A plain-jane kind of day

It was not a very exciting day in the way of food. In fact, it was not a very exciting day in any sense. When I woke up this morning the sky was overcast, and it stayed that way until the sun went down, with occasional sunlight peeking through. The weather was still and warm, drastically unlike this week's true January chilliness. I didn't even get out of my pajamas today until about 3 PM, when Bob and I decided it was high time we went out for a walk. Talk about lazy!

From the moment that thoughts of breakfast entered my head, I started contemplating creative ways to use up the foods we had on hand. There was a portion of a can of pumpkin purée in the refrigerator, so I used it to make pumpkin pancakes:


I was so hungry when these were done that I did not even stop to take a decent picture! I made them the same way I did when I served them for an extra special brunch back in November, modifying Isa's recipe.

For lunch I knew I wanted to use up some of the millet that I made from my last post, because I made a boatload of millet. I steamed some edamame and put that on top of a scoop of reheated millet, then made a simple dressing with sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, red pepper flakes, and sesame seeds. I topped it with the dressing and a nice sprinkle of sea salt and tossed it all together.


Voilà! Edamame-millet salad. Very creative name, I know.

Bob left a couple of hours ago to practice with his band, The Debasers. Yes, he's the bassist and lead singer of a Pixies cover band. I'm not expecting him until around 10 tonight. I couldn't get in touch with any of my friends, so I'm trying to entertain myself here at home. I wasn't planning to make cupcakes today, because my planned cupcake-baking date with my friend fell through. But, what else did I have to do tonight? So, I made the Rum Raisin Cupcakes with Rum Glaze. I passed up the optional rum-flavored buttercream frosting--first, to make the cupcakes "healthier" (HAH!), and second, to let the flavor of the rum in the batter and in the glaze speak for itself, without trying to dress it up too much. What can I say? I'm a girl of simple tastes. Anyway, I don't have the cute piping and decorating tools that I would need to make these look extra fabulous. But my birthday is in a mere 35 days, so there is hope yet!


I haven't actually tried these yet. I'll wait until Bob gets home and coax him to share one with me. But the batter sure did taste delicious!

For supper, I was not very hungry (...after sampling the cupcake batter--*sheepish*) so I just made a small, plain, boring salad. Baby spinach leaves, sprouts, cucumbers, mushrooms, a sprinkle of hemp seeds, and a quick dressing made of olive oil, white wine vinegar, dijon mustard, pepper, and rosemary. That's all there is.


Now what? Well, I'm reading High Tide in Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a collection of very clever essays about nature, environmentalism, and treading lightly on the planet. One of my favorite quotations from her is, "Let me be a good animal today." I sometimes get so worked up about how I'm going to change the world--but really, it's just as simple as that.