Compost salad, Matt Bai and Nate Silver tonight, funny memory

This is, quite possibly, the largest compost salad I've ever created. Hell's bells! I'm not sure I can conquer it, but I'm committed to trying. T and I are going to that Political Calculus, Political Times talk tonight with Nate Silver and Matt Bai, and as we need to leave just before 6, I'm not sure I can bring myself to eat dinner beforehand. While I'm not a real late eater like the Euro folks, neither can I stomach the idea of dinner at 5. I have an almost complete aversion to it really, kinda like my thoughts about buffets. So anyway, I'm anticipating a later dinner after the talk and think this salad might do the job of carrying me through. I was just looking at Christmas ornaments in a pretty catalog and saw one that pictured a Norman Rockwell scene. Immediately, I was reminded of a college-look trip my Mom and I went on many years ago; we were near Stockbridge, MA, and so decided to visit the Normal Rockwell Museum while there. It was sometime in March or April and there were some basic Easter decorations up. As the guide walked us through the rooms of paintings, we passed a small, tabletop faux tree filled with hanging Easter eggs. In the midst of Rockwell's wonderful pieces, a member of our group pointed to this chintzy little tree and asked with all sincerity, "did Norman create this too?"  True story folks. I thought my mom and I were going to fall out and have to leave the tour, but we did a masterful -as far as I recall- job keeping our snickering relatively internal. It's funny what sticks with you, isn't it.

Lemon-blueberry-ricotta pancakes

Well, this is a great way to start our Monday. YUM. I used a very basic whole wheat pancake recipe as the foundation and to it added blueberries, lemon zest, fresh ricotta, cinnamon and a squeeze of lemon juice. J refused them due to "mushy white stuff" that he spied despite my strategic placement of blueberries and syrup but O, T and I thought they were fab. I will share this recipe with you!

Disappointing

People, I'm going to be honest. This was disappointing, and I would not make this version again. The 1/4 c of buckwheat flour in the crust takes this down a path that we didn't love- buckwheat is so herbal and grassy, and other than in pancakes, I don't generally like it anyway.  Here it detracts from the filling which is quite good though in need of a little zing. Brainstorms we had during dinner included the addition of: scallions, lemon zest, Italian sausage, pecorino, artichokes and so forth. I put a link to the recipe in a prior post if you're interested, but I don't recommend this. Boo.