Just a month left

 

I wonder why I'm not drawn to go to the beach one more time this summer before I move out west. I could certainly do so. I've sat in the sand and enjoyed the interaction with salty waves many times, enjoying the connection with all the waters that flow around our earth.

But no, I can let the rest of humanity have their sunburns, sandy toes, and damp bathing suits. I am happy enough with drinking lots of water. That's become my connection with all the earth's many-times-recycled waters. You can remind me I said this today if I ever complain about the dryness of Colorado!

Making blueberry pancakes the other day...with frozen blueberries. I'd drop a few onto each pancake after the batter was poured in the pan. So I got lovely blueberry stains on my fingernails!

I do prefer the smaller ones to the great big grandmother size pancakes.

A view of the cooking layout for my new apartment in Durango. It's not much different than the one I now have, though a bit older and smaller. Which actually is close to describing myself, except I'm not much smaller!

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Reminder: Drop over to see Art in Bloom - Alchemy of Clay blog which has some photos each day for this year's display of art with floral arrangements at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts 

Hither and yon

Here are a few more shots from home...where spring was just beginning and then I left!

Looking down the "courtyard" past our pink dogwood to see the white one at the furthest apartments.

The pink dogwood still has some blooms, though many branches are past blossoming.

Early buds on the azaleas outside my kitchen.

YON (Florida):

My daughter-in-law's Moonlit Macarons display in St. Petersburg FL.

MORE YON (say Colorado)

View outside front windows of my youngest son's home in Cortez, looking towards the back side of Mesa Verde

I asked for blueberry pancakes, and my son fixed these fluffy ones...here making notes with is wife on the ingredient list in the cookbook!

They were delicious!

The fabulous kitchebn window looking out the back view of their yard.

Today's quote:

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now. 

Joan Baez

I blame it on the book

 "Braiding Sweetgrass" inspiration. No I'm not going out to teach biology, but I will talk with the plants I see, and admire new ones. Thanks to Robin Wall Kimmerer.

I just finished re-reading about her learning her native language, where every "thing" is described as a verb rather than a thing.

Then the next chapter was about capturing sap from the maples in her yard with her daughters, and making maple syrup.

I crave pancakes now. My syrup is pure maple, bottled in Ohio. I must wonder where the maple trees were which provided this delicious nectar.

I've got my blueberries from Peru, via Ingles Grocery. No kidding.

 So I shall enjoy mixing together some flour, milk, baking powder and and an egg and heating my skillet in which I'll gently pour the three rounds of batter and toss a handful of berries on each one.

After pouring on the syrup (which is kept cold the whole time and returned to the refrigerator) I reheat everything 15 seconds in the microwave for my serving.

 I let the rest cool on a rack and will put them in a bread-bag and then keep them in the freezer. They make wonderful breakfasts, but I seldom use syrup on them then. I just butter the toasted ones with a sprinkle of good tasting yeast.

See you later...yum yum!

Today's quote:

We invented phonetic writing so we could put our sounds down on paper and, by glancing at a page, hear someone speaking in our head—an invention that became so widespread in the last few thousand years that we hardly ever stop to consider how astonishing it is.

—Carl Sagan

Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death

Blueberry Pancakes

Fresh blueberries. They had been shoved behind bagels in the refrigerator from my last shopping trip.

So I washed and drained them, and almost put them in the freezer. But decided I hadn't had blueberry pancakes in a while...so I just kept them by the stove, and got out the blender. A few minutes later and I had batter ready to go. I pour it into the pan, 3 small ones each time. Then dot the berries around the pancakes as they start to cook. This was the first time I've made them in this non-stick skillet. I used to use my iron skillet. I like this!

I make the whole batch, putting each threesome into the toaster oven on "keep warm" setting. Then when the last batch is done, I serve 3 for me to eat now, pour the syrup on them and nuke the plate in the microwave for 15 seconds to warm the syrup. I let the rest of the pancakes cool down at this point. They are put into a baggie and then the freezer for another breakfast whenever I wish.

I almost didn't get a photo of the served pancakes...here's one of the last bites! Very yummy supper. I like the reheated ones with just butter and good tasting nutritional yeast...and they were all gone within just a few days.

Today's quote:

Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance more than one's own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality. -Sheri S. Tepper, novelist (16 Jul 1929-2016) 

A Pancake Breakfast

I ran out of raisin bread to make into toast today. And I haven't gotten energized enough to make real yeast bread yet. So a quick pop of stuff into the blender, then onto the good old big iron skillet...and voila, a baker's dozen of these golden goodies. Of course topped with real butter and Vermont maple syrup...yum yum. I don't even use a recipe any more...since I've got so many short cuts from recipes that I've followed. I used to use Bisquick to make pancakes, or biscuits.  Now I do it from scratch, with far less oil in the batter, so I don't feel guilty about letting butter melt all over them.

I was going to make Snickerdoodles this afternoon, but sometime or another I took out my recipe card from the little book, where sleeves of lots of my old recipes are filed. And no Snickerdoodle card was in there.  That's a recipe I would need the card to follow. When I took it out, I was talking about how my recipe includes using orange extract. And now I can't find it anywhere.

I froze the rest of the pancakes, which makes them easy to nuke or toast up when I feel like having them again.

Now to something sweet. I've got the brownie recipe from Fannie Farmer...but I don't want that much chocolate to eat. I think I'd prefer the old "vanilla cookies," or maybe "refrigerator cookies." The peanut butter ones would be nice too, but I don't know that I want to give a half cup of my precious peanut butter to a batch.  See how we think in times of watching what staples are on hand and likely to be replenished? Well, I do anyway.

I'm also wanting to make up a nice batch of soup. Don't have too many veggies, but a few that will be nice when added to the stock that I've got in the cupboard.

So far I have not been sick for the last week...after my 5 day fever that never got worse. My blood pressure is somewhat high, so I am going to call the doc Monday to see if there's another option for treating it. You don't need the details.