My microwave just decided to throw in its nukey little towel. The turntable won't stop turning and the light won't shut off till I pull the door open. It doesn't start heating till I push the start button but the turn table and the light keep going as long as the door is shut. This is creepy so I have unplugged it.



... which has made me realize what a shocking amount of dependency I have on my microwave. It's especially disturbing considering I just started using a microwave around three years ago. I remember having had to consult a manual to figure out how the contraption worked the first time I used it.

Earlier this evening, I made a pit stop at PriceRite for Ginger - a tiny piece of it that weighed less than a third of a pound. I think the ominous sign was when the cashier checking out my groceries pointed at the twisted little piece of root and asked me what it was.

Personally, I think no one on this planet should go through their life without getting acquainted with ginger. I was debating the pros and cons of telling her what an awesome seasoning the tiny root makes but I stopped mid-thought when I saw my total bill. I was expecting a bill of less than $10 but I got billed twice the amount:



I would have walked out without making a fuss about any of this but I felt really ridiculous paying $6.46 for a piece of ginger as big as my thumb! I asked her to re-check. She weighed it twice but the total didn't change. One of the managers ambled over and agreed that it was an unreasonable amount to pay for ginger. After what looked like some super-involved physics and computing research, they found that the scale added more than 2lb to everything.

At that point, I should have just left that ginger piece on the counter, asked them for a refund and walked out. Quite unfortunately, however, my frugal shopping senses kicked in. I noticed that I had paid $6.47 for 3 medium tomatoes. I asked them if they could reweigh the other produce on my list.

For some mysterious reason the manager told me: "I will do the tomatoes but I am definitely not doing the onions!" My mind started meandering toward possible reasons. Did he have a massive allergy to onions? Did the peeling and almost psoriatic red onion skins gross him out? Was he psychologically traumatized by the flavour of onions? Why single out onions? Was he French? I was almost ready to pay this extra $10 to know the answer to this conundrum.



Moral of the story: Ginger helps you get some refunds but it can't help you solve elemental mysteries.

The big confession is that this is my first time baking or even cooking with eggs. The results are surprisingly rather pleasant.



I really expected some kind of hard sedimentary rock - considering my former eggless ventures but this one sliced pretty easily and didn't stick to the glass.



Though the recipe called for a truckload of butter ( ), quite possibly, this might be the one of the more healthful cakes I have ever eaten.



I tossed in a granny smith, some almonds and peanuts in addition to the carrot so it is slightly on the more-moist side. Oh, and I freaked out last minute about using only oatmeal flour so I tossed in some toasted bulghur wheat - the fibre value might have gone up 50% because of that. Hehe



According to the label on the package, the hens were apparently running around in a carefree manner eating vegetarian organic poultry feed when they produced the light brown eggs that I bought.



The carrot-tag claimed that they were grown in an "certified" organic environment and the almond-pack says they are from a "green practices" farm. The butter is organic too. The Coop made a killing business out of me yesterday. Hahaha



The oats were packaged and sold by a ubiquitous brand that has a cheruby and probably gouty old man as its mascot. The bulghur wheat is from Lebanon.



The peanuts and apple, unfortunately, didn't have any special qualities listed. I am assuming the spices are pretty generic as well.



As usual, I had no sugar at hand so I used only honey. As a result the cake is very mildly sweet. One slice contains less than 1/2 a teaspoon of honey. If you are looking for a sugar-overload, this is not it.



I think I might be bringing it to the BBQ tonight (is it still on?)

---

Notes:
(e:Terry): Less eggs
(e:leetee): More flour.
(e:Paul): Ripe bananas
(e:libertad): More honey
James (I think or was that Robert?): Dates as a binding agent

I love you all. :)

My Lemon and Coconut flavoured Green Lentil Power Dinner.