Breakfast for Dinner

Let's just say I'm not a morning person. They say creative types -- artists, writers, musicians and such -- are usually night people, but I'm surrounded by those types and they almost all are morning people, so there's another myth for you. Consequently I'm generally swimming upstream, so I've had to adapt.

One habit is to make time at sunset for my main outdoor exercise: powerwalking, cycling, washing the squirming dog. The light is usually beautiful and my energy level is buzzing.

Second, I've come to love breakfast for dinner. Nice, healthy meals with eggs, potatoes, lean ham, onions, avocados, hearty toast, grainy cereals, fruit or yogurt...or all of them. No way can we night people deal with substantial food before noon -- but breafast-for-dinner reminds me of 1920s flappers who lived for parties and started the day when the sun went down.

But there is the matter of wine. If you want to stir things up and try nighttime breakfasts, I've found that champagne is a charming complement (remember the flappers). Or else wait till the end of the meal and have a glass of port with your finishing fruit -- particularly if it's cataloupe or pineapple.

There are probably tons of ideas of things to eat and do when you consider turning the day upside down. Oh yeah, big, fat banana pancakes, I forgot to mention....Anyway, what are your clever thoughts?

New York New Year

This is what I've learned for 2009. Champagne goes very well with barbecued gourmet sausages and mustard no matter how cold you are.
Our tradition is to celebrate "New York New Year" at the hangar where we keep our little airplane. What this means is that a small group of us get bundled up enough to be outside for hours and hope it stays above freezing. We use our summer BBQ to cook some snacks, which we munch on with sips of deep red wine. Then we break out the bubbly at 9 p.m. when our pals in NY are celebrating and hug and kiss with frozen lips and numb hands. Next we tell jokes to get sober and are home enjoying the hell out of our warm beds when the rest of Calif. greets the next year.
It's a good time for hardy --or crazy-- folks.
I'm thinking this year we are all going to have to be a little more hardy. Crazy may help too. Champagne & sausages, I'm not kidding.
On the fitness front, my Christmas shopping this year led to some neat ideas for using a bike instead of a car for errands. Turns out, the bum-around-town bikes are called beach cruisers and they've become a cottage industry far beyond beach towns. You can get baskets and bells for them and even cup holders for your latte. And it's impossible to take yourself too seriously on a cruiser. A good site to get started is www.beachbikes.net.
Now, not to rub it in for those outside of California, but it's sunny and 60 outside so I've got to go.....
cheers.
Joan