Chocolate Perfection!

I made dinner for my BF on Valentine's Day. I made one of my favorite dishes, Chicken Tarragon, along with sauteed mushrooms, pan-crisped potatoes, and a salad of mixed greens with balsamic vinaigrette. I've cooked for him before, but that night I was especially nervous. I'd put on a cute blue dress with a knit sweater, put up my hair, donned some pearls, and looked damn cute. And then as soon as I stepped into the kitchen, I started shvitzing! I was 3/4 of the way through my chicken tarragon when I realized I'd FORGOTTEN THE CHICKEN BROTH. I had none (I usually keep extra in the freezer but hadn't replaced it lately) and it was too late to run out and get some. So I added a mixture of white wine and half-n-half and called it a day. The chicken was okay, not great. The BF didn't seem to notice, as he's never had this dish before, but I tasted a noticeable difference. Hopefully, dessert would save the day.

And save the day it did. The author of this NYT article promises that no one will remember if dinner is a flop, provided you make these molten chocolate cakes. Holy CRAP was she right. This is one of the BF's favorite desserts, and I must say I enjoy them a lot myself, but I'd never dared to make them before. From scratch! I used some Venezuelan chocolate that had bloomed, but was supposed to still taste fine, despite its snowy white exterior. In a matter of minutes, the batter was in the oven and I was curled up on the couch with my Valentine. 7 minutes later, they popped right out of their ramekins (the recipe is for 2 cakes, but for some reason I doubted this and put it in 4 separate dishes, so the cakes are a little shorter than they should be) and I served them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Results? UTTER DELICIOUSNESS. Seriously--the rich, delicious chocolate cake had the trademark ooze in the center, and I couldn't believe how well they turned out! We had the other 2 today (Sunday) for a mid-day treat, and while the center was no longer molten, they were still super scrumptious.

I MADE THESE!!! AND THEY WERE AWESOME!