Vegan Velvety Chocolate Mousse (I Craved, I Conquered And . . . Morning in The Garden)

Recent events in my life lead to this dessert. Mainly stress. Chocolate is my salve. At my whit's end, the chocolate gods were smiling down at me. I feel quite accomplished after this mousse. Proud, giddy. Secure in knowing that this once most-craved dessert item can now go back into our rotation. Grant it, I had to really get creative. There is NO tofu in this. (You all know how I feel about tofu.) Plus even better--no baking! I'm slowly getting over some of my no-tofu-for-me-thank-you-very-much opinions. But not completely.

A few weeks ago I ordered Alice Medrich's new cookbook: Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts. I am such a fan. I have her cookie book as well: Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy. It has inspired me in my cookie baking countless times. I began reading the new Sinfully cookbook as soon as it arrived. I'd marked four recipes to try and hadn't made it half way through the book yet. Then, put the book away as I had other needs to attend to. But percolating in the back of my mind was the plethora of recipes--some chocolate, some not. What landed me on the mousse? Two words: Food Processor. The recipe she shares is called, Bill's Food Processor Chocolate Mousse. I've seen other recipes calling for the same directions in mousse prep. For some reason, this recipe, for this particular moment in my life was exactly what I needed. 

It all began with my blog disappearing.

Last week, I woke up to "blog not found". I re-typed my address, carefully this time, using two hands, putting down the mug of coffee I was clutching. Again: Blog Not FOUND! What the? So I typed my blog in the search box, perhaps there is some "blogging tech" stuff happening that I was unaware of: a "temporary take down would occur". I must have missed reading that email. Typed again. Nothing. Panic. Heart racing. Sweating. (Beyond the normal "flashy" stuff I have Every. Single. Day.) My hands began to shake. Next call was to husband. I'm slowly feeling big sobs coming on, but try really hard to keep it together lest I create panic and shouts of WHAT's WRONG? ARE YOU OKAY. . . ARE THE DOGS OKAY? over the phone while he's at work. I finally found my words: My. Blog. Is. Gone. It's . . . gone. Three years of my life. Poof. Then the crying set in.

Well, let me first say, not only is Dr.Thyme a trained scientist, he is a techie. A techie evovled. He loves computers. There was a time when men of this ilk were thought to be a bit "geeky". Today--in fact this very day, a geek will be cashing in on the biggest public offering the world has ever seen, i.e., Geeks Rule.

My husband, upon hearing my sobs and pleas of, Where. . . How. . . What. . . Who?--went into geek action. He'd solve this.  

With help and kindness and research and emails--and after only one full night of not sleeping, my blog is back. I found her at four a.m. while clutching a mug of tea, sitting up in bed, unable to get my head around my disappearance, ready to down my third valerian root capsule to calm my nerves--I typed my blog address for the umpteenth time, and like magic, I was back. Oh the humanity. I cried. I looked at my blog. She and I had a moment. I found myself again. I hope to never have to endure this again. And thank you to my very dear husband for some amazing detective work. Thank you to Google for some excellent customer service work. Just thank you. 

Now back to the items of the day. My raised beds grew by two over the weekend. (I think it might be fair to say I may have a "sickness" with all this vegetable growing obsession: Hello, My name is Kelly, I'm a vegetable raised-bed addict.) Rest assured, I've exhausted most of the sunniest spots around the property. Short of covering the entire front yard in tomato cages, I think I've come to a happy stop. 

I love the morning. I walk the grounds. I watch the bees. The bumble bees are my favorite to watch. They work like machines digging into any and all flowering, pollen-laden shape they can. I watched this guy plunge head first into every flower on this stem. I had to get a picture. Look at his little legs dangling there. Too cute.

My bell flowers are blooming. I love this native plant. Needs no tending to, comes back year after year. They are splendid.

 The most prolific Asiatic Lillies I have ever seen in my garden.

My hydrangea is finally blooming. Gorgeous blooms this year. 

On the lower back side of our house, there is the place I added four new beds in late winter. Now, with new dirt, newly planted tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, basil, cucumber--you name it, I have some very, very healthy looking tomato plants thus far. But for my eggplant, that's another story.

 Flea beetles. They won't kill my plant. But I'll be darned if those things didn't find these plants. How is that possible?

I companion planted with tee-pees this year around my vegetable beds. Using the tee-pees for things like climbing cucumbers, planting salad greens underneath for harvesting through the summer. The variety of cucumber coming in is something called an "apple cucumber"--round and yellow. I can't wait to try this new variety.

I began my winter squashes in peat pots. I read that one way to discourage the nasty squash bugs is to plant the winter squashes in pots, then transplant the pots on a hillside after the pumpkins have begun to flower. It's better than nothing. Those squash bugs are no joke, and they'll destroy an entire plant in one evening. I want winter squash this year. . . or else! 

 I decided that my fear of my compost pile needed to be addressed. So, I am growing zucchini and pickling cucumbers here. So far the deer have eaten every single bloom from my plants. But I thought this was a good start for me overcoming my fear of "the compost pile".

The latest raised bed additions to the back yard. This is IT. I promise. 

This is a viburnum bush. There are dozens of varieties of viburnum bushes out there. This one happened to come with our house--it is over six feet tall and five feet wide. It is absolutely the most heavenly scented bush I have ever encountered. When it's in bloom it's covered constantly with bees and bee buzzing. I love this bush.

 Watching. 

Vegan Velvety Chocolate Mousse

*Adapted from Alice Medrich 

7 ounces of chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli--half a bag)

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk (I used So Delicious brand)

2 tablespoons sugar or agave nectar

1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup Silk Soy Creamer

2 tablespoons corn starch

1/2 teaspoon canola oil

fresh ground pepper (*optional, but imparted something wonderful!)

fresh berries (*optional, but why would you not?)

Get out four bowls for the mousse. You will have to refrigerate the mousse for at least four hours for it to "set". Overnight would be better--so planning ahead might work best. Either way, the mousse will "set" in about four hours.

Measure out the chocolate chips. Basically, I used a half a bag of chips--into a food processor. Pulse the chips until they are fine and crumbly. Leave them in there for now. Next, place the coconut milk, sugar and salt in a small saucepan and heat just until the sugar dissolves and the milk bubbles around the edges. Remove from heat! (This will only take a few minutes, you don't want it boiling--so keep an eye on it.) Whisk the milk mixture a bit while it is heating up to dissolve the sugar. Carefully pour the milk through the food tube feeder while the processor is running until all the chocolate has melted. In a small mixing bowl, stir together the 2 tablespoons of canola oil and vanilla extract. Add this to the chocolate mixture, pulse a few times. Finally, pour the creamer into a medium mixing bowl and with a hand held mixer, beat the cream until it is quite foamy. *It will not thicken up like normal creamer. After 2-3 minutes of mixing, add 2 tablespoons of corn starch and a 1/2 teaspoon of canola oil. Now the mixture should begin to thicken a bit. It will not thicken like a whipped cream, but it will gain more "body" and have a lot of bubbles over the top of it--that's fine. Add the chocolate mixture to the creamer mixture and blend together for a minute. Divide the mixture into the serving bowls and place in the fridge for cooling. After approximately four hours, the mousse will be ready. Serve with berries on the side! Delish. Super delish. I promise!