First banquet

Well on Monday our culinary class cooked our first banquet.

This is some of our awesome chefs outside of the Lenawee Country Club.
We served an Italian themed banquet. Starting with appetizers - baquettes with bruscetti.

We moved on to the main dishes which included a baked ziti and three cheese tortellini. It was hot.

Nothing like starting our first stress filled banquet on a day that the temperature topped 90 degrees, but we were still smiling with a few minutes left to spare.

Our instructor is Chef Corey. Here he is directing us on what to do.

For dessert we made No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Mousse. This is what I worked on.
This is simple to make and looks good. It has a bit of a cocoa flavor instead of a real sweetness.

Make a graham cracker crust using ground graham, melted butter and sugar.

For the mousse -
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup granulated sugar
11 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups whipping cream

melt chocolate chips over low heat in a saucepan or microwave, stirring frequently until smooth and melted. Set asied to cool. In large mixer bowl beat cream cheese, sugar and butter until smooth. On low speed blend in the melted chocolate. Fold in whipped topping until blended. Spoon cheese chocoalte filled mixture into prepared graham cracker crust. Cover and chill until firm.
Garnish with whipped topping and shaved chocolate - although we used mint leaves instead because it was so hot.

Our whipped topping was whippping cream, powdered sugar and a splash of vamilla.