Sweet Melissa Sunday - Easy Chocolate Mousse and (at the end) the TAQ award.

Ahhh, Valentine's Day. Love is in the air. The stores are filled with hearts and flowers. It's the most wonderful time of the year. No, wait, that's Christmas! Anyway,  even my hubby, who is normally not a very romantic kind of guy got into the swing of things this morning. He woke me and said "Come on, I'm taking you out to breakfast". And, he took me to the most romantic breakfast a girl could ask for, wait for it,...at Hardee's! :D That's my guy. Gotta' love him. And, I have for for the past 23 years, almost 20 of them that we have been married. But, I am getting all teary eyed now and I need to concentrate on my post. Which isn't about how romantic my hubby is, but about this week's SMS which is Easy Chocolate Mousse.  Spike of Spike Bakes chose the recipe for SMS this week, and you can find it, along with pictures of her results over at her blog. Thanks Spike for a great pick!

This was just as the recipe stated...easy. My only complaint, if it's even a complaint, is that my chocolate didn't completely blend with the egg white/sugar mix and I have tiny pieces of chocolate throughout the mousse. I personally don't mind it...I like finding the little morsels. I had thought about adding mini chocolate chips or chopped toasted almonds, but decided to leave well enough alone and serve it just as it was.

What a wonderful dessert. Light yet rich, creamy, chocolate-y. I dusted mine with a hint of dark cocoa powder, just to give it a little something. I was going to save out a tiny bit of the whipped cream for on top, but forgot. :( That's okay. It's perfect just the way it is.  Head over to SMS to see what everyone else thought of this one.

Now, I want to give a big thanks to Chaya of Sweet and Savory for the second award I won last week. Last Thursday night I came home after a long day (cleaned one church, three houses, had a doctor's appointment and met my kids for dinner all before getting home at 8:00 at night) and found a comment from Chaya directing me to come get an award that she left me, one I didn't even have to lie for! :) It's the TAQ award and it's for photography! She loves the photo on my header of the path between the trees. That's actually my driveway. I had one up I took in the fall, but have changed it to a snowy one. I am not sure which one Chaya liked, but it's an honor to be recognized for my photography. I consider myself a bit of a photographer. I have won several ribbons at the country fair, and one year took the grand champion ribbon with a b&w photo of my son taken when he was about 4 or 5 years old. So, to have someone in the blogging world pass me a photography award...well, it's pretty special to me.

I am supposed to pick 6 people to pass this award onto, as well as post some pictures I have taken. I have posted 4 that I personally think are  good. I know photography is objective so some may not think these are anything special, but they are to me.

As for picking the 6 bloggers whose photography I admire, two women came to mind right off the bat...
Mimi of Mimi's Kitchen. She takes the most amazing pictures of everything she bakes. I love seeing what she's done each week.
Holly of Phe/MOM/enon is another blogger whose food pictures look so beautiful you feel as though you could just reach out and touch them. Fabulous.
Susan of She's becoming Doughmesstic is another fabulous photographer. Her artistic eye is just amazing.

Karen of Karen's Cookies,cakes and more. Each Sunday I am always amazed at the photos she posts of her latest recipes.
Tracey of Tracy's Culinary Adventure's also has a great eye when it comes to photography.
And, lastly, Steph of a Whisk and a spoon. Great lighting, sharp, delicious looking photos!
As with the last award I passed on, I am sure that there are many, many others out there deserving of the TAQ award. But, these are the bloggers who first came to mind. To those of you I nominated to receive this award, please post a picture or pictures that you particularly like. And, of course, pass the award on to 6 others. :)