Never return a plate empty

Flourless chocolate cake, originally uploaded by One of the many Mudricks.

Behind our home in Charlottesville was a dumpster. It was actually really convenient. We never had to figure out what to do with our large pieces of trash. We had an old desk and chair. We put it out by the dumpster and by the time we got to our back door our neighbors were bringing it into their own house. Our neighbors were Kurdish refugees from Uzbekistan. They were a nice contrast to our white-trash-stalker neighbor. One night there was a knock at our back door and in a thick accent someone yelled, "S., S.!" It was our neighbor with a plate full of food. I was amazed. Here was a family, living in a foreign country, struggling to make ends meet, using our unwanted furniture, bringing us a delicious meal. It's because of S. He can make anyone feel good. He is so personable and charismatic. He could hold conversations with them and neither one spoke the other's language.

S. would literally give you the shirt off his back, or tie. We have been married for almost 7 years and he has had some nice looking ties over that period of time. Well, others liked them, too, so he gave them to them. We would come home from church and I would say, "Where is your tie?" or "Where did you get that tie?" He had either traded ties (because the other person liked his tie, not that his "new" tie was cool) or just given his tie to someone. In fact, a friend of ours in C-ville had commented S. on a certain tie so many times that he was going to give it to him if he was in church one particular Sunday. Too bad for him, it was graduation day and he skipped out.

So, being married to S. I have had to kick it up a notch in the friendship/giving area. Sure, in college if a friend needed me I would drop everything (I'm talking classes, homework, papers, the works), but I also got something out of it--fun, because we'd to do something exciting. It wasn't really selfless. After our neighbors gave us this food I of course had to return their plate with something yummy. In about a hour, S. was knocking on their door returning their plate with a scrumptious Flourless Chocolate Cake.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
(FOOD magazine Jan 2004)

6 T unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or 8 oz chopped)
6 large egg yolks
6 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 275 degrees, with rack in center. Butter a 9-inch springform pan. Place butter and chocolate in large bowl. Microwave in 30-second increments, stirring each time, until melted; cool slightly. Whisk in yolks.

In another bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add granulated sugar; beat until stiff and glossy. Whisk 1/4 of whites into chocolate mixture; gently fold mixture into remaining whites.

Pour into prepared pan; smooth top. Bake until cake pulls away from sides of pan and is just set in center, 45-50 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Serve dusted with confectioners' sugar.

This is actually really quick to make and always turns out. And who doesn't have these ingredients? We add whipping cream and fresh raspberries, too.