…and no one is there to hear it…well, I think you know the rest.
I found myself pondering this age-old philosophical question over the past few weeks as I’ve adapted to an interesting aspect of living alone: lack of someone with whom to share my various (usually very excited) reactions to life. As you might have determined by now, I tend to approach life with a great deal of enthusiasm, which often manifests itself in overenthusiastic reactions which those who have been lucky enough to live with me grew to know and love. Just kidding, I’ve really been the lucky one with roommates over the past few years.
I left my ACE family of 5 for a year with “The Leading Lady of Lacrosse”. Really. She’s a director of events for U.S. Lacrosse (HUGE here in Baltimore my non-Charm-City friends) and she travels all over the country running tournaments. When she was home from her various road trips, she graciously listened to my endless ramblings about my new school, my new city, etc. Then I moved closer to my school in the cutest apartment with a wonderful person I’ll call “Beautiful B”…because she is truly one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever known. Partially because she has a seemingly effortless beauty and grace about her, but mostly because of who she is on the inside. She has a heart of pure gold, an infectious laugh that is simply contagious, and our life chats across our little dining room table remain among my favorite Baltimore moments. Plus she was there for the dreaded “gluten adjustment”. That alone earns her a gold star for patience. Then there was “the Caring Counselor”. Her day job requires that she counsel people…but she was gracious enough to do the same for me each night as we sat on our respective couches and caught up on our days. So for all my years, I’ve been richly blessed with people who at least tolerated my enthusiasm for life..even if they didn’t quite love it 🙂
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| B and Me! 🙂 |
So imagine the shift over the past few months as I’ve adjusted to life on my own. Now I will say, full disclosure, I do actually LOVE living alone. Mostly because everything in every cabinet and drawer is completely safe; I can eat off the counter if I drop something; best of all, I only need one sponge and my orange sticker system is simply an artifact of my past life. However, there are moments when I desperately miss the smiling faces, listening ears, and infectious laughs of the people I was blessed to call my roommates over the years. Case en pointe: Monday night. For those who might be living under a rock, “How I Met Your Mother” is in its final weeks. I LOVE this show. Two Mondays ago we met the mother and it was just about the most precious thing I’ve ever seen. Then this past Monday, Ted gave the most moving speech on what love means that I’ve heard in a long time (I know, I know…Year of Love!!). Through it all, I’m sitting on my couch hugging a pillow, wanting to squeal or aww or jump up and down…but it still feels odd to do that with no one around. Same thing on Friday night when I finally caught up on “Big Bang Theory”. I’m pretty sure I let out a squeal on that one. And of course now there’s the Olympics. How do you watch the drama unfold on the ice without voicing your emotions?? I don’t know.
Now before I get too much farther down my tangent, this is supposed to be about food not television, so I promise I’m back. Last night, I decided to whip up one of my favorites to enjoy as I watched the Olympics: breakfast for dinner. I settled on pancakes, took out my new griddle, and set off on my adventure to recreate pancakes that would taste like their gluten-filled/soy-filled relatives. If gluten alone is your issue, get Gluten-Free Bisquick. It’s amazing and your pancakes will be too!! Unfortunately for my soy-free buddies, it’s emblazoned across the side : CONTAINS SOY. And corn. Sigh…
Thankfully, I stumbled across a book recently which has quickly become one of my top 10 life resources: Cooking for Isaiah. It’s written by a mom who wanted to cook great meals for her son who was diagnosed with food sensitivities to both gluten and dairy. There are few cookbooks I recommend (since most recipes can be found on blogs or pinterest these days) but this one I would absolutely order if you have gluten and dairy issues. I decided to adapt her recipe for chocolate chip pancakes…OH MY GOODNESS. I’m not kidding, these were some of the best pancakes I’ve had in my life. Gluten-filled ones included! If you have food allergies, do yourself a favor: make these, enjoy them, freeze some, love them again. It will, for a brief moment anyway, make you forget that you can’t partake in typical Sunday brunches anymore. If you don’t have food allergies, I’d still recommend them…but the ingredients required are not likely to be ones you have on hand in an average kitchen. In which case, I suggest you just need to come visit me for breakfast sometime. Seriously, I had visions of my own allergen-free bed-and-breakfast in my head all night. The recipe is as follows:
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| They may not look amazing…but they are! |
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| A perfect dinner…complete with a fresh, warm dinner roll 🙂 |
Cup of Coffee with Katie 