“How wonderful to be understood/ to just sit here while some kind person/ relieves you of the awful burden/ of having to explain yourself, of having/ to find other words to say what you meant…and you have only to sit here and be grateful/ for words so quiet so discerning they seem/ not words but literate light, in which/ your merely lucid blossoming grows lustrous. How wonderful that is!”
Thank you, Irving Feldman, for your literate light on a Sunday evening. I’ve got my love to keep me lustrous and blossoming this winter. His name is Karl-Peter.
KP and I love to make buckwheat pancakes on weekend mornings, and so we did! This is a re-experiment with an old favorite recipe of mine, but with oat milk (instead of almond milk). Still delicious!
Oatmilk Buckwheat Pancakes
Adapted from a man named Miller in Wisconsin, served at People’s Food Co-op in Rochester, MN, sleuthed and gifted by Ed Hayes Sr (aka, bread guru)
1 cup buckwheat flour
¾ cup brown rice flour
¼ cup light brown sugar
1 T cinnamon
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ tsp baking soda
2 cups Oatsome oatmilk
1 T apple cider vinegar
Whisk dry and whisk again the wet ingredients in a large bowl. It is important to whisk to avoid any lumps. This is a direct quote from the break baking guru, “Do this or feel the wraith!” Heat up Kaila non-GMO organic canola oil, or some other very heat-tolerant oil on a skillet on medium heat. Expect that you will ruin the first two pancakes trying to find the right temperature, we all do.
Serve with real maple syrup, and watch out because the pancake will absorb liquid so quickly and completely that if you get distracted, you won’t be able to tell if you have already put the syrup on or not, so pay attention! Or get a double dose of maple. Dairy-free, gluten-free homemade pancakes, what? YES.
And now for the latest fun products and books to arrive at Bake This Day’s test kitchen:
Detoxelicious by Dena Dodd Perry. Soul food vegetarian and vegan recipes from a wellness diva? I think you can handle it. Perry incorporates yoga poses into her ten day course prescribed for fitness and this book is a great gift for someone who may need a structured nudge toward their New Years Resolution, don’t we all?!
Wonder Melon. Delicious solo or when mixed into cocktail/mocktail. Here is a recipe to try-
Spiced Wonder Melon Vodka Punch
Ingredients:
½ cup vodka (or trade out with selzer water with a dash apple cider vinegar to mocktail it)
1 lime, juiced
2 cups Wonder Melon, Lemon-Cayenne flavor
1 cup lemon sparkling water
4 cinnamon sticks
Lime and lemon slices
Instructions:
Combine the vodka, lime juice, and Wonder Melon in a pitcher.
Divide between 4 glasses and top each glass with 2 ounces of sparkling water
Garnish with a cinnamon stick, lemon, and lime slices.
Finally, I am SO into pre-biotics/pro-biotics right now. In the cancer saga, I am currently neutropenic and needing antibiotics to keep me from getting hospitalized and super sick. But we all know antibiotics, while life-saving at times, can wreak havoc on our GI tracts, killing off much of our precious microbiome, which we know to be integral to mood, sleep, and belly symptoms. SO. I have been taking probiotics daily. I have tried a bunch of different brands and haven’t noticed much difference between them. Recently Klaire Labs had been my brand of choice, but I received a sample gift from Happy V who make pre and probiotics and immune supplements for Ladies.
The Immune Boost is a Vitamin C with cranberry concentrate for those sad UTI times. And the Pre and Probiotic are similar to what I’d been using for my gut, but let us not forget about our vaginas and the flora also needed down there!
This is just my own experience, so be sure to consult your own doctor before fiddling around with over the counters (obviously), but I’ll share what’s working over here for me. Also note the hyperlinked products have been gifted.
Happy holidaying y’all. Light it all up this year. Inside and out.
