Genius Idea: Make-and-Freeze Pancakes (Instant Breakfast!)
On a sunny afternoon walk with the boys today, we stopped to check out my friend Annette’s garden (remember her–the one who turned her entire front yard into a city farm and introduced me to the amazingness that is French sorrel?). Carson, my 2 year old went wild for her three big orange pumpkins sprawling out onto the sidewalk. (He whispered in my ear, “I want to eat them.” The kid is on an eating kick. He wants to eat everything. More on that in another post.)
Annette sent us home with on gargantuan zucchini, an acorn squash (which is too beautiful to eat, I’ve decided) and a genius idea that I can’t believe I’ve never thought to try. Her 3 year old, she said, goes through picky-eating stages. Lately, all he wants is pancakes! So, she makes big batches of homemade (and of course, healthy!) pancakes and then freezes them in batches. All you have to do is pluck one out of a Ziplock bag and toss it in the toaster. Brilliant, right? So you know what I did? I walked straight home and made pancakes. Here’s a recipe for the most satisfying little whole-wheat banana-cinnamon pancakes and photos of my pancake-crazed afternoon…
I work at home (code for: I can stay in my pajamas all day if I want to), and have two little boys (code for: life gets messy), so I tend to dress casual–a lot. Actually, casual is an understatement most days. So, I’ve been feeling the need to update my daily “uniform,” and I think I’m going to wear a variation of this comfy and belly-flattering outfit a lot in the autumn months ahead. What do you think?
Hello, my dears. I 
Do you remember that episode of Gray’s Anatomy when Izzie’s terminally ill boyfriend dies, which sends her into a craze where she bakes muffins all day every day for about a week in order to cope? OK, I’m not quite there, but I’ve been baking a lot–brownies, cookies, zucchini bread, muffins, and these amazing black bottom cupcakes (recipe to follow) that I turn to now and then when things aren’t going so well. Truth is, nobody’s dying here. Everyone’s healthy, we have jobs (and frankly, I have too much work). And we have a roof over our heads–a nice roof, which covers a 
I’ve been swamped lately–with work and baby and house and life stuff. In between all of it, I have a novel I’ve written, somehow. A really lovely little novel, if I don’t say so myself. Lovely and rough around the edges. My agent, bless her heart, has big plans for said novel and is working with me to help make it as presentable as possible before she takes it to publishers in the near future. For now, I have the job of polishing and fixing and tweaking–some relatively big changes, some really tiny ones. The novel needs a little work. Surgery? Not really. But maybe out-patient surgery.