Gothic Granola

"...Not that I believe in it." What is it these days with people and belief? I've noticed this attitude particularly amongst my peers; religion or spirituality is an uber-private facet of one's life. If you mention it, goddess forbid you offend someone by simply saying, "Bless you," when they sneeze. Sure, there are plenty of alternatives, but I didn't invoke my higher power by name!  You  can't  believe in anything. 

Today was Hoodie-Hoo Day, according to WellCat.

Sacrifice II My mother would be proud of me. This recipe contains chocolate chips. In the words of one of my fellow team members, “Is it going to be healthy, or good?” when I described the recipe I was going to present for yesterday’s Foodie Call. I remade the cereal bars I made last year for my friend Liz’s Fourth of July shindig . Calling them “Sacrifice to the Gods of Freedom and Democracy” would probably turn off most folk. Here is my recipe for the huge batch (three sheet pans!) of “Trail Treats.” You can customise the crunchy bits and trail mix to your heart’s content.

I play mindgames with myself while running. Running towards someone is much more inspiring than running away from something, in my experience (when it’s a thought experiment, anyway).  Running from zombies would of course be a different story.

On Tuesday, one of my bestest buds from high school invited me to a Fourth of July party in D.C. and she requested that I bring “some food or drink to placate the gods of freedom and democracy.”  However, I couldn’t use the stove since the gas burners have electric starters.  As with  this episode last year , I took the Metro to my brother’s apartment in order to sleep and make cereal bars.

Sometimes I see a recipe or make something and have a conviction that it’s a dish for someone I know.  Even if I’m not going to see him or her, I  know  that s/he will enjoy this dish.  Sometimes it’s obvious based on people’s preferences (chocolate cookies for my chocolate-loving mother, pudding for my aunt), but sometimes it’s more obscure.

I have done something unspeakable to almond butter: microwaved it in plastic. I bought chunky almond butter in bulk and stored it an old soynut butter container.  As I neared the bottom of the jar, since I hadn’t consistently stirred it before consumption, the butter at the bottom was dry.  In order to make the muffins below, I microwaved the almond butter in order to make it stir-able, and I went thirty seconds too far.  Oh well.  The muffins suffered no ill effects, and my brother ate probably half the batch before and after the bike races in which he participated last weekend.