Holiday Dinner Party Humor

Now that all of the holiday events are behind us, including that long stretch of food-eating extravaganzas from Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas parties through New Year’s Day buffets, we can now reflect on 2013 and resolve for 2014. Here’s a funny video about guests and their many eating quirks. Lucky me, I can eat almost anything!

I’m tacking on this 2013 annual report from WordPress.  The kindly people at WordPress noted that many of my top posts were not written this past year.  Rather than saying that I was lazy in 2013, they said this:  “Some of your most popular posts were written before 2013. Your writing has staying power! Consider writing about those topics again.”    Hope to see you all in 2014.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 36,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Most Dangerous Recipe in the World

It may not be the prettiest cake, but it can be ready in five minutes. That's what makes it so dangerous.

Chris B. emailed this recipe to all of her friends, and we’re so grateful.  She tells us we’re now only five minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night.  This makes it one of the most dangerous cake recipes in the world.

FIVE-MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

• 1 coffee mug
• 4 tablespoons flour (plain, not self-rising)
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking cocoa
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
• some chopped nuts (optional)
• small dash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well.  Add the egg and mix thoroughly.  Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.  Add the chocolate chips and nuts (if using) and vanilla. Mix again.  Cook in the microwave for three minutes on high.  The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little.  Tip out onto a plate, if desired, or spoon it right out of the mug.  This can serve two people, if you’re willing to share. It’s very rich and dense.  It reminds me of a fallen chocolate souffle — nothing wrong with that! Let it cool a little, but it’s best warm.

I used a soup mug for the cake in the photo. The cake didn’t rise above the rim, but it still baked well.  I’ve made a vegan version using egg substitute and replaced the milk with water, and it was still tasty.  Just don’t skimp on the cocoa!