A Recipe for Baking Muffins During a Wildfire

 A Recipe for Baking Muffins During a Wildfire

Make the buttermilk: ½ cup milk, ½ tbs vinegar, stir it lightly.

Put it aside.

Measure & whisk the dry ingredients;

 flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, baking powder.

Put it aside.

The flames begin to spark.

Measure & whisk the wet ingredients;

 ½ cup mound of brown sugar reminiscent of a mesa, 

molasses, oil, vanilla extract, crack an egg.

Flames crackling.

If a flame sparks in the woods & no one heard it, did it still crackle?

Alerting birds to fly the nest and deers to buck it elsewhere? 

What about the foxes, what about that fox? Did they hear it’s beginning?

Whisk the now turned buttermilk into wet ingredients, stir in the dry.

Flames grow with each piece of high desert dried fuel found in trails adjacent to the Flatirons.

The oven beeps, it's preheated.

Heat is rising, sirens fury past and keep going.

Chop two pink lady apples into bite-sized chunks, 

        leave skin on (it has most of the nutrients), 

        fold apple pieces into batter.

Sirens still going, the cat meows; 

you wonder if you should be packing instead of baking.

Scoop the batter into a silicone muffin pan.

Place the muffins in the oven, 350 degrees.

Alexa, "Set timer to 25 minutes".

Sirens and helicopters still going. 

The alarm sounds, muffins are ready.

The alarm sounds, evacuation notices sent out.

The alarm sounds, but the muffins need more time.

The alarm sounds, but the people need more time.

The muffins bake for 5 more minutes, but who knows how long they really need.

        Too long, they'll burn.

The alarm sounds, “evacuate NOW”, but who knows how long they really need. 

 Too long, they'll burn.

Check the muffins, when ready, let them cool. Turn off the oven. Wait.

Check the evacuation alerts, stay cool, and wait. 

        Eat a muffin, keep pressing the refresh button on evacuation alerts, and wait.

 Take a walk. Watch ravenous wildfire take a charred bite.