Are You a Man or a Mousse?

by Anna Campbell

Warning! Warning! Danger, Will Robinson!

This post contains at least 3,000 calories!

Ah, I love it when I get my just desserts! I mean the sort of meal where I just have dessert! Sigh. Swoon.

Whoops, there goes another 10,000 calores. Or perhaps I should say HERE COME another 10,000 calores!

But what a way to go!

Do you love desserts? Hmm, wonder if anyone will say no to that!

That burst of delicious sweetness that ends a perfect meal! The good bit with the chocolate or the lemon meringue or the cherries marinated in brandy.

For me, never strawberries.

It always shocks people but I can't stand strawberries. Kind of ironic as I grew up in Australia's strawberry-growing capital. We even had a strawberry festival every year which had contests like who could eat the most strawberries.
NOOOOOOOO! I'll tell you just where I hid the secret map with the microfilm if you don't make me eat the strawberries! Don't torture me anymore, you fruit Nazi! I don't care how big your banana is!

My family never really ate desserts although my mum could put together a great apple pie. My grandmother on the other hand used to be a dessert fiend, most of them the really old-fashioned varieties that hardly anybody makes anymore. Her baked rice pudding was nirvana and she used to tart up her apple pie (oh, no, that's a terrible pun) with rhubarb which was lovely.

Desserts are on my mind right now because I've recently had a wonderful weekend with my writing friends Denise Rossetti and fantastic Bandita Christine Wells. I love hosting the girls - I'm always sad when they go home!

One of the many things I love about these visits is that I get to play hostess with the mostess and put together some fancy meals. We always have a seafood feast with oysters and prawns and smoked salmon and Moreton Bay bugs (which are considerably yummier than they sound - a bit like a mini lobster). I do roast chicken and my roast potatoes which I have to say are a masterpiece of nature. Seriously worth visiting Australia to try!

And this time round, I did dessert. Last time Denise and Christine came, I took the easy route and just pulled out a big box of chocolates after dinner. Something that certainly happened recently. But I also went all out and made chocolate mousse - lots and lots and lots of it.

I have a couple of failsafe desserts that I tend to make until my guests are screaming with horror at the idea of yet another tiramisu.

Actually to be 100% honest, I've never actually had that happen but I'm sure it could.

Well, maybe not...

Anyway, chocolate mousse is one of those desserts. Easy, yummy, rich, and the perfect ending to any meal. And everybody loves it!

So let's talk about the sweet stuff! Do you have a favorite dessert? Do you have a dessert you always cook up when you get visitors? Are there any favorite family desserts? What's the best dessert you've ever eaten? And tell me, is chocolate mousse EVER the wrong choice?