Thank you, thank you Mandy! I haven’t been keeping up with my posts lately for a few reasons – we’ve been busy finalizing all of the design and selection details for the kitchen remodeling project (just a few more details and then about a month wait for the cabinets); we’ve had such glorious weather here in Massachusetts that I’ve had to get out and make hay while the sun shines (no, I don’t have hay, but I’ve got plenty of weeds); and I have a nice batch of photos to share but alas, they are stuck in that black hole called Windows 8 (I’m going to try tipping the computer upside down to see if they’ll fall out). So when I saw Mandy’s idea to do a post on “Getting to Know You” I thought it would be a great idea to reconnect with my blogging friends and sneak in a little, tasty treat at the end. I loved Mandy’s idea of a no pressure, if you feel like it, post of answers to a list of questions to get to know each other better. If you’d like to join in just add your post and link to Mandy at The Complete Cook Book. Oh, and if you do…. be sure to ask her about her new and exciting bay and olive wreath making business!
1. What is your favourite non-alcoholic drink?
Coffee
2. What is your favourite alcoholic drink?
Mimosa
3. What is your favourite food?
Lobster – boiled dipped in butter
4. What is your least favourite food?
Tofu – is that even a food?
5. What do you eat that others think is really weird?
Chicken liver
6. What is your favourite thing to cook/bake?
Cinnamon rolls
7. If you could only chose one, would it be sweet or savoury?
Savoury
8. What time do you usually eat your dinner during the week?
6:30 or 7:00 pm
9. What kitchen item/s have you never owned?
A pressure cooker but I only got a food processor a year ago
10. What tip would you give to a newby cooker / baker?
Let other’s help you
11. What is the best vegetarian dish you have eaten?
Eggplant armesan
12. What is the easiest meal you can cook?
American Chop Suey
13. If you could only grow 3 herbs in your garden, what would you grow?
Basil, parsley & chives (chives aren’t really an herb are they?)
14. What would you use as a substitute for salt?
Got to have salt
15. What 5 items would you pack for a quick and easy picnic or day out?
Cheese, fruit, crackers, Genoa salami, and a bottle of wine
Now about that Raspberry Mousse…
Ingredients:
2 Large bars of white chocolate, chunked up into pieces
1 1/2 Cups of fresh raspberries
1 Cup of whipping cream
– Puree raspberries in food processor or blender
– Melt chocolate in a double boiler (or use microwave in 30 second intervals)
– Whip cream
– Set aside the melted chocolate in the top of the double boiler & set raspberries over the bottom half in a heat resistant bowl to warm the raspberries
– Slowly stir the melted chocolate into the warmed raspberry puree – I did end up putting this back into the food processor to really blend the chocolate & raspberries
– Fold the raspberry chocolate mixture into the whipped cream
– Refrigerate for about 4-6 hours and garnish with raspberries…maybe a little mint leaf
Photographs and recipes 
I’d answer those questions in a similar fashion. Especially tofu. What’s that stuff all about. Like slimy nothingness. Your raspberry mousse looks delicious!
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For the life of me I can’t figure out who ‘discovered’ tofu never mind why they thought it was a good idea to put it in your mouth. Someone decided to buy some for me once because they insisted that I needed to give it a try. It sat in the fridge for a good long time – talk about slimy – by the time that went out it was a lot like that stuff you had in your sewers.
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That raspberry mousse looks absolutely yummy! I would probably eat tofu too, but my person never buys it.
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I think your person’s very smart Bongo. If I gave some to Lola I have a feeling I’d find it hidden behind the couch…Lola will eat just about anything but I think she’d draw the line at tofu!
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I love getting to know you my friend 😀
And getting to know this delicious mousse!
Cheers
CCU
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Believe me, that mousse is now one of my best friends & something I’ll be making again.
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Diane, thank you, thank you! I am thrilled to bits and pieces you took part in the fun! I loved reading your answers and I forgot about tofu – I’m with you on that one and I would love to visit with you in your new kitchen to enjoy one of your cinnamon rolls – of that would be fun!
Have a beautiful day friend.
🙂 Mandy xo
PS. About the wreath business…hmm…best I get cracking!
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It’s easy to forget about tofu.
You know what I realized after you said that you had olive trees? I’ve got these wild olive trees that are taking over the property. I imagine they’d be just a good for wreath making & if I start stripping the leaves now maybe I’ll kill them off – they’re a tad bit invasive! I’ll be the US distributor & you should be able to handle Africa, SE Asia…we’ll go global.
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BRILLIANT plan! xo
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Great set of answers, Diane. I don’t object to tofu as much as you do. I’m too busy trying to get rhubarb & cilantro banned from from the Western Hemisphere to worry about tofu. Maybe, once I’m successful …
I bet your mousee is a great treat, especially now with so many really fresh berries available. It’s so easy to make, too. I need to come up with an excuse to make this dessert, one that doesn’t involve other people. 🙂
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Ah, cilantro….I seem to end up with that on everything I order these days at restaurants. It ends up on the side of my plate because I think I’m with you on that one. When you’re ready to join me in the ban tofu crusade just give me a call – I’ll take the east coast, you take central US & we’ll need to find someone on the west coast – oh wait, I think they actually like it on the west coast!
You need to try this mousse & it’s so easy that you could make it every other day. It makes 4 good size servings so 2 per day should cover you on half your fruit/vegetable daily requirement.
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This mousse looks wonderful and easy… yum! I would love to share come coffee with you, along with that mousse, and then maybe a dinner of eggplant parmesan, in your new kitchen of course. (Dessert first, as usual!)
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Anytime …. current kitchen should be coming down in about a month or so, a month for install so it would be a perfect time to come see our fall foliage.
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You and I would have the exact same picnic! I refused to buy a machine with windows 8 in it and made the little man go out to this back room (in the computer shop) and find me an OLD machine with 7 on it, (covered in dust and massively marked down.. boy am i glad i did.. 8 sounds like a shocker.. c
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I like to keep things simple on a picnic. You made a great decision with holding off on Win 8! At least we had a lot of help from the people at Office Max who just took back our first try at it. They even took off all the trash that Microsoft graciously loaded on to “enhance” our on line experience w/ads & pop ups but I’m still having problems with this damn thing & don’t have the energy to spend hours going through tutorials & forums.
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What an absolute bore, evidently they have realised that they made an error and no you can download a more straightforward version. but i bet it comes with all kinds of rubbish.. I just hope that when it comes time to get another computer (and they really do not last that long) that they have gone back to the stuff we all know and can USE have a great sunday.. c
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Lobster and chicken liver! You can come and live with me, and I’ll send my husband away – he won’t eat either of those things with me! 🙂 I’m sorry to hear your photos have been eaten – what a pain! x
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My husband will eat lobster every day of the week & we’ve had 2 years in a row now where the price has been so cheap…well, you just have to buy it. I can’t get my husband to even consider eating liver though which is why I sneak it into my roast chicken stuffing.
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Diane, I so love coming to visit your site you always have me laughing, sometimes so hard there is no sound that comes out. I can’t wait to see this kitchen renovation! In the meantime when you turn your computer upside down to get those photos out, maybe the instructions for using windows 8 will be there too. You never know… I am right there with you I love eggplant in any form and eggplant parmesan is delightful. However, I think I would like to start with dessert first as this 3 ingredient raspberry mousse sounds so delightful. Take care, BAM
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Oh you are so sweet & I love to have you visit too. I’m just trying to pin down a tile guy right now & then all I have to pick out are knobs & faucets….oh wait, no, I have to get the sink for the half bath too & I’ve fallen in love with soapstone. I’m so excited though because the cabinets are on order so I’ve got about 1 month to start purging from my current cabinets. How in the world am I going to go from 3 junk drawers down to 1 or 2?
I see no reason why raspberry mousse couldn’t be a starter….it’s sort of like a fruit salad.
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It is always so much fun to stop by not only for your posts but your interactions with your readers. Not only do we know you want to ban tofu but cilantro is picked out of your food. 🙂 I know you are excited about your new kitchen. If you are thinking of soapstone, there is also a granite that looks very similar when honed.
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What a lovely comment Karen and thank you. I do love chatting with all of the readers & blogs that I follow. It reminds me of when I was a kid and we used to actually write letters & put a postage stamp on the envelope. It used to be a big deal to have pen pals and I still remember how exciting it was to hear from people, especially in other countries.
Funny you should mention the granite for the sink. My designer mentioned that too. I think we’re going to go with something like that for the bathroom sink but now I have to track down our building inspector. They can’t put a drain hole in a soapstone or granite sink & apparently some towns have restrictions on bathroom sinks w/o overflow drain holes! Now I ask you – why should they care if I should leave the water running & overflow my sink? You’d think I could take care of some things myself.
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WOW,IT WAS GREAT TO KNOW YOU,WE SHARE THE SAME DISGUST WITH TOFU…SOMEHOW HOWEVER MANY TIMES WE HAVE TRIED,WE JUST CAN’T GULP IT DOWN….THAT GLASS FILLED WITH RASPBERRY DESSERT IS SO LOVELY TO LOOK AT,THE BURST OF PINK IS BEAUTIFUL 🙂
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Thanks for stopping by & I’m happy to see that we’re not the only people puzzled by the desire to put tofu in our mouths. So glad that you liked the looks of the raspberry mousse – it really was delicious & so easy to put together. I’ve also been enjoying a stroll through your blog – very nice.
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