Hi :)

Anytime I look in here, I see old friends’ names from my blog circle and I smile & smile. Blogging was once so very essential, and it moved back in the priority list to make way for other hobbies, and then for other important things, but the fact remains I *loved* my ‘blog circle’, for lack of another term.

I have had very special friends here, people who represent in every important way the kind of people I seek in my life. Kind, intelligent, thoughtful, creative people, who invested in these circles of connectedness and I was lucky, and richer for knowing you. I never see one of your names without feeling that smile that goes all the way inside.

I hope you are all well. I’m going to take a peek here and there & see. It’s been such a very long time.

-Alissa

What if I wrote a sentence that didn’t end but stretched on and on and revealed something about the human heart, but not some over-reaching universal truth about the human condition, just the particular essence of us, crystalized with all our flaws and struggles open to the elements so that the wind gets in and hollows them out bigger, exploits our crags and irregularities till there is only that pattern, silhouetted for a slice of eternity, like a pock on the pavement.

Ingredients: 1 cup of flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
buttermilk
vegetable oil or bacon fat (not a heart healthy option but more authentic)

Put skillet on burner, heat on medium or just over medium.

Sift flour into bowl with baking soda, add salt, combine dry ingredients. Pour buttermilk over ingredients (just some. No exact amount) and let sit for a couple minutes. Do not stir.

Use a pastry brush to apply vegetable oil to skillet. If using bacon grease, cook pancakes after cooking bacon. Drain some of the excess fat into a container and add to pan as needed.

Add egg to mixture, stir with whisk (bubbles important). Add buttermilk until consistency is about like cake batter. Do not over stir.

Pour small amount of batter on skillet and flip when popping the bubbles in batter leaves an indent.

Serve warm. I like homemade jam but my daughter insists upon maple syrup.