Oatmeal Pancakes and Waffles

Sometimes on my personal Facebook page I post pictures of food — doesn’t everybody? I often get requests for my recipes. I am, what I call, a "cupboard cook." In other words, I look to see what is in the cupboard, then I dump it together to make a meal. Sure, I do have a few recipes that I follow, but even then I usually alter them in some way. 

In my kitchen I try to stay as organic as I can and eat only humanely raised meat. Most of our meals are vegetarian, but we do have meat about once a week. Nearly every Sunday morning I make oatmeal pancakes or waffles for breakfast. So many people have asked for the recipe, I decided to try to share my recipe/process here. So here goes.

Here is the recipe I began with. It hangs on my refrigerator, along with some other recipes I use often. The original recipe did call for whole rolled oats but unground make it kind of dense, so I started to grind down whole rolled oats in the food processor to make it into a flour and the recipe lighter. I always grind extra oats into flour to keep in a canister on my counter; that way, I only have to make oat flour once a month or so.

Over time I have gradually changed the recipe to replace the all-purpose flour with ground oat flour. I also add extra baking power and baking soda to help the waffles or pancakes rise. Honestly, my husband and I prefer the heartiness of the oatmeal rather than white flour; we find it fills us better and we end up eating less. Oats are also more complex than all-purpose flour, providing more fiber and nutrition. To boost the fiber an extra notch, try adding a tablespoon of ground flaxseed. (I grind my flaxseed, too — using a coffee grinder that is reserved just for herbs, nuts, and seeds.)

I do like creating variations of the recipe. Sometimes I add fruit, like blueberries. Pecans or walnuts are a great addition. It's also fun to play with spices; pumpkin spice is one of our favorites!! The recipe was was delicious when I added some leftover pumpkin (1/4 - 1/2 cup) that was in my fridge. The point is to have fun with the recipe and just use what you have. Spices can be stirred directly into the batter. I don't add the fruits and nuts to the batter; instead, I put some batter on the griddle, then add the fruit and nuts. That way, it's also easy to customize the recipe for each person.

I really like using a nicely-seasoned cast iron griddle to cook my pancakes. Be sure to heat up the skillet before adding spray-on oil or butter. Pour your batter on immediately; this helps to keep it from sticking. You want a hot pan and cool oil.

You can use the same process for making waffles. Simply add a little extra liquid; waffle batter should be a bit thinner than pancake batter. Add some homemade whipped cream, a side of humanely-raised turkey sausage or turkey bacon, and you have a perfect breakfast.

I hope this helps a little. If you have any questions, make a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Happy Breakfast to all!!

Listening in Color

I really like documentaries, especially those about unique things or trivia. I’ve been watching a series on Netflix and came upon an exceptionally unique individual who caught my attention. His name is Neil Harbisson and he was born with achromatopsis. In simple terms, he was born severely colorblind. He only sees in grayscale. Seriously, it’s like watching the beginning of the Wizard of Oz 24 hours a day. (Yes, the beginning is in black and white. Go back and watch the opening scenes; it becomes color after the tornado.)

Neil wanted to do something about the lack of color in his world, so in 2003 he started working with doctors and a scientist to develop an electronic eye that detects color. It picks up on the light frequency and translates the color into sound. He had this implanted in his brain so he now actually listens to color. The eye looks, to me, like a single antenna coming from the back of his head and bending to his forehead. 

I became so intrigued, I looked him up on the internet and... hey, he did a Ted talk! So, I clicked on it and listened for the length of the talk, 9 minutes and 35 seconds. I was impressed. This man has got a great sense of humor!! I laughed with him all the way through his talk. 

Neil talked about getting dressed in the morning: “I used to dress in a way that looked good, now I dress in a way that sounds good. Today I am dressed in C major.” He made this statement as he drew attention to his yellow pants, blue shirt, and pink jacket. Honestly, I liked the combination.
“Supermarkets are like a night club,” he went on to say. He then continued with telling the audience that he especially enjoys the cleaning supply aisle because of all of the bright colors. 

Because colors show themselves in sounds and notes (music), he now listens to a voice and hears the color of the voice. Neil has become an artist and paints the sounds of the colors he hears. He showed pictures of how voices of different famous people look in color. His artwork is simply lovely. Makes me think about the phrase, ‘Your voice is like music to me ears’ — to him, it really is! 
When he listens to music, he hears it in color. He also said can hear the color of a person’s face and it has changed his perspective of beauty.

This got me wondering, when he describes people does he say something like, ‘His face was a C# but his clothes were a B minor?’ 

As I watched him talk, I was really struck by his presentation of confidence. The third eye he has on his head will certainly grab the attention of all of us. We might take a second or a third look, but when he looks back at us, what color and what notes does he hear? 

When we get to the bottom line, it seems to me everybody has something challenging in their lives. Neil took his challenge and developed an opportunity for himself. Frankly, I decided I am going to listen for the color of my challenges, how about you? 

You can hear Neil (in color) below.

International Literacy Day

September 8 was International Literacy Day. It was declared by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1965. That’s kinda cool!

Literacy is not only language and reading, but competence or knowledge in a specified area. We are all literate in something. My husband is quite literate with computers (my own personal IT guy), my friend is literate in pottery, and my daughter is literate in salsa dancing. Most of the time, however, when the word literacy is used, it is making reference to reading and writing and that is really what International Literacy Day is all about.

The ability to read and write, in my opinion, is more important now than ever to promote in the United States. With the slang used for texting (LOL, OMG, ROFL), assistance with spell check, and reliance on everything digital, technology has left us lacking in some ways. We do a lot of superficial reading but not as much deep reading. Getting lost in a story or learning something new is part of deep reading. I am not sure it matters if we are reading an ebook or a physical paper book, the point is that we all need to deep read a bit more. Below are a few good articles for you to READ.

• International Literacy Association: READ about International Literacy Day.
• The Neuroscience of Your Brain on Fiction: This article by Annie Murphy Paul is really interesting. I don’t need to explain it when you can go READ it. 
• 11 Facts about Literacy in America: READ them, you might be surprised!! 

People all over the world celebrate International Literacy Day. I didn't see any public celebrations where I live, but we can all have our own personal celebrations, anytime, anywhere. Grab a book, a magazine, pull up an ebook online, or go to the library... then, turn off the TV, put down your phone, and READ. Who knows, you might just enjoy it and learn something you didn’t know before.

HAPPY (BELATED) INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY!
GO CELEBRATE!
READ!!

Annoyances and Irritations

My special glasses are always with me. Bikers and Firefighters also use these to protect their eyes.

Life has its annoyances and irritations. I am allergic to dust. It shows up mostly in my eyes and, yes, I do my fair share of sneezing too, but it is really my eyes that suffer the wrath. The fact that I have chronic dry eye doesn’t help either. I have prescription eye drops for the allergy and the dry eye to help with the irritation and I also have some special prescription glasses to help keep out dust and air debris. They do a pretty good job but my eyes still do get irritated. I suppose if I lived in a sterile bubble I would not have to use those eye drops or the glasses, but what fun would that be?

I have a life to live, places I want to go, things I want to do, stories I want to share, puppets I want to build, clothing I want to sew, people I want to visit. I can’t let this allergy or the dry eye stop me, I just use the drops and wear the glasses and keep on going. 

I’ve been clearing out my house, purging and organizing. That really stirs up the dust! My eyes have certainly been suffering. I use artificial tears several times a day to wash out the dust and help to calm my eyes as I spend time in closets and clean under dressers. The progress I have been making in clearing out the old stuff to make room for what I really want is amazing…however, it comes with a cost to me, my eyes are going to get irritated.

Everybody has something that is irritating and annoying. Perhaps that annoyance can be avoided at times but then there are times we all must face that challenge to move forward. I cannot ever completely avoid dust but I can do things to manage its effect on my eyes. It is worth the time, effort, and money it takes to put those drops in my eyes and purchase special glasses so I can explore the world and go forward. There is so much I want to see!!

By the way, just in case you needed someone to tell you this, you’re worth it too!