Chocolate Mousse (egg-free)

 BEST OF THE TASTY CHEAPSKATE

A lot of good recipes also come with a good story. Here you go:

Once upon a time, I was pregnant (okay, once upon four times, I was pregnant, but this time was the last time). It was January and my baby was due on the 21st. I had been early for a few of my babies and I wasn't sure this one was going to make it that long. So I told her, "Baby, just make it till the double digits." Then, on January 9th, we went to dinner at our dear friends' house. She made this delicious spaghetti and I made this mousse. At about 5 the next morning, I started having contractions. Emma had managed to make it to the double digits of January, but just barely. I still blame/thank this mousse.

It is amazingly smooth, delicious, and easy. It is also egg-free, which is great if you're allergic or pregnant or just don't want eat raw eggs (which is the usual stuff mousse is made of, and yes you will be getting that type of a recipe later in the year, because I apparently love mousse kind of a lot).

This mousse has a bit of cream cheese, giving it the tinsiest bit of cheese-cake-ness, but not enough that people who don't like cheesecake will be bothered. My husband is not a huge cheesecake fan and, trust me, he was NOT bothered.

Chocolate Mousse (egg-free)
adapted from the Nordstrom Cookbook
Makes 6 small servings
Prep time: 15 minutes
Wait time: 2 hours (kind of optional--it gets a little firmer, but truly, you can eat it right out of the bowl)

8 oz cream cheese
1 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C cocoa
1 1/2 C heavy cream, whipped (Note: You can do a bit less for a firmer mousse if you wish. It's basically diet mousse...)
Chocolate chips or shavings for garnish if you wish

First you can whip your cream if you're doing it yourself. Set aside.

Then in a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat well. Add cocoa and beat, taking care not to beat it so fast that the cocoa poofs up in a mushroom cloud of chocolate dust.

When it's all incorporated, stop beating and fold in half the whipped cream. When just a few wisps of white remain, fold in the rest completely.

Chill for 2 hours.

Baked Meatball Parmegiana

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Comfort food season is almost over, so you better take advantage while you've got the chance. This recipe gives some serious vavoom to an otherwise fairly nothing-special-Tuesday-night meal. While still keeping it simple. Because I think we all love comfort food if, you know, your grandma makes it. But then when you have to hang out for four hours breading the meat or dicing 800 potatoes or shredding two pounds of cheese and simmer down the sauce until it's a nice balsamic glaze and then get everything onto the table at just the right moment so nothing gets cold--well then fried eggs start to sound a lot better. And while there's nothing wrong with fried eggs, how about some hearty comfort food that's a little easier to pull together.

Baked meatballs are a new and glorious thing for me in general. In the past, I've always stood by the oven, rolling meatballs around in a skillet while the fat spit everywhere and the balls got too brown on the outside while still being a bit too pink on the inside. No more. Now that baked meatballs and I have been introduced, there's no turning back. They're so much easier and neater, juicier, and more evenly cooked.

This dish builds on the beauty of baked meatballs and adds to it. All you've got to do is roll meat in to balls. It takes about 15 minutes and then you're "work" is done. You do need 45 minutes to for these to cook, so plan for that. Otherwise, a pot of pasta later, you're done.

Baked Meatball Parmigiana
adapted from Hugs and Cookies
Serves 4
prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Cost: $6.50 (even with a box of pasta, this comes up to less than $2.00/serving)
beef: 3.00, bread: .05, Parm cheese: .75, eggs: .20, tomato sauce: 1.50, mozzarella: 1.00

1 lb ground beef
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
3/4 C bread crumbs (I just used one slice and put it in my little blender)
3/4 C Parmesan cheese (I used the shredded, but in this recipe the powdery stuff might work too)
2 eggs
salt to taste
36 oz. your choice tomato sauce
1-2 C mozzarella
some pasta to serve it on if you're too proud to just spoon it out of the dish and eat it

Preheat oven to 400.

Combine ground beef, garlic, bread crumbs, Parmesan, eggs, and salt. I squish it together with my hands like a boss (naturally). Then roll it into meatballs. Larger meatballs will have a slightly longer cook time than smaller ones. We made 14 or 15. [Note: That means if you really want to speed up this cook time, call in some little helpers and roll you some tiny meatballs.]

Put a tiny bit of olive oil on the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Then add your meatballs.

Cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

Then add sauce, stir around the meatballs to coat and cook for another 15 minutes or so. (Note: Around this point, you want to start boiling your pasta water, so your pasta will be ready in time.)

Then throw on the cheese and cook for another 10 minutes or so. Cut one open to check for meatballs doneness and, uh, while you're at it you better taste it to make sure it's okay and stuff.

Serve over pasta or with bread.

Cookies and Cream (Icebox Cake)

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If a river of cream marries a cloud of sugar and they hop into a bed of chocolate, well then, not to be too graphic, but you get this baby.

Today is my mother's birthday. Generally, I try to make something she loved on her birthday. I can't think of a better way to remember someone you loved than through food. You could try this wacky cake or these cookies. But I think that probably what she loved most of all was this here dessert. We called it Cookies and Cream, and everyone always thought it was ice cream. But it isn't. Since then I've heard it called an icebox cake because you layer the whipped cream with the cookies and leave it in the refrigerator for a day. The cookies get soft and you just get a pillow of creamy, chocolate-y sweetness.

The great news about this is that it's crazy easy to make. The bad news is that it probably contains approximately ten million calories per bite. The other bad news is that the cookies you really need to use are often hard to find. This recipe requires Nabisco chocolate wafers. And it really isn't as good with any other substitute (not Oreos, not chocolate graham crackers; trust me; I've tried it all). Nabisco chocolate wafers tend to be in the gourmet cookie section and I can often find them at Christmastime (and then I stock up like a chocolate-addicted lunatic). They can also be expensive. Which makes this not as cheap as most of the Best of the Tasty Cheapskate recipes are going to be. But I do find the cookies on sale every once in a blue moon, so I'm going for this. For the sake of my mom's legacy and all.

 Now, let me say that I made this pretty for you, but it's not super practical to put it on a pedestal cake display thing because you've got to shove this bad boy in the fridge for a full day. What we honestly usually do is throw it in a big salad bowl with a lid (just to spite salad and all) and then put that in the fridge and just scoop it out when it's ready).

For some tips on laziness and/or making this look nice without having to shove the pedestal cake holder into some corner of your fridge go HERE. For some really dreadful pictures and more self-indulgent stories about this dessert in our family, go HERE.

Cookies and Cream (Icebox Cake)
Serves: Um, my family of 6 (but it should serve more; it really should; we have issues)
Prep time: 15 minutes
Fridge time: 24 hours
Cost: $6.40 (about $1/serving)
(cookies: $4, cream: $2, sugar: .12, vanilla: .28)

1 box Nabisco Chocolate Wafers
1 pint cream
3/4 C sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Beginning by whipping your cream. Pour it in a bowl and blend it until soft peaks form. When they do, add the sugar and vanilla. Whip or beat until firmer peaks form.

Put a blob of it on the bottom of a salad bowl and spread that around. Make one layer of cookies, breaking some if you need to so they don't overlap. Add more whipped cream and spread. Add another layer of cookies. Repeat until you top it off with a thin layer of whipped cream.

Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours or until the cookies are perfectly soft.