Stan Visiting

My brother-in-law is a really great guy; he's my husband's eldest brother, and a genuine, fun, active and intellectual invidual always up for a stimulating conversation...and chocolate.

So when he came to dinner last night while visiting the area on business, I couldn't JUST make pizza...I had to make some sort of killer chocoholic dessert.

This is a man who was only conquered by The Black Beast after consuming an entire quarter of the cake in one evening, a feat as-yet unmatched in human history. We're talking four (and perhaps 8, for the more conservative) servings here, people. And on his last visit, he consumed not one but TWO velvet chocolate bars from Steakhouse 55, those sinfully delicious, uber-rich flourless chocolate mouse cakes.

So I felt I was undertaking a challenge by offering him yet another chocolate dessert last night. And I very well may have succeeded.

I provided, for dessert, individual Molten Chocolate Cakes, served in 6 oz. ramekins and gooey, oozey, toasty warm from the oven. They are effectively underbaked flourless chocolate cakes, and this time I pulled out all the stops, including using

brown eggs from the farmer's market

and Scharfen Berger bittersweet 70% cocoa chocolate.

He had two.

Mikayla and I finished the 5th and final dessert an hour or so before lunch today, followed, after the 3rd bite, by a plea for water, hence the red cup with built-in straw in her little hands.

I realize, of course, that this is not the most flattering photograph of my sweet daughter - by any stretch - but I had to capture that chocolate-on-my-face, drunken-with-chocolate look, and I succeeded there, too, hands down. Just look at her.

All hail the Molten Chocolate Cakes! All hail The Black Beast! And all hail Bon Appetit for always supplying the very best (and most obscene) recipes for which a home cook could ask!

Speaking of which, let me know if you want the recipe. It's SUPER-easy, but it very well might kill you. (To which I say, and most emphatically...Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmm!)