I’ve been sick.

This should not be a shock to anyone who reads this blog with any regularity. What is shocking is that I have gone more than a few months without falling ill.

This time, the timing could not have been worse. We were supposed to hold a garage sale and our dinner group was congregating at my friend Lisa’s house for grilled steak. Out of sympathy, she brought me flowers because she knew how disappointed I was to stay home. It was such a thoughtful gesture.

Though I would have been equally as excited if she’d dropped off a big slab of beef.

I have a 2-hour window while both kids are in school and I took full advantage by sleeping. On Friday, I doped myself up on cold medication, grabbed Remy (the cat) and nestled into my cave. My slumbers started blissfully: I was at the Magellan Inn, a charming beach-side resort in Costa Rica where Jamie and I spent out honeymoon. I was momentarily whisked away by vacated beaches, white sand and big surf.

Until a big storm blew in. As it turns out, we were actually sleeping on a submarine and I was somehow sitting in the driver’s seat. It was filled to capacity with people and I was the one who needed to save us. In vain, I tried to steer but we flipped over from the monster waves.

Then I was being crushed.

Suffocated.

Asphyxiated.

I gasped for air and realized that Hurley from ABC’s LOST was in the passenger seat and was using me as a human trash compactor.

Struggling for my final moment of life, I flung him off me, flipped the submarine to safety and woke up.

And realized Remy was lying on my chest.

We don’t call him the “Fat Kitty” for nothing.

When have your dreams imitated reality? What’re you dreaming about these days?

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

First, there was my obsession with pumpkin.

It was triggered during pregnancy and over the course of the last several years, I have made numerous pumpkin dishes including pumpkin gnocchi, enchiladas, shakes, yogurt, cookies, fritters, doughnuts, soup and so much more.

I have now moved onto coconut.

Coconut milk’s lineage descends directly from the gods. Thai food is resplendent with its goodness but when I stumbled upon a recipe for coconut macaroon pancakes last night, I knew we were a match made in heaven.

If you’ve ever made macaroons, you know there are a lot of eggs with very little/no flour to bind the ingredients together. This is not a complication when you plop them on a cookie sheet but when you have a macaroon pancake recipe that requires flipping?

My pancakes were the very antithesis of the above photo.

I adapted this recipe. I say adapted because the first few batches were a disaster. I was unable to flip them and most pancakes were broken into about four pieces. It was not until I added additional flour and a bit of coconut extract that they started resembling actual pancakes, not the cat’s kitty litter.

I piled the broken pieces on a plate, dreading my food-critic family’s reaction. I formulated a plan.

“You know how we were learning about when the Prophet Samuel called David to replace Saul as king when he was only a lowly shepherd boy?”

(Jamie, Hadley and Bode looked at me suspiciously.) “Yessssss.”

“Well, just remember what the Lord told him: ‘…Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.’”

Got any favorite coconut recipes you’d like to share, particularly ones that do not involve flipping?

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog