Carpathian 17 - Dark Celebration

semi-sweet chocolate, chopped, melted and fairly cool 1/2 cup Chambord
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla
    4 large eggs
    1/2 cup whipping cream
    1 cup strained seedless raspberry jam

    Beat cream cheese in a large bowl until smooth. Add sugar, chocolate and liqueur and beat until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating each addition until just combined.
    Mix in cream. Swirl in seedless jam. Pour into crust. Bake in preheated oven at 350° until filling is almost set but center still moves slightly when pan is shaken (about 55 minutes).
    Place on a rack and cool completely.

    TOPPING INGREDIENTS
    1/2 cup sour cream
    2 tablespoons Chambord
    6 ounce melted/cooled chocolate chips

    Chocolate curls or fresh raspberries rolled in cocoa with mint leaves (optional) Combine thoroughly and pour over completely cooled cheesecake and then chill to set.

    Old Fashion Dark Fudge
    Submitted by: Amy McKinney
    Vincent, AL

    MAKES 1 POUND

    2 cups sugar
    1/3 cup cocoa
    1 small can (5-oz) evaporated milk
    2 tablespoons unsalted butter
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract walnuts (optional)

    In a heavy 3-quart saucepan, mix together sugar and cocoa. Add milk and cook over medium heat until mixture reaches Softball stage (236° on a candy thermometer), stirring as necessary to prevent sticking.
    Take off heat and add butter, vanilla and nuts if desired. Put boiler in a pan of cool water and stir until it starts to firm up. Pour into a buttered pan. Cut into squares.

    Chocolate Eclair Cake
    Submitted by: Susan L. Farrell
    Pine Grove Mills, PA

    2 small packages of Vanilla Jell-O Instant Pudding
    1 tub of EZ-Spread Chocolate/Fudge frosting
    1 (16-oz) tub of Cool Whip
    3 cups milk graham crackers
    9 x l3 x 3-inch pan (a pan this deep lessens the loss of the frosting) 1. Mix packets of pudding and milk. (Easier if done with mixer, but whisking/stirring by hand works too.) Then slowly mix in Cool Whip.
    2. Line bottom of pan with graham crackers. Pour half of mixture over crackers. Add another layer of graham crackers. Pour remaining mixture over crackers. Add final layers of crackers.
    3. Remove foil from frosting tub. Microwave frosting tub 15-25 seconds. Spread frosting over final layer of crackers.
    4. Cover and refrigerate for four hours or overnight for best results. Enjoy !

    Christmas Mice
    Submitted by: Susan Maluschka

    Houston, TX

    YIELDS 70 MICE

    1 package chocolate almond bark
    1 large jar cherries with stems, drained
    1 bag Hershey's Kisses
    1 small bag almond slivers

    1. Put water in the bottom of a double boiler.
    2. Spread out foil on the countertop next to stove.
    3. Break chocolate almond bark into pieces and melt in double boiler.
    4. Pat cherries dry on paper towels and unwrap the Kisses.
    5. Hold cherries by the stems and dip in chocolate until cherry is covered. Lay cherry on its side on the foil (forms body and tail).
    6. After dipping 4 or 5, prop up a Kiss with the flat part of the Kiss against the bottom of the cherry (forms head with pointed nose).
    7. Then go back and place two almond slivers between Kiss and cherry (forms ears). If the chocolate has dried too much already, put a little chocolate from the double boiler on the almond slivers and hold them in place until they stay.

    Appendix 1
    Carpathian Healing Chants

    To rightly understand Carpathian healing chants, background is required in several areas:

    • The Carpathian view on healing
    • The "Lesser Healing Chant" of the Carpathians
    • The "Great Healing Chant" of the Carpathians
    • Carpathian chanting technique

    1. The Carpathian view on healing

    The Carpathians are a nomadic people whose geographical origins can be traced back to at least as far as the Southern Ural Mountains (near the steppes of modern day Kazakhstan), on the border between Europe and Asia. (For this reason, modern-day linguists call their language, "proto-Uralic," without knowing that this is the language of the Carpathians.) Unlike most nomadic peoples, the wandering of the Carpathians was not due to the need to find new grazing lands as the seasons and climate shifted, or the search for better trade.
    Instead, the Carpathians' movements were driven by a great purpose: to find a land that would have the right earth, a soil with the kind of richness that would greatly enhance their rejuvenative powers.
    Over the centuries, they migrated westward (some six thousand years ago), until they at last found their perfect homeland—their " susu"— in the Carpathian Mountains, whose long arc