"This is better than chocolate . .

". . . because instead of just one or two pieces I can have lots!" - Sahara

Popcorn with lots of nutritional yeast is one of our favorite afternoon snacks.

Breakfast

Five mornings a week we eat oatmeal with yogurt and maple syrup. Once a week, usually on Fridays or Saturdays we have bagels and cream cheese and orange juice.

Sundays though, we have designated as our special breakfast morning. That usually means crepes, waffles or pancakes. They are all yummy with yogurt and an assortment of fruit jams from our pantry or a sauce made from berries we put in the freezer a few months ago.

Last Saturday evening Pablo and I could be found on the sofa reading cookbooks. (It is a favorite source of entertainment when we don't have a Netflix disc in the house.) In our ancient version of The Joy of Cooking we came across a recipe for yeasted waffles and later found a similar recipe in our all-time favorite cookbook, yes, you know it by now: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Seriously people, if you don't have it by now, open a new window and order it from Amazon. In case you have no space anywhere to stuff another book, I will gift you the recipe.

It makes a large batch. We made pancakes with it, ate our fill, then ran the bowl of batter up the hill to a surprised family.

I just started another batch for tomorrow morning's breakfast with the Valentine clan.

Yeasted Waffles and Pancakes

2 1/4 tsps dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 cups lukewarm milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup whole-wheat or other flour
2 Tbs sugar
5 Tbs butter, melted (It's OK Mom - you can use canola oil)
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp baking soda

In a small bowl, sprinke the yeast into 1/4 cup warm water and stir in the sugar. Let stand until foamy, about 5 - 10 minutes. Put the warm milk and salt in a large bowl, then add the yeast mixture and whisk in the flours. Cover and refigerate overnight if the weather is warm or leave out on the counter if it is cool. (We left it out.) Next morning, add the sugar, oil, eggs, and soda. Cook as you would boring waffles or pancakes.

Delicioso!

Fresh air

We have been so occupied doing work inside the house, and with all this dreary rain, we've been neglecting the garden and animals a bit recently. In between showers we bundle up and traipse around. The world seems mostly green and brown with almost all the autumn leaves fallen and decomposing. There is the occasional spot of color . . . some scarlet runner beans that didn't get harvested:



And of course the chickens:

Licorice

Fern (formerly known as Tink or Tinkerbell)

Fuzzy Wuzzy

and Dotty

Some days we forget to check for eggs. Today I pulled out these beauties:

Changing things around

We've almost finished painting the back room! The wall color is gorgeous. Perfect for the girls . . . except now that it is looking nice and clean Pablo and I aren't so sure we want to change places with the girls. Our bed and dresser and the computer are still back here and it sure is cozy.


The bunk beds are back here too as of Wednesday, and today I picked up the futon mattresses which means Sahara could sleep back here tonight. But . . . we don't have any twin sheets so I guess she'll have to wait.

The new carpet went in on Monday. It is made out of corn! The color is a bit boring but it works well. Sahara wants to invite just about everybody for a sleepover so come on over! ( . . . in a few weeks?)