i've said it before...

and i'll say it again...itunes and apple are a bunch of no-good, sneaky, a** bandits. i had really high hopes for winamp with their large bento skin...but alas, it wasn't to be. constant, unremitting crashing has forced me to go slinking back to itunes with my tail between my legs, to the accompaniment of the dotytron, pantomiming bloat along with dry-heaving, bubbly sound effects.

boooooooo...i hate being forced to do anything.

in other news...i tried taking a stand against the ongoing intellectual entropy that's a hallmark of modern western culture today - i failed miserably. i don't want to get into details...suffice to say that the concept of comparable, authoritative information is an elusive chimera.

i'm clearly cranky right now. i just spent about 2 hours bundling cables that run betwixt and between my computer/printer/speakers/monitor/external hard drive/usb hub, etc. it was maddening, dusty work and then i had to contend with a recalcitrant ipod and stupid, fascist itunes on top of it. and now it's 10:00pm and i'm going to bed in a hour. yay.

this is a picture of the dimply plum cake i made last night for dessert. it's a dorie greenspan recipe. dorie greenspan is lionized in the food blog world and her recipes are the inspiration for a monthly series called "daring bakers" where food bloggers the world over all tackle one of her recipes a month and then breathlessly recount every detail of its' execution.

well, i gotta say...i've yet to be impressed by a dorie greenspan recipe. this plum cake looked really pretty but the taste fell flat. it just tasted like nothing much at all...like a non-cake; this after i took the liberties of upping the amount of cinnamon called for in the cake and adding some ground caradmom. the cake baked up with a nice crusty top, but the sides were sawdusty and bready and flavourless. this cake just needed more. more tenderness, more crumble, more sweetness, more of a distinctive flavour. i'll probably tool around with it because i do like the look of it...and there's something so homespun and charming about a plum cake served with a drift of whipped cream.


this is what i made for dinner tonight. i took two thin slices of eggplant and sandwiched them around a filling of goat's cheese run through in a food processor with some basil, salt, and pepper. then i took the eggplant sandwiches and breaded them and fried them. delicious! few things benefit more from a coating of flour, egg, and breadcrumb/panko than eggplant. the result was a crisp coating surrounding a barely solid mess of basil-flavoured eggplant custard. sooo good. i ate 5 of 'em.

alongside i made a quick chickpea salad. warm chickpeas with diced red onion, garlic, T's chilies, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper.

fin.