Comfort Foods and Indulgences

The first time I ate a Chocolate Lava Cake was at Roy’s on Maui in 1990.  Roy was somewhat of a celebrity chef in Hawaii. Back then there were only a few celebrity chefs; Wolfgang Puck, Jonathan Waxman, Michael McCarty, and Alice Waters to name a few.

The food at Roy’s was good, but it was the dessert, the chcolate molten lava cake,  that I kept going back for. I wrote to the restaurant and asked for the recipe.  They obliged!  

Over the years I have tweeked the recipe a little here and a little there. But it just wasn’t right.  It wasn’t perfectly right until I found this recipe in the New York Times.

Valentine’s Day is around the corner. Along with an extra special dinner that night for my 4 favorite valentines, I plan on  adding this dessert to the menu.

Oh.

No, really, oh. Oh as in “Oh my, these brownies”  and “Oh damn, these brownies.”  Oh as “Oh I can’t believe this recipe is so amazing” and “Oh there goes any bit of self control I had.”

Get the picture?

You can roll your eyes a bit when you say “Oh”.  It helps.

Even though I don’t claim to have the world’s largest sweet tooth and go for salty over sweet most days, I can’t help but claim this brownie recipe as one of the best I’ve ever tasted. Because to me, brownies seem like the perfect treat in theory. Chocolately, studded with fun things like nuts or fruit, small and compact and enough to satisfy thanks to their rich nature. But sometimes, well, you can’t help but feel let down sometimes when you bite into a brownie that’s dry, too moist or not moist enough, tastes like a mix or worse, doesn’t resemble a brownie at all.

If you are looking for an easy way to serve a crowd potatoes this summer, you should try this.  These sports bar-inspired creations are roasted instead of deep fried (like the loaded potato skins) and come out tasting great.

Choosing the smallest red potatoes you can find keeps them easy to eat.  A tray full on the table or the buffet line are a yummy addition to all the cookouts I know you are planning.

With butter, bacon and cheese they taste just as sinful as the deep fried version we are used to eating. 

I have to admit I have been craving potatoes lately.  After two weeks of rain, weed pressure in the vineyard is high.  I have been hoeing around the vines so that root establishment does not have any competition from our friends, "the weeds".  Anyway, it is extremely hard work and carbs have been calling.  These potatoes hit the spot.

The greatest thing to come out of Buffalo, NY is their wings.

Buffalo wings are chicken wings and drummettes that are fried without breading and then coated in a vinegar based sauce typically comprised of melted butter and hot sauce. They're served with a cool, tangy blue cheese dressing for dipping and some crisp celery sticks.

Buffalo wings are the ideal party food guest: they get along well with others like pizza and nachos, and they're best buds with cold beer. So they've got to be part of your Super Bowl party line-up, even if you're making different wings like my Maple-Beer-Chili Chicken Wings (which you really, really should). They're too self-confident to be intimated by other wings at the party.