Food + Wine, Fun

A Day in the Life: The Long and Winding Road of Yesterday

…when your husband goes away on business….

You plan a day of shopping with your best friend while your kids are in school.  You want something grown-up to look forward to, something to break up the several days spent being SuperSoloMom.  It’s a rainy day so it’s perfect for a mall day. You mother picks up the youngest from preschool, you have a fantastic time, you spend an enormous amount of money because of all the fun freedom feelings, you have lunch (with a beer!!!!), you laugh, you talk, you enjoy every second of your afternoon.  Then you go to pick up your kids and suddenly remember how many things you now have to catch up on because you were gone all day.  You come home to a full dishwasher in need of emptying, pets, tiny humans and sourdough starters in need of feeding, tiny humans and a mama in need of bathing, laundry in need of washing, bookbags in need of emptying, homework in need of overseeing, (not to mention the ‘champagne‘ in bed that needs drinking…)

So while children empty bookbags, (and by empty, I mean remove and scatter items about) you feed the sourdough starter and empty the dishwasher.  You promise the children an early bubble bath followed by PJ’s and a dinner of pancakes and a movie.  Dishes are done and you move onto pancake batter.  Your son, who is now upstairs doing homework, comes down to ask for help as your daughter (who is always either starving or full, both of which seem to happen at the same time because she simply refuses to eat), complains about being hungry.  You keep her busy and promise to come up and help him out in a second.  You make the pancake batter, let it rest and preheat your cast iron skillet while you feed the pets and make your way upstairs.  You start two baths- theirs and yours.  Yours won’t be able to be enjoyed for another hour or so but it sure feels good hearing the sound of it now.  You sit down and help with your son’s homework as your daughter sits in her bubble bath across the hall.  You pat yourself on the back for remembering simple math and run downstairs to throw a load of laundry in the washer.  You think to yourself, ‘Didn’t I just do laundry?  We’re one man down, how can there be this much laundry?’  You look for the treasure that your daughter always hides in the laundry basket, this time it’s a board book, you remove it and carry on.  You run back upstairs to check on your daughter.  She’s making bubble beards, she’s good.  You check on your bath.  Almost flooded the house, perfect.  You quickly bathe all the absolutely necessary parts on your daughter and decide to let the bubbles take care of the rest.  You run downstairs and throw on your first batch of pancakes, you run back upstairs and remove your bubbly child, who now looks like Tiny Santa, from the bath and wrap her up in her towel like a ‘Princess Queen’ and tell her to just prance around a bit in her room while you go flip the pancakes.

Flip.

Back upstairs to dry and clothe your daughter, and plop her in front of the TV while you tell your son to now get in the bath.  You run downstairs to start the new batch of pancakes and switch out the laundry.  Of course the dryer is full.  Of course it is.  You quickly remove the dry sheets, fold them horribly and throw the wet clothes in.  You flip your pancakes and slice a banana for the plate (a totally acceptable dinner, right?).  You plate their food, run it upstairs, start their movie and get a little excited for the bath that is so very close to happening.  You wash off your makeup…

You’re wearing a lot that day, this takes awhile… (Clearly. Your lips are purple).

 

…you’re hot and sweating now from all the running and flipping, which you suppose is a good thing considering you haven’t been able to make it to the gym in days, and you suddenly realize you don’t remember the last time you peed.  Ahh yes, being gone all day means you didn’t make one single dent in your daily gallon jug of water.  You chug as much as you can stomach and check on the kids before sliding into the hot bath.  You take a moment, knowing it will end soon, to relax and reflect.  The moment ends when your daughter comes in and complains that there are no apples in her pancakes.  You remind her that there have never been apples in her pancakes.  You remove yourself from the bath, wishing it didn’t have to end, but knowing you are now one step closer to the finale of your evening…’champagne’ and a movie in bed.  You’re still hot and now more sweaty from the bath but really kinda wanna try on all your new clothes you just bought.  You figure putting on clothes right now would be a bad idea considering all the hotness and sweatiness, so you head downstairs, nude, wearing only your new Armani perfume, leather Beatle booties and felt hat (seemed like a good compromise).  You decide that once your body cools off, you’ll add the clothing part to the ensemble.  You don’t realize how ridiculous you probably look because, frankly, who cares at this point. You grab the kid’s milk and cookies, let the dog out while you restart the dryer.   (Yep.  Stilllllll nekked.)  You do manage to take a moment to notice how awesomely comfortable these new leather Beatle booties are, and how fun the new hat is with your new hair cut, (Oh yeah, you gave yourself bangs and shaved your son’s head earlier…forgot to mention that part).  You grab your bottle of champagne, plop it in the ice bucket, grab your glass and head back upstairs.  You get too tired to put on a fashion show and instead climb into bed, turn on your movie and sit back to relax and reflect.No matter how Long or Winding the Road was to get here, all that matters is that you are here now.  Sitting, relaxing, and reflecting.

You note how amazing you smell and also take a minute to note that this is probably how a lot of adult novels begin…she sits in bed, nude, smelling like black currant nectar, allowing the tiny ‘champagne’ bubbles to delicately tickle her tongue as she sinks in to the pillow and begins to relax… 


And then you remember you still have to put the kids to bed. You think to yourself, ‘Didn’t I just put them to bed Yesterday?’

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Easy and Basic Whole Grain Pancakes you can make under large amounts of chaos and stress….
(Serves 4…ish)

Preheat your oven to low (170-200 degrees) and prepare a cookie sheet with parchment.  Set aside.

In a small mixing bowl whisk together 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour + 1/4 cup of ground flax seeds (optional),  2 tsp baking powder and a large pinch of kosher salt.  Set aside.

In a large, microwave-safe mixing bowl, melt 2 TB of coconut oil in the microwave.  Allow to cool slightly and add in 2 TB of pure maple syrup, 1 cup of milk (I prefer almond milk) and 1 large egg.  Whisk until egg is completely beaten.

Whisk in the dry to the wet until just moistened but don’t overmix.  A few lumps are ok.

Heat your cast iron skillet or griddle on medium heat for several minutes.  Allow your pancake batter to rest while this happens.  You really want your skillet up to full temp before you start frying.

Grease your skillet/griddle with either more coconut oil or vegetable oil or butter.

Using an ice cream scoop, measure out your batter and plop as many pancakes as you can safely fit onto the surface.  Wait for bubbles to appear and then pop on top of each before flipping.  Cook on the other side for about 1 minute, or until browned.

Transfer pancakes to the cookie sheet and place them in the warm oven while you make the rest.

Eat!!!

(For my other Pancake recipe, one that uses yeast and can be made far in advance, click HERE.  You will notice the picture is the same as above…that’s because I didn’t snap a picture of last night’s pancakes because, well, you know why.)

 

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