Coconut Pancakes with Pineapple Sauce

/ Shane / 3 Comments

The Reason:

I swear I didn’t intend to do another pancake post. I’m going to have to rename the feature to First Friday Pancakes! I planned to do an item from baconfest, but, sadly, none of the recipes were really phenomenal enough to blog about (plus the pictures didn’t turn out that well).

So here we find ourself with yet another pancake recipe, but I promise you, this is one you don’t want to miss!

The Journey:

Some people are turned off by the fact there is coconut in this recipe.Do not come in expecting super coconut flavor! This isn’t an Almond Joy. The coconut flavor is very mild, although some people don’t like the texture of coconut, so in that case I guess this might not be for you. However, I’ve served these to many self-proclaimed coconut-haters, who ultimately love these pancakes.


The other interesting part is the pineapple sauce, which you use instead of syrup. To me this is the best part. You could really put the sauce on any pancakes, but it does seem to go especially well with the coconut. The whole thing is sort of a tropical, island-y theme.


As to the pancakes themselves, they are very thick, so you have to cook them for a long time. Because of the coconut, they don’t bubble up like regular pancakes. I find it’s best to cook it for a while on one side, flip it and pat it down, cook it on the other side, and then flip it back to the first side again. Otherwise it can be difficult to make sure everything cooks through.

The Verdict:

These are HEAVENLY! I might go so far as to say these are the best pancakes I have ever had. They are also a very nice change of pace, since they are different than any of the other pancake recipes in our stable. They’re also pretty dense, and vegan to boot! What’s not to love?

The Recipe:

The recipe is originally from the “Vegan with a Vengeance” cookbook.

Coconut Pancakes:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 t nutmeg
1/3 cup water
1 1/4 cup soy milk
2 T maple syrup
1 t vanilla extract
2 T canola oil
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, followed by the wet ingredients, followed by the coconut.

If you don’t know how to cook pancakes by now, you’re coming to the wrong blog.

Pineapple Sauce:

20-oz can of crushed pineapple
2 T arrowroot powder (we substituted 2 T corn starch)
3 T sugar
1 t vanilla extract

Cook the sauce for ~7 minutes, until it thickens. Make sure you stir this a lot, or it will burn to the bottom of the pan.

The case of the disappearing web traffic

/ Shane / 3 Comments

In general, the traffic on my blog has had a generally upwards trend since I started keeping track of such things in October 2008. There are a few ups and downs, and a couple of specific spikes which I was able to explain.

However, starting in December 2010 there was a huge dip in traffic, after which it has gone continually down. Last month I had less traffic than I have ever had since January 2009, when I started blogging every day. This month will be lower yet.

Anecdotally, despite the statistics, it seemed like roughly the same number of people were reading. I had about the same numbers of comments, and the same number of people sighing and saying “I read it on your blog!” when I launch into a story.

I should specify that I don’t do this for the traffic, per say. But as a blogger, you can’t help but look at the statistics and say, “What did I do to drive them away? What am I doing wrong?”

Sara has been listening to me complain about this for months, but then she finally gave me the clue that I needed to figure it out:

“Are you getting as many random searches as you used to get?”

As a matter of fact, I had noticed that I had not. I usually keep a running list of funny searches people used to get to my blog, and I hadn’t had anything to add to that in months. But I had never connected that to the decrease in traffic before.

Once I figured that out, I connected the dots and realized that I had moved to shanehalbach.com in mid-November 2010, right before the big traffic drop in December. I don’t know how that never occurred to me before, but it made perfect sense: my web-rank went down.

Not to be too technical, but search engines have sophisticated algorithms to decide which search results are most likely what their searches are looking for. Websites that have a high “web-rank” are returned at the top of search results. Spam websites, or new websites with no authority or popularity are ranked lower, since it is less likely that someone searching for something is actually looking for them. So in a sense, the rich truly get richer; the more traffic you get and the more people link to your website, the higher you return in the search results, so the more likely random people are to find your website.

By moving to a new domain, I was basically starting over again at 0.

Anybody who had previously linked to my site was now linked to my old site. And because wordpress.com is a well known, well reputed site who tries to keep out spammers, etc. I was previously benefiting from being associated with them (this was part of my confusion, since I’m still technically a part of wordpress.com, but apparently the search engines don’t see it that way). I also lost other traffic that was previously driven to me from inside of the wordpress network. From what I’ve seen online, this is all supposed to come back in a month or two after moving your site thanks to special web redirects that wordpress puts in place, but that obviously didn’t work for me. And I never would have guessed that so much of my traffic was due to my wordpress.com URL.

So the question is, knowing what I know now, was the move worth it?

I still think so. While I’m disappointed with less traffic, I’m not nearly as disappointed as I was when I thought that people were just getting disgusted with my blog and stopped reading it. I can’t really feel too bad that people searching for “clocks” don’t land my blog anymore. And obviously I don’t just do it for the traffic, since I would be (and was) blogging anyway, even if nobody is reading.

So if switching is going to take you down to 0, you might as well do it sooner, rather than later. This site is probably not destined to achieve much web rank anyway, since it is pretty random and not devoted to any single topic. In other words, it is relatively unlikely that someone who doesn’t know me would be interested in reading it.

So that’s it. Thanks for not abandoning me, even if I thought you had!

The Pyramid of Conservation

/ Shane / Leave a comment

I saw this graphic, called the “Pyramid of Conservation“, which I found very interesting.

It is a cost effectiveness pyramid for “green” technologies. Basically, it kind of gives you a quick bang-for-your-buck visual, and kind of highlights what one should do, if one wants to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle.

The part that is interesting is that, when you think about how you could become more eco-friendly, your mind immediately jumps to the top of the list: installing solar panels, living off the grid, etc. But in fact, that’s basically the *last* step you should take. Not only is it not very cost effective (it’s very expensive, but doesn’t make you that much greener, contrary to popular belief), but also it is such a big, expensive task, that it might turn people off from doing any sort of eco-improvements at all, including very cost effective ones, such as changing your light bulbs or turning off unused appliances.

The middle of the pyramid is worth looking at too. If we all went through and “upgraded” or existing situation (more efficient electronics and appliances, better insulation, etc.), something almost anybody could probably do to some degree (especially with the help of targeted assistance) we would save more than we probably ever will with solar panels.

It is also very interesting that the bottom of the pyramid is “Understanding”. I think that makes perfect sense though, since it costs nothing, and could make a big difference. For example, we all just participated in some understanding, since we’re reading this and learning about all the steps we could take to be greener without going right to the big ticket items.

Link via Sara.

Evie the Bold

/ Shane / 3 Comments

We took a quick day trip to nearby Indiana Dunes on Sunday to do some hiking and playing on the beach. They have a surprising number of nature programs and hikes, so we decided to check out a few while we were there.

The first program of the day sort of set the tone for the whole thing. It was sort of a “creepy” tour of the dunes, including various stories about the things that happened there (including a skeleton buried in one of the dunes and a ghost who walks the dunes by night), finally ending in their very own “pet cemetery”, a place where they found little tombstones and a crematorium that they can’t explain. To be fair, the ambiance was a little lacking, and it really couldn’t have been less creepy, but I was nervous that this would be a little much, especially with her uneasy feelings about monsters lately. However, she seemed to be mostly unaffected by the stories, other than to ask us 100 times if A) we knew where the ghost was hiding during the day, and B) if we could go looking for said ghost. She was absolutely sure she was going to see this ghost come strolling down the beach in broad daylight, in front of 30 people, on the sunniest, most gorgeous day in months.

She even made me tell my own ghost story on the way home.

After some beach time, and a restaurant with really awful service, we just barely managed to make it to the afternoon program, which was “creature feeding”. Now, in all honesty, I was sort of envisioning something outside, maybe throwing some seed out on the ground and trying to attract some birds or squirrels or something. What I didn’t really count on was reptiles.

Even feeding the turtle was somewhat gruesome, since it really went to town on some worms, blood and guts hanging out of it’s mouth. And when they came around with a snake to touch, I figured Evie would say, “No way!” since she had previously refused to touch a snake at the zoo. Not only did she want to touch the snake, but she insisted on petting the next snake even though the snake was whipping around viciously and the naturalist said nervously, “Okay guys, I’m sorry, I need to put him back in his cage. I think he’s hungry.” Evie was like, “No way, you said I could touch the snake, I’m touching that snake!”

The first snake got an enormous frog, who proceeded to fight and kick as the snake slowly devoured it. (“Butt first!” as Evie is fond of recounting.) Evie couldn’t tear her eyes away. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but it was slightly horrifying, at least to me. Next up was a constrictor, and when the lady asked, “Who wants to put the mouse in?” Evie was jumping up and down saying, “Me! Me!” Naturally, the lady picked an older kid to put the mouse in the cage, after which we all watched the snake constrict the mouse until it stopped moving, and then slowly eat it’s head. This snake moved like lightning too; when it pounced on the mouse, I jumped. It was almost too quick to see.

So, finally it came time for the big enchilada: the poisonous rattle snake. This thing is in a super cage with shatter-proof glass in the front and padlocks on top, it’s so dangerous. “Who wants to put the mouse in?” comes the question and “Me! Me!” comes the answer. I couldn’t believe that the lady actually picked her! There were teenagers standing there, but she went with the 3 year old! I guess she could see how much Evie really wanted to do it. “Uh…Sara?” I called, since Sara wasn’t paying attention and didn’t know this was going on.

Sure enough, Evie took the mouse by the tail and gleefully dropped him to his doom with the waiting rattler down below. She did it perfectly. I can assure you, it was every parent’s dream moment. Unfortunately (?), the snake wasn’t feeling hungry, and he left her mouse alone. We practically had to drag her out of there, since she was glued to the front of the cage, waiting for the mouse to be devoured.

I should also mention that, somewhere in there, the frog being eaten by the first snake burst open, and there were literally blood and guts hanging out of it’s side while it still futilely tried to escape. The naturalist said she’d never seen that before. Must have been our lucky day.

It was absolutely amazing to me that there was such a program. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone feed a living animal to a snake, much less did I see such a thing when I was in preschool. It was awful and yet awesome at the same time. I certainly would have enjoyed seeing that as a (slightly-older-than-Evie) kid. And even more surprising was that Evie took it all in stride. She was enjoying it as much as any of the older kids. I kept vacillating between being proud of her and wondering what was wrong with her. 🙂

Did I mention our 3 year old daughter fed a live mouse to a poisonous rattle snake??

Let’s just hope this doesn’t come back to bite us later on down the road with some kind of terrible nightmares!

Quote Monday has an extremely developed sense of smell

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Evie, singing Barbara Ann: “Went to the dance, looking for some ants…”

Evie: “Mama, don’t pick at your toes! Put some socks on. That’s what socks are for.”

Evie: “Everybody gets along with me. Everybody.” – Was that a threat?

Dabu: “This book smells like 1993.”