Brain explosions, travel envy and a sick puppy.

I have spent the better part of the weekend studying. In fact, I still have one more chapter of my textbook and two supplementary journal articles to go, but I had to take a break before my head exploded. Next week my Masters starts and, at this point, it's all very daunting. I forgot how studying makes you hungry (and how cooking seems so much more appealing that studying). I had to battle the urge to bake cookies all day.




Luckily, my subconscious is more active than I give it credit for and it seemed to know what to expect of today before I did. I woke up this morning knowing that I had a day of reading journal articles and textbook chapters but meanwhile, my parents are in Koh Samui probably swimming in the ocean and drinking cocktails... there was only one thing that could restore the balance. Pancakes. Plus, by the time I made it downstairs (blaming a fondness for sleeping-in and George R R Martin) Dino had been working in the yard for an hour or so and needed to eat something. Blatantly using my husband as an excuse to make a semi-unhealthy brunch choice? Yes.

Back to the pancakes. When we were in Bali, we had the most delicious gelato I have ever tasted (okay, so my gelato experiences are limited to Australia and Germany but Dino's are more wide-ranging, he's had gelato in Italy and Croatia - the latter apparently having the reputation for the best-gelato in the world, I can't support or deny that except to say that my Father-in-law has told me that I'm now Croatian (by marriage) so clearly I have some loyalty to the claim). Back to the gelato. It was orange and cinnamon flavoured and the chef was Italian. Need I say more? Well actually, yes. Both flavours were prominent but subtle at the same time. It was so good that I can't even remember what flavour mine was...

With this in mind, I decided to make this morning's pancakes an homage to the gelato. Sort of vicarious travel by pancake. You know, that old trick. The recipe is below for anyone adventurous enough to try them.

Pancakes (more technically pikelets but made pancake sized!)
(makes approx 8 pancakes)

1 egg
4 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup of self-raising flour
3/4 cup of milk
1/4 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
a small squirt of orange oil - available from chocolate making suppliers (or a few drops of orange essence)
a pinch of cinnamon
butter for cooking

1. Cream eggs, sugar, bicarb soda, orange oil, and cinnamon.
2. Gradually add in the flour, alternately with the milk.
3. Heat a non-stick pan on the stove, melt butter and then add mixture (I add around a 1/4 of a cup at a time).
4. When bubbles appear flip over. Cook other side until golden brown and easy to lift out of the pan.
5. Continue cooking until all the mixture is used up.
6. Serve with maple syrup.

These were so delicious that we ate them all before I remembered to take a picture. The beauty of using the non-stick pan was that once I got the temperature nice and even and moderate, I didn't need to use any butter and the pancakes were a nice golden colour.

"Lucky" Norman Legovich

In other news, our dog Norman, a 12.5 year-old Labrador that we got from the pound when he was 8, seems to be declining rapidly. He’s really not doing well and it’s very sad. He was an instant good dog when we got him and we have been very lucky to have him. He's the most-beautiful dog in the world.

Chester Muggins Legovich, aka "Fluffy"

Our other dog, Chester Muggins, is really not ready to assume the mantle of responsible dog. At almost 3, our lovely Boxador is still a puppy. He has stopped destroying things on a large-scale (ie the creepy-crawly in the pool, the pool blanket, the pond filter, and so on) and he does try so hard to please. He is very beautiful and has the makings of  a wonderful (and well-behaved) dog, but he's just not there yet.

So here’s hoping Norman rallies and improves. Dino, Chester and I are not ready to say goodbye yet.

In the interest of equal representation, I should include the last member of our household (and the most vocal). Our lovely lavender budgie Philbert, the incredible shrinking budgie who has amazing vocal range and a temper to match... Plus may be Houdini reincarnated - until recently, no cage could keep him for long!

The bonus I’m taking from today has been that my brain has been super-active and I think I've finally decided on my theme for my cupcakes for this year's Cupcake Day for the RSPCA. I think I’m going to go with dragonflies – combining cupcakes with chocolate (I’ve started making my own chocolates for special occasions). I really like working with chocolate and I think this will be a fun one.