Foot and Fire

I blogged in the past that I finished reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in my ipad after about two years. Actually, I had been keeping a hardbound of it even before I started the ebook in my ipad.  Earlier, I am about to stow the book in my wall bookshelf (read, far from my bedroom shelf which has the to-read stacks) because I finished it already.  But I skimmed and found the Afterword. Author Betty Smith who wrote this semi-autobiographical novel gave us Francie, a vivid recaller of all things past, a vivid describer of all things around, a vivid feeler of emotions around. I recalled that I can't finish this book in one sitting because it has full of vivid imagery of Francie's childhood, details from headlice to games she enjoys. As I progressed reading halfway, she also grows up and experiences new things. This afterword by Alfred Kazin in 1989 struck me and I don't want tp forget this. "For fullest appreciation, it probably helps t

As you may observe here in my previous blogs, I do make banana cake almost always. I also love to add oats to my batter but I have no stock of it in my pantry. But I have stocked up on whole wheat flour. I used brown sugar because I bought dates to sweeten this cake but I bought ones with pits and it was time consumming to unpit them. Also, I used all dried fruits left in my pantry plus cranberries and raisins. I did not use eggs and used vinegar and baking soda to make everything airy. Now, I forgot to put oil but it's a pleasant discovery that it's like I didn't miss it. I used fresh milk because I am still making my homemade yogurt as of this time. Plain water will do... 2 cups mashed bananas 1t baking soda 4 cups whole wheat flour 1T baking powder 2 c brown sugar (1.5 may do ) 2 cups of chopped dried fruits, berries (or nuts available) 2 cups milk 1/2 cup water 1T baking soda 2T vinegar (used my homemade banana vinegar. See previous post) Pre-hea