On One Delicous Day...

I heard, the other day, the term Laterally Productive;
Oh NPR, so aware.
Maybe that explains the pains of this fall
Autumn? nay, lately fall namely.

But oh, listen to this mumbling
Faltering to succeed, fumbling feebly
In the space between resolute certainty
and utter defeat.

It's terribly cold outside today - unusually so
But things will warm this weekend, as rain comes through

Blue-Hubbard Pie to warm the soul
Whole wheat crust, don't you know

21 just around the corner and Holidays too
Passion reinvented? Perhaps old enthusiasm
Success and sight of that old horizon
renewed?

What I do know is Cooking and Baking
Saturdays spent happily fist-deep in dough
crouching-cleaning-calling life
not the shots - but me

Dark Rye: Success with errors
Biscotti: Tasty but imperfect

Sage'nApricot, so apropo

Yogurt: Trial 2

Srirachi Seared Chicken and roots: Not spicy but sure and soulful
Octoberfest: Meet November

All things good
Friday, even snow...
Now if only I could focus on my work
And not the life unlived beyond
Windows.

Flip, sizzle, change, repeat

These flap jacks

Sizzling a'pan

A total shift from the normal rift

Running through my Sunday stay

Like so many things

suddenly coming to mind

Autumnal color changes as this plate for the bowl

The weekend and work, indistinguished

But maybe now, a stage finished

and I'm ready to move on.

Pancakes are no harbinger of life

But emotion, color: red and rosy hue

Love and desire: taste and wonder

These things do beckon for the first in some time

Wherein I spent in wander.

Well, whatever I think

However two steps ahead seem to follow

A path long wandered

and a step fewer

I know I feel more real and true

In a first of forevers

and am certain

Sundays are better begun with a sizzle than a stir

A dollop of Pumpkin butter - Cranberry compote atop

Pancakes, Overnight, Arising for One

Per three silver-dollars...

a quarter cup whole-meal flour (sour like rye)

a tablespoon dry buttermilk, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and powder

-better together- pinch of salt, and plenty of spice.

1/8 cup quick oats to texture the taste, 2 tsp molasses to deepen the mood

1 tsp yeast, begun in warm water - 1/4 cup or so - sprinkled with sugar

a few tablespoons wheat gluten - white flour if you have none such vital tool

a half-egg beaten light

All combined and left overnight

Fried up fast, flipped once and topped right

however you might...

Mix n' Mash

Monstrously pumpkin
Sickly autumnal
Pumpkin butter
Halloween
Everything orange, gold, red, and green
Spread between baked bread
Sourdough from my Henion

In its (stagram) glory

buttery, balled up tight

so as to stay by me

morning

noon

won't last to night...

Pumpkin Buttery good.

1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp Blackstrap Molasses
1 tbsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Ginger
1/2 tsp allspice + some nutmeg?
1/4 cup Apple CIder
1 tsp citrus juiced
1 1/2 cups pumpkin pureed

Lost in the Middle

A place between summer sun
Winter weather
Snowflakes and quiet sips of spicy tea
Autumn - I disapprove of fall
For fall suggests we fall from heights to doldrums
All I fall for is Orange foods and into the leaves raked high

Yes, it has been so very long since speaking last:
Baking, writing, testing, and work
Life is long but its days shortening
College I fear is my life
This latest equinox the waning light

I have not foregone the pan
Nay, nor the oven
These hands are rough in testament to that
and the love I feel for my new job at the Henion
and hard tasks, soft dough
and warm soul.

Still I find myself in a better place than I thought to see
through this difficult kaleidoscope
Not the spyglass set once on hard lines
and an empty horizon.

I still need to find my fix
but closer and less obscure:
Of this, I'm sure.

To pass the time? Some sweet, and savory
Treats to taste for.

 Pickling: Perhaps

Crust recaptured

Scones?

Poppyseed and lemon alone

Flannel Hash meet Latke Stack

Churning it Out

Chugging along
Changing the feel of summer, near gone
Finding time, finally, to finish some thoughts

Day to day: lived the same simple way
But happy to be just so briefly free.
Well, free, if not for that small friend in me
Whispering words of cruel intentions
Every day less, but never distant.


Well, troubles abound
I still see the way to be me.

A week of things learned
A week of friends earned
No - found

Long days concluded with hot oven
Fresh food
Quietude found.


 Some Noshing, in order of its naming
- That Sourdough Light Rye, above, to perfect

-These Refrigerator Pickles, simple, still pickling

So simple, this pickle:

1 Cucumber, 2 Carrots, 3 Tablespoons of Rice Wine Vinegar

Some Basil, Cilantro, Pepper and salt

Topped off with water

Good things do start...

-Finally, well poached egg atop that bread

Some Kimchi and corn, sauteed with Chicken Sausage

Salad warm...

Peachy

Picking peaches piled and fallen
forgotten and free like few things
for me...

Brown Bananas - brace for baking
Long tired weekends - Perfectly needed
To usher one last week:
Bake the lab a treat

Banana Bread with Lemony Hints of Peach

 350 degrees, some 40 minutes please.
1 1/4 cup flour - your mill of favor+1 teaspoon baking soda:
Half whole wheat in this loaf.
2 bananas - large and ripe - mashed with 1 peach - skinned.
Eggs, fruit, sugar (1 cup), and spice: all mashed, all kneaded.
Oh, and a dash of vanilla and lemon extracts - so very needed!
1/4 cup oil and equal part yogurt: moist and healthy, or so I tell me.

2 thin loaves, or 1 thick. Don't overdo it, mixing or to bake.

Blunt

I'll be Frank.
My name is Ben. I study the biology of plants and for an interest in the subjects of food, hunger, and all things masticated.
Why do I have that interest? Well, I am Italian. I love to please, serve, impress, and perfect. I love science and have long dreamed of life as a restaurateur. It all began with an article on Wheat Rust, one on Cassava as a staple grain, and the Culinary institute of America set down the road.
Most realistically, I am an Anorexic; fighting the need to run and ride. I have had Anorexia Athletica for, perhaps, four years now. It all began...
Well I know when. Little matters it to you. Really, little matters it to me.
What matters is that I'm finally in a place where I can see - at least in the mirror - the real me.
It will be long and slow, but a marching I will go.

Marching with a desire to eat and a strong stomach decidedly against it.
No

A poisoned eye too small for my stomach
Until Pretzels are involved - my gateway Nosh


But here's my weekend food for thought. Maybe you'll find it fair and take a share.
Latkes and Zucchini Cakes.
The former shallow fried, the latter baked.
Sad evidence for the rectifying power of hot oil and flour...

Thank you Bon Apetit. For a change, I finally followed a recipe of yours