Friday in the Heartland

Banana Cashew Pancakes

Some mornings, I just don't feel like breakfast but on occasion the Master Gardner will be up early and after reading the paper make pancakes for us. She has some whole wheat flour and some Bisquick that she mixes and makes these tasty pancakes. She was short the blueberries his morning so we had bananas and some of her home made apple butter. Mighty Tasty.

Yesterday the Master Food Volunteer class made a field trip to Kansas City. There is a Best Buy store there that caters to the Mexican neighborhood. They have a lot of produce you won't find in a normal produce section and they have a big tortilla machine that makes both flour and corn tortillas. The meat section has pre-made fajitas that includes the peppers and onions with the meat. It was a shame that we weren't going straight home. I did find a jar of the Claussen Pickles that Two Dogs recommended. I have looked on the shelves of most stores only to find they need refrigerated and they were in the section with the cheese.

After the shopping there we went down to the Westport area and into a store that carried every kitchen utensil that anyone would have wanted. Their focus was on handy little gadgets but they did have mixers and toasters if you wanted one. I bought some tea for Barb and two nice little tea bag cosies. One was a rabbit and one was a sunflower. If you knew Barb, you would know that she will use them and loves the themes.

Our final visit was a Spice shop in Overland Park. I tried to match my impression of a sandwich herb sprinkle that I had in Colorado Springs years ago. I found out that after smelling four or five of the spice containers, I lost my sense of smell and it started to all smell the same. I guess I should know the difference between rosemary, thyme, oregano and basil. I'm sure that there was a little of each of those with some garlic and onion powder. Perhaps next time I'll buy some of the spices and take them home for a more leisurely test.

Nest week will be the final class and our graduation. I am set to go for my first day of volunteerism on the 14th of April. We are going to assist the Master Gardner's as they show a lot of elementary students what goes into a slice of pizza. I think I will be in the part of the process that slices pizza and makes drinks. I just hope thy have enough soap and paper towels to wash all those grimy hands.

Barb saw an ad in the paper for some limestone post rocks from clear out in Ellsworth. The guy only wants $50.00 @ but they weigh about 350 lbs and hauling them to eastern Kansas will be a major project and expense. Oh well, I might as well figure out how the hell I'm going to do it as I probably will. Anything to make the master gardner happy.

MUD