Valentine's Day Molten Chocolate Cakes

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'll have you know that I am making molten chocolate cakes for Valentine's Day. Nathan asked me the other day what dessert I would pick if I only had one meal left, and I said, without hesitation, "Molten chocolate cakes." "Not your quadruple chocolate cake?" he asked. "No."

No question there. Molten chocolate cakes are the best.

In case you have no chocolate plans for today, I thought I'd bless you with the recipe, from The Joy of Cooking. When you cut into your individual cake and see the molten deliciousness, I hope you'll think of me. ;)

-----

Molten Chocolate Cakes

Have all ingredients at room temperature, about 70 degrees. Preheat oven to 400. Butter and sugar 8 muffin cups [I used 6 small ramekins]. Heat, in the top of a double boiler or in a microwave on medium, stirring often, until melted and smooth:

6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

Remove from the heat and sift in:

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Stir until smooth. Beat in a medium bowl on medium speed until soft peaks form:

4 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Gradually add, beating on high speed until the peaks are stiff but not dry:

2 tablespoons sugar

Use a rubber spatula to fold one quarter of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the remaining whites. Fill the muffin cups about three-quarters full.
Bake until the cakes are cracked on the top but still gooey in the center, 7-8 minutes. Let sit for 2 to 3 minutes; the cakes will shrink slightly from the sides of the pan. Place a rack over the cakes and invert to unmold [or serve in the ramekins, or invert onto individual plates]. Serve hot, accompanied with whipped cream.

-----

I am actually refrigerating my batter, because we're going to our friends' house for dinner tonight, so we'll bake the cakes there. If you refrigerate your batter, just add about a minute to the baking time. I'll be serving mine with berries. Mmmm......

I'd have to say my favorite thing about these (other than the chocolate, and the gooeyness, and . . . okay, I have a lot of favorite things about them) is the sugary crispiness on the outside, produced by the buttered and sugared ramekins.

When I was buying chocolate at the grocery store, it struck me that I could use some kind of fun, fancy, flavored chocolate next time, like orange or chili. I might experiment with this recipe. Or maybe I'll find a way to incorporate Nutella. That would be darn good, too.

Enjoy!

Migrating Toothpaste

Now that Noah is pretty good at walking, he loves to use his new skill all day long. His favorite activity right now is just wandering around the house, opening and closing doors and cabinets; spreading his toys all over the house; pulling things out of one drawer, walking around with it for a while, then putting it in a new drawer, etc.

I've had to clean out all the bookshelves and cabinets that are at his level, including one odd closet in the kitchen. The door to this closet has been painted over so many times that it doesn't latch anymore, so I took anything potentially dangerous and moved it, and I put things on the Noah-level shelves that he could play with or wouldn't be able to destroy if he happened to take an interest in them. One of the things I left on that shelf was several unopened tubes of toothpaste.

For the last several days, I've been finding Crest all over the house:



Just thought that was funny!

Thoughts on Hope

I was thinking about hope this morning.

What I have been noticing lately is that what goes in is what comes out. In other words, when we are surrounded by and are ingesting a bunch of negativity--whether it comes from other people or from ourselves--what comes out is hopelessness. When we are exposing ourselves to positive input, we feel more hope.

That sounds like it is totally coming out of a self-help book, but I think there is truth in it.

I know people who have unsupportive (or worse, abusive) spouses or parents, and we all know what that results in: a tearing down of self-worth, a sense that you can't do anything right, that the future doesn't hold anything good for you. What is coming out (lack of hope) is the result of what is going in.

On the flip side, when you've got people encouraging you, telling you you're doing a good job (at whatever it is you're attempting), telling you they love you, then you start to dream. When you think of the future, you start to think about all the things you can achieve, all the people you'll meet, all the things you'll get to do. You feel like you are capable of more and are not in the prison of "but I can't do that because...", since you have people around you who believe you can. Again, what is coming out is the result of what your mind is being fed.

Sometimes I think all some people need is a big dose of encouragement.

Oftentimes, we don't have control over what we are surrounded by (a destructive/hurtful parent, personal tragedy, etc.), and therefore it's not up to us whether or not we are getting some negative input. But even in those situations, there is always a source of hope: Jesus.

Seeking Jesus is not just a one-time or a once-a-week or only-when-there-is-an-urgent-need type of thing. Or at least, that type of relationship doesn't result in as much joy or an abundant life. Spending time in the Bible and with God every day can't help but give us hope. There, in the hollow of his hand, we can find truth and love and hope and all kinds of other positive things that change our lives by changing our perspective on our lives.

What goes in is what comes out.

I say all this not just because I have been witness to some situations where people are thirsty for hope, but also as a reminder to myself that I need Jesus every day. Personally, I am not so great at carving out some daily time to spend with God (but getting better!), but it is so essential for my spiritual, mental, and emotional health.

------

Some verses came to mind this morning as I was thinking about hope:

Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
Psalm 31:24

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Psalm 42:5

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."
Philippians 4:8

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:2a

And finally:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13

To the Gym

I'm about to head to the gym, dangit.
The hardest part is getting there.

Dangit.

;)

----

Update: The treadmill and I did okay together (even though I forgot my iPod!), and I'm glad I went. :)

Minutiae

Sorry I haven't been posting this past week. It seems like I just haven't had much to post about, unless it's a bunch of minutiae. And one piece of minutiae, unless you can give it a funny turn, isn't much of a read. But perhaps several pieces of minutiae, with or without a funny turn, can be a good post:

• Last week, we worked in the nursery at church. It was my first Sunday to do so. Somehow, we and one other lady were the only nursery workers who showed up for all the babies and small toddlers, so I was the only one with the babies, and Nathan worked with the toddlers. It was Lauren vs. five babies. I have to say, that is intimidating on your very first day! One mother, in particular, came in and gave like 14 instructions about her son. I could tell she was kind of stressed about it, because it was his first day in the nursery (which I can totally understand). Anyway, what I found was that it's just hard to keep up with every kid and what they need and who they belong to. A couple of weeks ago, one of the ladies in the nursery at my mom's group accidentally gave another kid Noah's lunch, which I was going to feed him right after we left the church that morning. So it kind of threw my plans off, and I was really pretty annoyed. Plus, what if that other kid were allergic to something in Noah's lunch? Well, I have to tell you, I got over that pretty quick once I worked in the nursery, myself. It's just a lot to keep up with.
• This morning, as I was making my tea, I looked up and saw this. He just took up his spoon and started feeding himself! Cool! You should see the mess he is right now, though.
• Noah babbles a lot these days. The other day, I was in the fabric store, and he was going at it. I said, "Hey Boy, you are loud." A lady near me said she loves hearing the little kids babble away. It's just funny how loud he can get.
  
• You know, of all household tasks, I dislike doing the dishes the most. They just never end. It is a perpetual job. Just when you think you got your house nice and clean, 20 minutes later there are dishes to do. When I get a dishwasher one day soon, I will not take it for granted.
• Nathan did all the dishes yesterday. He also watched Noah while I went to a women's retreat thing at church in the morning and while I took a nap in the afternoon. Thank you so much, Babe!!! That was as good as any Valentine's gift.
• We have no plans to go to Houston this spring, but if we did, I'd make it a point to go to the Rodeo and a Rice baseball game.
• On Friday, when I dropped Nathan off, I hurriedly threw a bunch of trash in a trash can outside his office that had been accumulating in a little cubby in our car. Later that day, I realized that I had accidentally thrown away my access card to the Harvard gym, which I had literally JUST gotten like three days before. Dang. But I figured it was worth a look in the trash can when I picked him up like eight hours later--I mean, it was possible that no one threw anything on top of it, however unlikely. So as Nathan was getting into the car that evening, I hopped out of it, saying "I'll be right back!" And perplexed Nathan watched me run up to the trash can and stick my hand in there and dig around. Don't freak out--I wasn't digging through gross trash. I was just picking up my grocery list from the week before, which, amazingly, was on top, as was all the stuff I threw in there. So I actually got my access card back.
• I've been making fresh bread in our bread machine pretty regularly, and Noah likes us to lift him up so he can peer through the little window and watch the dough spin around. Today, to my great surprise, when the machine beeped to let us know it was done, Noah walked into the kitchen and pointed to it! (Well, as much of a "point" as he does, which involves all his fingers.)
• For the past few months, I've been working on getting our grocery bill down. Last week, we saved a bunch of money on groceries, and I think it's mainly because I actually planned our meals, instead of buying a bunch of random stuff at the grocery store then figuring out what to make with it throughout the week. I also put a certain amount of cash in my wallet and only used that on groceries that week, and I found it really helpful to tangibly know exactly how much money I had left to spend. We also ate pretty cheap stuff, even though the main reason for that was because I felt like eating all those things: turkey noodle soup, cream cheese chicken, split pea soup, Chinese dumpling soup, a fritatta, etc.
• We would really like a Papa John's pizza tonight, but there isn't one near enough to our house to deliver to us, and we don't want to drive and pick one up. Despite what they'd like you to believe, most Bostonians are prejudiced when it comes to certain things: fast food (including delivery pizza, apparently), reasonably priced real estate, and Wal-Mart.
  

He's Walking!

Something Different

So I changed my blog template. One of these days I'm going to have a designer do a whole new look for me, but for now, I just felt like getting rid of the green. Hope you like it for the next little while!