LaidOutInLavender’s Neighborhood

I love a place that gives clear instructions.

How long do you take in the shower?
Submitted by Strive2Be.

Normally under 4 minutes, when I wash my hair I turn the taps off while I've got the conditioner in, I've learnt how to be careful with it since we're in drought. Though in saying that, the Gold Coast has heaps of water at the moment and has for a while so we have had our water restrictions eased right back here BUT what really makes me smile is that people are STILL conserving water even though they can use more. I think that's bloody brilliant! :)

We use a spear pump in our garden too so even with strict water restrictions the garden gets plenty of water.

How are you celebrating the 4th of July?

I'm not...it's an American celebration and I'm in Australia, so I've technically been celebrating it with a migraine :(

I've had a migraine for a couple of days which means I'm not on the computer as much but I've got some dvd's to watch (I know that's not a good alternative, but I can lay in bed and watch them and doze off when I have to)...so I thought I'd share what I've got here.

1. 27 Dresses
2. Death At A Funeral
3. You, Me and Dupree
4. Mean Girls
5. P.S. I Love You
6. The Bucket List
7. V For Vendetta
8. Zodiac
9. Date Movie
10. Memoirs Of A Geisha
11. Into The Wild
12. Definitely, Maybe
13. Music & Lyrics

I had a request to tell about my name :) thanks for the interest Pat.
The story of the online name I use for everything comes from the will-o-the-wisps or  "ignis fatuus  refering to the ghostly lights sometimes seen at night or twilight often over bogs or swamps. It looks like a flickering lamp, and is sometimes said to recede if approached. Much folklore surrounds the legend, but science has offered several potential explanations such as swamp gas. In Gaelic folk tales,  the will-o'-the-wisps are held to be mischievous spirits of the dead or other supernatural beings attempting to lead travellers astray " -from wikipedia.

So, as a teenager, in my "gothier than thou" all black, spiked collar phase haha, I used to hang out in cemeteries in Mississippi and Louisiana a lot. We went to this one cemetery in particular in Bay St. Louis that was right on the swamp. One night we were hanging out there (side note, I never desecrated graves, I have the utmost respect for cemeteries.) and we noticed a ball of light about 1ft around that was hovering just over the swamp. It was a bright yellow-green and it bounced slightly over the grass. We couldn't get to it, it was about 30ft away and you know there are lots of snakes and alligators in the swamp lol. We watched it for about an hour and it seemed to kind of fade out and disappear. So I became fascinated with will-o-the-wisps and my favorite movie Cemetery Man talks about ignis fatuus so I decided to use it as a screen name and of course the original was taken so willothewizp was born lol. I get a lot of questions about it when people ask for my email lol. So there are many more cemetery stories and hauntings I'll have to blog about sometime. Hope you enjoyed :)

What's your favorite song with "America" or "USA" in the title? Bonus points if you share it with us.

Short, sweet, and really, really funny.

How are you celebrating the 4th of July?

Being shellshocked. We drove home at 7 this morning. I'm sitting here looking at the clock all, "It's not even 11. I should be getting up right now!"

Plus I will be catching up with all my online buds. :-)

Seriously Reduced fat banana muffins with tea.

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I used the Post Punk Kitchen's recipe (for banana bread) with some changes, replacing all the oil with apple sauce and halving the sugar. I also replaced half of the all purpose flour with fine-ground durum flour (the chapati flour available in Indian stores.) The muffins turned out very moist, sweet, and all around Delicious.

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour + 1 cup durum flour (or use 2 cups all purpose flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp chai masala ( a combo of cloves and cardamom)

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 cup applesauce (This is in lieu of fat, you can replace some or all with butter/margarine)
2 tbsp molasses
1/4 cup sugar
3 well mashed medium bananas (or two large ones)

What to do:

- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease a 9 x 4 bread pan or a 12 cup regular sized muffin pan.
- Whisk all the wet ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Sift all the dry ingredients together and add them to the wet.
- Mix with a wooden spoon until just combined. Pour into the greased pan.
- For the muffins, bake for 23-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean.
- For bread, bake for 50-60 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool for ten minutes.

These are so good..they get all caramelized on the outside, and soft on the inside. The recipe is very play-able. Chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, raisins..these are all fair additions. What would I do without vegan baking Goddesses?

* Makes 10 muffins- per muffin, 160 cals, 0.3 gm fat, 36.6 gm carbs, 4 gm protein, 1.8 gm fiber.

Happy Fireworks, folks!!!

 

How are you celebrating the 4th of July? 

Here's today: doing dishes, writing letters, taking a walk, sending emails, VOXing (I hope), doing laundry, cleaning the filter in the vacuum cleaner. NOT answering the phone if it rings.

Normally I'd put out a couple of small flags, because we always do/did. But it's raining and that's a no-no. I've been told.

It's just another day, and for that I'm profoundly grateful.

What's your favorite song with "America" or "USA" in the title? Bonus points if you share it with us.

Here.