious pudding from Nigella Express and the thought of the pudding arced and sparked with the conundrum of the crumb puddle cookies - Pie!

I crumbled up the cookies, pressed them into a pie pan, baked at 425 deg. for about 10 minutes, then let it cool completely. Then I made the pudding. When it was cool, I whipped about 2 cups of whipping cream and carefully folded in the pudding, then poured the mousse into the pie crust and chilled it.

Why do I not have pictures of the pie to show you? Well, we ate it all. Yes, every last gluten-free crumb. It was creamy, smooth, sweet, and delicious. The chocolate nuggets in the "pie crust" were a taste and texture surprise in every bite.

So, like a 19th century children's book, I close with a moral. At the first sign of failure in the kitchen, don't give up. The only sure sign of failure is a smoke alarm. Most other disasters can in some way be saved or given new life in another form. Oh, and don't watch distracting television shows while you're baking.

Fabulous Chocolate Pudding
- adapted from Nigella Express

1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup cocoa ( Dutch will give a darker color, but regular is fine)
2 Tbsp boiling water
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 oz dark chocolate, finely chopped

1- Either in a saucepan or in the microwave, warm the milk and cream together.

2- In another saucepan mix the sugar and cornstarch. Sift in the cocoa. Add the 2 Tbsp of boiling water and whisk to a paste.

3- Whisk in the egg yolks, one at a time, followed by the warmed milk and cream, and then the vanilla extract.

4- Scrape down the sides of your pan and put it on the heat, cooking and whisking for about 3 to 4 minutes, until the mixture thickens to about the consistency of mayonnaise.

5- Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the finely chopped chocolate. Pour the chocolate into 4 small cups or glasses, or if you're going to make a mousse with it, into a bowl.

6- Cover the surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate till cooled. To serve in the cups, bring to room temperature and garnish with a blob of cream. To make the mousse, fold the pudding gently into whipped cream.

As you can tell, the pie recipe is not one that you have to follow to the letter. If you want to play with it, have fun!

Clipboard Magic

It's been said that some people are born organized and some are not. My sister is a B.O., I'm a not. As a child she truly puzzled me. She would vacuum her room - without being told to! My idea of cleaning my room was shoveling everything on my floor under my bed and hoping my mother wouldn't lift the dust skirt to check.

I once went to a women's group seminar with many options of classes to take. Two that I signed up for were organizing your time, and how to quick-clean your house. The time organization class handed out charts to copy off and fill in daily with to-do's, errands, and appointments, scheduling in chores, breaks, and personal time. What a great idea! Or it would have been if I hadn't put the piece of paper in a stack of other "important" papers and then lost it.

I had high hopes for the quick-clean class. My house was always a disaster area. With two little kids at home my living room was always wall to wall toys, my laundry room looked like a bomb went off in it, and my bedroom was central headquarters for anything without a home. I was lucky to be able to find the bed to crawl in at night.

With anticipation that this woman could solve my pigsty dilemma, I sat with pen and notepad in hand. Instead of rocking my world with the magic words that would clean up my house, she gave tips like, "When company's coming over in 5 minutes and you haven't had a chance to really clean, give the vacuum cleaner a quick run around the floor and go under the chairs. The tracks will look like you've moved furniture to vacuum when you haven't really." Hellooooo - I couldn't find the floor to vacuum it. If company was coming over in 5 minutes, I'd just have to lock the door and pretend we weren't home!

I did eventually learn, with the help of this lady, that even if you're not born organized, you can learn it. And once you've conquered the towering mountain of laundry, tamed the toy monster, and put all the dishes back in the cupboard where they belong, you can invite guests over. Which involves more organization. Enter the clipboard.

My B.O. sister showed me this one when we hosted the 50th anniversary party for our parents. She wrote down the party start time on paper, worked backward for each recipe and wrote down start cooking times, start marinating times, peel shrimp times, etc. Then throughout the day she'd check the clipboard and bark instructions at the appropriate time. Everything went smoothly with very little stress. Sarah has already tagged her aunt to be Clipboard Captain for her wedding.

If you're a B.O., this will seem like, "Yeah, so?" But for a non-B.O., such as myself, it's a lightbulb moment. Get organized, get it on paper, give the paper a place to live (clipboard) so you don't lose the paper, and all you have to do is follow the instructions. Brilliant!



So what does that have to do with today's recipe? It's a fabulous dessert, perfect for pampering your family or impressing guests. You can easily put this together at the last moment, or, if you've taken the time to plan, make it early in the day so you can relax with your company and then pull this showstopper out of the refrigerator after dinner. So whether you're organized or not, you can still have a great dessert with friends.

Mousse in Minutes

1 Cup milk
8 oz. Semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 cups whipping cream

Place the cream cheese in a large mixing bowl.

Place whipping cream in a separate large bowl.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, chocolate, sugar and cocoa.

While the chocolate is melting, beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Don't overbeat, or you could be on your way to making butter.

When the chocolate is melted, pour it over the cream cheese. Beat this well and scrape bottom and sides of mixing bowl a few times to be sure all lumps are dissolved. When the mixture looks like rich chocolate syrup, gently fold in the whipped cream. Scrape bottom and sides of the bowl to make sure your mousse is well-blended.

Put it into a clear glass bowl or individual serving dishes. Garnish with your choice of whipped cream, candied violets, chocolate shavings, truffles, or edible flowers. Or you can put it into a chocolate crumb crust for a double chocolate mousse pie. Store it in the freezer, then pull it out an hour before serving time.

Fit For A Princess

22 years ago I had a little girl. She was 9 lbs, 14 oz. with a shock of black hair and sweet, pink cheeks. We named her Sarah, because in Hebrew, Sarah means Princess. This past week we celebrated that occasion. It wasn't anything big, just a nice dinner with her fiancee over. Some champagne. And a cake. Of course a cake.

I was slicing the cake when my husband said, "This is the last birthday of Sarah Craig." What?? Was he having an evil premonition? It took a moment for my champagne-adled brain to register that next year at this time she won't be a Craig, she will be married. She'll be in her own place with her own wonderful husband. I'll still bake her a cake, if she wants, but it won't be the same.

I'll no longer be able to rouse her out of bed to come out on the deck and take pictures of food because the morning light is just perfect. She is the reason my blog looks so good. She is a professional photographer who does my food pics out of love.

She won't be here to do a yoga video with me. Or tell me that my outfit is dowdy and needs to be changed. Or say, come snuggle in bed and let's watch an episode of The Office together.

She won't be moving far. Not out of state or out of the country. But it won't be the same.

She won't be here to tell me, "Mom, you look so hot!" and make me laugh. I know we'll be on the phone together a lot, but that's not the same as watching the entire 6 tapes of Pride and Prejudice while we have the flu together.

I'm so happy for her to be marrying a terrific young man who loves her whole-heartedly. They will have a wonderful life together. But I will miss her. Even though I'll see her often, it won't be the same.

When I asked her what birthday cake she wanted, she said, "Something fruity. And pretty - so you can blog it."

So I picked a recipe that combined ladyfingers with a sweet, tangy raspberry mousse and topped it with a crown of raspberries. It was delicious and we all gobbled up our pieces. Here is the recipe . I need to go get a tissue.

Sarah's Raspberry Princess Mousse Cake
adapted from Taste of Home

1 6-oz package raspberry gelatin
1-3/4 cups boiling water
2 packages (12 oz. each) frozen sweetened raspberries, thawed
2 cups heavy whippping cream, plus extra for garnishing
23 ladyfingers
Fresh raspberries for garnish

1- In a large bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in raspberries. Refrigerate until partially thickened. (I had to go do an errand at this point and when I returned, my gelatin had set. I just let it warm up a bit and broke it up with a fork.)

2- Whip cream till it holds semi-firm peaks. Fold whipped cream into gelatin mixture.

3- Arrange the ladyfingers with rounded sides out around the sides of an ungreased 9-inch springform pan. Carefully spoon raspberry mixture into the pan.

4- Cover and refrigerate until firm. Garnish with whipped cream and raspberries.

Makes about 12 servings.