Hey all, I had a column published in The Orange County Register today. It’s not available on the newspaper’s site, so here it is! Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

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You can tell a lot about a person by the way he takes his chocolate mousse. A chocoholic may often choose bittersweet chocolate over milk or white, while daring palates may choose fruit- and alcohol-flavored mousses or those with herbs and spices over the traditional versions. A voracious eater will inhale a mousse no matter how rich it is, licking remnants off of his spoon while other diners at the table will slowly relish every bite. (It’s fun to watch and analyze your friends.)

Traditionally, the French mousse au chocolat is made with melted dark chocolate and egg yolks, using egg whites to lighten. Modern versions call for things like whipping cream and even gelatin to achieve the desired airy state. Purists may claim that the only real mousse is the traditional one, but in reality, you really can’t argue that any of the recipes that steer away from the original are wrong. The beauty of mousse is because there are literally hundreds of recipes out there, so you can choose a recipe to suit every mood and accommodate every taste.

A close cousin of chocolate mousse is the chocolate pots de crème, a dessert that’s baked and served in lidded pots. (Since most of us don’t have these traditional pots on hand, we can achieve the same baking results by using espresso cups and covering the custards with aluminum foil.) The ingredients are almost identical to those of the mousse (eggs, chocolate, cream), the reason being they are both in the custard family of desserts. Making a mousse almost warrants making a pots de crème, based on that fact alone.

The following recipes omit the use of raw egg whites, using whipped cream to lighten them instead. While a mousse is light in texture, a pots de crème is dense, with an almost chewy mouthfeel. A mousse is put directly into the refrigerator to chill, while a pots de crème is baked in a bain marie, or water bath, before chilling.

I like to serve the mousse and pots de creme side by side, for a “chocolate two ways” dessert – thought it might be a bit too rich for those not completely addicted to chocolate.

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Am I too late for this bandwagon?

If bacon has left the building and ham is the new swine product of choice, then I’m totally running a little behind on the up-and-up here. It’s like I got the memo that bacon was on the out, but I tossed it into a pile of other memos that include not wearing acid wash jeans after 1986 and how Pluto isn’t a planet anymore. Bacon is so last year, the memo says. Artisanal ham is what we’re supposed to be doing now. But guys, I dunno about this. The 80s can have its acid wash, but as for bacon and Pluto, I can’t let go. Not yet.

Pluto was that odd-tastic planet that was too faraway to see or understand until a few years ago. And apparently, scientists didn’t like what they saw, so it was hastily snipped out of textbooks and disowned by the planetary family. All because it was a “dwarf” planet. Harsh.

And bacon! What has it ever done to us to make us want to drop it like a hot potato? This bacon thing, to me, is not a fling. There is still so much to explore before we throw in the towel.

Fortunately, there are others that feel the same way with both Pluto and bacon. And if any of you bacon/Pluto fans are out there in hiding, you’re not alone. But we are indeed fighting an uphill battle, one that we may ultimately lose. But on the bright side, we can still keep bacon and the former ninth planet in our hearts. Pluto may have been nixed, but there’s still time for bacon to realize its full potential. And, if the meat candy’s decline is ultimately imminent, so be it. We tried.

But let’s send bacon out with a bang, shall we?

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This blog has seen better days.

There once was a vision for this pavlova. It was imagined as an elegant confection that would pay tribute to the very ballerina the dessert was named after. I’d stud the top with blueberries and glassy candied lemons, just as jewels and embroidery embellished the dancer’s costumes.

But then I ended up with this. It wasn’t quite what I had in mind.

I drew attention to each of its imperfections by piling on garnish after garnish in vain attempts to fix it. A haphazard spackle of boozed-up whipped cream, studs of blueberries and limp candied lemons do not an elegant dessert make. Especially if the candied lemons actually frown.

The fact that it’s delicious is the only reason I haven’t had my culinary degree revoked. But it’s hard to appreciate its taste when it looks like it took a head-first dive into the floor.

You’d think after all that, I’d have chucked it in the trash, stat. But here’s part one of two embarrassing confessions: It’s still in my refrigerator. Did I mention I made this three weeks ago?

For the past three weeks, I’ve noticed that its sides are falling and the blueberries have started fuzzing over, but for the most part, it still looks exactly the way it did when I made it (which as we all know, isn’t saying much). This thing is industrial. Its determined to keep itself together.

Which brings me to part two of two embarrassing parts: I can’t bring myself to toss it, because I keep thinking of ways to save it, even though I know it’s practically feral. And every time I open the refrigerator door, I think, if I could be as determined as this dessert, man, would I be a force to be reckoned with. But then I think, have I really just compared myself to a meringue?

Yeah, OK. I’ll throw it out.

(Click on “Read the rest of this entry” for recipe)
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