The Axis of Evil-7/21/09

Chocolate cake is the axis of evil. Richard may be the first husband in history to be upset that his wife made a chocolate cake with dinner. We worked through it by the end of the night but the basic gist was that he felt that I made the chocolate cake with the intent to derail his triathlon training program. For the record, that was not my intent. I made the Dense Chocolate Fudge Cake on page 52 in this month's Gourmet because well, I'm making every recipe and this was one of them. Part of Richard's frustration is that I am not tempted by sweets as much as he is and having a chocolate cake sitting around was too great a temptation. Resisting temptation is a very wonderful skill to practice, dear!
The dessert kind of ruined it but for what it's worth, dinner was pretty healthy. The Chicken Breasts with Zucchini Pappadelle on page 44 was a simple and flavorful dish. I don't have an adjustable-blade slicer but a vegetable peeler dragged across the width of the squash worked pretty well. The basil added a nice dimension to the chicken and zucchini.
I made two sides, Grilled Scallions Vinaigrette on page 44 and Summer Beets with Mint on page 45. I found the scallions stringy but the dressing was good. The hard boiled eggs on top added a bit of depth. The beets with mint was a very good dish. I haven't made many dishes with beets from Gourmet. I like beets and my mom touts their virtues as a body cleanser. This dish was very simple, basically boiled beets but the mint added freshness to the dish.

Chicken Breasts with Zucchini Pappadelle-B+

Grilled Scallions Vinaigrette-C

Summer Beets with Mint-B+

Dense Chocolate Fudge Cake-B

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