Blueberry, Banana, Walnut Muffins, + Greek Easter + Haircuts + Stats

It was a busy weekend. I got most of the herbs planted. I bought more basil, thyme, and 3 more tomato plants. I hope I don't regret buying the tomato plants. They have never worked out here.  There is not enough sun in our yard, but they have 5 months to grow.

The blueberry muffins on the other hand came out killer. The recipe is below.

May 5th, aka Greek Easter, aka Cinco de Mayo, was yesterday and we celebrated it in style again with our friends Charles, and Kathleen Cramer and a bunch of friends. Amazing food by Kathleen, lots of music, and good times with old acquaintances.

I gave my friend Michael a haircut this Saturday. He looks handsome.

Try this recipe, it rocks.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

Blueberry, banana, walnut muffins (makes 12 to 14 muffins)

Ingredients;
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 stick unsalted melted butter
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1 whole banana
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp nutmeg

Instructions;
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray muffin pan with non stick canola oil.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the butter with the milk, vanilla,  both sugars, the mashed banana, lemon zest and eggs.
3. Add  the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk just until combined, gently. Fold in the nuts and the blueberries.
4. Spoon the batter in the muffin cups 3/4 full, and bake 20 to 25 minutes until the muffins are golden. Let cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the muffins and let cool on a rack. Keep covered.
The muffins are good for two days.

Putting that barber's license to good use

Blueberry, banana, walnut muffins

What I ate today;

Breakfast & Lunch..... fasting.....black tea w/agave, orange juice

Dinner; Pasta w/cherry tomatoes, grilled asparagus, yellow onion, ground turkey, olive oil, salt and garlic, kale salad w/red bell pepper, green beans, kalamata olives, lemon, olive oil, s & p

Exercise; 5 miles walking

Sunday Stats

Greek Easter is today, as well as cinco de Mayo. As good a reason to celebrate being alive as anything else.

That's it.

What I ate today;
Breakfast; 2 poached eggs and 2 English muffins

Not Lunch;

Dinner; It was a Greek orgy complete with too much food, wine and fun, or not enough,

Exercise; 4.5 miles walking

Always look on the bright side of life.

Saturday Stats

Just the facts today.

That's it.

What I ate today;

Breakfast; 2 poached eggs on buttered english muffin, 1 potato pancake (1/2 russet potato) 1/2 cup coffee plain, a bite of Geri's scone from Arizmendi's bakery.

No lunch....orange juice

Dinner: 2 beers, turkey sandwich on asiago bread w/mayo and black pepper, 3 blueberry muffins

4 miles walking

Big Breakfast + Sugar Crow + Julia Child Rose

If you look below at the stats you'll see that I had a big breakfast this morning, no lunch, and a bowl of pasta for dinner. After I ate breakfast I went back to sleep. I had to take a nap.

Apparently it was too much food for me.

I went to Half Moon Bay and picked up Sugar Crow, down below.

Have a great weekend. Movie date night tonight.

Our Julia Child rose in the front yard is in full bloom. They smell as good as they look.

Have a wonderful weekend.


That's It.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

What I ate today;

Breakfast; 2 english muffins, 3 egg salmon omlett, 1 cup black tea w/agave, 1 potato pancake

Dinner: Bowl of pasta, cup of shrimp cocktail

Exercise; 3 miles walking

Julia Child Rose

The Crow pointed northwest

Fire Season, Fasting, Stats

It was a 87 degrees today in Town. We missed the wild fires yesterday in Napa, but the smoke followed us back to Oakland. Wind, heat and fire are a bad combination. Flooding in the mid- west. With the smoke and the pollen in the air, and all the man made shit, the allergies are working overtime. On top of that it was downright hot today.

It is Thursday and that mean it's a fast day. I did have a banana and some watermelon this morning. Unless something prophetic happens between now and when I publish this blog it will be what you see here, and the daily journal stats.

I'm going to try and do blueberry muffins tomorrow, with a recipe. Another busy day then.

I made it through fast day.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not Wart


What I ate today;

Breakfast; 2 bananas, watermelon

Lunch; Nothing

Dinner; Pasta w/eggplant, cherry tomatoes, basil, a little feta, Romano & mozzarella cheese, garlic, 1 chicken sausage

Exercise; 3 miles walking

Napa + The Freemont Diner + Che & Frida & May Day

I took my friend Michael up to Napa to look for an apartment at this senior housing facility, and I don't think it's for him. It's scary what happens to us when we get old. It was a lovely outdated small studio apartment. I was clean and newly painted. You could get a small bed and a small desk in there, and that would have been about it. I just think he would be lonely there, and it's all white folks. No diversity in this place, just old and older.

We hightailed it out of there, and instead of taking highway 80 back across the Carquinez Bridge and Hwy. 580 back to Oaktown we decided to go Hwy. 12 to 116 to Petaluma, and we stopped at the Freemont diner in Sonoma.

Stopping here was the best decision we made all day. If you haven't been to this diner next time you're in a the area, and you need you're fill of comfort food, stop there. I got the muffaletta sandwich and fries. This is the second time I've had fries in 5 months, and it was worth the wait. Michael got the chicken BBQ sandwich, and he ate it all. He's a picky bastard if there ever was one. I saw the oyster po boy sandwich, and the fried chicken looked like it was out of this world.

You can sit outside under the tent with your dog, and the house chickens. I brought Frida with us today. The ambience alone is worth the trip, good beers, great old food signs, and the service was right on point. A wonderful place. Go....As you pull out of the diner back onto Hwy. 12 the house across the street has a big piece sign on it.

Today is May 1st, also known as May Day, the International Workers holiday that was started right here in the US of A, and it is also Frida and Che's birthday. May day was a big holiday when we grew up. You would dance around the May pole, the whole nine yards. There were picnics if it was on a weekend. No one cares about the "working class" anymore unless there's a protest somewhere. You won't see or hear anything on any mainstream media today about the struggle of the working class in America.

It was a day where a lot of crap went wrong, but it turned out to be all right in the end. I've got to bring my camera with me more often.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

 Frida, Me, Che in Bodega Bay 2012

What I ate today;

Breakfast; coffee 1 sugar, walnut, raspberry scone

Lunch; 1 Anchor Steam beer, muffaletta sandwich, French fries

Dinner; kale salad, 2 tamales

Exercise; 3 miles walking

2 More Classes

Even an old guy can feel like a kid if he's been taking classes at a college in the spring semester. It's in the low 80's today, and who the hell would wants to go to school?

When I was at St. Gregory the Great school in Danbury I would just stare out the window and look at spring and the outdoor all around me, day dreaming about playing baseball or hanging out in the woods with my dog Lightbulb. Knowing that summer was right there, and it would be long days at the lake, fishing, swimming, raiding fruit stands late at night. Too much temptation to contemplate studies.

There's too much to be done now to spend a lot of effort blogging. My blogging has become a journal of what I eat daily and my exercise routine.  I'm cooking a ton of food, but I don't have the time to write about it.  If I'm cooking a lot then I'm eating well, and if I'm working a lot I'm being productive and that's all positive.

I really started this blog to journal my weight loss.

When it's hot like this I think about ice cream, but ice cream doesn't cool you off actually. It's all the things I need to stay away from sugar, salt and fat. I've had ice cream twice since mid November. I can't believe it.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

What I ate today:

Breakfast; coffee, one sugar, home fried potatoes, 2 poached eggs

Lunch; kale salad, orange bell peppers, radish, 1 chicken sausage, small handful of feta cheese, 8 asparagus, olive oil, lemon, s & p

Dinner; big salad w/pan roasted salmon and all the above


Exercise; walking 3.5 miles