audibles and edibles

I did some mediocre coffee-shop-open-mic sketches last night,

found out the drawing I gave to the open-mic host a few weeks

ago is hanging out right by the cash register, which is cool.

But the sketches are not the point of this post, the point is that

I played a song! In a microphone! It was cool, kind of a rush

(although I'll blame the beer). Conor (my newest roommate)

and I have been playing some songs on the nights that we are

both awake after 9, which is apparently rare.

Anyway, song is here.

Also, I forgot to photograph, but tonight's bring-your-own-

theme-potluck (BYOTP) was a hit, and coincidentally, everything

that was brought was some shade of whiteish yellow, including

oven roasted potato squash and parsnip fries, a gluten-free

casserole from Andrew and Lianna, cheesey cornbread from Jesse

and a tomatoey puff pastry from Paul. It was all washed down with

some oatmeal orange zest cookies from Helen and a chocolate

mousse tart with bergamot.

A recipe for the tart:

crust

1 c flour (i used buckwheat, anything will work, but for gluten free

flours, buckwheat is my favorite)

1 c ground sunflower seeds (nuts are also great)

1/4 c agave/honey/maple syrup or whatever you have

1/4 c oil (I like coconut oil because it holds together a little better,

olive oil works well too)

pinch of salt (it actually makes a difference)

mix together, press into an oiled spring form pan, bake at 400 for

10 minutes or so, or until the edges of the crust start to brown.

melt some chocolate and spread it on top of the crust. refrigerate until

the chocolate is solid again

mousse (don't know the proportions, I just did it to taste)

melted chocolate

coconut milk

english breakfast tea

water

steep tea in coconut milk until the coconut milk smells more like tea

than like coconut. it will also start to turn brown. strain and combine

with melted chocolate in a blender (this will emulsify the mix). blend,

taste, tweak. The best textured mousse so far was tonight's, and I think

the secret was making it more liquidy than I thought I should. After

mixing it all together, I diluted it with more coconut milk and a little bit

of water. It made it a little less rich, which was needed, and a little less

chocolatey, which will only be a problem if you are using high end dark

chocolate bars instead of cheap and effective chocolate chips. On the

bright side, I am almost out of chocolate bars (only have 4 left) so soon

I won't have to make everything taste like chocolate (who knew this could

be such a problem?!)

Pour the mousse liquid into the crust, cover with a plate and refrigerate

until solid (2-3 hours). A good way to test is to pour your overflow into

a cup. Test that to see if the mousse is solid instead of defacing your tart.