Only Mountain

Well, they've been perusing my Flickr page I guess, and chose one of my pictures (of Doughty!) at the Old Town School of Folk Music to include in the Chicago Schmap. I found a few errors in their Schmap (like placing the Lakeview Lounge in the Lakeview neighborhood...ha, tourists) and emailed, but no word back (or even a thank you, huh). Here's their widget.

In skimming through Epicurious one day a few weeks ago, I came across a Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe that looked shockingly easy, and which had a ton of uber-positive reviews. I saved it, and it wasn't until last night, when Dan and I got home from a bike ride, that I finally was able to try it. Have to say, it turned out wonderfully. Dan was completely skeptical that it would turn out well at all, and tried to talk me out of it, but oh, the deliciousness that ensued taught him a lesson in judging a book by its flourless cover.

One thing that struck me about the recipe (and which totally threw me for a loop when I was shopping for ingredients) was the call to use "bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)". Doesn't that sound strange? It took me a while, but I finally got that "bittersweet" and "semi-sweet" are the same thing. Man, that made me feel like an idiot.

Anyway, you couldn't ask for a simpler recipe, really. I think I'll make this cake monthly if not more often. Be forewarned everyone who invites me over for a potluck....you're getting this cake!

UPDATE I made a 2nd cake for Stephanie's birthday. Pictures on Flickr.

I also have to say that I still have ham biscuits in my fridge from Sunday's Easter brunch Ham-travaganza. They are salty and delicious. Jealous?

Ok. Look.

I'm only here because I received a whole mess of giftcards at Christmas that I'm still trying to remember to use. But I've known plenty of barristas/os and they need things like groceries and rent payments and I want to tip you out. However. I only have a $5 bill, and I'm sorry, I'm not tipping 100% off my latte and a muffin. But since you can't open your cash drawer when I use my giftcard, and therefore can't give me change for my $5 bill, I can't leave you a tip. Sorry.

And look, barrista, you don't need to double cup my tall latte. Are you kidding me? I don't need 2 cups! I need 1 cup, and maybe a little band of cardboard to keep me from burning the hell out of my hand since you insist on setting your espresso machine to the "fire of a thousand suns" setting. It's hot, but I don't want to be 1 of maybe 100 people you're going to 'double cup' this morning in Evanston and be a part of the problem of now 100 extra paper cups getting added to the nearly full-to-the-brim Chicago-area landfills.