Coffee Cake

This recipe came from the back of a Bisquick box many many moons ago. It makes a great addition to your morning coffee, tea, or cocoa:

Oops, almost gone!

Quick Coffee Cake
1 cup raisins
2 1/3 cups Bisquick
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2/3 cups milk (or 1/3 milk and 1/3 sour cream for moister taste)
2 tablespoon butter or margarine

Combine raisins, Bisquick, and sugar.
Beat egg lightly and mix with milk and melted butter.
Add all ingredients together and mix with fork.
The mix does not need to be beaten smooth, just moistened fully.
Top with crumb topping and turn into a lightly greased 9" square pan.
Bake at 375 degrees for 35 min.

Crumb Topping

1/3 cup Bisquick
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine

Combine all ingredients and cut with pastry cutter or 2 knives till crumbly.

The Pipe

As soon as Trip entered the city portal, he was surrounded by security and ushered to the high council chamber. He fumbled in his pocket to be sure the torn piece of cloth was there. It was.

He stood before the council, head held high. “I request a hearing,” he said not giving the council a chance to open the investigation.

“Denied,” said the Keeper. “You violated dome security.”

“It was dome security I protected,” said Trip. “The aliens broke through the portal.”

The Keeper turned to Reema, “Aliens?” he asked.

“I made a full security report,” she guarded her thoughts from Trip as the Keeper had ordered.

“I can prove it,” said Trip. He pulled the piece of cloth from his pocket. “Here, their uniform.”

The Keeper extended his hand, “May I?”

Trip fidgeted uneasily, not wanting to let his proof go, but he couldn’t give up his chance to graduate the academy. “I assure you it is from another world,” he said.

The Keeper turned the piece of cloth over in his fingers. From his belt, he withdrew a larger swatch of fabric. It too was unlike the fabric city clothing was made of. “This,” he said, “was found by one of our archeologists.” He put the pieces side by side. “It appears your aliens have been here before.”

Trip stared at the cloths and said, “You believe me, then?”

“Your find is valuable for our continuing archeological studies,” said the Keeper. “Still, you jeopardized the city, leaving without authorization.”

The junior cadet’s shoulders slumped. He was sure the Keeper knew about the incident. He glared at Reema who stood in silence next to her mother. 

The Keeper wrapped the two cloths together and turned them over to the science counselor who stood next to him. Turning back to Trip he said in a low grave voice, “Your irresponsibility must be punished.”

“But there truly are aliens,” protested Trip. “Reema, tell them!”

Reema, eyes downcast, said nothing.

The Keeper nodded at the science counselor and said, “I’m assigning Trip to your department. His research abilities make him more useful in your library archive rather than as security cadet.”

“No,” said Trip. “I, I, want to be a security officer.” He looked at Reema's mother hopefully.

            The Keeper had already turned away. Reema's mother shook her head and walked toward the exit. Reema followed
            The science counselor motioned Trip to join him. Head hanging, Trip stumbled after him, thinking hard. Maybe, just maybe he would be able to prove the cloth was not from his world. He touched the science counselor’s arm. “May I see the cloths?"
           A smile crept across the science counselors face as he handed the pieces of fabric to Trip.

Yesterday

Ripples in the sand

All our troubles were far away . . .

A windy walk on Ventura Beach

Let's wing it

Errosion-where's the sidewalk?

Warming up at Andria's

A sunset to remember

Friday Fare

The Catholic Church once ruled that no meat be eaten on Friday to honor of the Lord's Crucifixion. What better time to start a vegan diet. Of course the ulterior motive is better health and a little weight loss, to boot. So this morning's breakfast included fresh berries sprinkled with a little sugar and squirt of fresh lime juice. That was accompanied by a totally veggie omelet. Alright, so eggs are animal protein, but what the hey, the aim is providing a doable switch to healthful eating.

The shared omelet was made with two egg whites and one whole egg for the yellow color so a certain someone wouldn't notice the change. It was filled with finely sliced green beans and a green onion, and topped with half a Roma tomato and thin slice of chopped jalapeno pepper.
Of course these ingredients were fried limp in a teaspoon of organic coconut oil before their fill and garnish jobs.

A trip to the store provided veggie burger patties and a big bag of spinach for a late lunch. It appears that upping the veggies in that omelet kept one less hungry. The veggie burger made with the spinach and thin sliced tomato has done the same. No serious hunger pangs hours later.

So what started all this?  Watching an Amazon movie on ROKU called Vegucated. Great documentary!  



 

Recipe from the Dome

For the cold days of winter

German Sauerkraut

Ingredients: 

one yellow onion

bacon fat or frying oil

one large jar sauerkraut

one small jar applesauce

one ham hock or block of salt pork

one Knor pork or beef bullion cube

a tablespoon caraway seed in cooking bag

one cup water

two tablespoons cornstarch (for thickening)

Pre-fry the chopped onion in a pan (using bacon fat adds flavor)

Put sauerkraut in a sieve and thoroughly rinse with water to take off the super sour taste

(reserve a half cup of the kraut to add sour later if you like)

Put sauerkraut, onions, half a jar of applesauce, and ham hock or salt pork in a crock pot

Add the bag of caraway, bouillon cube and the water

Cook all on high till all ingredients bubble

Turn to low slow cooking and cook all day or overnight

When ready to eat, the additional raw sauerkraut may be added for a sourer flavor

Use two tablespoons cornstarch to thicken if needed

Serve with kielbasa, smoked or any other flavored sausages (these can be warmed in the sauerkraut pot in last 20 minutes of cooking)

The Adventure

“You’ll miss the adventure.” 

Haley rubbed the sandman out of her eyes, but faked sleep. It was too hard to wake up at 5:30 in the morning. Mom’s adventures meant getting up before the sun. They really were adventures, though. On one wake up call, Mom had taken her to the docks in New York Harbor. She didn’t know then that the big ferry boat with its giant paddle wheel was their destination. The Alexander Hamilton, as the boat was called, took her on a grand adventure up the Hudson River to West Point and back. On that lazy trip up the river, Haley watched the Palisades slip by and the green round hills replace them. One was called Bear Mountain, though it didn’t look like the huge mountains of her childhood.

“Zu Dir erwach ich liebster Gott” Mom began the Morning Prayer.
Haley found herself praying along, “Fuer mich steht's halten Dein Gebot." She pulled back the covers in mid prayer to ask, “Where are we going?” She knew Mom wouldn’t give away the secret. She never would. So Haley continued the prayer.

“It’s a surprise,” Mom said at the Amen. “Hurry, you won’t want to miss the bus.”

Haley wondered what bus would be running this early. She put on her warm sweater and the stretchy pants Mom bought her for Christmas. It was cold out, though the snow had already started to turn to slush on the street. When Haley left the apartment with her Mom it was still dark. Ten minutes later, they reached the Grand Concourse subway station at 188^th Street. During the rumbling screeching ride into the city, Haley tried to guess where they might be going on such an icy morning. She pulled her shawl tighter around her neck as she followed Mom up the subway's exit stairs in downtown Manhattan.  A huge sign across the sidewalk read Greyhound. A loping dog was its logo, and buses were idling all along the parking area under the sign.

“What’s our bus number,” Haley asked full of anticipation, knowing these weren’t city bus.

“Ten,” said Mom. “Over there,” she pointed down the line of buses quickly filling up with other pre-dawn riders.

Haley wrinkled her nose at the pungent smell of the diesel fuel. Looking up she read the bus’s destination bar, “Bear Mountain.” Remembering her ferry ride up the Hudson, she wondered why Mom was taking her to a boring green hill. Of course it wouldn’t be green in the thick of winter, but she asked, “Are we going sledding in the snow?”  Haley couldn’t guess the real purpose of the trip, because buses had many stops on the way to their final stop.

Mom didn’t hear Haley’s query because she was studying the schedule. “We’ll get there by eight thirty,” she said boarding the bus with Haley in tow. “Catch some sleep,” she added as she put a blanket over Haley’s knees to keep her warm. Mom always brought along plenty of things to make an adventure comfortable. Besides the blanket, her bag was full of good things to eat and travel games to play.

Haley stomach growled in spite of the pungent smell of diesel fuel in the air. Her mother opened the big bag and pulled out a boiled egg and crackers. “This will hold you over until we get there.” She handed her pig-tailed child the thermos full of hot chocolate.

With her hunger gone, the rumble and swaying of the bus put Haley to sleep.(to be continued)

The Pipe

Giro and Sanae reached the blank wall of rock above them and felt along it hoping to find the pipe that had brought them into this strange world. The rocky outcropping prevented them from seeing what was going on below them. Sanae looked toward the city and saw a spaceship enter it. When it disappeared she saw the bright star they’d seen earlier. It couldn’t be Venus, she realized. The sky was too alien. She didn’t want to stay in an alien world and tried to think back on what Reema had whispered. Her hand still gripped the twig Reema had handed her. “Giro, we’ve gone too far.”

Giro looked back down the trail along the wall of rock. “I don’t see the pipe,” he said.

“I think we have to use the twig from the black tree,” said Sanae. “Remma said it protects the portal. Maybe it’s a key.”

“The opening was in the rock wall above the tree,” said Giro. “Come on, we need to go back.”

“What about Trip?” Sanae knew he must still be looking for them.

“Don’t go weird on me, Sanae,” said Giro. “Here, I remember this bolder,” he said his voice rising with excitement. “It should be right here.” The rock wall was seamless.

Sanae heard someone climbing up the path. “It’s Trip,” she thought. She opened her palm and laid the black twig against the base of the wall. As she did, she fell through scraping against the rock as it gave way.

Giro followed her into the triangular opening. “The pipe!” He thought, and fell through. He found himself on the on the ground under a yellow sun. Sanae sat next to him on the familiar rock looking down at her watch. Below her was the parking lot and the bench by the tree.

“Only ten minutes have gone by,” said Sanae. “Were we dreaming?”

Giro’s thoughts returned to the purple world and the pushy cadet. “No, it wasn’t a dream. You’re shirt’s ripped.”

Sanae looked at her sleeve and saw the tear. “Mom will be so mad. She just bought me this blouse.”

“I’d be more worried about closing the portal?” he said. “Trip will follow if he sees it.”

 “But I don’t know how,” she said. 

(to be continued)

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