ZUCCHINI WHOLE WHEAT MUFFINS W/FLAX

It's only June in California, and already I have found 5 huge zucchini left on my doorstep.  

6 muffins

3/4 cup whole wheat
1/4 cup flax meal
1tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp or good pinch
1/4 tsp good allspice

1/4 cup nice strong honey
scant 1/4 tsp maple extract (very strong stuff)
1 large egg
1/4 cup canola or light oil
some zests from a lemon
9.5 - 10 oz (270-275gm) the whole zucchini quickly pulse-chopped in Cuisinart (keep liquid)

(if you want: small handful walnuts, toasted, finely chopped or/and some currents)

In a sieve over a med bowl, add first six ingredients. Put aside.
In the mixing bowl, mix the egg, oil, extract, honey and Cuisinart-ed zucchini (easier to measure honey if you measure the oil first).

Sift dry ingredients into the med bowl. If using currants/walnuts add them now to the sifted mixture.
Pour dry bowl stuff into the wet bowl stuff. Fold well with spatula.
Put aside while prepping pan and oven (give the baking powder time to start working).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees convection, a 'little higher if not convection. Butter well a 6 muffin tin, including top of pan. When oven heated to right temperature, fill tin completely full to top with batter. Put in oven.

350F, 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned and pick comes out clean. Cool in pan @ 10 minutes.

BLOOD DAY: ARE YOU MY TYPE?

Before I left for Francie-pants, I dropped by the Pasadena Red Cross Center to give blood. If you qualify, giving blood is pretty darn easy; you can call or go online to make an appointment, or like me, drop in when you are in the midst of doing a ga-billion errands before you leave the country for 7 months.

Besides, if you give blood while running about like a crazy person, you have an excuse to eat 3 packs of mini oreo cookies afterwards*.

When I asked my nice nurse "what's your type", he flashed me gangsta-style:

                                  

   A Negative.   

You rock doll.

Don't worry, my nice nurse does not have legs growing out of his elbow. That's someone in the back giving platelets. Takes so long, you get to watch a movie, giving platelets...

SPRING IN ALTADENA

It's raining in the Moselle again. Blustery rains. Gray skies have been there for quite some time now. When the sun does peek through, folks there in France try and grab up as many rays as humanly possible. Lack of sunshine can be brutal on a human being.

Frankly, I'm glad to be in California right now.

OPEN SKETCH - LET'S BEGIN

Today was a let-go day.

Let-go days are good. You never know what can come of a let-go day. Something. Nothing. An idea. Or not. Who cares?

Will it be a sketch, a poem, a song, a cake?

...you give it a go...let-go, let's see wassup.





 

SLOW . SCRUB . MOMENTUM . SLOW .

Funny how your brain can be all, oh, I wanna do this, this and this, but the body just sorta goes...blah. The butterflies have been a bit like that for me. I see 'em in my brain, all fluttering about, but the doing has been a bit..er, rough. After scrubbing a few boards today, all that changed. And also what I initially envisioned for these images changed - again! Uh, can’t wait to see how they turn out!

Recently, I've come to accept the fact that I work slow - as in methodical slow. From beginning ruminations in my head, to their final outcome. la.la.slow. Rushing is not my game. voila-ka-boom.

This can be er, a bit disconcerting for that lovely force known as momentum. But momentum can take on various levels of acceleration. Mine tends to be a bit turtle-ish.

Whatever impetus one's momentum chooses to take, it's gotta be there for anything to take place. Even in slow art. You can gain it, lose it, you can find it, feel it. Momentum is grand, at whatever pace.

BLOOD DAY

March is Red Cross month. Since 2003, I've tried to give blood as often as I can. I'm type 0 negative, which means my blood gets along with just about anyone. Less than 7% of the US population has 0 negative blood, so I'm sorta fortunate to have such deep red gooey groovy glop.

Donating blood is a trip. You feel as if you are in some very special private club. The people who work the banks are always calm and kind and the blood chairs totally rock, I've nodded off a few times - ha!

I love giving blood. The thought of my goop flowing through someone's veins is a bit of a high for me. Sure, I'm a bit drowsy the rest of the day and my arm has this funky purple mark on it for awhile - but whatever. It's a little thing to do with a beaucoup rewarding payoff.