I made waffles for breakfast this morning (well, there’s only one in the house now, so it’s looking like lunch as well). It’s a simple thing, here’s the recipe, transcribed from my late wife’s hand. Dry ingredients 2 cups flour 3 tsp baking powder Liquid mix 1 1/2 cups milk 3 tbsp shortening (or oil) 2 tbsp sugar 3/4 tsp salt Slush mashed banana Sift flour, measure and resift twice with the other dry ingredients.

If you once “go on your travels,” it’s likely that some habitual comfort foods won’t be available in the place where you land. For me, one of those items1 is sourdough bread. Several years ago, I worked up a recipe based on one published by FoodGeek. Mieko was not a fan. She wasn’t fond of tart flavors, but she was tolerant because of my love of them. No, the sticking point with the recipe was the time it required.

There are six varieties of citrus in the back garden: mikan; yuzu; lime; lemon; hassaku; and shiikuasa. If you aren’t familiar with it, the last in that list is commonly grown in Okinawa and southern regions of Japan. It’s so common in Okinawa that, during the visit for Mieko’s last rights, I was hard put to find orange juice on the shelves of a local market, until I realized that shiikuasa was in plentiful supply.

[24 January 2024] There was light snow on the ground this morning. Sunrise hasn’t burned off the clouds, it’s still wafting down out there. I’m nearly out of coffee filters, so there will be a shopping run a bit later. Could be an interesting ride if the weather doesn’t clear. As luck would have it, the bread hamper is empty, and I’m out of oatmeal. Not really in the mood for a cold ride to the store to pick up things for breakfast.