Batatada…

Sounds like the name of a song from a Broadway musical to me! However, this recipe has become a new Sabbath morning breakfast favorite!!!

I have been trying new recipes from a Book called Overcoming Estrogen Dominance by Magdalena Wszelaki, CH, HHC. It is listed under desserts, but I had it for breakfast this morning with a bit of smoothy. Following is a link to this gal’s website.

https://hormonesbalance.com/

Without further ado, here it is!

I loved it so much when I sampled it, I decided to make a second batch today to freeze. A couple notes:

You could easily use a can of sweet potato purée.

I use essential oil instead of zest.

It fits in an 8×8” baking dish or the equivalent.

The first time I made it with 1/3 cup un-packed sugar, and it was plenty sweet.

And the second time I made it with half GF flour and half almond flour. and it tastes just as delicious!!!

I hope tasting this brings a smile to your face, and much joy to your tastebuds!!

Lap hog…

Yup. My Statler is a lap hog. Statler is the black kitten, turned big Tom cat we rescued back in September. We also took in his grey tiger brother Waldorf, Waldo for short, because my hubby lives saying, “Where’s Waldo?” When he gets home. They are named after the two little old men in the Muppets movies who sit in the balcony and heckle.

Anyways, Statler is the “I want affection, so I will ask for it aggressively” of the two. Every morning, correction, every meal, he jumps up into my lap for lap time. He’s adorably annoying. Waldorf isn’t so needy. He doesn’t ask for attention, but he wants it. This morning, Statler had done his lap time and vacated the spot in the middle of my bowl of oatmeal. Waldorf came up onto the chair next to me and began to stare. I am starting to learn to read his cues. I scooped him up for some lap time. Lap time to Statler is a full on curl up and go to sleep time. Lap time with Waldorf is more just letting him sit on your lap while he looks around and enjoys a bit of chin scratching. There he was, enjoying his time, when his brother had to come up and interrupt. It’s a good thing I have two legs, one for each cat. It only took a minute before Statler was turning around to lay down, basically shoving his brother off the other leg.

Lap hog. I am not sure why, but it is these moments in life that cause me to get introspective. I found myself praying in my head that I am not a lap, or attention hog when I am with others. I want to allow others to find joy in sharing stories during conversation, instead of dominating conversations with my own stories. Then I found myself pondering that being a lap hog with my Heavenly Father might be a good thing. That it brings joy to him that I would desire to be close to him, in the shelter of his arms. He loves me, more than I love my cats. I’m not sure where I am going with this analogy, just pondering life.

As I finish writing this, and getting ready to remove the warm lap hog from my lap, I hope that today you can find “a lap” where you can find a few moments of peace and the feeling of security. For me, that will be my afternoon twenty minute thanking God for his blessings siesta. We all need some lap hogging in this crazy, chaotic world we are living in today.

Autumn breather…

It looks like the last time I blogged was late August. That sentence almost rings out in my mind like a private confession of some transgression. Our family was enjoying a reunion, kids and cousins and friends. It was joyous and chaotic at the same time.

The goodbyes were said, tears were shed, and life got back to it’s pre-reunion routine. Somewhat.

Our property is progressing well. The shop is dried in for the winter, although we would still like to get the siding on and the house is being framed. Framing is an amazing process. For days it can look like nothing is happening and then BAM! The walls are up! I can walk through the front door opening, see where the rooms are going to be, and get a glimpse of what the views will be out the windows. The building process has been amazing. There are emotions that I cannot express, that well up inside me when I see what I have planned on paper take shape in three dimensions. It is truly awe inspiring.

I haven’t been involved much for the last month on site. Most of my job has been preparing electrical schematics, shopping lists, reviewing permit inspections, ordering windows, getting insulation estimates and paying everyone. That all changes next week. We have a plumber friend who is going to walk me through the rough in for the house. Soon after that, we will begin setting electrical outlet boxes, switches, etc and pulling wire. After that, the workers will start siding both buildings, roofing the house and setting the patio awning around the shop. I will then start managing the subcontractors scheduling.

For fun, I take time to pull more plums from the tree, and put together color samples of tiles and flooring and cabinetry and such for the final detailing. Right out of high school I took a college interior design class. I really thought that was the route I would follow, until I clearly heard God speak to me a solid “Nope”. One of a handful of times I have hear a clear voice. I got an A+ in the class, but went to work full time for a newspaper in their advertising department. Paid off my first car, moved into my own place with a couple roommates. Did some growing up, got married, had kids, got divorced, remarried, lived life. Several years ago I went through a home staging course and got a certificate, however the timing wasn’t right then either, and nothing became of it. And so I dabble with my own house(s).

Today, I have filled my belly with a delicious plum Dutch Baby breakfast, and am preparing to get to work pruning the fruit trees down, removing some unused firewood from the yard and moving some plant starts over to the property to overwinter. That’s one nice thing about perennial plants. I can cut off a chunk of the plant at this house, and next spring, when we plan to sell, you won’t be able to tell. And, I will have plants I love for the new place at no cost. Well, sorta no cost. My shoulder hurt for a few days after digging out a chunk of decorative grasses. If I have time, I may even try to get a final lawn mow in.

I hope you have a great day today! Find joy in the little things. Always look for the joy. It helps in dealing with this crazy world we live in.

Ahhhh…

Hugs and hellos. A month of giggles, whines and tickles. Bedtime bottles, early morning conversation over the necessary cup of coffee. Special Grammi breakfasts of coffee cake, Dutch babies, and croissants with lemon blueberry cream cheese spread. Exasperations, exuberations, tired eyes, lack of sleep. Squeals of delight, cries of “I want!”. Love tanks filled to overflowing. Spoiling a grown daughter. Spoiling her kids. Selfies, sprinklers in the sandbox, walking to the park. Dinners out, days at the beach, shopping. Doing touristy things in the town we live in. Falling behind with the garden, barely staying on track with the building. A long drive with pleasant conversation. Memories remembered, new ones made. Pictures taken, funny faces, family and lifelong friends. Goodbye hugs, lots of tears, the wave goodbye, as they disappeared into the airport masses. Deep breaths, sighs and smiles. Still tired, catching up, cleaning up, naps. Smiles when remembering. Sad but happy at the same time.

Amazing deliciousness!!!

I am mostly sugar free for hormonal reasons. No, I don’t fly off the handle in rantings or anger, I just turn into a walking space heater if I have sugar. As any doctor would diagnose, “you’re just not a spring chicken any more.” Thanks for stating the obvious. I could have had my adult kids diagnose that one for free.

Anyway, I had the delightful pleasure of having two of our grands overnight last night. As is our tradition, I usually fix a special breakfast for them, usually food I would never eat due to sugar content. Yesterday they decided banana chocolate chip pancakes were to be on the menu. We picked up the ingredients last night between torrential downpours, and went to bed after some Grandpa time playing corn hole and competing by answering the questions while watching Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.

Morning dawned with more clouds and dampness, so hot pancakes would be perfect for breakfast. I had looked up a recipe online and printed it out. I decided to double the recipe. Past experience dictated that. It is better to have extra pancakes than to not have enough. The recipe was easy to follow, and the skillets were heated. The first batch always tends to brown a bit too much, and those are usually the ones I will nibble on while cooking the rest. I took a bite…

OH MY GOODNESS!!! Those were amazingly delicious!! I don’t know if it was because I haven’t had any sugar or chocolate for quite sometime, or if it was because they were moist, cakey and fantastically delicious, but I knew at that moment that I would have to share the recipe I found with the world!!!!

https://www.justsotasty.com/banana-chocolate-chip-pancakes/

Thank you JustSoTasty for this little taste of heaven on earth!! These were well worth the hot flashes!

Enjoy blogging buddies!

P.S. I made this with gluten free flour! And I know it may seem silly, but I consider these curtains utterly delicious too!

Dutch Babies and Apples…

So, recently, I mentioned in a post that I had fixed Dutch babies with cinnamon spiced apples for breakfast. Someone commented that it sounded good, so I thought you might enjoy the recipe. Here it is!

Ingredients:

5 eggs

1/2 cup butter

1 1/4 cups milk

1 1/4 cups flour (I use gluten free)

Pinch of salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Melt butter, and using pastry brush, coat 9×13 baking pan with some of the butter. Set remainder aside.

Beat eggs on high till fluffy

Add milk, beat on high some more

Add salt and flour and beat til blended well.

Add melted butter and beat briefly, batter will thicken quickly and try to clog the beaters.

Pour batter into baking dish and spread to edges with spatula.

Put into oven and bake for 25 minutes

It will puff up. Remove it when it begins to get golden brown. Once you remove it, the puff will drop.

Topping:

2 sweet apples diced bite sized (I use honeycrisp)

1 Tbls cinnamon

2 Tbls butter

Optional: 1/2 cup of nuts of your choice

Optional: if you must have it sweeter, add a couple tablespoons of brown sugar

Melt butter in pan, add apples, cinnamon (and sugar if using), sauté until softened and butter is mostly absorbed/reduced. Serve over hot Dutch Baby, too with whipped cream if you do sugar.

Variations:

Add finely shredded carrot to the apple mixture before you cook.

Slice up a few plums, add a couple drops of wild orange essential oil and cardamom essential oil, stir around so juices spread oils around. Place on top of batter before you cook it. I only recommend using essential oils that have supplement facts on them. You could use a couple TBLS orange juice and a sprinkle of ground cardamom instead.

Very yummy! I will eat leftover pieces warmed with butter like toast. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Coffee break!

Only I can’t have coffee!!! Apparently it nullifies the homeopathic remedies I have been trying to control my hot flashes, or power surges as some prefer to say. The real bummer about that is that I have avoided becoming a coffee drinker for 53 years. It wasn’t until last summer that I started, and only because I had found the perfect recipe for joy in a cup.

You see, there was this recipe in a magazine for cold brewed coffee, and I decided to try it for my honey, who is a two large cups a day man. Anyway, I made it with the organic Brazilian coffee that we order from Sleepy Monk Coffee in Cannon Beach, OR. On the periodic occasions that I did drink coffee, Brazilian seemed to be the only type I could stomach, that is with the right amount of sugary creamer. I know it is beginning to sound like I am a non coffee drinking coffee snob, but I can explain. I had coffee when we visited some friends for a weekend. Normally I would just sip whatever was served, and pour half out. It was more about the act then the taste. That morning’s coffee changed everything! Smooth, buttery, not acidic. If I was ever going to drink coffee, it would be Brazilian. So, I started buying it for my honey, so that I could periodically imbibe with him on a lazy Sabbath morning.

So… here I am. Taking a break from the hustle of my day, and I can’t sip on my liquid joy. Insert sad faces emoji here.

What hustle am I taking a break from? I am so glad you asked! After preparing breakfast for my honey and starting my before the weekend chores, I ran over to the rental we have sold. There were some items on the inspection that need to get fixed. Today was mostly cleaning up and clearing out. The doors and trim will be installed Sunday, and the handyman will be there Monday or Tuesday to do the things I physically cannot. Replace vent boots on the roof, create a new hole in the door jam so the door latch will go into it and keep the door closed, and other such stuff. After leaving there, I picked up my dry cleaning (yes, that is a real thing when you wear wool sweaters and dresses. It’s not just in movies), stopped by the store to see what new plants had arrived for the garden, popped by the local home improvement store to get some “black goop to coat the nail heads with” when we fix the vent boots, and return some unused pipe insulation. I polished off the last of the potato chips I keep in the car on the way home to get some lunch, which had to wait until I unloaded my car and put things away. That is the perfectionist in me.

After my non coffee drinking coffee break there will be a few more chores to finish up my Sabbath preparations. Hopefully I will have time to make a sweet potato pie to serve cold for breakfast! My favorite way to start Sabbath.

https://ohsheglows.com/2011/11/20/vegan-pumpkin-pie-three-ways-classic-rustic-gluten-free/

I make mine with puréed sweet potato, substitute three eggs for the arrowroot powder, and I add a drop of each spice in essential oils for an extra kick. I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

My table is a mess

My kitchen table is a mess, which extrapolated out, means my brain is scrambled. Sometimes I just have two many plates balancing on sticks that I am trying to keep spinning. I really enjoy the periodic days that I can leave my car at the shop and be trapped in my own home, with no place to go except for a walk around the park. Yea, literally. We have a 5 acre park in the middle of our slice of suburbia. Strolling I can make it from my door, around the park and back in 15 minutes. But wait, I digress.

The kitchen table should be a place to gather with family, a beautiful meal on the table, kids chattering and poking at one another while the adults calmly discuss life. Ha! That picture came from my growing up years (am I dating myself here?). We are empty nesters. Sorta. My 81 year old father now lives with us. He can still take care of himself , but after my mom died, he got lonely. And, being on a fixed income, we all thought it would be silly to have two families paying for internet, cable, electricity, etc. Thus, he lives with us, as my grandmother lived with my family when I was a preteen. Again, my mind has slipped in its focus of the table. Back to the table.

Today my table has a spiral bound notebook that I am keeping track of the timing of my hot flashes and the different homeopathic remedies and what doses I am trying for them. There is a package of study material for me to go through, as I am diving into the study of homeopathy. I am tired of using herbs, and medicines to deal with symptoms, many of which have side effects. I have had a couple small successes with the homeopathy, which have encouraged me to pursue more to possibly deal with some chronic issues of health. You don’t get to be mid 50’s without some health issues, especially since I grew up in the era that was in the midst of the switch from Whole Foods to convenience/processed foods. Back to the table…

There is also a white sticky note stuck to the table conspicuously that says “bring new plants in from backyard.” Later, when I get home from work, I will have to move that note to my bedstand, or onto my toothbrush so that I actually do remember to do that. Our evenings here are still hovering near the freezing mark, and we are still frosting over. As beautiful as frost is on the grass, it will kill my the new seedlings I have purchased for the raised planter beds my honey so lovingly has made for me the past 6 years. Hopefully the broccoli, cauliflower and curly kale can survive my forgetfulness. Back to the table…

The local town paper and the neighboring city paper are sitting there, waiting for me to read them over breakfast, which I am still not sure what will be. I really don’t “read” them per se, it is more of a skim over headlines until I find something that interests me. What new business is going in where, community events that might be a fun thing to dream about going to, but deciding not to because I would rather stay home and garden or have coffee on the patio with my honey and cat. Of course, the funnies page is always a must read, and it gets read last to make sure I end it with a good taste in my brain. The news can be a scary read these days. Back to the table….

Lastly, there is a list of things that I need to repair on the rental we are selling. We have had this little place, with a great renter, for the last five years. But there is a five acre piece of land we have owned almost as long, that has sat vacant, just waiting for us to build our dream. This year we decided it was our “pearl of great price” (bible verse Matthew, chapter 13, verse 46), we sold our two rentals so we could build this year. It doesn’t matter how great a renter you have, any house has repairs to be done when the furniture disappears. Paint touch up (or repainting altogether, which is what I will be doing), sparkle holes, re-caulk the kitchen counter backsplash, replace light bulbs, etc. Add to that the list of things the buyer’s inspector flagged that have to be done, and I have about a weeks worth of work to do, and a handyman who is not so busy he can’t fit me in during this building boom our area is in. I don’t want to break in a new one. I like the three I have used all my adult life. But, alas, they too are aging out of their professions. The rental is today’s job. As soon as I decide what to put on the table for breakfast.

Hope you have an awesome day doing whatever it is that you do!