Dinner Party, Russian Boy, Upgrading.

I’m pleased to say our dinner party went off very well on Saturday evening and our company was great. A very nice younger couple. I particularly like our male friend as he is a computer expert and very interesting to talk to, for me anyway, Matt of course, is not interested in such things. However conversation didn’t only revolve around computers but was pretty far ranging. I mentioned the pork roast we were doing, but we served a shrimp cocktail first although our female guest doesn’t eat shrimp so she had asparagus pesto. For dessert we ate Chocolate Volcanoes which are amongst my favourites. I wonder why??? I have actually given the recipe here but maybe I will again in case you don’t remember it.

On Saturday I mentioned the case of the 7 yr. old Russian boy, Artyom Savelyev, who was sent back on his own by his adopted mother. The people on the flight said he seemed a normal little boy, psychologists in Russia have said the same thing. The Russians have stopped allowing adoptions for the moment – apparently 16 children who have been adopted from Russia have been badly abused by their American adoptive parents leading to the death of these children. I am not surprised the Russians are angry. As I said I didn’t understand why Americans were adopting Russian kids anyway. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, who is in Russia in Obama’s train, spoke about it on the weekend version of GMA and it was from him we heard the psychological evaluations. According to the article in the Star http://tinyurl.com/y89xbec the mother said the child had threatened to torch their home amongst other things. Obviously I don’t know, but I wonder if the psychologists can actually find out what is or is not wrong in a short evaluation. However they are saying there is signs of scarring on his shins and hands which is not very old. The mother and grandmother appear to live in some kind of compound and the press have not been able to get to them, but the FBI and the local sheriff are investigating.

I spent the major portion of Sunday upgrading my laptop to Windows 7. I had to reload all my programmes as the version of Vista I had was not compatible with the version of 7. However, I seem to be almost back to normal – but it does take a while – I am pleased that the backup of the movies I had purchased on iTunes worked OK – they said it would, but until you have actually tried it!!! My cookery book programme key wouldn’t work although I had a careful record and in fact discovered I had the right one, so now I am awaiting a new one from Living Cookbook.

Here is the recipe for the chocolate volcanoes which Matt made on Saturday. We had two guests which meant there were two left over for us on Sunday. I tend to almost prefer them cold.

Warm Chocolate Cake (Volcanoes)

Source Food and Drink

Serves 6

6 oz Bittersweet Chocolate 2/3 cup unsalted butter 1/3 cup sugar 6 egg yolks 3 egg whites 1/3 cup all purpose (plain) flour

1. Preheat oven to 425 F (220 C). In heavy pot on low heat, melt chocolate and butter together. Cool slightly.

2. Beat together sugar and egg yolks with electric mixer until thick and creamy, about 4 mins.

3. Pour in chocolate mixture and beat together for 5 mins.

4. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, about three mins. Fold into mixture along with flour.

5. Pour into 6 nonstick buttered moulds or non-stick muffin tins (we use cocottes or ramekins). Bake for 5 to 7 mins or until edges are just cooked and centre is still liquid. Cool for 5 mins in cooking dish. Carefully remove to serving dishes. Serve with lightly whipped cream

Have a great day.