If you give a mousse some cream

The snow forecast lead all the schools in the area to declare today a snow day well in advance, so yesterday I rushed home to make preparations....er, actually, I rushed home to make mousse. Same thing, right? I went to my neighborhood Italian market to pick up ricotta cheese and whipping cream. Let it snow! First, 2 cups part-skim ricotta with 3 TBSP unsweetened cocoa. My addition, which I highly recommend for a BIG flavor bump, is a bit of espresso powder. Throw these things in the food processor until heavenly smooth. Then scoop out every last morsel with your Pampered Chef scraper and put into a big bowl. Put 2 large egg whites (best if they're at room temp, but I couldn't wait), 1/2 cup sugar (I used less), and a pinch of salt into a glass bowl on top of a little pan of simmering water. (Your bowl shouldn't touch the water---and don't boil the water, just let it simmer.) Whisking the whole time, cook until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is warm---around 3 minutes.

Then, take the glass bowl out and use an electric mixer to beat the egg white mixture until it forms stiff peaks.

To prove they are stiff peaks, hold the bowl upside down over Lucy's head and watch her squirm.

Yep, those are some stiff peaks.

Then FOLD a big dollop of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Ahhhh, folding.....a favorite technique that I could drive into the ground, so will try not to here. If you don't know the technique, google it up and be sure to follow it for best results.

Scoop the mousse into 6 small bowls, like these cute Willow House ramekins my sister sent me. We love ramekins! Now, here comes the hardest part of the recipe: Chill for 3 hours. Harrumph.
When the torturous 3 hours is almost done, drag your daughter into the kitchen to see the delight of whipping real cream (I'm embarrassed that she says she only knows the taste of Cool Whip---really? Granted, we really don't eat much of either at our house, but obviously I've been a most neglectful parent). I taught her the trick of chilling the beaters and stainless steel bowl--I put them in the freezer at the same time I put the mousse in the fridge, a bit of overkill but if I didn't do it then I would forget. Add a couple of tablespoons of confectioners sugar and about 1/2 tsp of vanilla, and let her rip on medium speed for ..... I don't know how long, probably less than 2 minutes, just until decadently soft and luscious. Grab a couple of mousse ramekins out of the fridge, top with big dollops of whipped cream, and sit back and contemplate another snow day.
Here's Lucy eating nachos while waiting for the mousse to chill. Lovely headgear.