A Dutch Bunny

I made a Dutch Bunny for breakfast today.  This is a photo that Katherine took just after it was removed from the oven.  It is so filling that it really makes a brunch and is great for a leisurely Sunday morning.

You can find a recipe by putting "dutch bunny" into google and looking for the recipe from Bette's Ocean View Diner.  I'm sure there are other places on the Internet.  So I won't bother to put a recipe here.

I made a variation that includes saute'ed sliced apples.  It is a simple recipe with few ingredients but it takes time.  The apples take quite a while to soften and caramelize and then the dish cooks for  20 minutes in the oven.  The recipe came from the Pancake Handbook published by the Ten Speed Press - an essential for any breakfast cook's library.

It will be a difficult year

The last eight months have been wonderful, but the stock market is now fully valued.  It will be very hard to make money in the market this year.  For the last three weeks I have been selling and am now about 40% cash and 5% short.  Even though I know that a correction is coming (in fact it's here) I am holding on to a few growth stocks that I think are good for the long run (Apple and Google) and stocks that are still undervalued (e. g. Berkshire class B).

I will reinvest the cash in very conservative, dividend paying, stocks and bonds.  But I am in no hurry.

Zebras

This is a photo that I entered in the nature competition another month.  I cropped it slightly to concentrate more on the animals but otherwise left it unchanged.  It's hard to improve on that glorious early morning light.  It won first prize in the beginner's category.   (I have been a beginning photographer since 1947.)

There are four zebra species.  These are Grevey"s Zebra - an endangered species.

Cheetahs

Last fall I joined the Berkeley Camera Club.  They have a number of interesting activities including competitions.  So, I have been dusting off old photos and using what I have learned about digital processing to make them look a little better (without breaking any rules).  These two cheetahs are sitting on an ant hill in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, looking for prey.  I cropped the photo to concentrate on the cheetahs.  Then, since this was a gloomy, overcast day, I lightened it a little bit.

Last night this won first prize in the Nature category.