Adults Only Chocolate Cherry Mousse, A New Years Eve Story

My new years this year was very quite, due mainly to my husband being sick and me in a fair amount of pain. So our new years was celebrated with our parents (dad was also sick!). I decided that just because it was small didn't mean we didn't get to celebrate in style! I got out my Christmas day dress and mum dressed up a bit, though my husband and dad, didn't have the energy or couldn't see the sense in it! We had cheese and biscuits and pear paste, nuts and I made mum and I the lovely cocktail I made for the Nuffnang competition, White Nectarine and Butterscotch Schnapps. It tastes divine and it would have been so easy to keep on making them and drinking them! But we stayed with the one, I wanted to last until midnight!

So mum made some delicious salads,with gf Greek sausages n onion! I was in charge of dessert,I decided on an old favourite my easy chocolate mousse but this time I added a few things to it!

I thought of the flavour combination that we all like and was in the fridge and in the alcohol storage and decided upon a combination of finely chopped fresh cherries, marinated in a cherry liqueur (that I had left over from the GF Cherry Ripe Cakes). I'll give you the recipe shortly, it went down a treat, a nice change from the normal mousse and it actually made it lighter and not so heavy after a lovely feast for dinner (and the pre- dinner nibbles), it was new years eve, so resolutions didn't have to start yet!

After our dessert, we sat down with my parents to watch Hangover 2, which was much better than I expected, but both my husband and I didn't know what to do when the C bomb was dropped a few times with mum in the room! I have to say it was nice to have a small and relaxing new years eve, and to have it just with our parents. It's something that we will look back on for a long time and appreciate it, this maturity talk must have something to do with turning 30!.

We all managed to make the midnight fireworks, with our beloved dog inside, on the map, so the big bad fireworks wouldn't spook our 40kg German Shepard!

If you get the change, make the time to have a small family new years eve, it really is something special and less of a hangover in the morning (maybe if I had of been feeling better there may have been some more cocktails!)


Adults Only Cherry Chocolate Mousse

 Ingredients:

300ml (small) carton of thickened cream
1 block of milk chocolate (don't buy the expensive brands, they don't melt well, I buy Woolworth's brand chocolate and it works every time!)
1 cup of finely chopped cherries (cut around each side of the stem, then cut the remaining bits at the bottom)
Cover the cherries in the cherry liqueur, with 1-2cm above the cherries, place in bowl, cover with foil and marinate for at least 2-3 hours

Method:

Whip the cream with an electric (hand held) until cream forms peaks and becomes thicker. Break the chocolate up into small pieces and place in a microwave proof bowl, heat on high for 30 seconds, and stir with a wooden spoon, repeat this process until chocolate is melted. Fold in chocolate to cream. Add the cherries (not all the liqueur, the cream will curdle), get a spoon and spoon cherries into moussese, mix well. Place in small glasses and add a cherry, cut in the middle on the edge of the glass for presentation and enjoy!

Happy New Year to all.

Let me know how this yummy and easy dessert goes for you!