Chocolate mousse cheesecake

Making cheesecake is a new thing for me. This is only the third one I have ever made! But I'm fairly certain it's a success! The bits I've tasted have sure been yummy! I decorated it with an Easter theme, seeing as I have made it for Easter lunch tomorrow.

Without further adieu, I give you the recipe, which I pulled from the Cadbury website and then tweaked - mostly to ditch Cadbury chocolate, which is ...well, bleh.

INGREDIENTS:
1 packet chocolate ripple biscuits, crushed
80gm butter, melted
500g cream cheese
1/3 cup caster sugar
225gm nestle plaistowe milk (or dark) chocolate, melted then cooled slightly
2 tspn gelatine, dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water
310ml thickened cream, lightly whipped
1/4 tspn sea salt
2 egg whites, beaten to soft peaks

METHOD:
Combine biscuit crumb and butter, then press into a greased and lined 20cm springform tin and refrigerate until firm.
Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth, then add melted chocolate and gelatine mix. Fold in cream and salt, then stir in 1/3 of the egg whites before gently folding in remaining egg whites.
Pour mixture into tin and refrigerate for two hours or overnight.
Decorate as desired and serve!

There's a war inside my head.

Sometimes I wish that I was dead, I'm broken.

I'm tired of trying to be normal
I'm always overthinking
I'm driving myself crazy
So what if I'm f*cking crazy?!

Do you ever hear a song and think to yourself: THAT'S MY SONG!!?
I do this. I do this a lot. Obviously, it depends on my mood - and my state of mind - as to whether certain songs are fitting of the ramblings inside my head.

Today though... Today is an "I'm gonna show you crazy" day. My dad left this morning after spending eight whole days here. Well, technically 8.5, but who was counting?! Don't get me wrong, I love my dad (most days) but he can be a bit......old-fashioned, for lack of a better word. This whole diagnosis process with Spawn is intense, and he's been so well behaved the past couple of weeks, so I was hoping to minimise the risk of meltdowns. We did good; he only had two or three, and only one was intense. Yay!
However, dad was so quick to insult him, just like he did to me when I was younger. Spawn freaked out at the shopping centre (understandable, given his sensory issues!) and then my dad proceeded to berate him and call him a baby for the rest of the afternoon. With Spawn being Spawn, he has "Poppy" on this massive pedestal, and I could see the sadness overtaking the spark in his eyes. It literally made my heart crack. Why are people so quick to shame kids for having a tantrum?? If they only took a moment to try and understand WHY the child was having a fit, they could resolve the problem in a much more peaceful way. Instead, my dad did what he does best, and I spent the rest of the afternoon feeling guilty for not standing up for Spawn, as I didn't want to create an even bigger scene in the shopping centre.

Ughhh, mummy guilt is the worst. Even now, thinking about it makes me sick. I'm sorry Spawn. I promise to never again put my own pride above your happiness. I will always stand up for you, even if it means being the bad guy to everyone else. <3

Plus side; he left me his Chromecast - YES! Best thing ever. Easy streaming of Netflix to my TV for dayyyysssssssss.

In other crazy news: Easter. Chocolate. Sugar. Tantrums. HEADACHE.
I ate too much chocolate. Spawn ate a tiny Lindt bunny, which is all it takes to send him troppo. So he's been feral all afternoon. And I'm over here going crazy from excessive noise and chocolate overload. Ain't Easter fun?!!!!

How do you say chocolate in Italian? Cioccolato. That's my new thing for today!
And Spawn's word for the week is 'discombobulated'. It sounds nothing like that when it comes out of his mouth, but he's trying and it's super adorable!! "I'm discombobulated this morning, mummy." Love this kid.

In wrapping this up, I'm just going to put it out there that I could REALLY go some poutine right now! Canada, why you so far away??? I want to visit you. I want to inhabit you. I want to own you. Let's be friends, always?

Peace out.

- L. x

P.S. In trying to find an image containing both chocolate AND poutine, I came across this?!!! WHAAAAAAT?! Puke or want? I'm not sure....

Hello, Sanity?

Dear Blog World

It has been eight days since I last blogged, and three days since Spawn started his first school holidays. 

Three whole days. Well, technically one, seeing as weekends apparently do not count.
ONE WHOLE DAY. And already I may be slightly crazy. He's been great. TOO great. You know when there's a big storm coming, and right before that storm, there's this eery sense of calmness about the world?? I feel like my life is in that stage, and it's FREAKING ME OUT.

It's been fun though. We went to Healesville Sanctuary yesterday. Was a great day for it, and a ridiculously long drive, throughout which I was able to reminisce about the days when I would drive out that way at least once a week..... How on earth did I afford the petrol back then?!! Crazy.

So anyway, we went to Healesville. Great place, by the way. Definitely recommend if you're ever in the area. Or the state. Or the country, depending on where you're reading this from. They have this damper making station. Oh, my god. Do you remember making damper during school camps, back in the day? (well, for me it was back in the day. I'm such a fossil, lol!) They did it differently at Healesville. There were big chunks of lemon myrtle in the dough. Can I just say, my tastebuds are practically orgasming just thinking about it!!! Who would have thought that merely mixing flour, water and lemon myrtle together could bring such a strong reaction!!? Ughhhhhhhhh. Give me a minute...

So anyway, I left Healesville smelling like I'd spent the weekend camping. Not necessarily a bad thing: I do enjoy that smoky hair smell.... Until I walk into my clean house and discover how overpowering the smell of smoke can be, when it's in every crevice of my body/clothing!! Jeepers!

Now I want to go camping. I should go camping!!! Spawn needs to go camping!! He wants to be a bug cowboy, after all. Shame this little bug cowboy is terrified of flies and ants. LOL. And wasps too, apparently.

OH, right! A friendly warning: Melbourne Zoo has a crazy amount of pigeons. Typical Melbourne thing.
Werribee Zoo is full of flies. Well, it is open range and full of African animals who do big poos...
However, Healesville Sanctuary is full of wasps. Yes, WASPS. What even?!!! They're perfectly harmless, yet annoying as hell. If you have food in your mouth, they will TRY TO GET INTO YOUR MOUTH. Hilarious.

That's me done, for now. I will no doubt return in a few days, once the storm has hit.

Peace out.

- L. x

baby emus!!!! <3