Mount Pleasant

I don't live on Mount Pleasant Road, Washington, USA but you need to drive on it to get to my house.  I'm absorbing a few things around here, not just the laden rain and dampened breeze. It's still spring, I'm sure of it. Somehow we wait patiently enough...

Good thing it's entirely pleasant to watch unfold.

Tummy growing, little kicks, yes...

New things. Like cheese making. How's that for "gluten free?" Plus, it's simple and fun. (See one of many tutorials here and here. Left over whey can be used to boost protein in recipes and as plant fertilizer.)

Re-gifted bulbs tossed in the ground a whole *last fall* ago are worth a second look in the buoyant but drippy fog...

Don't get me wrong, my spring's not without its slug sloshing and Humming birds crashing against the window like they don't even see it. We're waiting patiently to get over our third bought of flu, too. Also signs  of spring.

"Nature Does Not Hurry Yet Everything is Accomplished." -Tao Tsu

Birthday Danielle

What happens when you're Danielle and it is your birthday on a Thursday and you are turning Three and you've only been to a couple of different emergency rooms in that time? And you're Cute, you have a huge vocabulary but still shy and love the color yellow, etc. etc.?
A happy-fun-rainbowy-flower-four-day-celebration...

Half Is Good (Recipe)

I love breakfast. I've never overlooked it.
I also love Quick breakfasts and Healthy breakfasts. And if the two get along in the morning, all is well for the day.
And so I'm going to share this "Make Half Your Grains Whole" pancake recipe that is certainly "not from scratch." And I cook them four at a time.

Adapt this to what makes sense and to your own resources.
I, for one, use all my cast iron cook ware for breakfast, if it's called for. It keeps me from standing over the stove for long and I just wipe out the pans and they are done. There are even more reasons dotted throughout this post for cast iron. You, too, can find cast iron cookware new or second hand... it's purely wonderful... and I do wash mine with a bit of soap regularly.
Let's get started, shall we?
From left:
Cooking spray, pancake mix, whole wheat flour, ground flax, vanilla, and (front and center) a hand full of walnuts, plus water... Anything other than the mix and flour are optional! So you go ahead and play around with it. It's just pancake batter, lest I remind you. But it has the potential to be brilliant, if done well to your tastes.

Now, picture the morning greeting a night owl. If I just roll out of bed, and my instincts are raw, I know my kids will want pancakes. Pancakes are in our breakfast rotation, but the fact that A)My girls are pretty easy going and B) I've perfected these pancakes as such that C) They forget to ask for the chocolate chip version! with Nutella spread on top! We have it much more regularly. First thing I do is turn on all the burners under pans (aka QUICKER breakfast). Medium heat. The beauty of cast iron shining through.
Then I gather my ingredients and my bowl. I suppose if you want to go even faster, you could mix your various dry ingredients ahead of time in batches and store air tight, as that would save even more time. If you want to be one of those people. Morning, organized, stellar people, I mean.
In a mixing bowl add equal parts whole wheat flour and pancake mix. I often use one cup each, but that seems plenty for us three. (Jake is just getting to work having seen elk, the ocean, lots-a rain, jumbo snowflakes, and everything in between in commute.)
Add two to three tablespoons of flax. Goodness.

Crush the walnuts with another cast iron pan (I'll seek professional help, I promise.) and add to the bowl.
Simply put: combine all your dry ingredients and mix well.

Then add enough water to keep it thick. Use muscles to stir. A.M. workout complete.
Add a teaspoon of vanilla. (My theory on vanilla is that since we usually associate vanilla with very sweet things, adding it without the sugar in this instance makes it seem like you are eating the equivalent of a pastry, without any sugar at all. I do in fact use this to lessen sugars in other instances. I just don't tell anyone.)

Add to preheated cast iron and adjust heat if needed. Evenly spread batter as needed.
Do not touch, flip, or peek underneath until air bubbles have appeared through the batter and it begins to dry. Then flip only once and give 'em a press into the pan. Please. Go about your morning routine and come back.

After flipping, I mean I seriously press them down into the surface heat, no superficial spatula smacks for me. This keeps their moisture. Flavor. Oils. With nice outer layers. Good bite, and all that. At least try it once. Another awesome thing about cast iron, is that I can turn off the burners next thing, and they finish cooking on their own. Not using any more electricity. And since it's more gentle cooking, they don't burn. Great for people who drift away from the stove for a spell, like me. But you don't have to; you might need to turn down the temperature slightly.

Ding Ding! Order Up!

(Another health tidbit is that I get my kids interested in produce with "silly" names. D'Anjou pear is a favorite. But only if said with extreme gusto. Okay, as long as I'm "silly" and the pears are juicily ripe. A small and yummy price to pay for a healthy breakfast and parental conscience. And mounting skills in picking good produce.)

Unless you've got  a coveted bottle of pure maple syrup, dot with real butter and serve with a smear of peanut butter -or Agave nectar. My new favorite.
In conclusion, when it comes to whole grains: half is good. If not a step in a promising direction. Have a sunshiny day, America.

More of my "recipes" to come, even gluten free.
Fun, right? Mmmmmmm!

Nine Lives

So we adopted two family cats from the Idaho farm last summer.
I made sure they were in every night, acclimated to their new home, and actively conditioned with my children. Quiet cats, good cats, active and charming.

Shasta is still here, Baker, well now Baker lives... across the... street behind our house.
Aside from the fact that all that follows occurred in a day, that there is a fair amount of drama, and the vet I take them to [frankly] failed to do what they should have, and the girls have seemed to do well about the whole situation for themselves, I am sure Baker is on to a new life.
A few weeks ago, he didn't come in. It was upsetting; I'm one person who doesn't mind pets going outside provided they have healthy place to go explore and they know how to come in when you call. I waited a week and then only thought to call the Vet clinic where they knew him to alert them and that his ID tag had their their info. I know people would call me inhumane or flat out wrong, but I personally don't think that dear animals are equipped to being without consistent natural interaction. I have no problem if you call yourself a "pet owner" or a "parent" of pets. I have no qualms or judgements for any menagerie of styles...

But Baker was hit by a car and the car didn't stop. The girl behind that driver stopped and took him home to the other side of town. Her father said they couldn't keep him (for obvious reasons) and the humane society would have not been able to provide time for a recovery. She took Baker to a friend's mom's house who lives very near where I live and where it had happened. This woman did what she could and waited and he recovered rather quickly-- I could imagine it was that he was young and active and that helped too. She watched and asked around to some of the neighbors and took an ad in the paper. (We don't get the paper.) Then she decided she could keep him and responsibly took him to get shots and have his injuries checked. She paid for the same tests and shots that I paid for him just six months before, and at the same vet clinic. After that visit, she was leaving when one employee said that it looked like Baker, in afterthought. Then said she'd "put money on it, it was him." This caught the woman off guard and they gave her my info but called me too implying I might have to fight for him back. She'd fled.
It all happened quickly, my five-year-old catching some of it by listening carefully to a phone call from the vet. But I had talked to my kids and were pretty settled about the different things that could have happened in his case and both girls seemed okay--- up to that day! My first reaction was to be grateful I knew what had happened as it is such a disheartening thing. He was lost but it was unlike him. I answered my kids' questions honestly though on terms they could understand and we'd been dwelling about the loss.
We were at the beach when the vet initially called with the news he was found and I said a little prayer for what I could explain to Allison next. We recapped all of Baker's story and some of his more lively moments at our house. Then I said there is the next part of the story that just happened today and a nice lady that lives near  is taking care of him now, and he hurt his paw. We need to be careful around cars. It was good we were out in the sunshine and taking home a large baggie of treasures from the beach. Things we had found. Things we could in fact keep ourselves.
I tried to get a hold of Jake at work so I could ask him what he thought. Then we needed to decide.

So here's the deal. She did call me that very day and she was painfully nervous. Very upset that I existed. We talked about both our sides of the story and she said I could come to her house and see if it was him, her Mr. Whispers, and as described. I reassured that if it was (and we were both "ready to put money on it" at that point) she could most likely keep him. I had my reasons, ultimately that he would get what he needed with his condition now. And though he'd grow with our family growth and I could do everything required for our cat now, maybe there was a Reason. I don't fight change much. I don't like drama or residual edges. I only find confrontation such as this helpful.
So I did see our cat again and I'm not heartless, I know, because my heart was pounding. He had no collar any more, (I originally put a small dog collar not a cat safety break-away collar.) But he was molting from the emotional trauma. And it wasn't his paw as described, his whole leg was limp. And he was desperately using what energy he had to get away. Not from either of us speaking in a warm kitchen under an acute circumstance, but that she has lots of other furry pets at her heels and he was just ready to get away. In hind sight, Baker was still in a lot of pain and what I could sense, his head was ringing.

I somehow felt like I needed to be there to reassure her, more than anything. I made sure I was relatable and thanked her profusely for being a savior as not everyone would do all that she'd done. I acknowledged her. I apologized that the clinic didn't connect that he was a cat they were recently alerted to and alarmed by, that they'd seen so much of, and that they kenneled for two weeks, not so long ago, but no one seemed to know about. And now she had all those redundant vet bills. I shared with her Baker's history and stopped my self from sharing how active he is and his personality has I know it. And the timing? All in a day? Serendipitous. Icing the cake was that other than my petting, with my condition I was not responsible for cat-maintenance at my house. And I didn't, by the end of the day, take for granted that I now knew what had happened to Baker. She promised me she was going to chip him and never let him out. I sensed that he was still the same in some ways, a very people-y kind of cat, having a person's personality and she understood it very well.
She might change Mr. Whisper to "Braker," her son's name for him and had surprised them both as he responded to it, before she actually knew where her stray cat had come from. I told my new acquaintance his sweet and peaceful existence. He has a relative in the neighborhood, at our house. Whom we are very happy with as well.

She offered the girls come over and see Baker sometime later and I told my girls about that--and a little about our meeting. Maybe while out for a walk this summer. We'd bring her dogs some treats. Really, I have a very abundant life myself.

(-Do you think I did well "Holding it All Together" for everyone?)