Summertime Coffee Mousse

mousse  (muːs)
1.	a light creamy dessert made with eggs, cream, fruit, etc, set with gelatine

Oh, what a lovely accident!
The temperature was rising and I was in a smoothie mood, so got my blender out.  I was thinking along the lines of  Iced Coffee Nog so I used some leftover coffee that already had gelatin dissolved in it and added some extra milk, 1 egg, a touch of homemade vanilla and sugar.  I blended in a generous portion of ice at the end. What I ended up with was a light, creamy spoon able fluff that was filling, cool and delicious.

Using and working with gelatin

Here I am, sitting at my computer, paying bills. yeah.
Breakfast is what has become an old standard for me, coffee (brewed with a generous pinch of salt) with gelatin, sugar and milk. A complete meal, quick and easy, travels well as long as it doesn't get too cold.  Hard to mess up, really...... but I've manged to do it on occasion.

A few tips for working with gelatin:
Regular, unflavored gelatin powder needs to be dissolved into hot liquid in order to gel.  There are different  ways of going about that.

1. Sprinkle over cold liquid and wait, patiently, until it has absorbed the liquid...then heat up the liquid until the gelatin melts. Serve hot as in a soup or cold as in jello.
2. Stir rapidly with already hot liquid, like fresh brewed coffee.  It helps to mix with other dry ingredients first, like the sugar, to help prevent clumping.  It can then be added to a partial portion of hot liquid until dissolved, then add remaining liquid.  You need room in the vessel (cup, bowl, pot) for the liquid to go up the sides quite a bit from the RAPID stirring.
3. Plop gelatin en masse in a clump into lukewarm liquid and let it sit for a bit, then try to stir. This method will ensure that only the outside of the clump melts, sealing in the rest of the still dry powder into a large chewy ball that is totally inedible.  I don't actually recommend method #3.