Toast and Honey

 The first thing I saw when I entered the grocery store yesterday morning was a potted hydrangea so perfectly pink and fresh looking that it looked like Spring itself.

I brought two home with me, one for the foyer and one for the dining room.

 One unfortunate thing about this flu that we've all had is that it is a real appetite-killer.  This is not helpful when it comes to recovering, it just adds to a weak feeling in the body.

As I walked around the grocery store picking up this and that I just felt ill at the thought of eating lunch or dinner, or anything really.
Then I thought, no, toast and honey will be just the thing.

Years ago we spent a night travelling north of Toronto to attend a dinner at Eigensinn Farm, the home of the famous chef Michael Stadtlander.

It was truly an extraordinary evening, made perhaps more so by the care and generosity of his wife Nobuyo, who held six month old Lil' Rascal at various stages during the evening so we could enjoy the seven course dinner!

The next week we were home in Guelph at a cocktail party when our friend John asked me about the night at the farm.  So of course I went into (at times rapturous) detail about the extraordinary food, and the atmosphere, and the presentation, until suddenly John's eyes glazed over completely as he blurted out:
"Yes, but sometimes don't you just want toast and honey?"

Quite right!
This toast and honey combination, above, gets all of the credit for bringing my appetite, and therefore my health, back in line.
I think I'll have it again this morning.
Have a healthy, energetic day today.  Maybe you'll have toast and honey?
xoxDani

Not a Morning Person

I think the world must be divided into two groups of people: those who like breakfast and those who don't.
I bet you can guess where I stand on this one, and you're right, I'm not a morning person.  Even at my best, with a great sleep, full health, chipper mood, I simply want to drink my coffee (with homemade almond milk) in peace while I write my blog post and read the news on my laptop.

Eating breakfast in the morning?  Forget it, I like to have a smoothie about an hour and a half after I wake up just so that I don't fall over from low blood sugar.  Breakfast foods are not my thing, and my least favourite activity would have to be going out for breakfast, ugh, dread!

However, I have spent the last 25 years raising a family so I've made lots of breakfast foods in my time.  My older two rascals were serious about breakfast, and there would have been a revolt if I had thrown cold cereal on the table.  There were lots of toast and egg breakfasts, plenty of pancakes, not a few waffles, and some hot oatmeal concoctions.

Oatmeal is probably my favourite breakfast to prepare, it's really just stirring, made fragrant with the addition of cinnamon to the oats.  I use steel-cut oats, which take a bit more time to cook but somehow seem far superior. The toppings can get creative, and the nutrition opportunities seem endless: hemp seeds, ground flax, walnuts, dried fruits of all kinds... all topped with a little nut milk.

It's somehow satisfying in the extreme to lay a bowl of oats, all dolled up with toppings, on the table in front of one of my rascals or MrBP.

Where do you stand on breakfast and mornings in general?  Tell me what your favourite breakfast is, both to eat and to prepare, I'm curious!

Have a really beautiful Saturday,
xoxDani

Cinnamon and Ginger

 I really like the colour of the underside of these dried magnolia leaves.  Don't you think it's the exact shade of cinnamon sticks?  Dried bits of stuff in this large vase are the perfect easy centrepiece for the piano in the foyer, requiring no upkeep whatsoever
The orange tree is another story, I had placed it on our bar cart during the holidays and sort of forgot about it.  I'm a terrible plant-owner to be honest, I never should have brought this orange tree home.  I doubt it will make it, the way it's been ignored.  I finally noticed it yesterday afternoon and gave the poor thing some water, and moved it to this sunnier location.  Fingers crossed for it!

I did another gym session yesterday and before I left the house I put together a bit of homemade granola.  I've been trying to incorporate hemp hearts into our diet: they are super high in protein and in omega 3 and omega 6, making them a terrific post-workout boost.  Mixed with some oats and almonds, and eaten with fortified almond milk they would also make for a densely nutritious breakfast.

Homemade granola is so easy, and in my typical slapdash fashion I don't do any measuring while concocting mine.  For this  granola I used approximately 1.5 cups of hemp hearts, 2 cups or so of oats, and 1 cup of sliced almonds.  I stirred through a teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and ground ginger.
On the stove top I heated up about 3 tablespoons of maple syrup with a tablespoon of olive oil, then poured that over the lot, giving it a fairly good stir before spreading it out on a parchment lined baking sheet.

 I baked it at 325 for about 15 minutes, just until it was perfectly golden.
I don't care for dried fruit in granola for some reason, I prefer it rather plain.  But I did add some chopped apricots to about half of this granola before packaging that up for Middle Rascal to take with her back to school.  You could also add raisins, dried cherries or blueberries, whatever you fancy.

If you're on the East Coast I hope you've been surviving the Frozen Bomb Cyclone.  Yesterday at the gym Laura and I saw an old friend of ours with her Uni aged daughter, she won't be getting back to school in Halifax this weekend by the looks of it, it seems many flights were already being cancelled.
Tuck in and stay warm and safe Tooties!

Happy Friday,
xoxDani