First Food in the NewHome

Well, that was a brief hiatus.

Now that I've unpacked as best I can without much furniture (and no fridge, geez!), I can get back to what I do best: making goofy little meals and then telling the internet how yummy they were. If only I could get paid to do it!

In any case, since arriving in year-long-growing-season-land, I've been inundated with tons of perfectly ripe, local fruit at pretty reasonable prices. Without a refrigerator (it's on backorder), though, these goodies need devoured quickly. Thus, we have fruit snacks and fluffy,

 blueberry pancakes.

TheBoy works really hard for really long hours, but he doesn't really need to bring a lunch because they typically have catered food all over the studio. Unfortunately, most of that food is take-out style and devoid of veggies

 or fruits. So, yesterday, I sent him in with one third of  a nectarine, a handful of blueberries and half a banana packed in one of my brand-new Lock-n-Lock containers and a cute little bamboo pick (came in a pack of 200 for $2.99 at World Market in the Hollywood Farmers' Market). He doesn't always have time in the morning for a real breakfast with me (especially since they provide him a free one of instant oatmeal/granola bars/bagels/donuts), but I'm happy to be able to give him some positive nutrition for his hectic days.

Because I'm still searching for a job and reliable transportation, I spend a lot of time in our apartment by myself -- deep cleaning everything, relining all the cabinets with cute new paper, unpacking, and assembling furniture. During this time yesterday, I had a craving for sweets, but I didn't feel like walking 

twenty minutes to the store just to pick up some starbursts. But, having tons of fruit,

 I filled a coffee mug with some delightful, sweet blueberries and bursting-with-flavor bing cherries. Oh! So good, but so healthy too. Later, I had that same craving, but instead of giving in (no!), I made a happy little orange sun to entertain me and my tummy. 

This morning, I used some of our enormous quantity of very ripe blueberries to make some really fluffy, scrumptious blueberry pancakes. I couldn't wait to eat them, so the picture pallet is a little messy, but I think you get the idea. Even though these pancakes look super fluffy and fancy, they're really just the generic Kroger mix from the box. By stirring the water and mix together only just enough to get it evenly moist (very little stirring!) and then letting it sit a few minutes, I gave the batter time to rise. Giving it a quick stir after throwing in the blueberries just made it a tiny bit fluffier before I used a big spoon to drop about 1/4cup worth of batter into my non-stick sprayed skillet. I only turned them each once, because if you turn them more than that, they tend to get tough. I also did not squish the pancakes with the spatula to make them cook faster. It's worth the wait to let them cook slowly.