A Lot of a Little

Today is a day for massive amounts of housecleaning and laundry. I've been working on some knitting but can't talk about any of it, and in the meantime the house has degenerated somewhat. I picked up my pyjama pants the other day (yes, from the floor), put them on, and a bit later felt a creepy crawley on my leg. Pantsed myself to find an earwig hanging out on my thigh so I had to have a little girly freakout. Mr HSBoots did the same with a pair of jeans the other day (but without the girly freakout -- I think)... ew, ew, ew. Time to deal with the discarded clothing piles everywhere.

It's not that I'm a slob or anything, but I definitely feel that cleaning is not the best use of my available time.

This morning a friend called me to chat about how great she feels on her new diet, with some crazy shake thing she drinks every day, and that no evil carbohydrates have crossed her lips in around three weeks. I tried to congratulate her but couldn't talk because my mouth was too full.

Banana-Apple-Blueberry Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce
1 1/3 C flour (I use 1 C white, 1/3 C wheat)
1 T baking powder
Scant 2 T sugar
1 banana, mashed with a fork
1 egg
1 1/4 C milk
3 T melted butter or oil
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 medium sour apple, peeled, cored, sliced 1/4" thick
Handful of blueberries

Mix dry ingredients, beat wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then mix together gently, leaving lumps. Cook on griddle or frying pan 1/3 cup at a time, pressing apple slices or blueberries into the top of each pancake after they spread out but before they are dry on top.

Cook about 1-2 cups whole frozen strawberries with 1 tsp to 1 tbsp sugar in a small pot over high heat until berries give off some liquid and start to cook down. Mix juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon with 1 tsp of corn starch until smooth, then stir into bubbling berries. Turn heat down, cook for a few minutes until thickened. You can use any frozen berries for this. Adjust amount of cornstarch and sugar to your taste. Very yummy on ice cream, waffles, french toast, what-have-you.

The garden is doing great this month. This is the window box on my shed. ("Shed" is an awful word.)


One of my many clumps of irish moss, which I hope will one day carpet a whole section of my garden path. The black grass I bought this spring has grown very well out in the island bed: you can see one of its purple plumes in this picture.

One of the other occupants of the island bed - the pink hardy geranium I got from Kate last year. It didn't flower at all last year, so I was so happy to see these pretty things last month:


Later this week I will post a couple of Christmas-present FOs, trusting that the recipients, being Mere Children, will not be reading this blog.