Daily.Mykl.org

happy birthday, Aurora!

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:00:05 -0500

happy birthday, Aurora!

busy eyesdreaming in circlesachieve nothing. OR dreaming in circles, my sleeping eyes achieved...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:44:00 -0500

busy eyes
dreaming in circles
achieve nothing.

dreaming in circles,
my sleeping eyes
achieved nothing.

"A well-organized, well-funded, well-connected, well-experienced lobbying effort on Capitol Hill was..."

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:52:02 -0500

“A well-organized, well-funded, well-connected, well-experienced lobbying effort on Capitol Hill was outflanked by an ad-hoc group of rank amateurs, most of whom were operating independent of one another and on their spare time.”

- Alex Howard

its vibrating leaves renouncing winter’s breeze, the evergreen shivers. #HearthHill #winter...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:47:51 -0500

its vibrating leaves
renouncing winter’s breeze,
the evergreen shivers.

#HearthHill #winter #haiku

"Every atom in each of our bodies was built up out of smaller particles produced in the furnaces of..."

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:37:57 -0500

“Every atom in each of our bodies was built up out of smaller particles produced in the furnaces of long-gone stars…. Our starstuff is capable of looking into the night sky to perceive other stars shining. They seem remote and distant, but we are really very close to them no matter how many lightyears away. All that we see of each other was born in a star.”

- Kevin Kelly

No matter how you vote, or think others should vote, you...

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:29:00 -0500

No matter how you vote, or think others should vote, you can’t possibly believe corporations are people. Do you?

Whether your politics are conservative or libertarian, liberal or socialist, moderate or mixed, or almost anything else, I can’t imagine that you think a corporation should be treated the same as a person, nor that it should be permitted to spend as much money as it wants, in secret, on elections.

If you believe our political system is corrupted by vast sums of money… If you want to live in a democracy… You should consider supporting this amendment, to reverse the recent Supreme Court decision which effectively rewrote of our constitution. We can’t get the money out of politics, as long as our legal system pretends a corporation is a person.

It only takes a minute to read. Please take a look and decide for yourself.

Mykl's 110% Whole Graham Bread+

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:44:00 -0500

this (along with my cornbread and Ambiguous Biscuits) is the quick bread recipe I’ve returned to, over and over again, for 30 years. scratch cooking so easy, i can mix it even before the coffee brews.

ingredients:

2 cups - whole wheat flour
1/8-1/4 cup - wheat germ, wheat bran and/or oat bran (optional)
4 teaspoons - baking powder
1/2 teaspoon - salt
1-2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup - grapeseed/canola oil (or equivalent)
1/4-1/2 cup - honey and/or molasses (or equivalent sweetener)
1½ cups - milk

instructions:

combine dry. combine wet. fold quickly together, just until flour is moistened.
spray with cooking oil, or grease: your desired baking dish(es), muffin tin(s), cookie sheet(s), or griddle.
bake in preheated oven at 400℉ for 25 minutes (approximately) — more or less, for a thicker or thin, bigger or smaller, bread.
as with a cake, check for doneness by sticking a thick needle or a thin knife into the center; if that pulls out with batter clinging to it, put the bread back in the oven for a little longer.

endless variations:

i wrote down this recipe when i was 18 years old, and haven’t made it the same way twice, ever since. i substitute and add ingredients all the time, depending on what’s in the cupboard and what’s in my head.

ingredients make a difference. i use natural or organic ingredients whenever i can. using the locally grown stone ground wheat flour i sometimes find at Price’s Market transforms this into a gourmet wonder. buy local eggs, milk, honey or butter, whenever you can. you’ll taste the difference.
substitute plain yogurt for some or all of the milk.
substitute fruit juice for some or all of the milk. since most juice is sweet, reduce or eliminate the other sweetener.
sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and sugar on top, before baking.
put an icing on top, after baking and cooling. the texture of this bread is similar to cake, but without as much sugar. (young Nick, free to choose any sweet he wanted, asked for this as his birthday “cake”, for years.)
mix chocolate chips into the batter. i use Ghirardelli’s 60% cacao bittersweet chips. (or take a good bittersweet or dark chocolate bar, and break it into chunks and chips with a heavy knife.)
mix in chunks or slices of fruit. or nuts.
cook like you would hotcakes, on a griddle or frying pan. if you grease the cook surface with butter, you won’t be tempted to slather on thrice as much at the breakfast table. try my Blackberry Chocolate Revelation. NOTE: hotcakes should be served and eaten fresh off the griddle! never keep hotcakes warm in the oven, until you have cooked enough for everyone to be served simultaneously; they go flabby. if you’ve all gotta be served at once, go to a diner! or see the next bullet point.
if you need to cook a whole bunch of hotcakes at once, grease some cookie sheets, ladle the batter into pancake or cookie-sized portions thereon, and bake in the oven at 400℉ until cooked through. (this will only take several minutes, because they are so thin.) if you put the cookie sheets near the bottom of the oven, and/or preheat the cookie sheets, the hotcakes will brown on one side more like they do on a griddle.
for dinner, try savory hotcakes. fold into the batter things you might put in an omelet, like grated cheese, diced tomatoes, peppers, onions.
do it all! mixing a double batch (or more) is no more work than a single batch. so, have hotcakes for breakfast. store some batter in the frig, in an airtight container, to make more hotcakes for breakfast or dinner the next day. bake the remaining batter as bread and/or muffins (with whichever variations you like). i bake my bread in glass Pyrex-type dishes, because i can pop a lid on it (after it cools), and easily store it for a few days, or freeze some of it.
if you bake the bread thinner (pour the batter in a bigger casserole dish, or split into multiple bread pans), later when you want a quick breakfast or snack, it will thaw and/or reheat more quickly.
of course, you could just make the bread or muffins that this recipe originally called for! but feel free to experiment. if you discover a delicious variation, please share on my Facebook wall, or tweet me.

this is quick and easy cooking from scratch. go to it!

"Sometimes we don’t need to pursue happiness. We just need to pause and let it catch up with..."

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:32:48 -0500

“Sometimes we don’t need to pursue happiness. We just need to pause and let it catch up with us.”

- Rabbi Sacks

swirling snow forces a false twilight

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:51:36 -0500

swirling snow forces a false twilight

Mr. Meckels wishes you holiday cheer,and enough Celtic Cream to...

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:56:00 -0500

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

Mr. Meckels wishes you holiday cheer,
and enough Celtic Cream to last the year.

spending the first days of winter in Philly.

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:00:00 -0500

spending the first days of winter in Philly.

it’s time to tend the fire, crawl under the furs, and curl...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:31:05 -0500

it’s time to tend the fire, crawl under the furs, and curl up in Winter’s long dark cave.

winter shuffles its boots on the mat, and day barely winks at the night.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 01:00:00 -0500

winter shuffles its boots on the mat, and day barely winks at the night.

sometimes i feel like a long cold winter is coming, and i haven’t cut enough wood for the...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:00:00 -0500

sometimes i feel like a long cold winter is coming, and i haven’t cut enough wood for the fire.

drowning a cold is the best remedy i know of.

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:49:00 -0500

on the first day of noteworthy symptoms, i drink a gallon of water, avoid stress or exertion, then sleep as much as my body will permit. (if available, i also take 1000% the RDA of vitamin-C, preferably a natural supplement.)

on Friday morning, Thursday’s throat tiger was was little more than a pussy cat.

if i’m smart, i walk wide of stress and great exertion for a couple more days, and stay hydrated. (i also assume that i remain contagious.) but i’m feeling fine.

whereas, on those occasions that i ignore the early symptoms, i’m usually sick for days, and the illness often grows nastier.

indulgent lie-inshushes morning’s throat tiger,whispering hoarse threats. #headcold #haiku

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:03:00 -0500

indulgent lie-in
shushes morning’s throat tiger,
whispering hoarse threats.

#headcold #haiku

full mooned by Meg Waff

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 23:43:09 -0500

full mooned by Meg Waff

a passing lullaby, the freight train repeats itself, echoing childhood. #midnight #haiku

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

a passing lullaby,
the freight train repeats itself,
echoing childhood.

#midnight #haiku

smoking black firefly, repetitious freight train, echoing childhood. #lullaby #haiku

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

smoking black firefly,
repetitious freight train,
echoing childhood.

#lullaby #haiku

It was a stormy evening, and Mr. Meckels was cruising the...

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:10:00 -0500

It was a stormy evening, and Mr. Meckels was cruising the rainswept streets of old Philly, looking for trouble. What were those girls’ names?