DUCK BREASTS FOR DINNER

I love duck breasts, although I do not have them that often.  Spotted this recipe in NYTimes a few weeks ago and have been waiting for the right moment to cook them. Our supermarket doesn't always have them either but I saw them there last weekend and the plan stated taking shape!
January is a quiet month for us usually, have been doing a no alcohol month for a few years now and that goes along perfectly with catching up on movies prior to the Oscars. We had a DVD to watch last night, The Ides of March, which was enjoyable, almost as much as the duck! Here is the recipe link., Peppered Duck Breast with Red Wine Sauce

Few notes: They were not Muscovy duck breasts which I don't think mattered at all except mine weighed closer to half a pound rather than a pound.  I did one each which was really a bit too much but no-one was looking!! I still used the same timings and they were done exactly as I like them, I did the second side for 5 minutes, which was supposed to be fore medium-rare.
The sauce was exceptional and easy.  This would be a great dish for entertaining as you can do the sauce ahead of time.  And yes, it was very tempting to drink a glass of the red wine I opened for the sauce but I managed not to!

MOM, THIS COULD BE BEST BIRTHDAY CAKE YET....

Most of my friends know that I always do a chocolate cake for Joseph's birthday. For years I had been cheating and using a Duncan Hines mix!!!!! Shocker, I know.  It all started when I asked a friend and chef for a good chocolate cake recipe when Joseph was around 4, as I was finding that my English recipes didn't seem to work so well here, and truthfully, I hadn't baked too many chocolate cakes. The friend knew it was for a 4 year old's birthday party and said I was crazy to bother to bake one from scratch, and so the cake from a mix thing started.  I did always make my own Butter icing/frosting, honest!  A year ago I made a wonderful cake, recipe from Rosalind,  who had brought it to my birthday party earlier in the year. (I was sure I had posted it but it seems not!)  This cake was a labour of love for sure, but well worth it in my opinion, here is a pic, looks pretty similar, suppose it is my frosting style but it was much bigger and it was really delicious!

So, as the birthday drew nigh I asked Joseph if he would like me to repeat the cake this year and he said: 'No, let's go back to the one you used to make',  so disappointing, I LOVED last year's cake.  However, I really wanted to improve on the packet mix cake and looked for a recipe for traditional chocolate cake.  Turned to Cooks Illustrated, of course and there found an 'Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake' recipe that looked about right to me.  As I have said before, I cannot post a link, you need to subscribe to CI, most annoying.  I even followed the icing recipe, no brainer, it had lots of chocolate and butter so of course was yummy.  BINGO!  Joseph loved it, no fretting next year, I will know exactly what to do!