A Perfect Sunday

Yesterday, our friends Kirsten and Erik organized a wonderful leisurely luncheon for a handful of friends. Since the class no longer has to work around the clock completing assignments and papers, they had the whole day to relax, eat, talk, read the paper, and not worry about a thing. With a menu of roast chickens, roasted potatoes (maybe the best potatoes I've ever had - I insisted Erik give me his mom's recipe... and the leftovers), caramelized carrots, and cabbage with pancetta, it was much more than just a lunch, it was a decadent feast... Add in an apple tart and rich chocolate cake for dessert, and it's no wonder we stayed on into the evening, refusing to get up from the table, enjoying every moment with our friends.

I had offered to bring a dessert - but in my pregnant inability to decide between two recipes - I made both (nobody seemed to mind)... The apple tart is something I've been thinking about since last weekend when my aunt and uncle where here and we devoured a delicious tart from a french bakery in Brussels. I used this recipe, and it was wonderfully reminiscent of the tart I've been dreaming of all week. The chocolate cake is one that I've been looking for an excuse to try ever since Annie sent me the book with the recipe last fall. It's called the "Winning Hearts and Minds Cake" and you can find the recipe here. It's probably the easiest cake you'll ever bake - with a total of 5 ingredients, it's just pure chocolate decadence (I can't wait to go home and make one for my chocolate loving father).

"It's going to sound silly, I know, but I think that what it all comes down to is winning hearts and minds. Underneath everything else, all the plans and goals and hopes, that's why we get up in the morning, why we believe, why we try, why we bake chocolate cakes. That's the best we can ever hope to do: to win hearts and minds, to love and be loved."

- Molly Wizenberg, A Homemade Life