Blueberry Muffin Cake

This cake is basically a gigantic muffin!

Preheat oven to 350.
Beat the eggs and oil together with a whisk, then add the vanilla and blueberries. In separate bowl mix dry ingredients, then mix all ingredients together in a big bowl by hand or with a mixer.
Pour into a pre-greased, pan and bake for 55-60 minutes. I use a Bundt pan.

2 eggs
3/4 cup of corn oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 cups of blueberries*
3 cups of whole wheat flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda

*This is an adaptable recipe. You can use applesauce in place of blueberries or pumpkin puree or mashed over ripe bananas. The batter should be the consistency of thick mud! If the batter is too dry add a splash of orange juice. Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes. Insert a broom straw! It's done when it comes out clean. Let cool for 15 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Enjoy with hot tea or coffee!

Barometric Pressure

When I get a headache it seems to correlate with severe drops in barometric pressure. Obviously barometric pressure is not something I can control but I feel better about taking headache medicine after I have seen the evidence of a pressure drop on the weather graph.

Our local dairy farmer told me that his pregnant cows tend to calve during a high pressure system. I want to see a cow give birth! I am watching for weather indicators intercepting our need for milk.

Ice Cream

Last night I had a craving for a pistachio ice cream. As we walked across the grass behind the baseball field, I could see the red OPEN sign blinking in The Castle window. By the time we got there the light was off. We asked if they were still open. They said they closed early but they were still open for ice cream. When the woman handed me the cones, Lily reached up and put her paws on the counter window. The ice cream was delicious and we ran into our neighbor Paula on the way home.

Raymond Chandler

After a while I got in past the velvet rope and ate one of Rudy's 'world famous' Salisbury steaks which is hamburger on a slab of burnt wood, ringed with browned-over mashed potato, supported by fried onion rings and one of those mixed-up salads which men will eat with complete docility in restaurants, although they would probably start yelling if their wives tried to feed them one at home.

I went down to the drugstore and ate a chicken salad sandwich and drank some coffee. The coffee was overstrained and the sandwich was as full of rich flavours as a piece torn off an old shirt. Americans will eat anything if it is toasted and held together with a couple of toothpicks and has lettuce sticking out of its sides, preferably a little wilted.

- Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

Rituals Enhance Flavor

Article

Jon Frankel

What a joy it is to buy a fresh whole fish from a fisherman on a dock in Maine, or rural New Zealand, or from a fish store in the Hamptons. Another, more urban joy, is heading down to Mott Street in New York and lining up before a small fish store with whole fish laid out on the ice, dripping slowly on the sidewalk, the fishmonger hosing down scales and blood, people talking, poking, calling their orders out in Cantonese. They pack a whole sea bass with a piece of ginger and a couple of scallions.
-Jon Frankel
read Jon's full blog post and recipe here.

Night Line

Last night I hung my clothes in the dark so the early morning sun would catch them while I was still asleep. I also mixed up a batch of bread dough before going to bed and refrigerated it overnight so the dough could sit out today and warm up slowly. It felt good to wake up with a head start on my chores.