I had picked out 15-4: Fruit Salad with Chocolate Sauce specifically because I didn’t think I’d have a ton of time to cook last week, since we took Memorial Day week off to work on some home improvement projects.
I even took EVERY shortcut I could think of to shrink that time commitment down even further (plus, my kitchen was out of commission most of the week), so this will be…we’ll call it truncated. You’ll see what I mean after the jump.
This one has intrigued me for years…when you’re a kid, it looks absolutely magical. Almost like Ice Cream Mountain, if you know that reference.
As an adult, 15-6: Royal Court Dessert just looks like a sugary headache. Turns out, it’s a little bit of both.
They’re right that this is a pretty quick and easy dessert to make. The hardest part (for me) was actually finding the meringues themselves. I guess I could have made them myself, but that is neither quick nor easy.
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On the heels of 19-8: Coffee, Tea, & Chocolate I, I happened to recently make a somewhat-related recipe, 15-22: Cappuccino Ice Cream. I love coffee ice cream, and so does my mom. However, this recipe is NOT what you (or I, or she) would have expected by that title.
I bring my mom up also since it’s just about Mother’s Day (or might already be by the time you read this)–maybe don’t make this one for your mom though, unless she likes coffee slushies. Again, even that sounds better than this actually is.
We’re closing in on the 11th anniversary of this project, and if I ever have hopes of finishing it (which I still do), I need to figure out a strategy. I’ve spent enough time in my real life learning how to “professionally” manage projects, so I’ll apply some of that here and aim to knock out at least one recipe a week until I finish everything non-meat-related. Then I might just dump the rest online and call it a day.
You don’t care about any of this–you’re here to read about 15-46: Mousse Casablanca, right? Everyone wants to “jump to the recipe” already.
Blah blah something about how this is fancy and 80s.
Here’s the thing with this recipe–it seems too “kiddy” to be an adult dessert recipe, but is also something you most likely wouldn’t serve to kids (unless you grew up as a quasi-adult like I did). I’m not sure who this is supposed to be for?
In an attempt to finish off last year’s Christmas dishes (XMAS 23) before this year’s Christmas gets here, here’s 16-22: Apricot Swirl Cheesecake. Probably more of a summer recipe, but whatever, cheesecake is good any time of year. I made this together with 16-20: Chocolate Mousse Cake, because you need both a chocolate dessert AND a fruit dessert.
Fun fact: this may look okay-ish in the picture, but trust me, this does not go well. Jump behind the cut for the details (and mistakes).
I had high hopes of catching up on this thing in a timely fashion, but let’s face it–we’re all surprised I’m even still updating it all at this point. The 10-year anniversary came and went a few months ago without much (or any) fanfare, but I AM still here–just not as attentive as I used to be. Let’s face it–a LOT has changed over the last 10 years. No plans to completely let it die yet, but I would be lying if I said I hadn’t considered it.
Anyway, here’s 16-20: Chocolate Mousse Cake, which was one of two desserts I served for Christmas 2023 (XMAS 23).
Seemed Christmas-appropriate, plus it’s gluten-free! That doesn’t matter to anyone that’s in this house, but someone out there might care about something like that.
If you’re still in the “indulgent” spirit, 15-15: Tiramisu comes highly recommended. I remember when tiramisu had its big moment around the time this book was published, so it’s not surprising that it was included in this book.
This is a great one to make in advance of a party or dinner…just don’t sneak too many bites before you serve it!
Because it takes me a while to get around to writing these, it often works out that I’m writing about winter recipes in the summer and vice versa. Sticking with that theme, I present to you (in December) 15-24: Monterosso Ice Cream. Hey, at least it’ll be timely if you’re in the Southern hemisphere. I bet you guys are tired of everything being geared towards the Northern hemisphere anyway, so this one’s for you.
In case you were wondering, Monterosso is a coastal village in Italy, and it looks very nice. Totally giving me White Lotus S2 vibes. I can’t seem to find anything that associates a certain type of dessert or ice cream with the town, but I did find some recommendations for gelato in case you’re ever in the area.
I’m (more than) a little reluctant to post 15-5: Strawberries Romanoff given the current state of the world, but I made it over a year ago and I need to get it out of my queue, so here you go. And yes, that’s really how long it takes me to get to these sometimes.
Strawberries are in season right now, so this is somewhat seasonally appropriate (but perhaps not politically so). I’m not sure being from the “courts of the Russian czars” is much of a selling point anymore these days (although arguably, it probably wasn’t much of one in the late 1980s-early 1990s either), but it is what it is.
You can find ways to support the people of Ukraine here. 🇺🇦
Happy New Years’ Eve! 2021 has not been my favorite year (probably not yours either), and so I’m not sad to see it go–in fact, we’re going to celebrate its departure with a holiday-ish dessert today: 15-34: White Chocolate Strawberry Soufflé. This soufflé is not baked, but does include meringue being folded in. I’m not sure if that makes it “not a soufflé,” but at this point, does it matter?
“Dramatic” is definitely a good way to describe this past year, so perhaps this is the perfect dessert/recipe for today. However your 2021 has been, I hope that 2022 is a safe and prosperous year for you and yours.🎇
Now–let’s get off the heavy stuff and into something much lighter–discussion of this “soufflé”.