Quarantine Cooking in Times of Tragedy

I had a better day Friday. At least I made it through most of the day without bursting into tears. This is such an odd time to be grieving since there is/will be none of the typical corporate sadness. I don't know about other parts of the country, but here when someone loses a family member, everybody and their brother rushes to the door with food. I have actively told everyone who has contacted me to please bring nothing since it is just TheHub and I here. Even though our governor has loosed restrictions on staying in place,  I am still staying away from people, plus 2 of my sons are in states with stiff restrictions Additionally I do not want any of them flying right now. We are having a very small private funeral service at the columbarium in our church courtyard. It will offer Jan and me some closure but there will be no extended family gathering following the service. We are saving that for a memorial service at some future date when Sons 1 and 3 and their families can be here, along with our extended family and friends. Mom would love knowing she was going to be the focus of two separate events.

I spent a decent amount of time making preparations for Mom's service and I started laughing thinking about a book I read a long time ago called "The Sweet Potato Queens Book of Love". They had a section of recipes called funeral food. As I said above it is tradition to have pound cakes, and platters of fried chicken along with casseroles of every kind just appear at your door, with a card or note expressing love and sympathy. Instead, in these weird times, I have had flowers and cards and a bakery pound cake delivered with the same sentiments.  I do appreciate my friends and my cousins Debbie and Sandy for remembering me and Jan at an approved safe distance. Even so, I was really wanting something comforting (i.e. chocolate)

The Sweet Potato Queens had a recipe call Chocolate Stuff which is good for whatever ails you after any tragedy (death, lost love, stumped toe, favorite pants got bleach on them). Since I am staying at home anyway I thought I would make us some to drown our sorrow. What could possibly be better than some delicious baked chocolate goo?

According to the Boss Queen, Jill Conner Browne, this recipe will feed 2-6 queens depending on their level of stress and anxiety. When I made it we had enough for 2 generous servings plus at least two more that were refrigerated and eaten two different times later (BTW cold chocolate goo is pretty dang good also)

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 pinch of salt

Mix the ingredients well

1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter
2 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt the butter and stir in the cocoa. I used 1 1/2  (heaping) tablespoons regular cocoa powder and 1/2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder cause I like my chocolate a bit on the dark side. Then stir every thing into the egg mixture. When the chocolate is all blended add a teaspoon of vanilla. Let is splash over the edge of the measuring spoon just a tad. A little extra vanilla does nothing but make this stuff better.

And now this is how the magic begins. Spray a standard loaf pan with non stick cooking spray (be generous) Spoon the mixture into the loaf pan. Set the loaf pan inside another pan  and add water until the bottom pan is almost filled to the top. Stick that into a 300 degree oven and leave it totally alone for at least 45 minutes. You want to have a delicious crunchy top with a lovely gooey bottom. I will confess I let mine cook about 55 minutes, because I wanted a little more crunch on the top but wanted all that delicious soft runny chocolate in the bottom.

How it looks when it is ready. The edges look I burned it a tad but I didn't. It is just the light and shadows for. picture taken with the phone moments before we dung into it. The photo below is the second bite of the still warm goo from the bottom of the pan.

I cannot even begin to tell you how delicious this stuff was. I ate mine warm in a bowl with a small spoon so I could savor every single bite. TheHub opted to throw a scoop of vanilla ice cream on his, which made it perfection for him. (I still think the addition was overkill)

If you want to, before baking you can throw in a bunch of chopped pecans, but if the objective is to have chocolate therapy why bother?

After eating it I pronounce it a pretty good remedy for the blues. The next time you are in the dumps give it a whirl and maybe send good thoughts to the Sweet Potato Queens of Jackson, Mississippi.