I talked in my opening blog about different paths coming together in curious and unexpected ways. Few things in life delight me more, than a moment when these convergent threads cross, connect and intertwine.

Kathryn retired recently. I went to her retirement party. I wanted to celebrate the moment with her, to share the bittersweet moment, yet I wanted to do something more, for a classy lady who went from stranger to colleague to friend. I wanted to find the words to articulate, not just emotions and feelings, but a truth about life as well.

During the time leading up to Kathryn’s retirement, a writer by the name of Marlena De Blasi, held me spell bound as I read, “ A Thousand Days In Venice”. The closer Kathryn’s retirement party came, the closer Marlena came to leaving Venice with her new husband. What Marlena shared of her experience, liberated the muse in me to seek the words I needed to say to Kathryn.

Kathryn is a class act. To give you an example: I am not the world’s greatest speller, and thank god you don’t have to be to write, and thank the powers that be for spell check. However, spell check can’t read a writer’s mind. I had been writing about by visits to the dyke to walk my dogs. Spell check never caught my incorrect spelling of dyke as dike. Kathryn did.

This is how she alerted me to my error. I paraphrase here, “Nick, you know about me and kitchens, but I enjoyed your blogs about the walks on the dykes, I could really feel the weather.”

I sat up as soon as I saw that line and went, oh no! Then I started smiling at the subtle correction. It was pure Kathryn, and one of the things I love her for. She could tell a guy his fly was down and everything was showing, without embarrassing either party. I mean you have to be damn good to do that!

Kathryn’s way is always quiet, firm, unimposing yet uncompromising.

We worked together for ten years as part of a special team of managers. The different threads of all our lives came together for a brief moment of time, and together wove a spell that all of us will carry forward for the rest of our lives. We, every one of us can, point to that period as a definition for the word team. We did not always agree, we suffered upsets, and defeats, we occasionally yelled at each other, but we always came back together again. And, we knew how to laugh at our own follies as much as anyone else’s’.

Camelot is a vision you can only see in retrospect. There is never a Camelot in present time, only in the past; an irony of life. We lived in Camelot. We lived in Camelot partly because Kathryn played the calm and serene Queen to the rest of the rowdy pack of knights. Oh Kathryn got angry, and emotional, like the rest of us, but Kathryn’s special talent is her ability to rise above the storm and show everyone else the more rational path.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your disposition, the world changes. The threads part and move on. Thankfully the friendships gained, remain.

Marlena left Venice a day after Kathryn’s retirement party. The emotions of ending and beginning again ripple the deep still waters. Marlena wanders Venice like a ghost lingering amid the shrines too sad to leave yet eager for the new life, in another place, another time. Trepidation and the sense of adventure fight within her. Her trivial resonates with me as I struggle to find those special words.

A retirement party seems so inadequate. We have an ending and a new beginning, the end of one saga and the start of another. The enormity of the moment gets lost in the mundane. I can only hug Kathryn and wish her well and make plans for lunch, actions which fail to express my joy at all those thousands of shared moments of laughter and pain, joy and sadness, anger and exhilaration, passion and compassion; all the many many rich and rewarding moments that make a friendship.

Marlena De Blasi quotes from an old Yeats poem which I repeat here because it fits so well into the context:

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

To Kathryn!

Now for the difficult part: finding a recipe for Kathryn who is not shy to admit that the kitchen lives in a very mysterious place in her house, where she ventures only in dire emergencies.

Marlena rides to the rescue again. (See what I mean by threads!)

Lemon Ice Cream with Vodka and Sparkling Wine From “A Thousand Days In Venice.”

½ pint of lemon ice cream or sherbet

4-6 Ice cubes

4 ounces of Vodka

I cup of sparkling wine

Shredded Zest of one lemon.

Throw all the ingredients except the lemon zest in a blender, blend until thick, pour into iced wines glasses, sprinkle on lemon zest, and serve with spoons.

Celebrate in style, girl!

From the bottom of my heart, all the very best.

Nick

If I don’t work Sunday, then tradition dictates Pancakes, usually served with sausages. The tradition goes back almost ten years when I discovered a pancake recipe I have yet to top. More later.

Breakfast

Breakfast arrives late on Sunday. I believe in slow Sunday mornings. The coffee goes on first. Then some thing classical but light for back ground music. Today I put on Debussy.
Next the beautiful summer morning part, which on a cold windy, rainy day is a challenge. However, today the sun is shining. Off comes the yellow and blue Provencal style tablecloth, and on goes a rust red one with a delicate floral print. (I’m working on an a piece about tablecloths, a very under rated decoration.) Stores are over loaded with cheap bunches of daffodils at this time of the year. Two bunches stuffed into a 6-inch high vase transformed from its life as a glass covering for a light bulb; add a touch of sunshine to the table. A Candelabrum follows with yellow/tan candles I found in Ikea which are warm , bright ,oh and cheap. A flat basket of bananas, peaches, and an avocado make up the rest of the picture. (Be creative, you’ll enjoy the challenge, and the result. Utilize stuff you have around the house. Come up with different uses for common household items. Don’t let your house sit like a still life hanging on the wall, move things around.)
Only after I set the stage, do I let people into the dinning room or kitchen. Coffee is served all around, while I get the pancakes ready.

What You Need

I’ve made this recipe so many times I could do it in my sleep. Once you master the basic recipe, be creative I’ll give you some ideas.
Dry ingredients.
Shift together in a large mixing bowl, 2 cups (here we go all ready) either whole-wheat flour (the original recipe) or half and half or unbleached. Your choice. 3 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of salt, and one tablespoon of brown sugar. Shift.
In another bowl pour in 2 cup of milk (you decided how much butter fat) ½ cup of canola oil. Separate 3 eggs. The yolks go into the bowl of liquid the whites go into another bowl. In this order, whip the egg whites to stiff peaks. Using the same beaters beat the liquid to blend. Then pour the liquid onto the flour mixture and stir quickly. The batter will be lumpy, that’s okay. Then gently fold in the egg whites. You get a very light and airy batter.
Cook on a griddle (I use a fairly large electric non stick griddle) but a fry pan will do.

Once brown on the bottom flip over, brown the other side and serve with your favourite syrup.
Variations. (Add blueberries, or bananas or black berries or…. You get the picture.)
Substitute: Soya milk for the milk. Research shows that Soya protein is, like way better for you. (Sorry I’m a Valley boy at heart.) You can also use half buttermilk. Lemon in the syrup cuts the sweetness. If you are watching your waist or some other bulging part of your anatomy, the sugar reduced syrups help. In addition, remember only on Sunday. The rest of the week is penance.
Serve with Sausages, or bacon, or nothing at all.
To pick it up a notch, serve a very chilled Asti Spumante from Italy or a real dry Spanish bubbly. To impress further, put a strawberry in the glass and float a mint leaf. See you can layer anything onto a basic truth.
Once the pancakes are consumed, push back the chair, have another cup of coffee, enjoy the company and the sunshine. What could be more perfect mid morning on a beautiful Sunday morning?

Good Food, Enjoyable Life
Nick
“There are some strange summer mornings in the country, when he who is but a sojourner from the city shall early walk forth into the fields, and be wonder-smitten with the trance-like aspect of the green and golden world.” Herman Melville