::Russian Mousse::

I was searching for something easy that wouldn't heat up the house too much. I needed something that could be adjusted to serve several people at a BBQ. I was browsing Facebook and my cute friend, Jessica had just mentioned she was making a mousse for her family's dessert that night and she was nice enough to share. I'm thinking of making it again to share with some co-workers. SO simply...here it goes...

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1 pkg 4 serving size box instant vanilla pudding

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1 small container whipped topping (Cool Whip)

Topping of choice: berries, chocolate, etc.

Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine milk and pudding. Whisk until thick (this shouldn't take long). Melt white chocolate chips in the microwave, on high for 20 seconds, stir and continue melting at 15 second intervals until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Trust me, I was in a rush last time and it ruins the texture to find chunks of chocolate periodically. When melted, add chocolate to the pudding mixture and whisk in. Fold in entire container of whipped topping until well combined. Cover and refrigerate 20-30 minutes. Serve. I like to divide the mousse into bowls and top with fresh berries. Last time, I wasn't able to find any raspberries (which is my favorite berry with this) so I substituted frozen. I thawed them in the bag and strained out the juice into a measuring cup. I boiled the juice into a syrup, cooled it and used it to make the mousse look fancy-shmancy. This recipe yields about 4-6 servings...if you let it. Super easy, not to mention, super inexpensive.

::Strawberry Cream Cookies::

We tried making these for ourselves today and they are delicious. They'd be so pretty for a little girl's tea or just because really. I'm going to make a second batch for a work party. This first one was a trial and I couldn't stop eating them. They're SO much lighter tasting than you'd imagine. Such a great alternative to heavier cookies.

Above: if you're lazy like I can be...this is how they turn out if you just use a small cookie scoop and skip the rolling.

Below: rolling after using the cookie scoop to make them uniform in size.

::Ingredients::

1 cup butter, softened

3 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour

Seedless strawberry jam (any flavor you really like would probably be just fine)

::Directions::

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Add flour and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.

2. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Using the end of a wooden spoon handle (I used the underside of my 1/2 tsp measuring spoon), make a 1/2 inch deep indentation in the center of each ball; fill with about 1/4 tsp jam. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool.

They will still look white on the top, so lift up one or two with a spatula and when they are a light brown, they're done enough. They will stiffen up a little as they cool, so don't worry if they're still a little soft.

Yields about 5 dozen cookies.