Gothic Granola

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!

The old woman nodded as she listened to the soft, bubbling words [of the spirit of the well].  Then she went back to the cottage, her eyes bright with resolve, her step firm with courage. She took water from the sieve and sprinkled it over the doorstep.  When she got inside she saw a cake, dark reddish brown and unappetizing to look at, on the table.  'They didn't even wait for me to come back with the water,' she said to herself.  'They were greedy as well as wicked.  But thanks to the spirit of the well I know what is in that cake.' Geoffry Palmer and Noel Lloyd, "The Horned Witches," Nine Witch Tales, ed. Abby Kedabra (New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1998), 13. There were a few magical things about this cake I baked for my birthday: I still had the book from which the above quote is excerpted and the cake actually  worked this time.  

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 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.

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...

Trans fats are unsafe, says FDA. Enough said. Enjoy vegan & gluten-free baked goods free of trans-fats!

Music of the moment:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl3vxEudif8

If you have known and corresponded with me for any length of time, at some point you will receive a picture of a written page instead of a typed message. In the case of my dear friend KJC, I sent her fourteen-page letters composed over several days and Metro rides last fall, pretty much every week. Writing is more efficient for me than typing, though I type faster than I write. Not all efficiency is speed, however. Writing with pen and paper satisfies me physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally more than typing (though there of course are times where my graphomania requires digital paper and ink, and much of it). Nay, while I may seem to undergo Luddite fits in which I shun technology, generally I am amenable to the shiny devices (phone, compy, iPad, iPod, camera) and the connectivity they provide. I just make them work for me.

How 'bout a little evil in your cake? As in, how about Q hides a can of beans in your cake and you don't know and you eat it and you love it anyway despite the fact that you think the "musical fruit" is the devil's instrument?

Four Pieces of Advice What did my mother teach me how to do? What didn’t my mother teach me how to do?! Let’s not go there. We are spiritual beings having a material experience, and material experiences have limitations. Meta-discussion out of the way (not sorry, as a religion scholar, I must always make such concessions), here’s a recipe and the advice.

Or in this case, apricot.

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.

Skulls and tombstones.   Would you really expect anything else from a taphophile? Thanks to my aunt and uncle, I now bake in true undead style with the Lilli Vanilli in ‘A Zombie Ate my Cupcake!’ book and cake decorating kit.