Gothic Granola

Pistachio buns, meet pistachio cake.

Much like my sourdough recipes, this recipe's usefulness is limited by the equipment you have on hand.  However, you could very well make this outside of a bread machine.  For the first time in three years, I don't have a gas stove, and a countertop bread machine bakes better bread than an electric oven.   The bread machine doesn't warm the apartment like the oven does, though!

I have been making the same carb-a-licious muffins  lately, so how about something different? Another exercise playlist , perhaps? Yes!   I miss my squirrel "training partners" (and I did bribe them with peanuts) and my outdoor exercise space sometimes.  

There are some cookies that just get down on their knees and beg to be rewritten.  Not such a tough cookie now, are you?! [caption id="attachment_5007" align="aligncenter" width="225"] MINE, says Poppet bun.[/caption]

It's only seventy-four days until Halloween/my birthday, and it's not too early for pumpkin muffins.  Snow is appearing on the mountains and it snowed (briefly, no accumulation) at 11,500 feet last weekend.  

My original favourite banana muffin is cornflake banana muffins , but VGF cornflakes are a treat at USD $7.99 a 26.4 ounce bag.  The below muffins I used to make all the time for my student job folks in a myriad of variations, including using apple butter, more or less banana, various types of nuts and dried fruit, in bars or in muffins.

It's time for another round of Into It/Over It , the High Altitude Edition.  The point of this type of post is to point out a negative and replace it with a positive (and sometimes just point out positives).  What does a picture of this awesome-yet-undisclosed location have to do with Gothic anything?  If you have ever read any Gothic literature ( Frankenstein ,  The Castle of Otranto ,  Carmilla ,  Dracula , et cetera), they can be read as travel journals, with significant chunks of text devoted to describing landscapes and characters' travels.  I re-read  Carmilla  on a weekend's camping trip, and the descriptions of Styria (region in modern-day Austria and Slovenia) reminded me of the critical angle of Gothic literature as travel journals.

Fun fact, Gothic Granola isn't dead.  Neither am I.  I've been Instagramming my creations but haven't been blogging as I've been creative writing and working on other projects.  Since November 2015 , I have made several kinds of vice cream (vegan ice cream) including: Chocolate Rocky road Mint chocolate chip Pistachio Cherry chocolate chip Kind of whippy vanilla (that's a lot like coco whip )

This post may be best placed on my other blog, Cemetery Spelunking , but it bears mention here. [caption id="attachment_4359" align="aligncenter" width="169"] Stained glass window next to the front door in the narthex of Arlington Metaphysical Chapel; view from the basement stairs.[/caption] When TC and I went mountain bike camping a few weeks ago, one night we hung out with this older gentleman and his dog since they were the only other people at this remote camping spot.  The old man kept playing classic rock and folk that neither TC or I knew (I like Pink Floyd and that's about the extent of my classic rock knowledge).  He kept saying, I want them to play this song at my funeral, playing songs by Cat Stevens , JJ Cale, Jim Crochee, and Lobo. I don't know what song I want played at my funeral, but I did hear this song recently on Pandora, " Without Faith " by ThouShaltNot.  It's perfect for a scene where I plan to kill off a major...

More strawberries and chocolate chips this week. My harshest critic was in town and TC asked me to make him a "moist" baked good (AKA: my other father-in-law, Bandit the dog's owner).

It certainly has been a busy month! Only one post this June. Lookit the kalez from the garden!

National Chocolate Chip Day is another one of those made-up holidays that must have been made just for bloggers. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's been around since before the Internet since most sites about it seem to reference the original chocolate chip cookie . NCCD is 15 May, and my post is a day late. I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road on Thursday (the other day I usually blog) and didn't decide what to bake for NCCD until yesterday afternoon.

Because we are Gothic Granola, we go to concerts for Goth, Industrial, Synthpop, Alternative, Electronic, and more, as the entertainment budget allows. That's a royal "we." On Tuesday we went to see Covenant at Casselman's in Denver, hosted by Club Sanctuary . We rode on sportbike to Denver, and having seen few practical posts for wearing makeup under a full-face helmet, I decided to experiment. As I said in this post , I don't wear makeup often and I don't think it adds anything to my appearance. Most message boards I read for female riders focused on the hair, and I happen to like helmet hair (I also have short hair and a low-maintenance deathhawk, so there's not much to "ruin"). 

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPY5P0TaC4k     "Just walk away...and there will be an end to the horror."

If I have to read or hear one more "great workout playlist" that involves rap, dubstep, pop, or Top 40 hits, my daily Les Mills Combat practice will stop being practice.    

Thesis: The so-called glorification of busy in 21st-century, first world business stems from an unconscious cultural reverence of saints and mystics, and martyrs, to a lesser extent. Bias: I studied martyrs, mystics, and saints in college and see their characteristics everywhere: self-sacrificing, obsessive, whole-soul commitment to a cause that extends (sometimes) beyond their personal aims.

I love carbs. Probably because I'm exhausted most of the time (work hard, play hard). This will soon change when I have a stable schedule, about which I am more excited than Samhain and Winter Solstice combined. To make a new routine that revolves around a stable work schedule will help me get grounded and stay grounded. For I know I can jump to higher creative heights when I have a stable base from which to jump. Speaking of jumping:  a spot of exercise with your dear blogger.  This is how I checked my form on one of my favourite moves from INSANITY. Exercising late at night obviously has its effects.

For weeks now, I’ve been wanting to give yeast bread a go at the Abbey in order to test a jar of yeast, to see if it was still active. Bread creation satisfies me on many levels. This is hardly a new observation. Something I also find satisfying is making playlists and burning them to CDs.

It’s almost time. By the time I finish writing this post, Lent will be over in EST and I will be able to listen to music with lyrics again.

It’s almost time. By the time I finish writing this post, Lent will be over in EST and I will be able to listen to music with lyrics again.