Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, April 28, 2018

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Mountain View News Saturday, April 28, 2018 

WALKING SIERRA MADRE... The Social Side By Deanne Davis


“Upon the palms of my hands I have written 
your name.” Isaiah 49:16

“The keys to happiness are in your hands.”

“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding 
of the hands to rest...” Proverbs 24:33

The beautiful little hands here in the picture 
belong to Jessie and Emily, my Texas girls. 
My hope is that these little hands will never 
have anything happen to them that is not 
wonderful.

This edition of Walking Sierra Madre...The 
Social Side is being written on Wednesday, 
April 18th. You’ll be reading it around April 
28th when, hopefully, the writer will have 
recovered from having hand surgery on 
Friday, April 20th. Never having been a great 
typist at any time in her life, the writer, due 
to Dupuytrens Contracture, has now had to resort to 
the hunt and peck method to get words on the page. 
What on earth is Dupuytrens Contracture, you’re 
asking?? “Over the course of time with Dupuytrens 
Contracture, fibrous tissue in the palm thickens 
and tightens. This causes one or more fingers to 
progressively stiffen, bend and lose flexibility.” Yep, 
that’s what’s happened over the last few decades to the 
little finger on my left hand. Thankfully, not my right 
hand as that might have interfered with my ability 
to eat! On Friday, my hand surgeon, Dr. Shankar 
Lakshman, will fix this whole thing. It’s day surgery, 
I get to go home almost immediately and, if all goes 
well, will be able to type again using all ten fingers!

It’s been an exciting week around town as the movie 
people have invaded us again. I’m always delighted 
to see the movie folks come to town as they bring 
revenue with them. I realize not everybody’s thrilled as 
there’s no place to park and the sidewalk on Baldwin 
is jammed with people, reflector lights, more people 
and equipment. I don’t mind having to walk a little 
further to get to the bank or Best Buy Drugs, because 
everywhere I look, movie people are walking around 
with coffee cups from our Starbucks, sitting in front 
of plates of enchiladas at Casa Del Rey, and doing a 
little shopping at all our shops. Revenue, friends and 
neighbors, they bring in revenue. Welcome them and 
encourage them to spend more. 

A few weeks ago, they were filming an episode of 
Little Big Lies and transformed the former Petunia’s 
into the Sunshine Beach Café, and this time around, 
Petunia’s is “Antics Antiques.” Foothill Tek was 
magically reconfigured into the cutest saloon ever. 
What they’ve been filming, by the way, is a new series 
for HBO entitled Camping, starring Jennifer Garner, 
written by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner. It’s a 
comedy so let’s watch for it and tell everybody it was 
filmed right here at home!

Being unsure of when I’m going to be able to use 
my left hand to full capacity again...which leaves me 
wondering how on earth I’ll be able to do anything 
with my hair or dress myself... I have a strange desire 
for muffins. One of the many things I liked to do with 
my husband - (Barbara Bush passed away yesterday 
at 92 years of age and she referred to her husband as 
“my hero.” I like this so much that I shall incorporate 
that term when speaking of John, who now resides in 
heaven, because he really was my hero.) – was stay 
at Harris Ranch, which is in Coalinga, which you’ve 
never in your entire life heard of.

The Inn at Harris Ranch is beautiful, comfortable, 
relaxed, and it’s possible to sit out by the pool and 
not see another person all day. For breakfast, we 
go to their Ranch Restaurant where they make the 
most astonishing biscuits. The Los Angeles Times 
graciously published the recipe for Harris Ranch 
buttermilk biscuits! But, being me, I can’t leave well 
enough alone, so I changed the recipe slightly and 
made it better (easier) skipping that rolling out the 
dough and cutting out biscuits part and move right 
into muffin tins. I’m making these tomorrow to have 
when I get home Friday with my hand totally restored 
to its original shape

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease your 12 space 
muffin tin.

1 egg

1-1/3 cups buttermilk (it’s been my experience that 
very few people just happen to have 1-1/3 cups 
buttermilk so I put 2 Tb. white vinegar in a measuring 
cup, add enough milk to make 1-1/3 cups and let it 
sit for a few minutes while I assemble the rest of the 
ingredients.

2-3/4 cups flour

2 Tb plus 2 tsp. sugar

. tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. baking soda

1 Tb plus 2 tsp. baking powder

Mix all these dry things together. 

 2/3 cup cold butter cut into 1” pieces - If you’ve got a 
pastry cutter, cut the butter into your dry ingredients 
mixture till it’s the size of small peas. If you don’t have 
a pastry cutter, a fork will do fine.

 Very gently stir the liquid into the flour-butter 
mixture, stirring as little as possible (too much 
stirring makes for tough muffins, which we definitely 
don’t want). It will thicken before your very eyes! 
Spoon your muffin mix into the muffin tin. Bake 25-
30 minutes, remove, butter, pour a fresh cup of coffee, 
sit down somewhere pleasant, and enjoy! 

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis 

Kindle books of all sorts and hardcover Tablespoon of 
Love are on there!

Star of Wonder the CD is now on TuneCore! Take a 
look! Blog: www.authordeanne.com

Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com