In Media Res

1) The 2L bottle of ginger ale was not quite as hard as a rock when I cracked the seal on it this evening, but my intense curiosity could stand it no longer -- I had to know.  I can report that I should have let it wait longer, because it was not as intensely bubbly as I felt it should be -- although there was definite fizz.  On the other hand, the flavor is amazing -- complex, rounded, layered, and mellow(?!?).  Yes, folks, mellow.  It is very nice, and I will be glad to drink the entire bottle, but I was not shooting for mellow.  I was shooting for intense, fiery, flirting with the edges of my ginger tolerance, punch myself in the nose flavor. 

On the theory that I could address at least one of those problems by adding more yeast, I did.  The bottle is back to hanging out on top of the fridge.  I keep squeezing it every fifteen minutes in the hopes that fermentation is fermentating faster than I expect. 

2) The banana ginger cake, despite containing a third of the ginger in the ginger ale is much spicier.  I think this means that the next time I make ginger ale, I will briefly boil the ginger puree before proceeding, on the theory that heat releases some of ginger's more volatile compounds.  It is also excellent if you like that sort of thing.  Or even if you don't.  The Piephile who greatly prefers pie to just about any other human vice, except for dancing (maybe), conceded that the cake in question was very tasty even though it was not a pie or dancing. 

3)  Some salad in a bag is at the end of it's lifespan as salad-in-a-bag qua salad.  Waste annoys me.  I may attempt to make lettuce soup or at least vegetable stock.