with Mary Anne Mohanraj
Autumn mornings — oatmeal and knitting. 
Between start of semester, ChiCon, eldercare, and catching a bad cold, I haven’t had time or energy for knitting in a while, especially something that takes as much concentration as this pattern. Nice to come back to it. Breathing in that crisp fall air…
Today for Anand’s birthday weekend, I’ve promised to run a small D&D-style one-shot game for him. A couple of friends are coming over later today, so I need to go find some character sheets to download and remind myself how to roll up characters. But I thought it was appropriate to start the day off with D20 waffles…
Good morning! Announcing another in-person cooking class for September 25th — hoppers hoppers hoppers. 
Register here: https://serendibshop.com/…/cooking-class-sri-lankan…
And if you’re interested in Zoom classes, let me know in the comments below?
Cooking with Mary Anne! Learn how to make a classic Sri Lankan brunch of hoppers (with both egg hopper and sweet coconut hopper variations), along with coconut (pol) sambol accompaniment. Served with an accompanying fish or jackfruit curry, and mango-passionfruit mimosas.
Click here to sign up for the class.
(about one hour, plus cooling time; makes 16 bars)
These fruity little fusion bars could be breakfast or dessert! I used up the last of the berries from my spring garden, along with rhubarb, and gave it a slightly Sri Lankan inflection with lime juice in the filling and cashews for the topping.
If you don’t have fresh berries and rhubarb on hand, frozen will work fine — just cook them down long enough for the excess water to cook off, so you get a good thick filling consistency.
If you’re making this in Sri Lanka, you might use native embilla, a berry with a flavor that’s somewhat similar to grapes, or try Ceylon gooseberries, which have a flavor reminiscent of apricot.
Filling:
1 1/2 c. rhubarb, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 c. fresh berries — raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, etc.
1/2 c. sugar
2 T lime juice
1 1/2 T cornstarch
Bar:
1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. quick oats
1/2 c. jaggery or brown sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. chopped cashews
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8″ square pan with parchment paper. (You can butter and flour the pan instead, but it’ll be a little harder to take the bars out neatly.) Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring filling ingredients to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about ten minutes, until the filling is thickened and rhubarb and berries are starting to break down. Remove from heat; set aside until fully cooled.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combing flour, oats, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Melt butter and drizzle in, stirring until the mixture forms loose crumbs.
4. Press half the mixture into the prepared baking pan. Spread cooled filling onto the crust, and crumble the reserved topping evenly onto the filling. Scatter chopped cashews over the top, pressing in lightly.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until filling is bubbly around the edge and topping is lightly golden. Let cool completely in the pan. Transfer to a cutting board and cut carefully into 16 bars. Enjoy!
When you wake up groggy and a little cranky but then come downstairs and remember that you asked Kevin to make cheese scones yesterday and everything is better.
Nice to wake up before the rest of the family, come down and see love cake waiting for me on the counter. Easy breakfast, lovely with coffee or tea.
Breakfasts post-party involve delicious leftovers. I’m not sure I can think of a better breakfast than a toasty hot veggie samosa + fish cutlet + coffee or tea.
In my imaginary cafe that I will never actually open, we will offer this as the Sri Lanka Workday Morning Special.
I have been trying to get to outdoor morning yoga at least once a week (a little interrupted by travelling) because I feel so much better the rest of the day if I do. Ideally, I’d like to have a daily yoga practice, but it’s likely going to take me a little while to work up to it. 7 a.m. classes!
But I just today realized that the outdoor yoga space for my studio (And then there was well), held in someone’s backyard, is only a block away from The Daly Bagel — I think I have my incentive now.
