I’ve noticed that most of my favorite people are morning persons. They love to get up with the sun and exercise or meditate or write. I’m a night-owl, and always have been, so beautiful mornings, for me, have been rare. That isn’t true. I’ve “shown up” to a lot of mornings. Just did a nightshift on Friday and watched the sunrise over Canal St from the VA, with a blazing headache.
In college, I was a barista at the campus coffee shop, so technically I was clocked in and conscious at 6am; in residency, I have had to report for duty at o’dark thirty more times than I can care to count, but again, those mornings I would say I have been physically present and yet mentally unaccounted for, at least until a liter of French press coffee gets circulating in my system.
My approach to the working day has always been—how fast can I get into beastmode from corpse pose? I used to pride myself on reducing my wake up-to-clock-in interval to less than 15 minutes, but after reading A Beautiful Morning by Ashley Ellington Brown, a series of short reflections by twenty women who swear by the ethos of a mindful morning ritual, I may try dabbling in more intentional morning time.
Starting with today. I woke up and played Oh Happy Day by the Edwin Hawkins singers, opened up a package of goodies from the Happy Day brands, which seems like a phenomenal company. They have a model similar to TOMS, so that when you buy one of their products, they donate one of their oatmeals to food shelters. They do other amazing things like Job Readiness Training for women, among other global volunteer efforts. You know, if you are going to buy pancake mix, or oatmeal, might as well support a company like this rather than some heartless corporate giant.
Coffee was delicious, the Nicaragua beans my favorite, and the protein pancakes were also yummy.
I had my keto friend test out the keto pancakes, and he liked the taste, but we both agreed the texture is kinda salmon-cake-ish. Topped with Choc-Zero syrup, though, just about anything tastes yummy and if you are ketoing to lose weight or for seizure/diabetes reasons, then, more power to you.
Then I read poems from Poetry magazine, for which I will be a forever-subscriber, while I enjoyed delicious Salted Caramel Chai from Wissotzky Tea, so fancy and delicious!
Goes great with a leftover piece of carrot cake, which, please, is basically breakfast. I prefer the saffron cream to a cream-cheese based frosting but have included both recipes here.
Carrot Cake with Orange Saffron Cream
Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup canola oil or avocado oil
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
5 cups shredded carrots (1 pound)
Orange-Saffron Cream
1 cup heavy cream, divided
1 teaspoon grated orange zest, plus julienned zest for garnish
3 saffron threads
⅓ cup white chocolate chips
⅓ cup mascarpone cheese
Or, good old-fashioned Cream Cheese Frosting
1 (8-ounce) package brick style cream cheese, softened to room temperature
½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until starting to lighten in color, about 2 minutes. Slowly add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined before adding the next. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Add carrots and mix until just combined.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare orange-saffron cream: Heat ¾ cup cream in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until just steaming. (I’ve also made this using the microwave and it worked, but just make sure you watch it closely!) Place zest and saffron in a small bowl. Pour the hot cream over them and let steep for 10 minutes. Strain (discard zest and saffron). Refrigerate the saffron cream until cold, about 30 minutes. Combine chocolate chips and the remaining ¼ cup cream in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on High, stirring halfway through, until just melted, about 30 seconds. Cool to room temperature, about 10 minutes. Transfer the saffron cream to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Add mascarpone and beat just until medium peaks form. Fold ¼ cup of the mixture into the chocolate mixture until combined, then scrape the chocolate mixture back into the remaining saffron cream. Beat just until lightly whipped, 5 to 10 seconds; do not overmix. Serve the cake topped with the saffron-orange cream and more orange zest, if desired.
Then a maiden voyage in the VW convertible bug that was heroically brought to New Orleans from Seattle by my in-laws, to whom I am so very grateful. O Happy Day, indeed.
