Reads, Recipes, Rain

It's raining. Finally. After the first day of summer. Even so, it is raining and that's a good thing.

In the time that I've been away, I've tried, with success might I add, yet another one of the Poor Baker's Recipes: Banana Walnut Pancakes. And since I am not altogether averse to breakfast, or waking up early these days, (now that I don't really have to), these were Breakfast-for-Breakfast.

**An aside as I reprise this post, nearly four hours after I've begun: Good heavens, Turns out that these days, I can't sit still at the computer for more than a few minutes at a time. And that too, only if I force myself to stay.**


The Recipe
So where were we? Ah yes, Breakfast-for-Breakfast pancakes.
I was just going to use the Poor Baker's recipe to the last word - except that I was out of wheat flour, brown sugar and baking soda. And, a quick survey of my meager pantry revealed that I had just one walnut. No, I mean that. Literally One Walnut (oh the fun of living in a house where the other person loves dry fruits and nuts). 
Oh, and one banana (this, I admit, is my fault).

Said pantry-survey, however, also threw up a couple of slices of ready-made eggless tutti frutti cake (eggless , because a part of my family is entirely vegetarian and is currently here, chez-moi) close-to-expiry.
(Just so you know, Indian Tutti Fruitti Cake, Not to be confused with the Italian Tutti Frutti, which is also yummy.)

Tutti Frutti is Candied Fruit Peel type stuff. Your Local South-Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi) grocery will likely carry this bit of artificial yumminess.


And thus, my modified ingredient list:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1½  tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 overripe bananas, mashed
• 1/8 cup white sugar, packed 
• 1 cup buttermilk (which, like a good South-Indian girl, I now stock at home)
• 1 walnut and 1/3 cup chopped almonds
• 2 slices of eggless tutti frutti cake

For the process, I refer you to the Poor Baker's original post  (since I did basically the same thing and she explains it so much better).


The Reads
I've just finished Diana Wynne Jones' Charmed Life. And this is the first Wynne Jones that I've ever read. Why did nobody tell me about this when I was much, much younger?

Also, I'm just a wee bit appalled that the version of the book I have says "Mad about Harry? Try Diana."  on the front cover. 
Really, U.S. News & World Report? Really?
The article that this references dutifully calls The Chrestomanci series Harry Potter's "spiritual ancestor" - but, seriously? Such galling taking out of context bothers me. Gah!