We had a really lovely visit with my mom over Easter. Relaxed and slow moving, there was a lot of hanging out, no question. Poor Ama, Callum really racked up the dough on his $.25/curse word. I guess it's hard to remember to pay attention to those things when you're not used to hanging out with an eight year old. She was able to moderate by the end of the visit, though. Lesson learned.

On her last night, deciding that over eighty Easter cookies (we gave some away, all right?) and all that candy were not enough, I decided to make a fool. We'd had a really lovely dessert at Neel's Chairman's house a couple of months ago, and I dimly thought that it might be a fool. After some research, I decided that it was, sort of. The dessert we'd had that night had lightly whipped cream, mixed berries, with some sort of cordial poured over top. It's not that I couldn't tell, I just can't remember. Cassis maybe? Or Cointerau. The best part of that dessert was the final touch, gourmet malted milk balls to sprinkle over top. Lovely.

This fool was only marginally like that. Tasty though.

First you macerate some blackberries. Half an hour or so. Four cups berries, a quarter cup of sugar and two tablespoons cassis. Let it sit for about half an hour.

While the berries are softening, whip heavy cream (1 1/2 cups) with 3 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons cassis until stiff peaks form.

After the berries have softened (abut half an hour or so), remove half and mash the remaining until pureed. Strain that mixture into a bowl.

Fold the puree into the whipped cream and chill for at least an hour.

Layer goblets with cream and whole berries and top with toasted hazelnuts.

Swipe finger around goblet to removed all traces of the fool.

*The recipe also called for adding 3 ounces white chocolate, melted, which I did. But next time, I think I'll just shave chocolate into the mixture and onto the top.