Something to manage our hungers

Flourless Chocolate Cake

7:14 am. I rolled out of bed, guzzled a cup of water, and started separating eggs. It was almost too early for the oven to be on, but Halloween beckoned and my office was having a little afternoon party, so I thought chocolate. And cake. And simplicity, because I had gone to yoga the night before and went to bed instead of back into the kitchen. 

Flourless Chocolate Cake
Flourless Chocolate Cake

So the eggs were cracked. Whites were whipped, chocolate and butter was melted, sugar was whisked, and soft peaks were formed and folded into a deeply rich batter destined for a warm oven. Thirty-five minutes later, out came a puffed cake with just enough time to cool before dusting it with a thick layer of powdered sugar and packaging it into a carrying case. 

I'm grateful for a cake like this. We all need one that's nothing fancy, yet beautifully tender and satisfying. Something to manage our hungers.


Don't hold back now, have
​chocolate, throw extra

kindling on, even though
skies urge cover & hoarding.
When mice pitter in

for crumbs, compliment
their small feet and fitting
ways. When your mouth

houses a curse, swallow,
think how you once
had no words at all

yet managed
your hungers.

-from The Hard Season by Kathleen Lynch


Flourless Chocolate Cake
Flourless Chocolate Cake

(For the recipe, visit Food 52.)

"Canned Food Drive" by Kathleen Lynch + Roasted Pea and Purple Barley Salad

As a child, when did you first become aware that people in the world who lived differently than you? I was about 10 years old. For several years, my family had volunteered at a meals-on-wheels-style nonprofit just one city over. I was still young, so my job usually involved scooping mashed potatoes into the plastic containers, or tying ribbon on Christmas presents in December, but this particular time, I rode in the car with my dad to help with the deliveries. We joined several other volunteers and made our way to motels and mobile home parks, knocking on doors and handing out the hot meals. It was Thanksgiving morning, a day to be grateful. We had made our way around the entire building but still had extra meals in the back of a truck, so we started making rounds again asking if anyone needed an extra one. A girl answered the door, about my age, and without so much as a breath of hesitation said, "No thank you. Other people need it more than me."