Deep-fried pie

"I drove back to Gene's Barbeque, had a pile of fried catfish and black-eyed peas, and then was offered dessert.

"'Want some deep-fried pie?'

"'Never had it.'

"'You'll love it. Chocolate pie. We wrap it in pastry and deep-fry it crispy. Why are you smiling, sir?'"

Paul Theroux in "Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads"

Dense and dark

Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake from Nigella Lawson

from Kristen Miglore's "Food52 Genius Recipes: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook"

1 cup soft unsalted butter
1 2/3 cups packed dark brown or dark muscovado sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup plus 2 Tbsps. boiling water

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Put a baking sheet on a lower rack in case of sticky drips later. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper. The lining is important as this is a very damp cake. Use parchment paper or one of those loaf-pan-shaped paper liners.

Cream the butter and brown sugar, either with a wooden spoon or with an electric mixer, then add the eggs and vanilla, beating in well. Next fold in the melted and now slightly cooled chocolate, taking care to blend well but being careful not to overbeat. You want the ingredients combined. You don't want a light, airy mass.

Mix the flour and baking soda and gently add the flour mixture to the batter, alternately spoon by spoon with the boiling water until you have a smooth and fairly liquid batter. Pour into the lined loaf pan. (Note: Don't let this batter come closer than 1 inch from the rim of the loaf pan or it risks overflowing. Pour any excess into a smaller cake or muffin pan.) Bake for 30 minutes.

Turn the oven down to 325 degrees F and continue to bake for another 15 minutes. The cake will still be a bit squidgy inside, so an inserted cake tester or skewer won't come out completely clean.

Place the loaf pan on a rack and leave it to get completely cold before turning it out. (Lawson often leaves it for a day or so. Like gingerbread, it improves.) Don't worry if it sinks in the middle. Indeed it will do so because it's such a dense and damp cake. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Dessert first

Because life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.

On having it all

"To me, having it all - if one wants to define it at all - is the magical time when what you want and what you have match up. Like an eclipse. A perfect eclipse is when the moon is at its perigee, the Earth is farthest from the sun, and when the sun is observed near zenith. I have no idea what that means. I got the description off a science website, but one thing is clear: It's rare. This eclipse never lasts more than seven minutes.

"Personally, I believe having it all can last longer than that. It might be a fleeting moment - drinking a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning when the light is especially bright. It might also be... a three-hour lunch with my best friend... Having it all definitely involves an ability to seize the moment... It can be eating in bed when you're living on your own for the first time...

"Having it all are moments in life when you suspend judgment. It's when I attain that elusive thing called peace of mind.

"Not particularly American, unquantifiable, unidentifiable, different for everyone, but you know it when you have it.

"Which is why I love bakeries. Peace descends the second I enter, the second I smell the intoxicating aroma of fresh bread, see apricot cookies with scalloped edges, chocolate dreams, cinnamon and raisin concoctions, flights of a baker's imagination, and I know I am the luckiest person in the world. At that moment, in spite of statistical proof that this is not possible, I have it all. And not only that, I can have more."

Delia Ephron in "Sister Mother Husband Dog (Etc.)"

Sweet

Because it is apparently National Chocolate Cake Day.

Piece of cake

If only it was that easy...

Sweet chocolate

It is a frog of a chocolate cake. But dang if it doesn't taste pretty good.

Au chocolat

"Time passed, and my courses arrived. On a typical night at the Pudding, I might order an appetizer of shrimp rolled in brown-butter bread crumbs on skewers, so the oil wouldn't spread on your hands. For an entree: squab with black lentils and bacon, only in the pink light of the dining room the lentils weren't black, but blue - a deep, inky blue. And for dessert, I might ask for my favorite treat: candied violets on a lace doily. My teeth cracked open each crystalline blossom, and I could smell the sheets of wax paper they came in mingled with the sugar."

Charlotte Silver in "Charlotte au Chocolat: Memories of a Restaurant Childhood"

Lemon cake

"The room filled with the smell of warming butter and sugar and lemon and eggs, and at five, the timer buzzed and I pulled out the cake and placed it on the stovetop.

"The house was quiet. The bowl of icing was right there on the counter, ready to go, and cakes are best when just out of the oven, and I really couldn't possibly wait, so I reached to the side of the cake pan, to the least obvious part, and pulled off a small warm spongy chunk of deep gold.

"Iced it all over with chocolate. Popped the whole thing into my mouth."

Aimee Bender in "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake"

Without question

Because in life there should always be cake.

Chocolate eggs

Because it is Easter Sunday.

The hot chocolate life

"When I've reached the bottom of my cup, fully sated, I head toward the door without any feeling of overindulgence, but fortified enough to handle the fiercest of Parisian winter weather. With a warm glow, I slip on my jacket, re-macrame my scarf around my neck, drop a few coins in the dish by the register, and leave. As I exit, I'm always careful to make a sharp ninety-degree turn just after I'm out the door so I don't inadvertently meet my maker. (Or my hot chocolate maker, although I'd sure like to meet him to pick his brain.)"

David Lebovitz in "The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City"

Hot Chocolate
from David Lebovitz's "The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City"

2 cups whole or low-fat milk
5 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
pinch of coarse salt

In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, chocolate and salt. Heat until it begins to boil. (It will probably boil up quite a bit at first, so keep an eye on it.)

Lower the heat to the barest simmer and cook the mixture, whisking frequently, for 3 minutes. If you want a thicker consistency, cook it another 1 to 2 minutes.

Serve naturel, or with a giant mound of slightly sweetened whipped cream. Sugar can be added, to taste. Makes 4 to 6 cups.

Powdered donuts

"As the miles shifted into days and Texas ranches became Tennessee hills and Tennessee hills became historical Pennsylvania, I too began to shift. I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner. I ate snacks. I immersed myself in life's essentials: food, drink, shelter and warmth.

"I thought about miles and inclines, flat tires and rain. I thought about the strength of my body and the strength of my spirit. I pedaled, grinding my history, its lessons, and the countless times I'd willed it gone into my muscles and joints, until they became a part of my fiber.

And somewhere in New York state, about two to three cycling days west of Syracuse, I sat contentedly outside a convenience store eating mini-donuts. My back rested against the standard bland beige color of the cement wall and I felt the heat of the sun on my already toasted face.

"I popped a donut, the white-powdered kind that leaves white traces around your lips, into my mouth and washed it down with chocolate milk..."

Michelle Hamilton, in "The Long Road," from the anthology "Her Fork in the Road: Women Celebrate Food and Travel"

Sweet

We are attracted to chocolates like bees to honey. Sweet.

In the Sunday paper

Though we know him for the chocolates, John Scharffenberger apparently has done and now does considerably more. The San Francisco Chronicle details his pre- and post-chocolate endeavors:

"His food businesses have been nothing short of diverse. Besides having produced Champagne-style bubbly, high-end dark chocolate bars and now gourmet soy, Scharffenberger is also juggling a small sauerkraut enterprise and has teamed up with his hog-farmer neighbors to market cured hams."

Alas... if only we liked tofu - he is CEO of Hodo Soy Beanery in Oakland - half as much as we liked chocolates.

Lunchtime pie

"Nobody makes strawberry chocolate pie the way you do. Wednesday is my favorite day of the week because I get to have a slice of it. I think about it as I'm waking up. You could solve all the problems of the world with that pie...

"Just a pie? It's downright expert. A thing of beauty. How each flavor opens itself one by one, like a chapter in a book.

"First a burst of exotic spices. Just a hint of it. Then you're flooded with chocolate, dark and sweet, like an old love affair. And finally strawberry, the way strawberry was always supposed to taste but never knew how.

"In fact, I tell you what, forget all the other stuff I ordered. Just bring me the damn pie. That's all I want. I don't care if it's not a well-balanced meal. Just bring me the pie..."

Joe (Andy Griffith) talking about Jenna's (Keri Russell) special strawberry chocolate oasis pie in the film "Waitress."

The second pancake

A brother makes me pancakes. Without having to ask, he takes out a mixing bowl in the morning and heats a skillet on the stove. He whips up batter. I watch from a seat at the kitchen counter.

The first pancake does not come out right. No big shakes. I tell him it's like Katie Holmes' character in "Pieces of April." Something about how she is the first pancake, the first child in the family, the one who never turns out totally right. He looks at me funny.

My brother tries again.

And the other pancakes turn out fine. They are light and fluffy, served with slices of banana and strawberries, and scoops of vanilla ice cream. He spreads separate layers of Nutella and chunky peanut butter in between as well.

They are over the top and delicious. We take turns at the plate while drinking orange juice and Champagne. Is it any wonder he remains my all-time favorite sibling?

Dagnamit

Baking soda.

The gingerbread recipe from Lauren Chattman's "Cake Keeper Cakes" calls for baking soda... not baking powder. Dagnamit! Why is it so hard to distinguish between the two? And, will anyone eating the dessert on Christmas notice the difference?

Chocolate Gingerbread

3/4 cup hot tap water
1/2 cup dark molasses
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan and dust it with flour, knocking out any extra.

Stir together the hot water and molasses. Set aside to cool.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, espresso powder, cinnamon, cloves and pepper in a medium bowl.

Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides once or twice as necessary.

Add the egg yolk and beat until smooth, scraping down the sides once or twice as necessary. Beat in half the molasses mixture on low and then half the flour mixture. Scrape down the bowl and repeat with the remaining molasses mixture and the remaining flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let the gingerbread cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, invert it onto a wire rack, and then turn it right side up to cool completely. Makes 9 servings.