Jay and Jeff came for dinner last night. Dinner was good – I love this chicken. And the potatoes. The cake is super moist and kind of different because of the stout and the molasses. I’m eventually going to make a whole-grain version of this cake and see which one we like best. The recipe is also in Fine Cooking’s Chocolate 2006 special issue.
The only issue I had with the cake is that my ganache broke. Yet again. Chocolate-to-cream ratio too high? I should have fixed it by whisking in some warm cream but I didn’t.

• Goat Cheese Crackers with Hot Pepper Jelly (Fine Cooking #64, May 2004, p. 63)
• Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Spinach & Goat Cheese (Fine Cooking #69, January 2005, p. 62)
• Lemony Salt-Roasted Fingerling Potatoes (Food & Wine, October 2006)
• Hearts of Romaine with Caesar Dressing (The Best Recipe, p. 42)
• Chocolate Stout Cake (Fine Cooking #61, Holiday Baking 2003, p. 46)

Wine:
– Sea Smoke 2004 Botella Pinot Noir (Santa Barbara County, California). Sadly, our last bottle of Botella. Absolutely wonderful, as usual.
– Gamba 2004 Moratta Zinfandel (Russian River Valley, California). This wine is settling down and is really delicious. The good news is we have several bottles left.