Too Damn Hot!

If you ask yourself how hot is too hot, then the answer is 95 degrees fahrenheit.   That is 95 without humidity.  With humidity, the answer would be 88 degrees.  I have had too much time to think about this.  It seems like it has been hot for far too long and it seems that the weather is going to hold for now.  The heatwave will continue.  The worse of it is that the heat is keeping us indoors.  It couldn't have come at a worse time.  Mac had begun to go out.  Between the medications and the chemo, he had become very sun sensitive, but this summer he had been going out.  He had started doing things, puttering about in the yard.  The little farm had finally started to take hold of him.  I thought that maybe, all of the damage to his spirit caused by the leukemia and the medical treatment, would begin to heal.  But now we are having to take refuge from the heat.  Both of us longing to be outside... both of us wanting to dig in the soil and to build things.  But we are stuck in the house, avoiding the heat and getting cranky.

My less then stellar attitude at this point, makes me wonder about next year , and the year after that.  I think about  global warming.  Wonder if we are seeing the beginning of  our self induced apocalypse.  I want to plant as many trees and shrubs this next spring as I can manage.  I wonder if they will just burn up in the possible heat and drought, or maybe, just maybe, I will be doing something important to avert what seems to be an inescapable future.  I think I am the perfect person to face such problems.  Realistic enough to acknowledge that it exists, but optimistic enough to believe I can make a change.  Stupid enough to believe that I can even influence some other people to also put forth an effort to create a better world.  So, are you all listening?  Plant something!

I'm actually stupid enough to think I would like to make a double order of trees and shrubs from the Department of Natural Resources next spring.  I don't know how I would manage.  That would be a thousand trees and shrubs.  That would be a lot of work.  A lot of money.  Probably around four to five hundred dollars worth of planting material.   But wouldn't it be so incredibly amazing if I could pull it off?!    Makes me feel jazzed just to think about it.

Then I think about my physical limitations... then I get a bit depressed.  All  in all, I think too much.  I want to be outside.  I'm tired of being cooped up in the house!  Too many mood swings!  Too damn hot!  There is nothing for me to do but to go make pancakes for breakfast.  Pancakes always make a person feel better.  Pancakes!  food for the apocalypse!... or possibly, hopefully, not.

Louie

Pancakes, revisited

There are days when there is just no hope for control. With luck you can direct... a little. That kind of describes yesterday. Appointments were rescheduled. Calls were received from the Iowa City Dr. office. New labs were ordered. So off to Des Moines tonight for a new UA and then again next Friday for a new Blood count. Tiring. Tiring and scary.

So what does a warrior woman do?

Well, yesterday I tried to not think. I tried to stay physically busy and to shut down my brain. I cut brush and I burned until my back hurt so bad that I could barely function. I got rid of a fair amount of buck brush and one HUGE rose bush. It went pretty well. I didn't lose much blood.

Today, I'll try something different. Try to make myself be creative. Work on next year's farm calendar .... and make myself some pancakes.

Pancakes!... the elixar of life in solid form! Pancakes!... the breakfast food that doubles as dessert! Pancakes!.... the muscles behind the syrup, or sorghum, or strawberries and whipped cream, or pecans! PANCAKES! that which comforts when you don't know what the hell else will.

Pancakes.. because you have to start somewhere, and you don't know where else to start.

louie

Pancakes revisited

I've mentioned before that I have a great love for pancakes. It is a comfort food extraordinaire. A truly good pancake can stand alone. They're good with butter, confectioner's sugar, any number of fruits and compotes, chocolate chips, pecans or my recent discovery... Lyles's Golden Syrup!

This last weekend, my daughter took me to breakfast at a diner in Ames. They are famous for their huge, yellow pancakes. I was told how people come from all over the state to eat a pancake there. The place is fun. It's an old school diner with wood paneling and kind of a seventies rec room feel to it. The coffee cups are very large, like they should be, and have advertising on them. When our pancakes arrived they lived up to the press. They were huge. One pancake filled one of those old oval white diner plate/platter kind of dish. It was definitely yellow. The syrup on the table was real maple syrup, not the industrial corn syrup goo. I got my pancake decked out with butter and syrup and took my first bite. It was good. It was very good, but it still NEEDED the marriage of other flavors. I added more syrup. They weren't as good as my pancakes, and then I realized......

I HAVE ENTERED THE STATE OF PANCAKE NIRVANA!!!!

It isn't just about the ingredients. It's about the technique and the respect that you must have for what the ingredients can do. Either my taste buds are demented or I make the best dang pancakes that I have ever tasted! I've been thinking about it for three days now and I am leaning towards the best dang pancakes scenario. I'm tellin' ya'! They're a trip to heaven on gossamer wings! (I've been wanting to use that line for some time now)

You know a person should be able to do something with this kind of power. Not to worry, I only use my powers for good!

louie

pancakes

These are just too easy. Start with a four cup pyrex measuring cup (you know the kind you can pour out of)

Into the pyrex measuring cup put about three tablespoons of butter. Pop it in the microwave and melt it. then measure in a cup of milk. Back into the microwave and warm the milk up. that's warm, not hot. Then beat in gently, an egg. Add a good three heaping tablespoons of white sugar, a short teaspoon of salt, three level teaspoons of baking powder (more on that in a minute) and a cup of flour. don't over beat this mix. it can even go into the skillet a bit lumpy. You want to pour some oil in the skillet but wipe it around with a paper towel so there isn't any standing oil. Now let the skillet ( I prefer cast iron for this) warm up but you don't want it too hot. A shade below medium is usually just right. Just fry up a silver dollar pancake to make sure you have it right.

Now if you want to kick it up a notch...

switch out the milk for buttermilk then change the three teaspoons of baking powder to one teaspoon of baking powder and two teaspoonfuls of baking soda.

The thing with baking powder is that you must....MUST shake up the can good before you measure out and that's every time! It can get too separated and you can end up with bitterness in the end. and baking powder has a shelf life. Date it and in six months, pitch it.

Who wants to just end up with bitterness, after all.

Louie