A Bug's Life

I'm making brownies; I turned the oven on to pre-heat, came downstairs to start a-mixin', and found the oven's fan whirring busily away but no actual heat. The top oven seems happier, but the brownies won't have cooled by 6pm. They might not have cooked. The mix came out much drier and stiffer than previous batches, perhaps because I added dried banana chips which are highly anisotropic and do not assist the consistency of a grainy batter. On the other hand, my last few batches were cooked for a long time and still raw in the middle. So maybe everything will turn out okay! EDIT: Yummy chocolatey success! :-)

I did something stupid. I bought some salami and ham on an offer. Which ham to get? Parma? No, that's not in the offer. Any of these other smoked ready-to-eat meats in the display? I went for the smoked pancetta. And ate a slice this afternoon, thought it tasted a bit flabby, looked at the packet, and saw "This product must be cooked before use." And on the front of the packet it's been cooked to a tasty crisp, instead of what I ate which was basically raw bacon. I hope the only aftereffect of this is that I check labels more carefully in future. Grr. Everything else on that display was ready-to-eat!