Dinner Party

Tonight we have friends coming over for dinner which should be a fun evening. We are doing several recipes which I have posted here before, Asparagus in Phyllo Bundles for hors d'oeuvres, Herbed Orange Pork Tenderloin with Goat Cheese Potato Purée and Spicy Cabbage. Finally for dessert I am doing Mint Chocolate Freeze. I don't have permission to post that recipe, but when I do, I will put it in the blog. I was making it today and it seemed pretty good to me, but then its chocolate, what more can I say. It certainly isn't diet food with cream and eggs, chocolate and nuts, Philly cheese and chocolate Graham cracker crust. I ought to be good and not touch it, but guess what? I made it, I'll eat it.

Yesterday it was so very hot here and is supposed to be hot today as well. Very odd, a few days ago we were almost shivering and now it is up in the high 80's with a humidex of around 100 F. Heat I don't mind, humidity tends to knock me for six. We have even had the air conditioner on.

Oil has shot up again according to the news last night, $11 a barrel. I cannot understand why Canada buys oil outside the country, we have lots of our own, but I don't pretend to be up in economics. I have never seen a poor gas company and from the pictures of diamond cars, I don't think the oil sheiks are suffering too much either. It seems that the oil rich companies are holding us all to ransom at the moment and I cannot figure why we don't do something about it. Alternate fuels are available, but have never come into general use. Luckily we personally don't do much mileage any more, unless we go on vacation, and we are getting reluctant to do that.

There was another asparagus recipe published yesterday by Rachel on her blog Fresh Approach Cooking (see link) which looked pretty good and I will have to try it. Oh dear, Father's Day is fast approaching bringing the end of asparagus season with it.

The following recipe is named after a friend's husband's mother. If there is any concern about raw eggs and salmonella in your area, I suggest you don't make the cake. However, if you do make it, I assure you it is delicious. It would also be a good cake for those with celiac disease, no flour.

Tony's Mother's Chocolate Cake

Servings: 8-10

10 oz caster sugar (most regular sugar in North America is about the same grind as caster sugar)
10 oz unsalted butter
10 oz melted good chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa)
9 egg yolks
5 egg whites

Method - make 24 hours in advance

Cream yolks and sugar for 15 minutes in mixer. Mix butter with melted chocolate and add. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold in.

Bake two thirds of the mixture in a well-greased, push-up square tin, line with greaseproof (wax) paper, at 300F or 150C. for 1 1/2 hrs. Allow to cool.

Pile raw mixture on top. Put in fridge to set and serve the following day.

Have a great day.