I’ll make dessert. Or, eleven ingredients for preparedness.
This is no quick-fix choccy mousse, held together with heavy whipping cream and the sweet beauty of milk chocolate. No, this is the real French deal, held together with eggs, sugar, rich dark chocolate and alcohol. This mousse can’t disappoint. Trust me, I once completely stuffed it up and my guests still revelled, thanking me for the delicious fudge-like dessert. This mousse is dark and mysterious, lusciously rich, creamy and fluffy all at the same time. In other words, it’s heaven.
1. Thought. You’re waiting for an idea to spark. You swear you’ve been sitting at this table for three days now. For the first time in your whole life, You cannot decide what to cook.
2. More thought. You take yourself to the coffee machine to extract some liquid gold. This, this here, is definitely how creativity is born. Any minute now maybe when you open the fridge pour the milk obsess over the dog. any minute now genius will strike.
3. Is your brain on? This very simple task has been so very difficult today. You take yourself to the cookbooks for some help from the higher ups. When your mother questions maybe we just have a pasta for dinner? After all of this time all of this thought all of the potential No worries mum, I’ll make dessert.
4. To recipe or not to recipe? After flying over your first hurdle, the lowest of hurdles, was it even a hurdle? You are excited and daunted by the tasks ahead. You pick a recipe, a trusted friend. And for the first time in a long time you commit. The audience lets out a giant sigh of relief. For you have settled on a crowd favourite, the humble chocolate mousse.
5. Use up what you’ve got. You peruse the recipe a huge success. There are so many things already in your possession. Some may call them the baking basics. You take two steps to your left and open the big silver door butter eggs cream when do you ever already have cream? You close the heavy door and take two steps back to offload your bounty onto the bench. You spin swiftly and take two steps forward, one step to the right caster sugar two thirds of the required amount of chocolate. You look up stretching towards the sky the recipe calls for Amaretto rum or brandy. You pick Frangelico.
6. Save the bees. The planet thanks you for driving to the supermarket. The door of which is only two kilometers away from your bed. Nevertheless you drive there with your sister in tow and the eighteen-year-old Volvo reliably skipping gears all the way up Princess Street. It is at the 1.8 kilometer mark when you exclaim did I seriously, honestly forget a bag? Lucky for you, you are a twenty-five-year-old sponge and are therefore driving your mother’s car. She has got you covered.
7. A strong start. Relieved to have made physical progress on your journey, you and Coco arrive at Woolworths. The sun shines brightly and you notice a general ‘hubbub’ in the air. You sanitise. You look at plants. Walking with purpose and a steady gait, the two of you retrieve the only two ingredients you actually came to buy. Berries. Chocolate. Then while you spend way too long trying to find out if Woolworths sells ribbon, Coco collects some peanut butter and chocolate chips. Because she says that your chocolate mousse will be gone by tomorrow. And she needs to make cookies.
8. 2021 ingenuity. Though you have “remembered” a bag, you have not remembered to pick up a basket and are therefore pilling punnet upon punnet up to your neck. You spot a nice glass bowl in the aisle where ribbon should be and you use this as a basket for your berries.
9. Shopping with Kew. You go to the self-serve, the usual checkout and you notice that your entire suburb has come to the shops with you. You and Coco then proceed to a regular checkout where you are greeted by the warmest of smiles, a familiar face. In fact you’re convinced, he’s the face of Woolworths, Kew. He even lets you take a photo of your shopping on the converyor belt.
10. A quasi-departure. You leave Woolworths triumphant, regardless of the fact that your bag is not neatly packed. The two of you walk confidently back to the Volvo, only to find the Woolworths truck parked conveniently behind your ride. The driver is an angel. He moves for you you wave you thank him. You’re on your way.
11. The ribbon? You’re not on your way yet. In order to not let down your ‘other half’ you must get ribbon before returning home. You realise your mistake once you’re already in the car so you proceed to exit the car park only to end up back in the same car park but one level below. As you find a spot, as if karma herself is watching you drive around like an idiot, a man farts into the passenger window. Excuisite. Coco loses breath as she laughs hysterically. You run to the newsagent they close in two minutes. You grab your bright, aqua ribbon. You wish the owner a good evening and you’re on your way home for real this time.
And now and after all of the thoughts, the conversations, the inhales and the exhales, you can go on your way Your ingredients are ready. Go make your mousse. And please, don’t forgot your bag.