Funny name for a fabulous treat

Chocolate lovers, this is your dream. It's a cake and pudding all in one, and comes in a little ramekin for you alone. Top it with whipped cream, strawberries, gelato, ice cream, Grand Marnier or Baileys Irish Cream, or a combination of the above. It's very rich, so it's best to make it in 4-ounce cups.

Muck-muck Cake
Serves 8

Ingredients
7 ounces fine dark chocolate, broken into small pieces (I've made it with Scharffen Berger 70%,  Lindt 85%,  Baker's semisweet chocolate and Safeway real semisweet chocolate chips. Buy the finest you can afford. You won't regret it.)
14 tablespoons butter (2 sticks, minus 2 tablespoons. Use the extra to brush inside the ramekins.)
4 eggs
4 egg yolks
1½ cups confectioner's sugar
¾ cup flour

Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Brush 8 3-inch ramekins with a tablespoon of melted butter. Set all of them in a 9x13-inch pan. Fill the pan with about a half-inch of water.
Place the butter in a 2-cup glass microwave-safe measuring cup. Microwave for a minute and a half or until butter is completely melted. Stir in the chocolate. Microwave for 30 seconds more if the chocolate doesn't completely melt when stirred.
Beat with a whisk the eggs and yolks in a 4-cup glass measuring cup. Slowly add the butter and chocolate, then the sugar, then the flour, until completely combined.
Pour into the ramekins, then put in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes (if you get distracted, or like only a little goo in the middle, a somewhat longer time is OK). Remove from oven and serve immediately with a dusting of confectioner's sugar or the topping of your choice.

Adapted from recipe given to me by Linda Wallihan in Sacramento

Top 10 Riskiest Foods

This is definitely worth reposting.

Top 10 Riskiest Foods Regulated by the FDA
The list includes leafy greens, eggs and tuna

By: Candy Sagon | Source: AARP Bulletin Today | October 5, 2009

The good news is chocolate is not on the list. The bad news—ice cream is.
Some of the healthiest, most inviting foods on your grocery list—lettuce, eggs, ice cream—are the most likely to make you sick, says a Washington, D.C., nonprofit advocacy group.
Researchers at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) on Tuesday announced their own grocery list of the 10 riskiest foods regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The most hazardous, in order: leafy greens, eggs, tuna, oysters, potatoes, cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts and berries.
50,000 cases of food-borne illnesses
According to CSPI’s study, those 10 foods account for nearly 40 percent of all food-borne outbreaks linked to FDA-regulated foods between 1990 and 2006. Nearly 50,000 illnesses—from temporary stomach cramps to disability and death—were reported as a result of the outbreaks. And those illnesses are only the tip of the iceberg. For every case of salmonella poisoning reported, for instance, federal officials estimate that another 38 cases go unreported.
Meat, pork and poultry, which are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, were not included in the research. Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of CSPI’s food safety program, says the group chose FDA-regulated foods because the federal agency is responsible for “80 percent of the food supply,” including produce, dairy products and seafood, as well as packaged goods like peanut butter and refrigerated cookie dough—both of which were involved in recent food-poisoning outbreaks.
Leafy greens, No. 1 culprit
Many of the items that made the top 10 list are healthy, vitamin-packed foods that nutrition experts frequently urge Americans to eat. “Leafy greens hit a nutritional home run, but they’re starting to mimic the well-known risks of ground beef,” says Sarah Klein, an attorney with CSPI and lead author of the study. This is partly because, like the ground scraps and bits collected to make hamburger meat, the popular bags of prewashed, ready-cut greens are collected from a variety of sources. “A large batch can be contaminated by just one item,” notes DeWaal.
Leafy greens, which include iceberg lettuce, romaine, spring mix, spinach and cabbage, sickened nearly 13,570 people who reported becoming ill—an estimated 30 percent of all the reported illnesses caused by the top 10. This includes the highly publicized 2006 outbreak of food poisoning and deaths traced to bagged spinach contaminated with E. coli bacteria.
Eggs, the second most risky food in the study, are now subject to new FDA regulations that went into effect this summer. The rules require egg producers to test for salmonella—the cause of 95 percent of egg-related food illness, according to CSPI—and refrigerate eggs during storage and transportation. The agency, in announcing the new rules in July, said it expects them to help decrease the 30 deaths annually caused by contaminated eggs.
Watch that homemade ice cream
Salmonella in raw and under-cooked eggs was also the culprit when Americans got sick eating ice cream. Almost half of the ice cream outbreaks could be traced to homemade ice cream made with under-cooked eggs, the study found.
That familiar deli standby, potato salad, pushed potatoes onto the risky foods list, says Klein. “Potatoes are always cooked before eating, but they’re likely being cross-contaminated by other items like mayonnaise or meat,” she says. More than 40 percent of potato-related outbreaks were linked to foods prepared in restaurants and food establishments like grocery stores and delis.
Toxic tuna
Researchers were also surprised to find that scromboid poisoning, from the hard-to-destroy scromboid toxin, made tuna the third riskiest food in the CSPI study. The toxin is most commonly found in fresh tuna (think sushi and seared tuna in restaurants) but cannot be destroyed by cooking, freezing, smoking, curing or canning.
Symptoms of scromboid poisoning often include flushed skin, headaches, abdominal cramps and heart palpitations. More than 65 percent of the outbreaks reported from contaminated tuna occurred in restaurants, the study found.
Although the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million food-borne illnesses occur annually, Craig Hedberg of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health notes that “our food supply is relatively safe, with one illness for every 3,000 to 4,000 meals eaten.” Still, he adds, “new challenges to food safety will continue to emerge and we need a strong and flexible regulatory response.”
Help for the FDA?
The FDA has been criticized for its lax oversight, particularly in the wake of recent illnesses and deaths from tainted spinach and peanut butter products popular with children.
This summer, the House approved a bill that would provide sweeping new powers to the FDA for the first time in 70 years, including stepped-up inspections and the ability to mandate a product recall. The Senate is expected to take up its version this fall and Erik Olson, director of food and consumer product safety with the Pew Health Group, hopes to see a new bill enacted “before Christmas.”
Candy Sagon is a food and health writer in Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1995–2009, AARP. All rights reserved. A Member of AARP Global Network

Dreaming of ice cream

About the time that little pints of Ben & Jerry's started showing up in the grocery stores, the half-gallon block of ice cream lost its cache. As most ice cream makers rushed to put their product in tubs, the block nearly went into extinction, relegated to the bottom of the freezer in its store-brand garb. But some brands still use the block, and some store brands actually are quite good as well, using high quality ingredients.

For cooks, the blocks are a boon. When cooking for crowds, the ice cream easily can be sliced and plated, with none of the fatigue involved in digging out 100 scoops. Even at home, squares form the foundation of spectacular desserts, whether atop plain cake and drizzled with a delicious homemade sauce, layered with brownies, or coated with chocolate and sandwiched between graham crackers. And the block has the advantage of storing more easily in the freezer.

To prevent "wax" forming on the surface of the ice cream in the opened carton, be sure to wrap it tightly with wax paper or plastic wrap.

A breakfast dessert

As much as everyone appreciated the eggs Hussard for a crowd breakfast, the bananas Foster put the breakfast over the top.

Bananas Foster by Lori K

Serves 4

I adapted this from Brennan's recipe; they use banana liqueur, which I have never cared for. So I just upped the rum.

Ingredients:
¼ cup (½ stick) butter
1 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup Meyer's rum
4 bananas, cut in half lengthwise, then halved
4 scoops vanilla ice cream

Instructions:

Combine the butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a flambé pan or skillet. Place the pan over low heat, and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Stir in half the rum, then place the bananas in the pan. When the banana sections soften and begin to brown, carefully add the rest of the rum. Continue to cook the sauce until the rum is hot, then tip the pan slightly to ignite the rum. (If the rum doesn't ignite, just continue When the flames subside, lift the bananas out of the pan and place four pieces over each portion of ice cream. Generously spoon warm sauce over the top of the ice cream and serve immediately.