Cranberry and Lemon-Ginger Parfaits

I am a hurry up and wait person by nature.  I'm constantly in a rush for absolutely no reason.  Example: throwing pots and bowls around the kitchen in attempt to get everything done as soon as possible.  Why?  Just because I'm in a hurry.  I speed all the way to work and am 20 minutes early, every single day.  Why?  What if there was traffic?  I rush my husband out the door on our way to meetings and appointments, I can't be a minute late.  Instead we sit in the car for ten minutes twiddling our thumbs almost every time.  I don't know why it's ingrained in me to rush to and through everything, (I'm blaming this one on my mother.)  I found myself rushing through this recipe, getting my arms crossed in an attempt to speed through it.  Again, it was for no reason, I had no excuse.  So I slowed down, took my time and enjoyed the process.  In return the recipe worked beautifully and later that night Shane and I slowly savored our dessert.  (Well he ate it slowly, I plowed through mine like someone was going to steal it away.)

The layers in this parfait are mousse.  Parfait is a useless descriptive word in this case, it doesn't tell you very much at all.  They are light and airy, like munching on little clouds.  The dessert is perfectly balanced between lightly sweetened and naturally tart, neither one overbearing.  The ginger wonderfully compliments the lemon and gives a tiny bit of texture to the mousse.  Though the picture shows very little lemon mousse, there is actually a nearly equal amount. (Apparently I need to work on my layering skills!)  The layers are both lightened with whip cream and stabilized with gelatin.  I've found in my experience that though mousse made with gelatin set heavier, they last much longer and give the mousse a more luscious feel.  The results were terrific, I was very pleased.

Baking notes:
-Once again I made a half recipe.  This one was a little trickier due to the splitting of one egg yolk, but it's no matter if you make a full recipe.
-I thought the serving size was much too big!  I would cut down the portion by 1/3 for the dessert to be eaten comfortably.
-I didn't use cranberry liqueur in the recipe (though that sounds great!) and just substituted water instead.

The recipe for Cranberry and Lemon-Ginger Parfaits is not currently available online. (I always hate that.)

40/569