Crepes

Through the years I have made a truckload of crepes for my crew.  It's gotten to the point that I don't even use a recipe anymore when I whip up a batch.

Today however was different because I specifically substituted high carbohydrate ingredients for low carbohydrate ones.

Whole wheat flour became a strange mixture of garbanzo bean flour (farina di ceci) and ground flax seed meal. Instead of milk, I used soy milk, unflavored and unsweetened.

Here is the recipe I made up that was so good, I had to post it here as a little reminder to myself how I want to make crepes from now on.  The flax seed made the overall flavor of the crepes seem buttery.

Add to a blender:
2 cups of  unsweetened and unflavored soy milk.
8 large eggs

Blend

Add:  two cups of ceci/ garbanzo bean flour, and one cup of flax seed meal.
one teaspoon sea salt
Blend well again.

*Note:  Throughout the crepe making process I had to add more soy milk to the batter as the "flours" kept absorbing the water.

Yield about 12 Large crepes.

If I knew I was only going to top them with fruit and syrups I would add vanilla to the batter... but we also topped our crepes with brie and prosciutto.  We did have sweet toppings too...  whip cream I made sweetened with stevia, and a strawberry syrup/ sort of freezer jam also sweetened only with stevia. We also had pretty ripe bananas and nutella... because let's face it the sugar in the nutella is worth it!

Bountiful

Not long ago we made a day trip to Roseville California to go to Denio's Farmers Market.  It was a sunny day, warm but not the desperate muggy heat that feels solid.  It was a fun day, and parts of the market reminded me of markets like il mercato di porta palazzo in Turin Italy. Other than English not being the predominant language spoken, some of the similarities of the two markets were the cheap clothing made in foreign countries and sold there, as well as the bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Denio's is huge, so I may have just missed it, but I didn't find any cured meats and aged cheeses the way you can find them in the markets in Italy.  Nevertheless it was fun seeing what there was to see.

Luca enjoyed pushing the cart until it was loaded to capacity, then he was happy to leave the hard work to us!

When we got it all home I had to take a photo... eight trays of really ripe sweet strawberries for $4.!!!  I couldn't believe it.  Yes I am one to latch onto a good bargain.  But then I had to process all those strawberries, since they were perfectly ripe.   

Luca found his own good bargain.  He paid one dollar for three second-hand toys, all the way from "Caliiiiifornia!"  See?  They're all cars.

Balloons

This boy was dancing for joy over a bouquet of bright and beautiful balloons.  He twirled them and kicked them,  and chanted some Italian song over and over while running with them streaming behind him, and he begged his big brothers for help when they floated out of his reach.

I loved seeing the unadulterated joy he had while he played with something so simple.

Balloons.

I feel a satisfaction with my first sip of coffee in the morning.  But that isn't as effervescent as my boy playing with balloons.

But like this balloon play, what do I get lost in, and what brings forth that bubbly excitement?

I have an idea what it is and I am going to chase it down!

What about you?  What are your balloons?

Ecco Mi!

Here I am!  :)

A new day has dawned, one in which I find myself ready to post about the things that make me happy again.

Although separated and then divorced for longer than two years now, it is only with the passing of time that I regained my sense of equilibrium and sense of humor.  How could I blog during that time?  No one would want to read the drama,  and I certainly didn't wish to write about it,  or even think about any of it more than necessary.

It has been years since I have blogged anything!  I am feeling excited to begin again.