We’ve finished up the last of the blueberries with pancakes this morning. Not many people know that I spent one summer picking blueberries in Maine when I was 19. Not recreational blueberry picking, but seasonal farm labor. It was hard work, way too hard for someone like me with a bad back because the shrubs are low to the ground. You use a special rake to scoop up blueberries from the hardy bushes and deposit them in buckets, so it’s constant bending for many many hours, not to mention carrying heavy buckets when you’re done. I don’t even remember why or how I ended up picking blueberries that summer, but I do remember the vast blueberry fields, a hazy landscape of blue stretching towards the horizon and the heavy sweet scent that lingers in the warm, humid air. During our time, we stayed in a true hobbit house (I am not kidding!), a labyrinth of rooms made out of mud? clay? stone? tucked away in the woods, and swam in the ocean, a rugged coastline of beaches with calm inlets. I haven’t been back to Maine since that summer. I really want to go.

Oh, was I being nostalgic again? Ok, going about my day now…

One of my favorite breakfasts - eggs with salsa, rolled in a tortilla. I used to love ordering huevos rancheros at a cafe down the street, but it closed a few months ago so I haven’t had it in a while. Leftovers from the previous dinner’s Mexican food night makes for tasty fixings for breakfast the next day. I just love the combo so much (and yeah, I’m one of those people who eat eggs with ketchup).

Yesterday started out to be a sunny day, but it got increasingly cloudy so we came inside from the annual 5th Avenue Street Fair here in the neighborhood. 5th is half a block away from where we live, so you have no choice but to run right into it if you need to be out and about. I actually look forward to the Street Fair for one thing: freshly made hand rolls from the Blue Ribbon Sushi stand. Both Mia and I scarfed ours down. That’s the nice thing about the 5th Avenue Street Fair - tube socks and meat-on-a-stick aside - this street fair is a little different because of all the local restaurants and shops that spill out from their storefronts for a day. You can sample food from as many restaurants as you want for as little as a few bucks.

Over in Fort Greene, Mark sold cookies at the Flea solo. It started to really rain in earnest around 3 o’clock, so he packed up early and left like all the other vendors, but he came home with a bounty of goods as many vendors started giving food away: 6 mini cupcakes from Kumquat Cupcakery, 2 boxes of chocolates from our neighbors, NuNu Chocolates, a bag of coffee from Crop to Cup, and a muffin from Choice. Hmmm…maybe rain at the Flea isn’t so bad after all.

We had a rare treat of take out last night and Lani, my mother-in-law, had the excellent idea of making poached eggs with leftover saag paneer this morning. Soooo good. It’s been quite a while since we’ve had Indian food. There is a fairly decent place for take out in the neighborhood, but I know it doesn’t hold up for true Indian food enthusiasts. When I lived in the East Village during my art school years, dinner on 6th street was a staple - again, I do realize that Indian food on “Indian row” doesn’t quite cut it, but back in those days, it was cheap and so good, especially if you were a vegetarian. A few years later when I met Mark in Olympia and the years we lived in Portland, he used to cook Indian all the time - to the point where I got sick of it. He doesn’t cook Indian that much anymore and it had been quite some time since we’ve had a taste of the spices and flavors, so it was a real treat from the usual dinners he’s been making lately of pastas and roasts. Sometimes you just need a break away from something to appreciate it again.

You may already know this, but our daughter Claudine has evolved into quite the picky eater. It has gotten to the point where I now have to disguise some of her previously favored foods - she is that fickle. Her major food groups have narrowed down to plain pasta, rice, apples, and cheese-flavored snacks. Breakfast, however, is her favorite meal of the day so I do my best to cram as much nutrition into her breakfast as possible. She has not been liking bananas lately, but I always buy them anyway, so I made muffins with some overripe bananas the other morning. Muffins almost never get rejected by Claudine and with the addition of some whole wheat flour I actually feel like she is eating well.

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins (makes 12 muffins)

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 bananas
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine flours, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside. Beat the egg and bananas in an electric mixer with the paddle attachment until the bananas are coarsely pureed. Mix in the oil, milk and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Spray your muffin pan, or line with papers. Spoon the batter into the pan to fill each cavity two-thirds. Bake until done, maybe 15 to 20 minutes (I never use a timer, I just seem to sense when they are done). Cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan.

We woke up this morning to a thick wave of fog, but as the hour progressed, the skies turned blue. I had an early morning meeting so I blazed though breakfast still groggy from last night’s 2 am bedtime (I really gotta go to sleep earlier). Mark made frittata with potatoes, bacon, tomatoes and basil. We have a lot of odds and ends in the fridge from baking - ingredients that you only need partially of, like orange zest and egg whites. It takes a whole case of oranges from Costco to make enough zest for 250 of our chocolate orange cardamom cookies, so we’ve been eating a lot of oranges lately. Luckily, Claudine can down many many wedges of fresh orange in one sitting, plus we’ve been juicing them and using oranges in cooking.

I had a long walk from the train to my meeting this morning and today is one of those days that make you realize just how much you missed the warmth of the sun. I love being able to walk around, feeling neither hot nor cold, but just comfortable. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood as it really was the first spring-like day we’ve had since it officially turned Spring a few weeks ago.

I have a horrible habit of not remembering to go outside when I’m swamped with work. I tend to hibernate if I have deadlines and I’m stressed about it, and will plow through the day without taking a break. I’m embarrassed to say that prior to today, I hadn’t left the house since Monday. It’s an awful awful habit, so if you happen to remember this, please remind me to get out! (Although chances are likely that I will lie and say I did, even if I didn’t, from sheer embarrassment).

Ever feel like you’re in the movie Groundhog’s Day? I think anyone with kids might feel this way more often than they’d like because kids love eating, reading, playing and talking about the same things over and over again. I get that most kids thrive on consistency and routine, but some days just feel like a repeat of the last. This morning the kids wanted pancakes again for the third time in a week. When you’ve got a really picky infant and a less picky preschooler (who used to eat EVERYTHING) who is a little more picky these days, well…what can you do? At least we threw in some strawberries.

I admit I don’t cook all that often these days. There was a time when I used to cook much more, but Mark can do it better and quicker so the household roles had been cast early on: I clean and he cooks. There are a few dishes that I still make every once in awhile - spaghetti with fresh tomatoes, salty black olives and capers, and soft, fluffy scrambled eggs in the morning. Last year, my mother-in-law showed me how to poach eggs since I do love a nice, soft poached egg over toast. Mark claims that the way I do it is not technically poached since the egg isn’t completely submerged in water and the yolk is visible on top, but I say whatever to that since it pretty much all tastes the same in the end.

Gently break an egg into a small bowl so that the yolk stays in tact.
Fill a small, shallow frying pan with about 2 inches of water and bring to a sizzle. The water should not be boiling, but it should start to bubble to the surface.
Gently slide the egg from the bowl to the water, holding the bowl as close as you can so that the transition is smooth and the egg undisturbed.
Again, the heat should be kept low and the water should never be boiling.
I like to spoon some water over the yolk a few times so that it pushes the egg under the water a bit. You can also use the spoon to “corral” the egg whites to prevent it from spreading too much, but if you’ve successfully slid the egg in to the pan, the egg will more or less keep its shape.
I have no exact time for how long the egg should be in the pan, but I take it out with a slotted spoon when I think it looks “done” - usually about 3 minutes.

What I like about this method is that it doesn’t use vinegar to hold the egg together. I know that there are many different ways to poach an egg, and this may not be poaching in the true sense of the term, but this method has definitely taken the mystery out of it and now I can have yummy, runny eggs to dip toast in whenever I want (yeah I’m the only one in the family that eats runny eggs - Mia likes it for a bit, but will never finish the whole thing.)

Mark started making muffins every few days when his work schedule changed late last year. Instead of waking up at 4:30 am to get on the train, he’d wake up with the kids, start the coffee and bake muffins or pancakes. When the kids were with me every morning, breakfast would consist of a rotation of cereal, yogurt, or frozen waffles, with an occasional poached egg. Getting up at 6 am and making breakfast first thing in the morning is not my idea of fun, but Mark’s used to it and it comes naturally for him. This morning was all about using up the over-ripe bananas to make banana muffins. Claudine polished up 2 in one sitting.