Do I ever talk about anything else these days?

The mega-lab party was not quite as mega as I’d expected it to be. I guess the undergrads all have finals next week and weren’t in the partying mood. Ach well, more chocolate cake for everyone else. The “fixed” with ganache piss-easy-and-yet-I-duffed-it cakes went down very well. Not many comments on the muffins, but as the “healthy” option, that’s ok. But the surprise of the night was the chocolate mousse. You know, the one that seized on addition of egg yolks, which was then “saved” with some cream? Yeah… I forgot to mention that once I’d covered the mini-cakes-wot-I-duffed, I was left with a bowl of ganache I couldn’t justify eating while watching Firefly. A quick whip-up of some egg whites, patient folding to lighten the whole thing up and served in plastic champagne bowls, they were the clear winner of the night. Amazing how failures can still be such successes when chocolate is involved.

On the alcohol front, the 2001 Zinfandel we brought back from the Russian River Valley Korbel champagne house went down a treat. Another good one for the festive season: it went well with baked ham and chocolate. Sluurrp…