The distractions of cake

What do you get when you have two workaholics, a ruined hot water valve, a not-too-active landlord, a plumber who will show up "sometime this afternoon" and a lagging and drooping wireless network? Well, the potential for a mess is endless. People like this have to be distracted, or disasters will happen. As they did, even as I write, the drooping wireless network flicking on and off, my laptop occasionally shut off from the world, occasionally connected at monstrous speed, as the person at the controlling computer is doing who knows what. I managed to postpone the disaster until after I was done working on the articles I have to write these two weeks, and I managed that through some ingenious manouvers early in the day.

I started planning for this already while shopping for groceries. Getting ingredients for work-intensive food was the plan. And the menu this evening was to be roast beef, guacamole and almond-orange poundcake. My NYC connection hates having anybody working in his kitchen while he is in the vicinity, and as he makes good food, I don't complain about being made superflous. The pound cake was created from this basic recipe, and adjusted to fit what was available and my particular diet.

1 cup butter
2/3 cup fructose
5 eggs
2 cups almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
zest of one orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Cream butter and fructose well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Mix flour with baking powder and add to egg mixture a little at a time while beating. Add orange zest and vanilla extracts. Blend well.

Pour into greased 9-inch cake pan and bake at 350-degrees F for 50-55 minutes.

This cake didn't rise too well, but the taste is rich and luxurious. The almonds and the orange zest makes it juicy, while the eggs bind the whole thing together. With a glass of port (barely on the diet, but since red wine is OK, port almost is...), it made for the perfect dessert after a simple meal of meat and guacamole.

So what's going on with the network? Well, my very sweet but very wannabee geeky host bought an airport express to extend the wireless network and enhance the signal in the far end of his apartment, as well as use it (once I am out of here) for playing music from his laptop to the livingroom speakers. For some reason he decided that the way I set it up was wrong, and he has been trying to repair that for days. Today's attempts closed the whole wireless network down for the laptops (his apple, my dell), so since after dinner I have had extremely patchy access. He is still working on it, and with the same propriety air as in the kitchen. Perhaps, if I start doing dishes I will have a chance to fix his wireless network...