I'm overwhelmed by exciting things to report. Let's start with the first, which is the freshest in my mind and belly. I've been cooking with no net recently, meaning I've been assessing the contents of my pantry and going for it, which makes me extremely nervous before I start but has yielded surprisingly delicious results. The latest project was tonight's dinner. I'm trying to stick a little closer to my budget, which has been sabotaged, I think, by my ambitious cooking and baking routines. So rather than stop at the farmer's market on my way home from work, I challenged myself to face my semi-bare refrigerator and see what could be done. (Okay, fine, I stopped for a carton of milk. A girl needs her calcium, according to my grandmother.)
I found Scharffen Berger cocoa powder (tempting, but no). I found frozen veggies in the freezer and some garden burgers...bleh. I had some cream cheese left over from the BBQ that was getting fuzzy. I was just starting to fear that it was going to be Annie's mac and cheese for me (not a bad meal, don't get me wrong), when I remembered a little thing called breakfast for dinner.
And with that that, I give you some of the best pancakes I have ever had, certainly the best I've made myself, dedicated to Cal, who loves pancakes and had to suffer through my last pancake debacle.

Whole Wheat Pecan Apricot Pancakes
adapted from
Whole Wheat Vanilla Pancakes by
Cooking with Amymakes 6 small(ish) pancakes
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 heaping tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon unsweetened applesauce
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts or sliced almonds)
1/4 cup chopped apricots (or golden raisins, or any fruit, really)
Whisk together the whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and
salt in one bowl. In another bowl,
whisk together the egg, yogurt, water, applesauce, and vanilla. Combine the wet
and dry ingredients and stir until moistened. Stir in chopped nuts and fruit. Use a scant 1/4 cup
per pancake, cooking in a griddle pan over medium heat. Cook for 1-2
minutes or until bubbles form and flip, cooking until golden brown. If you want, keep a baking tray in the oven at 200 degrees to keep the pancakes warm while you finish cooking.
Look at that! My first recipe! This blog is growing up so quickly. Speaking of growing up quickly...

PUPPY!!!
Okay, I just had to let that out. Let's get back to the real stuff, like pancakes and tomato sauce. That's right, I also made my own tomato sauce last week. I won't go into the details of that, mostly because I can't remember, but it involved canned whole tomatoes, fresh zucchini, lots of spices that got haphazardly tossed in, and a fair amount of red wine, and it was just perfect. I have to brag about these things, you see, because for every one success, there are about 8 failures that don't even get mentioned, trust me. An avocado basil pesto was a semi-success. Too much lime juice, though, and not the best topping for parmesan brown rice, but it was a semi-creative way to use a too-ripe avocado. My cooking doesn't make for beautiful photography, I've realized, so I'm also throwing in some shots of the incredible fresh fruit I was eating before Operation Stay on Budget began.

Fruit on oatmeal will never stop being my all-time favorite breakfast. Although those pancakes came close.
I didn't mean to spend so long talking about what I'm cooking/eating, honestly. I don't know how this happens. I have more important things to say, like, I went on the Gundlach Bundschu Pinzgauer tour today! That's right. Gundlach Bundschu Pinzgauer. A Pinzgauer, for the uninitiated, is a Swiss military transport and now, it is also a vineyard touring vehicle.

Yup, there it is. Gun Bun has 320 acres of vineyards on the estate, which sits on the edge of the Mayacamas mountain range, and this baby is the only way to see all of them. Shannon, who was practicing to drive the Pinzgauer for the tour, took the employees on a test run. I'm completely in awe of anyone who manages to maneuver that thing. It looked like she was pulling and pushing twelve different levers and wheels with her hands and feet at all times while the engine groaned up and down the hills.

It's adventures like this that make me love my job(s) and this place. I've been working with Jeff a lot on his blog, Blogschu, and that's been really fun and educational for me. Maybe some of the cool stuff I'm designing for him will find it's way to my blog too. Jeff just posted all about the indie concert we held at the winery last weekend, and I'm going to have to dedicate a post to it as well. For now I'll just say that it was an unexpected highlight of the summer and Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley fame just happened to perform half a set with Johnathan Rice. I have the video to prove it, and I'll post it with pictures tomorrow.
I spent a windy, gray day in San Francisco last week with some beloved and sorely missed friends, and it was really good for me. I think the melancholy of the weather jumpstarted something in me, because I've been writing again, really writing. Then again, that girl always has been a good muse.

Yes, that one.
But I sure like this one too.
I think I'm also coming to terms with the idea of leaving here. I'm apartment hunting, I'm filling out vaccination forms for graduate school, I'm starting to imagine what it's going to be like to be back on the East Coast. I'm hearing from long, lost childhood friends and other great people who I'll be near again, and that's making it easier to be excited about the move. It's hard, though, because I realized that if I didn't have such a wonderful opportunity waiting for me across the country, I'd never want to leave here, at least not for a while. That's a rare feeling to have about a place, I think, and not something to be taken lightly. The thing about Sonoma is that it seems to be approaching a crossroads. It's been maintaining this tenuous balance between its tourism appeal and its small-town, agricultural roots, and I see how it's changing and how quickly it become a different area altogether. I feel really worried about this for my family's sake and for my own selfish reasons. I feel like Peter Pan in this Never Never Land that I never want to see change. And there's probably more to the fairytale analogy than I'm willing to admit.
Videos, pictures, and weekend recap to come.