Humour, Cleaner, PSW, Dementia,

A guy spilled all the Scrabble letters on the road so I asked him "What's the word on the street?". Well, I laughed.

That was probably the best part of my day. The major part of it was a guts ache to end all guts aches. Caused, I assume, by my IBS. By now it has more or less disappeared, but Matt has been nagging me all day about things and all I could think of was the pain in my stomach.

The cleaner came slightly early and made the beds before the PSW came. I asked him not to use the hand towel by the sink, however there are two perfectly good towels right next to the bath, but he still went and got out a fresh one.?? I think he was trained in a hospital or something, gotta talk to him about it again.

My new cleaner is very good. I explained to her about the bath stools and when Matt was doing exercises she sneaked the new one in his bath and brought the old one back. Eventually the PSW left and the cleaner got on with her cleaning. She does a pretty good job. Forgot, the PSW described me as a beautiful woman. Made my day, he was talking to Matt who carried on about whatever was on his mind at the time. Feels good at 81 though.

Later we had the place to ourselves, I had planned to wash the sheets but just wasn't up to it. I made lunch for the pair of us and then spread myself out in my lounger and went to sleep. Later, I was awoken by Matt fussing about something wrong in his bathroom. Turned out, when I had staggered along to check, the extractor fan had been turned on as well as the heat lamp. By mistake I assume. A bit later he said someone had come into the apt, during the night and there was something missing. It was the plug from the sink which had been put in a different place. One more time, he said there was something wrong - this time it was the bath stool which I had kind of expected. I said it had come from my bathroom and he seemed quite happy. What happened to all the fuss from the other day??

I forgot to mention he put on a jacket because he said it was cold and later dragged me along the corridor to show me all the coats which didn't belong to us. Of course they did. Then last night he got up at about midnight and the next thing I knew he had his dressing gown on. I had to persuade him to go back to bed.

Guess what, I'm tired. Walking up and down our hallway would be nothing to most of you, for me it is a painful effort by the time I have done it more than once.

Sorry about the grousing, been a rotten day. By the way, Denise suggested an 8 inch dish to do those onions. Would not work in my air fryer. Will have to see if I have some smaller dishes which would be suitable.

Ultimate Chocolate Mousse

The key to this recipe is to use the very best semisweet dark chocolate you can find—we like

Valrhona. The better the chocolate, the better the mousse.

8 oz semisweet dark chocolate, broken into
1/2-inch pieces
6 large eggs, separated
3 Tbs water
1/4 cup sweet liqueur (such as Chartreuse, amaretto, mandarin, or Grand Marnier)
2 cups heavy cream
6 Tbs granulated sugar, divided
Whipped cream and grated chocolate, for garnish

1. Place chocolate in top of a double boiler over simmering water, and cook over low, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted. Remove from heat, and set aside. These days you can melt chocolate in the microwave so long as you know what you're doing.

2. Place egg yolks and 3 tablespoons water in a heavy saucepan; cook over very low, whisking vigorously and constantly, until yolks begin to foam and thicken, about 6 minutes. Whisk in liqueur, and cook, whisking constantly, until sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, 6 to 8 minutes. (The sauce should achieve the consistency of a hollandaise or sabayon.) Remove from heat. Pour through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a bowl; discard solids.

3. Fold melted chocolate into sauce. Transfer chocolate mixture to a large bowl, and set aside.

4. Beat cream with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes, beating in 2 tablespoons sugar toward the end. Fold into chocolate mixture.

5. Using electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks start to form, about 1 minute. Beat in remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and continue beating until stiff peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Fold into chocolate-cream mixture.

6. Spoon mousse into a bowl, and chill until ready to serve, 4 hours or up to 24 hours. Garnish servings with whipped cream and grated chocolate.

Source: Food and Wine

Author Notes
In 2018, Food & Wine named this recipe one of our 40 best: To celebrate chocolate in its most delectable guises, we asked some of the best cooks—Julia Child, James Beard, Maida Heatter, and more—to share their favorite chocolate recipes. Craig Claiborne, who was the New York Times restaurant critic and one of the top food journalists at the time, shared his remarkable chocolate mousse, which could be reliably whipped up without tremendous effort. In his original headnote for the recipe, Claiborne says, “once in a rare while, I discover a formula for a dish that seems the ultimate, the definitive, the ne plus ultra. I am convinced that the finest chocolate mousse creation ever whipped up in my kitchen is the one printed here. As if you didn’t know, mousse means foam in French. This mousse is the foamiest.” The key to this recipe is to use the very best semisweet dark chocolate you can find—we like Valrhona. The better the chocolate, the better the mousse.

Have a great day, stay well, stay safe.