Connectivity problems

Verizon has dropped our DSL--cattitude will need to talk to them--and my dial-up is being flakier than I'd like. I can get to email via the shell, but Panix doesn't seem willing to talk to Eudora; my Web access is intermittent to the point that it took me several tries to get to this update page.

If you need me, the telephone is your best bet at the moment; I'll try to keep ssh open so I can read email with mutt, but I'm making no predictions.

Update; The Web is behaving, and my connection to the dialup shell seems robust. For added weirdness, it seems willing to let Eudora send mail for me, just not receive it.

Connectivity problems

Verizon has dropped our DSL--cattitude will need to talk to them--and my dial-up is being flakier than I'd like. I can get to email via the shell, but Panix doesn't seem willing to talk to Eudora; my Web access is intermittent to the point that it took me several tries to get to this update page.

If you need me, the telephone is your best bet at the moment; I'll try to keep ssh open so I can read email with mutt, but I'm making no predictions.

Update; The Web is behaving, and my connection to the dialup shell seems robust. For added weirdness, it seems willing to let Eudora send mail for me, just not receive it.

birthday

Happy birthday, roadnotes! May your year be full of love, joy, and music.

birthday

Happy birthday, roadnotes! May your year be full of love, joy, and music.

Chocolate ginger cakelings

This is based on papersky's apple cakelings, plus suggestions and comments received the first time I tried this. These came out properly chocolately--in a cake way, not a brownie way--with a nice hint of ginger, and stronger ginger when I bit into a bit of the crystallized ginger. Note: crystallized ginger that is quite strong when eaten by itself is tamer after baking in these cakelings.

2 ounces butter (1/2 stick), melted
2 ounces sugar
1 large egg
1 ounce Baker's chocolate, melted with a few random chocolate chips (to make up for the amount of chocolate that sticks to the pan)
Crystallized ginger, cut small (a handful)
2 ounces flour
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 400 °F (200 °C; you're still on your own for gas marks).

Beat the sugar into the melted butter. Beat in the egg, whisking thoroughly to get plenty of air in.

Fold in the melted chocolate and the ginger.

Sift the flour, ginger, and cocoa into the liquid mix, then fold it all together, stirring thoroughly.

Spoon into muffin tins, and bake 20 minutes. Enjoy.

(This was going to have cinnamon sugar, but I forgot about it until the tins were in the oven, and it didn't seem worth pulling them out.)

Annotations, 20 November 2003: The cinnamon sugar makes no discernible difference to the flavor. Sifting in more cinnamon, with the ginger, cocoa, and flour, might be worth trying.

A Droste dark chocolate pastille as part of the melted chocolate works. Spoon the melted chocolate from the saucepan into the mixing bowl instead of pouring: less is lost that way. (If you have a microwave and are melting the chocolate in a bowl, bravo, and the principle probably still applies.)

Chocolate ginger cakelings

This is based on papersky's apple cakelings, plus suggestions and comments received the first time I tried this. These came out properly chocolately--in a cake way, not a brownie way--with a nice hint of ginger, and stronger ginger when I bit into a bit of the crystallized ginger. Note: crystallized ginger that is quite strong when eaten by itself is tamer after baking in these cakelings.

2 ounces butter (1/2 stick), melted
2 ounces sugar
1 large egg
1 ounce Baker's chocolate, melted with a few random chocolate chips (to make up for the amount of chocolate that sticks to the pan)
Crystallized ginger, cut small (a handful)
2 ounces flour
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 400 °F (200 °C; you're still on your own for gas marks).

Beat the sugar into the melted butter. Beat in the egg, whisking thoroughly to get plenty of air in.

Fold in the melted chocolate and the ginger.

Sift the flour, ginger, and cocoa into the liquid mix, then fold it all together, stirring thoroughly.

Spoon into muffin tins, and bake 20 minutes. Enjoy.

(This was going to have cinnamon sugar, but I forgot about it until the tins were in the oven, and it didn't seem worth pulling them out.)

Annotations, 20 November 2003: The cinnamon sugar makes no discernible difference to the flavor. Sifting in more cinnamon, with the ginger, cocoa, and flour, might be worth trying.

A Droste dark chocolate pastille as part of the melted chocolate works. Spoon the melted chocolate from the saucepan into the mixing bowl instead of pouring: less is lost that way. (If you have a microwave and are melting the chocolate in a bowl, bravo, and the principle probably still applies.)