Picnic and Chocolate Souffles

Today Ian came over to visit. Alan, Ian and I ate homemade pancakes for breakfast. Then around noon we set out for a picnic. The three of us went to Deer Hollow Farm in Los Altos. We decided to go there under the promise that there would be live farms animals to observe and a barn with picnic tables. Deer Hollow Farm is located in the Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve in Santa Clara County, which is really close to where we live. The location was beautiful and there were lots of families, joggers, chickens and blue jays. However, we did not know that we would have to carry our over packed, difficult to carry, picnic basket for about a mile before we reached the intended barn.

(As you can see, Alan was not happy to carry the basket for so long.)

We were quite exhausted from carrying the picnic basket by the time we reached our destination, but we were very determined to eat some cheese in a 100 year old barn. After about 30 minutes of walking, we finally were able to sit down in the shade and eat our brie, apples and crackers. The simple food we ate was delicious and the location was very relaxing. Unfortunately though, it was too hot and we were too tired to drink the wine we had lugged.

After the picnic Ian left. To kill time in the afternoon, Alan and I set out to make chocolate souffle. I read this article a couple days ago about chocolate souffle by Mark Bittman and I was dying to try to recipe. Chocolate souffle seems like such a grown-up, sophisticated, Frenchy thing to make, and I had never tried a souffle before. So, we did it. It was surprisingly easy to make. And tasty :)

They deflated pretty quickly (the picture above was taken after they deflated), but I was proud of our souffle. We made them in ramekins that we received as a wedding gift from my aunt Indra and uncle TK.