Fresh Corn and Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes

So I have been thinking of blueberry corn pancakes for a while. And the other day, I bought blueberries and fresh corn, and also found a recipe on epicurious.com. The recipe is from Bon Appetit, and involves the whipping and folding in of egg whites. Exciting!

Despite forgetting to add the egg whites for the first patch of cakes, my pancakes ROCKED HARD. Fresh corn I cut off the cob myself, very sweet and crisp. Blueberries from the pint container. Kept them warm in the oven while I finished the last batch. Drizzled them with molasses - since I'm out of maple syrup - and they're fucking fantastic. God, I love breakfast for dinner! And I don't even like pancakes generally, but I like these pancakes; they have texture, a vegetable element, a fruit element, a little bit of crunch... It's the perfect pancake, as far as I'm concerned. A glass of peach kefir cut with skim milk completes my dinner. I think I might have seconds.

The photo I took is so bad. I wait for a better camera phone from Craigslist!

Wooden Sushi Playset

Realistic chopping sound. I like the little green lump of wasabi. Is that the pink pickled ginger underneath it? Is this set really meant for yuppie toddlers who love sushi?

Whiskey Cocktails, Hangover Breakfasts

In my search for new and not-too-sweet whiskey cocktails to sample, I came across a drink called a Rusty Nail. It's Scotch whisky, Drambuie (a Scotch whisky liquer made with herbs and honey), and a lemon twist. On ice. I ordered it from the very friendly bartender in the Midway, and I enjoyed it very much. Slightly medicinal, but indeed, not too sweet. Next, perhaps I will try ordering a Manhattan. I also ordered a whiskey and ginger ale, which was just fine; there's a camera phone pic to prove that I was still walking around after the whiskey and ginger, but my memory is not bringing back a lot of information. Other than bobbing along in a small crowd, like a cork in a stream! Nice - a high level of debauchery (for me), in a low-key environment. It's practice for the larger clubs, I say.

Normally my post-alcohol breakfast would be something very savory, with a salty and spicy element. Like maybe poached egg over toast with greens and sriracha. Mmm. But today I'm trying something sweet: shredded oats, sliced organic strawberries, sliced banana, a little peach kefir, and skim milk. Accompanied by hot cranberry juice doctored up with licorice-mint tea and sugar.

The verdict is Super Tasty.

My Pride Day Breakfast

Happy Gay Pride!!! Yesterday at the March, I bought a rainbow wrist cuff. I was pleased by the Bostonian bystanders clapping and cheering as we marched through. Go, Boston.

This morning I prepared zucchini ribbons with garlic and pepper, a foached egg, and some multi-grain toast. Also a cup of blueberries, a lemon tea cookie, and oolong tea.

If the blueberries had been organic and the toast hadn't been freezer-burnt, my breakfast totally would have substituted for a good girlfriend.

Maybe I could barter!

Scavenger Score at the Workplace!

After a meeting of the Higher-Ups, what leavings! A fine Cafeteria-style Lunch Score:

My first course involved a tortilla filled with slightly pink real roast beef (as opposed to deli roast beef), iceberg lettuce leaves, pale tomato slices, and pale mystery cheese.

My second course involved a reasonably nice and crusty half-baguette with cucumber slices, a different kind of mystery cheese, and the unwanted "butts" of the roast chicken fillets.

My dessert involved a wedge of 7-layer bar about the size of a make-up sponge; one normal-sized M&Ms cookie; one Krackel mini, one Special Dark mini, and one Mr. Goodbar Mini.

Desserts redolent with palm oil and corn syrup. I suspect the 7-layer bars involved lemon as well as coconut, plus walnuts and...who can say. The meats and the baguette were the best parts, and if I hadn't been over-excited with the apparent bounty, I would have made wiser choices. For example, two baguette sections, heavy on cucumber, with a selection of the higher-quality chicken and beef (avoiding cold-cuts), the reddest tomato slices available, some romaine, and one mini candy bar for dessert.

Ah, but it was lovely to a have free lunch with so many options! I am pleased. Ravenous Workplace Vulture Points: +5

Zucchini Tomato Madness

So summer doesn't begin officially until the 21st of June. But I'm feelin' it. The weather is absurdly perfect and temperate, meanwhile there's fresh zucchini and good-looking tomatoes at the Co-op. So I've been eating the beans, the brown rice, and tomatoes, zukes, garlic, and cheese. This is either a one-bowl meal (or work lunch), or it's a super quesadilla.

Also, it's cheap. Salsa, too. I recently tried some new tortilla chips with embedded, flattened peppercorns. Pretty tasty, gave the chips extra zip.

My brain is all cottony due to my cold, so I think I'll stop blathering.

O, there's tofu chocolate pudding, too. Choosing a milk chocolate hazelnut bar seems to cover up the "bean-y" taste of the silken tofu. Really fine, smooth, almost whipped texture after a bout in the food processor. Also makes a damn good tofudgesicle.

It will be exciting to exercise again, but for now, I must return to my sniffling and prone reading.

Beans and Rice, continued

Summer is starting to kick in; May was a gorgeous, perfect, wondrous month (aside from that week of rain, fine). Having recently come back to Mexican food, my staple diet continues to be salsa, tortilla chips, tortillas, beans and rice, tomatoes, and some kind of cooked green. Last night I made my usual lunch-in-a-box, but added diced and very good-looking zucchini: zuke, black beans, butter beans, brown rice, tomatoes, salsa, cheese. I could use more vegetable items in my diet, but the salsa is so flavorful. Beans and rice seems to go down real easy, too. For cheap.

But, adding the minced raw zucchini was great, because it cooked perfectly in the microwave at work. I'm awesome.

This morning I needed something especially substansive, so I made a quesadilla with more diced zucchini, tomato slices, salsa and cheese. The zuke cooked very nicely in the 'dilla. Good to know, good to know.