use real butter

Recipe: lemon mirror cake

a slice of lemon mirror cake: my click entry

I thought that when my chemo was over, I would resume my life more or less the way I was before chemo. I will be the first to point out that how I feel now is a million times better than how I felt during chemo – so this is a good thing. While my ideas and enthusiasm are nearly on par with what they are normally, the reality is that my carcass is still playing catch up for a variety of reasons (complications, unexpected lingering side-effects, etc.). Add to that the daily radiation treatments that cut right into the middle of the day and I find I am not getting to all of the items on my ginormous to-do list.

let’s make some lemon mousse

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Recipe: raspberry buttermilk pancakes

Today was one of those non-stop days from the moment I woke at 5:30 am up to now. I am feeling great in large part due to my dosage of steroids (long story, but it’s to treat the side effects of a side effect from one of my chemo drugs). It’s good that I started the steroids now because I have so much to get done this week and… I’m getting most of it done!

This morning we ventured up to Lake Isabelle – a short hike under normal circumstances except the road to the trailhead is partially closed and the trail is 60% under snow still. A great time to see the lake which takes on a different personality every few weeks when the seasonal conditions change so quickly. She’s beautiful any time of year. Here are some of the favorites, but you can always hop over to the photo blog for the rest.

on the way to the lake

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Recipe: ispahan panna cotta

The longest day of the year just ended (well, the daylight part). I rather love the late light of the summer solstice. One year we were backpacking in Jasper National Park (Canada) on the solstice. I remember throwing disc with Jeremy in a huge field of wildflowers and green grasses that was littered with elk poop. Good incentive to NOT drop the frisbee. It was 9:30 pm and we didn’t crawl into our tent until 11:00 pm. It was still light enough to see without a headlamp. Love that.

While testing a high-altitude conversion for a cookie recipe this afternoon, I exchanged several emails with my lovely friend, Helen, discussing people’s manners – or rather the lack thereof. Face it, if you maintain a blog that gets a decent amount of traffic, you will inevitably encounter crackpot or inappropriate comments. Reminds me of the person who wanted a refund from Peabody for the cost of ingredients for a muffin recipe they got from her blog that they didn’t like. Wha?! I guess it isn’t just manners, but also an indication that the offender doesn’t reside on the Plane of Reality. For some reason, because people don’t have to say it to your face, they feel as if they can behave poorly and say stupid stupid things over the internet. So uncool.

The majority of my commenters are an incredibly funny, sweet, and caring group of people – they are so wonderful! And they respect me for the person I am. That means a lot because when you have cancer, plenty of people think this is an open invitation for their “advice” and I do use that term loosely. I appreciate how people have expressed their kind sentiments to me with, “I wish you well” or “I am praying for you” or “you are in my thoughts”. I don’t pray, but it’s okay if someone else wants to pray. However, it is not okay for someone to tell me what to believe in terms of faith. That is not only rude, but hugely disrespectful.

So what did I manage to do with all of today’s daylight? Here’s a sampling, but you can visit the photoblog for the full rundown.

i shot this in my yard

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