Slackerdom

Helloo. Got a few things to say today, and a few links to share. Firstly, if you are into food blogging, perhaps you know about Deb of Smitten Kitchen's Ask Me Anthything on Facebook this past week. If you didn't ask a question, you can read the transcript. But let me warn you, that the transcript is a bit like Pinterest or Facebook in that there is a lot there, like 500 comments... that sort of deal, and it keeps multiplying and you will realize you are spending a lot of time on this when you read it. And yet, you can't stop. 

Kudos to Deb for doing it! Some interesting Qs and As there. For me, I was curious as to what would be asked because I know her following is quite national. The journalist in me wanted to identify the trends. And there was one, I think. About 75% of what I read there seemed to fall under a similar theme: how do you have time for this? Do you get sick of it...have failures and want to throw in the towel, do you ever just order takeout, (Her answer: ALL THE TIME)...what about if you eat at different times than your spouse, how do you deal with washing dishes, cook with a toddler tugging your pants, what can I make and freeze ahead since I am so busy...in other words how do you do this thing that allows people to survive every day, multiple times a day: cook food. 

Her answers were of course appropriately as witty and truthful as she. And, actually, the day after reading that, I had a bit of my own slacker funk develop in the kitchen! I mean, it was Friday, but had absolutely no desire to stock the fridge and preferred to let it stay extremely slim. We would get dinner around the corner at a restaurant, (and I don't even want to think about breakfast). I had a very lazy day and just went with it. I do chalk it up to one thing, though: be careful what you read! But also, listen to yourself. Deb smartly advised, one of the reasons she likes going out or getting takeout is that if it isn't that great, all the more reason to get back into the kitchen fresh and make lots of stuff you like. Oh, and if it is great, then you deserve it, and you get inspiration out of it.

One of the things though, that consistently works for me when I feel a little out of juice, is revisiting rather than tackling the new.  It reminds you of why you cook.  This morning, out of both yogurt and cream, essential for either wheat scones and muffins, I refused to go get either and went back to the old all-almond flour scone. They tasted even better today than I had remembered since I made them several times in fall/summer. Adding chocolate and toasted pecans and slathering them with some pear butter, I remembered the value of repetition and suddenly felt ready to tackle something new. And with that, the funk sort of dissipated. Recipe: paleo scones with chocolate

Speaking of almond flour, the lead photo up top is a shot I managed to get of some grain free almond banana crumb muffins (actually I think of them more as mini banana crumb coffee cakes) I made last week. They are absolutely amazing, and the recipe can be found here at Delicious as it Looks. If you have a banana sitting around and use almond flour, try that recipe out.  That's all for today. Be back soon with a new recipe.