Nympho Space Duck

It's funny how you can walk by a place, and a fragment of a memory jumps out and grabs you before you consciously realize you've been there before.

It's especially funny when the particular memory is something which, at the time, you thought you'd always remember, but which you haven't thought about since it happened.

It's like the memory is a ghost residing in the place itself, rather than in your brain.

The damned server went down again. Someone complained that it was down, so I went and checked it, and it was powered off (along with all its peripherals). Starting it back up showed that it had not shut down cleanly.

I'm guessing a UPS problem, as any other power problem wouldn't have effected all the peripherals attached to the UPS as well, and at the very least the UPS should have brought the machine down cleanly. Either that, or we have a saboteur in the office (this isn't the first time I've thought that, either - a few months ago the scsi cable randomly decided to come loose).

It's cursed, I swear.

Everyone has disappeared from the office. I couldn't figure out why until I looked at my watch and realized it was after 5.

Inbox is down below 30. There's some others I ought to respond to, but I don't feel like it. Maybe tonight.

I think I will go to the store on the way home and find some bread to go under my marmalade.

more pointless babble

I found cool lettuce at the store today. It has the roots attached, and comes in a plastic container, so you can water it and keep it fresh for longer. My mom recommended it to me a while ago, when I mentioned that I hated buying lettuce because I never used it all before it went bad, but this is the first time I've seen it in this grocery store.

I bought her a box of gingerbread cake mix, which brings me a step closer to finishing her box of birthday presents. It's getting rather belated (her birthday was the 29th), but she hasn't sent me my birthday present either, so I don't feel too guilty. I feel like I need to find one more thing before I send it. So far - the gingerbread cake mix, some small bottles of lavender soap/shampoo/etc., Ramona's World, and a bag of rice and a bag of garlic almonds from the farmer's market. I'm thinking perhaps a CD. I'll look tomorrow when I get the CDs' for theducks and see if anything jumps out at me. I also need to find some birthday candles to go with the cake - for some reason, our grocery store doesn't seem to carry them. They have a very odd selection - a lot of more exotic foods, but lacking in the non-food department.

I got another box of gingerbread mix and some applesauce for myself, which I think I'm baking tonight. Except I just realized I don't have a baking pan. Oops. I think I may head back to the store - I need a salad sized tupperware container, as well. Perhaps I'll get some apples to add to the gingerbread as well - that might be good.

Gingerbread/Peach muffins (or cake)

1 box Dromedary gingerbread mix (other brands probably work equally well. This is just the one I used)
1 1/2 cups applesauce (unsweetened/spiced/flavored is probably best. NOTE: If the jar holds five 1/2 cup servings, this does not equal 1 1/2 cups. If you just dump in the whole jar, you'll have to spoon out a cup or so of applesauce. Luckily, I noticed before mixing it in... (why do my recipes always end up like that?))
1 can (15 oz.) peaches (preferably with the lightest syrup available. Whole slices would probably work well for a cake, chunks for muffins)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees for muffins, or 350 for cake.

Mix gingerbread mix and applesauce in a bowl until there are no dry bits of mix remaining (if you're baking a cake, you can just mix it directly in an 8' x 8' pan and save some dishwashing). Drain the peaches (add the juice to iced tea or something), and if necessary, chop them into whatever size you want (for muffins, I cut each slice into thirds). Stir peaches in with the gingerbread/applesauce mix.

Spoon into muffin tins/cake pan. The instructions on the box say to bake muffins for 15 - 20 minutes, and cakes for 30-35. I think that for this recipe, 400 degrees for 20 - 30 minutes would work well for muffins (depending on the size - larger muffins need longer) - I think there's a higher moisture content due to the peaches, and they seemed gooey after 20 minutes (also, the box instructions change ingredients for muffins away from the plain cake recipe, and I didn't do that here. That could have made a difference).

If you aren't using muffin tin liners, run a table knife around the edge of each muffin (or around the edge of the cake) after removing them from the oven (to prevent them from sticking) and let cool for 15 minutes or so. Then dump them onto a cooling rack and let them cool the rest of the way before storing (or serve them warm, or whatever).

The recipe makes one 8' x 8' cake, 6 large muffins, or 12 small muffins. It takes about 2 minutes to prepare (not counting the cooking time) assuming you get peaches pre-cut into the size you want, and don't have to scoop a cup of applesauce back out of the mixture.

In the future, I think I'd make the gingerbread from scratch, in order to better regulate the sugar levels. I'm making these for breakfast, and they really shouldn't be quite so sweet. You can supposedly replace the oil with applesauce in most (baking) recipes, or go half and half. I think I'd greatly reduce the sugar in the average gingerbread recipe, and use whole wheat flour. Chopped apples instead of peaches might also be good. Just following the directions for the cake, in terms of temperature and cooking duration, might also work better. Using slightly less than 1 1/2 cups applesauce if using juicy fruit like canned peaches might also work better.