Last weekend we went on a quick getaway for the first time since covid-19 happened.

In the Winter, we go often to Lake Placid area to snowboard and in the Fall of 2018 we went there for a few days to hike. We had never been there in the Summer, until this past weekend.

We lucked out and found a cabin to stay, it was perfect, no lobbies or shared spaces full of people.

One of the things we love about traveling by car is being able to bring some of our homemade food with us. Not only do we save money, but we also save time waiting to get into busy restaurants, and we can make sure we will have some nutritious food while away from home. It's nice to go out for a meal here and there. Right now, with all the difficulties of having to social distance in restaurants, the extra long lines due to less available tables, and the uncomfortableness of having to wear a mask while moving around, we didn't think twice about bringing our own food! So... we brought enough food for our long weekend away.

We brought some of this hearty corn chowder I had made right before we left. You can get the recipe and read about it here.

For breakfast we prepared organic oatmeal bowls with rolled oats, cashew yogurt, banana, blueberries and chickpea granola, we brought all the ingredients to prepare this in our cabin. For more breakfast bowls ideas with oats, click here.

A few other food items we brought: hummus, pre washed boxes of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, bread, crackers, dates, honeydew melon, fresh figs, energy bars and cookies. We were glad we brought our food, as we went around seeing lots of long lines of people waiting to get into restaurants. That was definitely something we were not even a bit interested in during such a short time away!

In the center of Lake Placid we were reminded everywhere that these are different times.

But once we got out into Nature we were gifted with air easy to breathe and breathtaking views. We decided to go visit Whiteface, our Winter ski mountain, as it was Summer and we wondered how it would look different from Winter.

At the entrance of Whiteface Mountain, there is a bridge and Nature greets us with this beauty as we walk in. We love to stop on that bridge and watch the water flowing. It's so peaceful and relaxing, and sometimes after a thaw or a storm, so powerful!

In the Summer, you can take the gondola that takes you to the top of one of the peaks where you have a beyond great view of all the majesty!

At the top, getting off the gondola, we went down part of one of the trails and came back up. Most trails had vegetation growing and it wasn't trivial to pick a path, so we were careful and went as far as we felt safe. It was so interesting to see the mountain without any snow, it was so verdant, so full of life! The sounds of Nature were completely different than what we experience in the Winter, when it feels like all the bugs and insects are asleep and we don't hear them.

We adore the Winter views, we never get tired of staring at the trees covered in snow, but seeing the mountain dressed in green was spectacular.

This was a quick trip, it was awkward to interact with some people in this new way of socializing but we came back very energized.

**I left Lake Placid with a million thoughts in my head, thinking a lot about the change of the seasons and how incredibly special each one of them is. Sure Winter can be cold and scary sometimes, but maybe those cold-impossible-to-go-out days exist so we can put everything on pause and take some time to rest, reflect, recharge, and be ready to enjoy the things we love!**

I put together some images from this trip and some images of the same places in the Winter. I really enjoyed this composition, I hope you enjoy it too:

https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=391326895863498010

Cintia

Hey everyone, this is my entry for the #PancakeMaster Cinnamon Challenge, that Patty is hosting this month.

I always have lots of fun in the kitchen so was excited when I heard this month's challenge involved cooking!

I've tried a variety of vegan pancake recipes over the years. For this challenge, I combined a few simple ingredients from different recipes. I also created a fruit sauce with some ingredients I had in the fridge to drizzle over the pancakes.

On the first attempt, the pancake batter came out a bit too thick, I fixed it by adding more liquid little by little. The sauce on the other hand, was fantastic right on the first try! Yum!

I still needed to tweak the batter but was anxious to post something about my pancakes after the first attempt, so made a sneak peek video of my progress:

https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=382035012704274130

A couple days later, I tried the recipe again with the liquid adjustments and was happy with the results.

Here's the final recipe:

*Mango sauce*

🌿 1 Cup chopped fresh mango (can use frozen mango)

🌿 2 Tbsp fresh orange juice

🌿 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

🌿 ¼ Cup maple syrup

✋🏾 Blend everything until smooth

*Pancake batter*

Dry ingredients

🌿 1 ½ Cup oat flour

🌿 1 tsp baking powder

🌿 ¼ tsp salt

🌿 2 Tbsp coconut sugar

Wet ingredients

🌿 1 ½ Cup unsweetened non dairy milk (I used soy)

🌿 1 Tbsp flax seed meal (ground flax seeds)

🌿 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

🌿 ½ Cup plus 2 Tbsp water

🌿 ½ tsp vanilla extract

🌿 ¼ Cup vegan chocolate chips (optional)

✋🏾 Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix them well

✋🏾 Combine milk, flax seeds and vinegar in another bowl and mix well until it foams a bit

✋🏾 Pour the milk mix into the dry mix

✋🏾 Add water and vanilla extract and mix to combine without overmixing, you can use a fork to get rid of clumps

✋🏾 Let the batter rest for about 10 minutes

✋🏾 Fold in the chocolate chips if using

✋🏾 Coat the skillet with a tiny bit of oil

✋🏾 Cook the pancakes for a few minutes on each side until golden brown

Serve the pancakes with blueberries, chopped walnuts and the mango sauce.

And here is the final video:

https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=384723592237024540

Cintia

I'm an application developer and have been writing computer code for more than 30 years. I've seen lots of trends come and go, I had to learn new ways of coding, new languages, new platforms and along the way learned how to avoid making some types of mistakes again and again.

Experience makes us better!

Right? Right?

Yes, that's right, but it doesn't mean it makes us perfect because there will always be more to learn, more new and better ways to accomplish the same old tasks and what makes progressing at any career interesting, is having constant opportunities to be challenged and to become better at what we do.

And then there are those days when we need to meet some deadlines and work nonstop trying to finish what we have to do..

I work at a University and with the covid-19 situation changing every minute, work has been pretty hectic as we try to get ready for the Fall semester. Before we even get finished with some code changes to adapt the apps for the Fall, we receive new requests to make more changes.

This week has been particularly busy for me, and yesterday I was already very tired at the end of a long nonstop working day, but I wanted to get one more task done. Just one more, which turned into just one more, and just one more, and... Does that sound familiar to anyone?

I was writing a very simple piece of code but the app kept crashing as I tried to test a function that used the code below (not expecting you to understand the code, displaying it here so I can show you that the issue was just a simple, minor, yet important detail that I couldn't see just because I was tired).

After getting a bit frustrated I finally decided to quit for the day. This morning, after a good night of sleep, I looked at my code and what was causing the error was immediately obvious to me, duh...

(Photo by Jack Carter on Unsplash)

I had just missed a space here between the r and the “:

With so many years of experience it's crazy to think that I still fail at doing the most basic thing of all things:

Taking enough breaks!

Are you remembering to take some breaks so you can feel rested and do what you do better?

Cintia