Flourless Chocolate Cake- Not!

So Valentine's Day 2011 is over, we had a great time!  Unfortunately, my daughter had a numb mouth because both of the kids had dental appointments this afternoon for cleanings.  My daughter is getting braces next week so I wanted the braces put on clean teeth!  I moved up the cleanings and ended up with Valentine's Day, couldn't be helped.  Anyway, she had a partial numb mouth but I think she still was able to eat all the food and enjoyed it quite a bit.

I said earlier that I had a new dessert to try, flourless chocolate cake.  I made it yesterday and it was quite memorable.  My son and I had quite a laugh as we were making it.  He described it as an epic fail that turned out ok!

To start with, the author of the recipe said to use a nine-inch cake pan.  Well, the pan was about a half too small so part of the cake ended up on the bottom of my clean oven...well I had put aluminum foil on the bottom so I just scraped it off and ate it!  I also took off the pieces that fell on the oven grates, ate that too. 

The recipe said to cook for forty minutes.  It ended up taking about sixty minutes.  When I finally was satisfied that it was done, I let it cool for thirty minutes like the recipe said.  Then I was supposed to turn it over and dump it out.  Well, I had to eat some more of the cake that was hanging over the pan. That's when my son got in on the eating frenzy.  We ate all the stuff hanging over the side and I picked up the cake to turn it over.....and that's when it got interesting!  I picked up the entire top came off!  In a perfect heart, I lifted up the top of cake!  My son started laughing and laughing!  I gently laid down the top of the cake and proceeded to turn over the cake and it came out perfectly onto my cake pedestal.  I then picked up the top and placed it over the cake!  Looked pretty good actually, that's when my son decided that the epic fail turned into an ok!

I made a raspberry sauce to serve with the cake.  After our dinner of shrimp cocktail, tomato-feta salad, grilled steak and baked potato and homemade bread; we served the the flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce and chamomile tea.  I started calling it the earthquake cake because the minute that I started cutting it, it broke into a million pieces!  My daughter accused me of thinking that one up early in the day and waiting to use it all day!  I really didn't, it just came to me, I promise.....

It wasn't too bad, it tasted like eating chocolate meringue.  My husband suggested that next time we just have regular chocolate cake.  It isn't something I think I will make again.....

But we had a great valentine's day!

Valentines Day 2011

I almost missed it!  With all the snow and fluff outside, Valentine's Day came up fast upon me.  The family had talked about it last week when we had so much together time but I had simply forgotten that it was this week!  So today, I'm cooking for the big family valentine dinner....yup, it's almost the same as last year and the year before that and the year before that....

And that's ok, my kids chose the menu and they like it!  I was chuckling a couple of days ago to myself wondering when they are grown-ups will they have tomato-feta salad, grilled steaks and baked potato, bread and a chocolate dessert for their own kids....I hope they do!  I hope they feel that having fancy family dinners are important. 

It's fun planning and scheming and plotting and hiding those little gifts that we buy from one another.  It's fun setting the table with all the fancy linens and dishes.  It's fun watching my two kids grow-up and learn good manners that I hope (I hope, I hope, I hope) that they use those manners when they are out in the world without me.  I hope so, because my son does not always use them at home!

It's a way for me to show my love to my family, preparing a fancy meal.  It'd be much easier just to put something quick and easy on the table, like I do most nights!  But I want them to know that I value them and I enjoy doing things for them.  We don't have to have a fancy meal to sit and enjoy each other's company each night but it is fun to do it every now and then.  Every night would probably kill me!

We haven't always been able to have our dinner on Valentine's day, some years, one of their activities get in the way.  But, we always have our dinner!  I like it better when it's actually on Valentine's Day.  It makes it much more special to me....

My hubby and I went out over the weekend for a 'just the two of us' dinner.  It was nice to just be able to concentrate on speaking to each other, to get into 'in-depth' grown-up conversation.  And one day to soon probably, we will be having many more of those dinners.....Right now, every now and then is fun, I like that good old fancy family dinner!

We've made a pact not to buy anything big for each other.  With this remodel overtaking our lives and our wallet, we think the best thing we could give each other is a little time just to ourselves.  Nothing fancy, just time.

I'm making a flourless chocolate cake for dessert.  That's the only part of meal that can change, so I try something new each year.  I'll keep you posted on how it went!