works of wanderlust

Tag: bucket list

  • The Great Big List of 50 Pancake Topping Ideas

    Saturday mornings are pancake mornings at our house. In fact, I was looking through some old videos yesterday (on my day off) and I had recorded some footage of my then-toddler daughter and I cooking pancake shapes and then smothering them in syrup. That is evidence enough that this has been a tradition for at least a decade around here.

    This morning was no different: chocolate chip pancakes on the cast iron grill topped with some mixed berries and a generous slog of maple syrup (…did I mention we live in Canada?)

    My plate looked particularly photogenic this morning, and so I took a shot before digging in. All of this, the old videos, the Saturday routine, the fresh fruit and maple syrup of course got me thinking about how we fall into routine and stick with the things that are comfortable. Chocolate chip pancakes are amazing, but we don’t veer far off course of the toppings list.

    So, if I someday soon decided to stray a little bit from my patriotic imperative of supporting the national maple syrup industry, here are some of the things I might consider as a good starting list of familiar, unique, interesting, tasty, and maybe a little off-the-wall ideas to add to or on top of my Saturday pancakes:

    1. maple syrup (obviously)
    2. powdered sugar
    3. butter
    4. strawberries
    5. chocolate
    6. fruit syrup
    7. banana slices
    8. chopped toasted almonds
    9. shredded coconut
    10. mixed berries
    11. peach slices
    12. hazelnut spread
    13. whipped cream
    14. caramel sauce
    15. crumbled bacon
    16. lemon sugar
    17. cinnamon sugar
    18. lox
    19. blueberries
    20. fruit compote
    21. vanilla ice cream
    22. dulce de leche
    23. peanut butter
    24. baked apple slices
    25. poached egg
    26. yogurt
    27. raisins
    28. toasted macadamia nuts
    29. cream cheese
    30. honey
    31. marshmallow cream
    32. crumbled graham crackers
    33. cottage cheese
    34. avocado slices
    35. grilled ham
    36. candied ginger
    37. nut butter
    38. apple sauce
    39. corn syrup
    40. ricotta
    41. raspberries
    42. canned pears
    43. lemon curd
    44. mango coulis
    45. pineapple slices
    46. grilled spam
    47. hot fudge
    48. rhubarb sauce
    49. candied nuts
    50. chopped candy

    …and now go check out my chocolate chip pancake recipe if you need some inspiration for where to put all these amazing options for toppings.

  • Iceland: Chasing Waterfalls

    I snapped close to ten thousand photos over the course of not-quite-two weeks travelling around Iceland in 2014, and disproportional number of those pics included waterfalls.

    for whatever one photo is worth:

    Skógafoss is a huge waterfall on the Skógá River in the very southern bulge of Iceland. It was one of the first big waterfalls we saw on our trip along the ring road of the island and notable not just because it is an impressive waterfall, but having climbed up the slick and narrow path to overlook the crest I saw something even more interesting.

    A trailhead.

    On my visit I wasn’t carrying much more than a camera bag, but others sharing the trail with me were lugging much more substantial loads. Backpacking gear. Obvious overnighting equipment. Crampons. Warm clothes. As I turned to climb back down after snapping my photos, they were hopping over a low barrier and setting out on a serious backpacking trip.

    The Fimmvorduhals Trail (as I researched later) is one of many incredible adventures in Iceland. From what I can tell it is part of an extensive hiking and backpacking network in that country and people come from all over to walk them.

    To be perfectly honest, until I saw those people trekking outbound from where we had stopped for a tourist break, it had not occurred to me that there might be some seriously awesome backpacking to be had in Iceland. We were going to explore by car with the family including my (at the time) seven year old and her grandparents.

    To be even more honest, it hasn’t left my mind as a backpacking trip I’d love to take on. Sooner than later. Had there not been a global pandemic, it was actually an idea I’d floated with a friend for this upcoming summer to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. It inspired me to see those people setting out, and a pang of jealousy has always stuck like a splinter in my brain that I got back into an SUV and drove on while they set off into the wilds for something far more epic.

    This picture, then, as simple and beautiful as it looks is actually hiding a personal point of interest for me: it’s the trailhead of one of my bucket list hikes.