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Ok, I’d like to see a show of hands:

How many of you have procrastinated on something this week? Spill! :)

If you can only see me now, my hands and arms couldn’t be any higher! In August, my brain slows down, my discipline goes on vacation and I am stuck with a mid-summer love affair with someone called Procrastination or Cunctation. I call him CunkyPunky. (See? This is beginning to sound more fun than it really is.) I just have to accept that August is CunkyPunky time and I should just breathe and relax. Aside from procrastinating with CP, I’m also trying to balance bank accounts and to keep sane in the midst of paying even more taxes. I don’t even want to think about it, because aside from my already-planned trip to Blogher Food, there’s another event that I would love to attend: Foodbuzz in November. (I call it an injustice that they are both held in San Francisco! Woe is me, who lives across the north border.) Just when I need to “kick ass” in the making-money department, all CP wants to do is drag me to graze in the grass like spoiled cows living in a luscious Hawaiian ranch–that kind of downtime. I have to remind him that traveling involves money, which involves doing something.

Ayayay.

This super simple breakfast post was supposed to be up last week, but CP and I had a week-long rendezvous. I’m sorry. But I hope you’ll forgive me. It is very easy to do anyway:

Just cook berries in simple syrup of 1 sugar :1 water proportion, wait for it to thicken, then set it aside to cool down. Serve generously on top of your favorite yogurt.

In my case, it’s the Fage 2% greek yogurt. That’s it. No theatrics, just plain and simple food. I eat this for breakfast, as a dessert or as a snack. It’s a great way to save berries that might otherwise go bad this summer, especially if you happen to haul big boxes of them from the farmer’s market.

I’m still rallying to have Fage here in Vancouver. I have never seen it here. Hello– Fage?!?!?!

In case you were wondering– No, Fage isn’t a sponsor of this blog. I just happen to love it so much that I milk my parents, who cross the border several times a month, to bring me Fage. It’s that good.

If you’re like me who rarely uses mayo because it’s not her most favorite thing in the world, you’ll end up running out of it when a dish you’re craving for finally calls for it. I had one jar at the far end of the fridge and it’s 6 months past its expiration date. It knew it would happen someday that I would be “forced” to eventually cross out “homemade mayo” from my to-make list when craving trumps laziness and cunctation.

My earliest vivid memory of mayo was when I organized a picnic with my fellow 7-year-olds one summer. I said I’ll bring the bread with spread. What I did not know was that we ran out of jam, jelly, butter or peanut butter that day and all we had was mayo. Never one to give up, I had a not-so-brilliant idea to just put mayo on the slices of pan de sal (dinner rolls in the Philippines that are really mostly eaten during breakfast) we had. The result: 7-year-old playmates were not pleased. This is probably “The Pang” that I associate with mayo and have barred me from enjoying it for most of my life. Until I made it, that is.

Let me tell you…what a revelation! It was love after the last arm-numbing flick of the whisk!

It will be very hard to even think of eating store-bought mayonnaise ever. again. This is so good. I closed my eyes and savored my first taste, as if I was relishing fresh whipped cream, which I eat up like it is heaven by the spoonful (it is, aside from butter).

Want to give this a try? Roll up your sleeves and get whisking…

Homemade Mayonnaise
inspired by Orangette’s recipe from the April 2008 issue of Bon Appetit

Ingredients (makes about 7/8 cups of mayo)

• 1 egg yolk from a large egg
  
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/4 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp table salt
• 3/4 cup canola oil, divided (alternatively, you an use 1/2 cup olive and 1/4 cup coconut oil)
  

Preparation

1. Whisk** together egg yolk, vinegar, lemon juice and salt in a heavy medium bowl, that can sit sturdily on the counter, for about a minute.

2. Have a 1/2 cup of canola. Continue whisking with your good hand and hold the oil-filled measuring cup with your other hand above the bowl. The oil “spill” from the cup is enough to start you off with incorporating oil into the mixture. Continue to add oil little by little, by tipping the measuring cup slightly to “spill” some more oil as you continue to whisk. Use your 1/4 measuring cup to slowly add the rest of the canola oil, whisking thoroughly before adding more.

It will take a good 10 to 15 minutes of whisking until you get the desired thickness, but it will be worth it. Don’t despair if it doesn’t look like mayo or become light in color and creamy for what seems like a long time, it will. :-)

** You can also use your hand or stand mixer to make your life a lot easier.