End Results and Other Things

For those of you who follow and read this at the Blogger site, I have a question to pose. Does the new header to the blog look okay? Should I change the font color? I kind of like it, where it looks like the words are blending with the background, but I don't know for certain. For this, I would like your input.

Any of you that read yesterday's post know that I attempted an experiment last night. The Great Cheesecake Experiment, I'm happy to say, was a success. The journey was more time consuming than I had anticipated, taking around three hours from Start Time to Oven Removal Time. This means that the cheesecake came out of the oven around 8:20pm, and then it had to cool to room temperature, so another hour-and-a-half. Then it needed to be cooled in the fridge, so I didn't even get to eat any cheesecake last night. I did, however, lick the spoons, and I knew my cheesecake would be tasty.

This morning for breakfast I cut me a slice. The knife slid into something of a density that I was expecting, so that was my first sign that I succeeded. Pulling out the piece, everything looked rich and perfect. Really, I'm not bragging, but it was probably the most beautiful cheesecake I've ever seen, and perhaps one of the best tasting ones, too, and I've had many pieces of cheesecake in my life. Perhaps there was something about having made one myself that made me like it so much.

If you like cheesecake, you have a springform pan, and you can follow directions, you should definitely make one. (The recipe can be found in yesterday's post as a link. I followed the directions exactly, with the addition of wax paper on the bottom of the springform pan.) It's a dark chocolate cheesecake, rich and full, strong and sweet in flavor, smooth and gentle to the tongue. My patience of waiting until today to have a piece paid off, and I was rewarded with an explosion of flavor beyond my expectation. I was stunned to have made such a succulent desert.

So, without further ado, I present to you some pictures, created as a slideshow. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. I couldn't find the camera, so I had to snap pictures using the video camera, which definitely doesn't have as good quality at picture taking. (If this slideshow doesn't work on Facebook, click here for a direct link to the album.)

Since I don't intend eating an entire cheesecake, I brought more than half of it in to work today. I guess it shall be weighed and judged.

Now, for another paragraph of character rambling, from Before They Are Hanged. Again, skip the paragraph if you've not read the book.

Jezal: Jezal has been an interesting character from the get-go. Starting out as a pompous noble son, there was little to like in him. Now, after going through all he has, there are traits that I really like seeing in the young lad. I think Jezal will return to try and woo Ardee, and I think that she'll admire Jezal and want him, too. I think that there is a possibility of Jezal becoming a leader, possibly even a seat on the Closed Council (or the King of the Union?), once he returns. This mostly stems from all the talks Bayaz gives on the importance of leadership thinking. Maybe the Magus was training Jezal for something important.

Well, friends, I hope you enjoyed looking at that cake. I assure you, it tastes much better than it looks, though it doesn't look too shabby, if I say so myself. Also, for those of you that don't read Dave's blog, you should go there and watch the video he's posted in his latest entry. Suffice it to say that you'll laugh very, very hard.

Song Lyric: "Broke into the old apartment. This is where we used to live."--Barenaked Ladies, The Old Apartment