It Doesn’t Have to Be Pretty

Breakfast doesn’t need to be pretty, but it’s nice when it is. 🙂 I’m not sure it counts as cooking if all you’re doing is assembling components? If you get great fresh bagels from your local shop, they don’t even need toasting. But I suppose we usually count salads as cooking, so this can count too. 🙂

One of my favorite breakfasts, and pretty healthy too (although if you do it open-face like this, it can be a little messy to eat.) Summer tomatoes from the garden take it up a notch!

A Vast Sea of Hopper

Hey, so it turns out that if you are completely bewildered as to where your hopper pans might have gone (did I loan them out to someone?), but your friend gave you some hopper batter that you really want to use, you can totally make (giant) hoppers in a wok.

I mean, a single egg looks a little goofy in a vast sea of hopper, and the ratios are a little off, in terms of spongy versus crispy texture, but when you’ve got a desperate hopper craving, it will totally do.

(Enjoyed with eggplant pickle and coconut sambol.)

Hoping for a Quiet Night

Hope everyone reading had a quiet night. I was grieved to read of a death at the North Riverside mall yesterday; I hope we can swiftly move forward towards justice without further bloodshed.

It’s the last week of school here; I woke up before Anand for a change, and decided to exert myself a bit to make a nice breakfast — waffles and sausages. The kids have done okay with remote / unschooling during the pandemic, but they’ll be relieved when it’s over, and so will we. I thought they could use a little strengthening food as we contend with the final week.

I’ve recently discovered that waffles + seeni sambol + syrup = delicious. You don’t even need butter, as there’s enough oil / ghee in the seeni sambol. It’s so good, if I had a little cafe, I’d put it on the brunch menu. Serve with fresh mangoes if you can.

Plan for today — finish reading Sorcerer to the Crown, which continues a delightful, ridiculous romp. The next book in my queue is the graphic novel, Vanni, centered on the Sri Lankan conflict, which is rather more somber; it helps to have something light to interleave between the darker pages. A little sweetness.

Exercise soon and a walk through the garden, then by 9, I hope to be settled in my writing shed for the first day of summer writing. Minimal goal of 1000 words for the day (about an hour of writing), although I’m hoping to get quite a bit more done, as I have a story overdue to my local workshop; if I can knock that out today, or at least enough of it to be worth showing them, I will. It’s a story about riots and revolution; hoping I have the heart and mind to do it justice.

Wishing you strength and sweetness for your battles today, and rejuvenating rest when you need it.

Mother’s Day Breakfast-in-bed

The kids are now old enough (at 10 and 13) that Mother’s Day breakfast-in-bed doesn’t require anything of me other than telling them what I want and when I want it. Well, the ‘when’ was a little off, as I’d requested 8 and it arrived at 8:30, but the ‘what’ was perfect. And that was just fine, because I happily went back to sleep for another half hour.

Kevin got up to make the bacon, which also meant that he wasn’t sleeping, which normally precludes morning TV-watching in bed. So today I got to lounge in bed watching Nadiya’s very sweet _Time to Eat_, eating the kids’ bombatoast (it’s perfect), along with the host of clementines that Anand brought me. “We might be a *little* late with breakfast because Kavi just woke up…”

Lovely. Counting my blessings.

Bagels for Breakfast

I had an Amanda Daly onion bagel for breakfast, and I have 5 bagels left. (Well, I expect Kevin will eat one soon, but the kids probably won’t, more fools they, and if I were a good mom, I would have gotten chocolate chip bagels for them, oh well. So probably 4 bagels left.)

I’m going to eat something fruity or salad-y or yogurt-y for lunch, but am already craving another Daly bagel, so planning on it for dinner. I had my morning bagel with her goat cheese spread and lox, v. good, but want to do something different for dinner. Variety = spice of life.

So here’s the crucial question:

a) mackerel curry
b) beef curry

You decide — I throw my dinner fate entirely into your hands. (You have until 4 o’clock or so, when I’d start cooking, to vote.)

BONUS: If I feel like I have the energy, and if Kavi is willing to play videographer, I’ll make a teaching video out of making the curry, so factor that into your vote!

(Hm. I need to take better photos of both of these. Well, this is what I could easily grab, in case it helps. Not pictured with bagels!)

D20 Waffles

Kevin made waffles for us yesterday. It’s a little cheerful thing in these dark times, having a d20 waffle maker, and some fantastic local barrel-aged bourbon vanilla from Mackinac Bluffs Maple Farms, Inc., picked up at our local Sugar Beet Food Co-op, to indulge with. I slathered it with butter, and then I slathered some more.

(Funny thing — he made them from scratch, but then was annoyed with himself because we actually have waffle mix in the pantry, and he could have saved the precious flour and eggs. I told him not to stress about it. Poor munchkin.)

Kavi and Anand Make Bomatoast

Kavi decided she wanted to teach Anand how to make bombatoast for breakfast this morning. Fine with me!

One of the unexpectedly lovely side effects of all this terribleness is that the kids have grown closer again. Kavi had started disappearing into approaching teenhood, always off with her friends, and I think Anand was a little lonely. They still spend lots of time on their own, but also more time hanging out together again. It’s really nice — a tiny bit of sunshine in the midst of all the dark clouds.