Monday, November 7, 2016

NaNoWriMo 2016 - Tea, Finnish Pancakes, and Ricotta

Contrary to the evidence (my current word count which is sitting a good 2000 to 3000 words below my target), NaNoWriMo is well underway for me, and I'm feeling confident in making it to 50,000 words before midnight of this November 31st.  Of course, I need to cut back on my baking and cooking experiments if I am to really catch up this week.

I have managed to avoid doing more with my Adagio account this month. Well, unless you count putting together one more writing blend to add to my Writer's Room tea blends: Writing by Candlelight.  I'm actually quite proud of this tea blend, and I can't wait until my tin arrives so that I can start brewing it before I sit down for my nightly writing sessions.

Earlier this year I was given a recipe for Pannu Kakku, a Finnish pancake made of
(at least now) equal parts flour, sugar, and milk with 1 egg and a pinch of baking powder per 1/4 cup of flour plus optional additives of lemon zest or vanilla.  It's baked in an oven safe skillet (cast iron) that has been preheated at 350*F with about a TBSP or 2 of butter so that it's hot and melted.  Roughly 30 minutes later (times vary with ovens I have found) and ta da! a really tasty and easy dish that always feels like a step up from the standard pancake.
 
I love this recipe so much I make it all the time, each time playing a little bit with the ingredients, experimenting with substitutions, adding different spices and flavorings.  But it is a bit time consuming and I need to cut back on making it so that I can focus more on my writing (at least for this month).  So yesterday, of course, I made another batch - basic recipe only, no crazy experimentation.

Of course, while I was in the kitchen I realized I had about a gallon of whey collected from the batch of yogurt I made (because of course I decided November was a great time to restart doing that) and decided I should try my hand at making ricotta cheese. (That did not work out at all - probably because it wasn't fresh collected whey, and had been sitting in a container in my refrigerator for a day).  So despite making a good push towards catching up on my word count last night, being at home near my kitchen has turned out to be too great a temptation away from my keyboard.

Not to worry, I've left the homestead behind for the day and have decided to go back to writing in cafes and coffee shops for the time being (at least until I am above my target word count), where I always seem to feel the creative bug a bit more keenly than when curled up with my cat, next to a kitchen smelling of cooking dough and hot spices.

And now - back to the noveling. Write On my fellow Wrimos! Write On!