"I feel nice, like sugar and spice."-James Brown

Sugar and spice are awful nice aren't they? Makes me think of a gingerbread cookie. Mmmmm...

But I was actually thinking about this song because it's what popped into my head when my yoga instructor asked us to set an intention for class. Probably not exactly what she had in mind...but whatever, I sang it quietly in my head anyways. It always makes me happy. Like dancing about and singing along happy which as I'm not in a musical I don't do that often. But I love to dance in my kitchen, barefoot, with the music turned up. It may mean more splatters on the floor, or possibly even walls, but it's worth it.  I made a batch of brownies last week and wondered if they tasted better because I was having such fun making them...

I always find myself in the kitchen if I'm feeling a little blue. If it's just mini blues I'll be reaching into the freezer for a pint of Ben & Jerry's or making a brownie in a mug to eat with a chick flick and a box of tissues. But if it's the linger-y kind that's hard to shake I'll be singing along to Motown songs or Patsy Cline.

I'm not particularly blue at the moment or anything, never fear. I've just been reflecting on how the act of cooking is such an important part of my life. I fully enjoy and appreciate the product, but it's something in the concentration and movement and process itself that really does it for me.

Weekend breakfasts especially have a sort of soothing repetitive quality. I don't vary my breakfasts too often so its a known routine of kettle on, pot to boil, toast toasting, butter softening, and in a few minutes you have tea and soft boiled eggs on toast to welcome you to a new day.

Or my current favorite breakfast of a Dutch baby pancake with lemon juice and sugar that I've repeated so often I don't have to think too hard to make it anymore.  It looks like the surface of the moon in the Wallace and Gromit movies and deflates just like a souffle when you take it out of the oven, which I find ridiculously amusing. It also gets stuck to the bottom of my non-skillet pan which is annoying but as I'm the only one eating it I don't give a hoot.

Though maybe I'll give the glass pie pan a whirl next time I make them...after all it's a damn shame to have some stuck to the bottom when I could have eaten it. Since this recipe makes two and I am one I get to use the rest of the batter the next morning...or for dinner if I can't make it 24 hrs.

Dangit I'm totally craving it now.

But pancakes three days in a row is not the best idea, vinyasas are a much better sort of repetition sometimes. Especially when you're singing along to James Brown.