If You Insist: National Relaxation Day Poetry

It's August, the dog days of summer, so to speak. If your weather is anything like mine, you're having a hot, humid, sticky, sweaty summer. Sorry for the visual there. But not to worry, I'll make it up to you. I'm here to help and I know just what you need. A nice cool refreshing poem. Did I call it or what?

Anyhoooo. This month, as our theme, The Monthly Poetry Group has chosen to celebrate National Relaxation Day. 

If You Insist

Just when life seems to get you down,
Turn a smile up from that frown.
Soak in the bath, in the hammock sway.
I insist, its Relaxation Day.

Off your shoulders, lift those stresses.
Today no teeth can have abscesses.
Soak in the bath, in the hammock sway.
I insist, its Relaxation Day.

Bills are due and money's short?
Been called out to traffic court?
Soak in the bath, in the hammock sway.
I insist, its Relaxation Day.

Messy house, to your dismay?
Clean's overrated anyway.
Soak in the bath, in the hammock sway.
I insist, its Relaxation Day.

Laundry piled up to the sky.
Twitching just below that left eye.
Soak in the bath, in the hammock sway.
I insist, its Relaxation Day.

Have your cupcake, eat it too.
Look, I made some just for you. 
Soak in the bath, in the hammock sway.
I insist, its Relaxation Day.

Orange Cream Cupcakes

So. . . 

Sorry worries, fear, dismay,
I cannot come out and play.
In bath I'll soak, and hammock sway.
I'm obliged, it's Relaxation Day!

Before you go, click on these links to more poetry from some of my friends:

Dawn of Cognitive Script shares A Balm to my Soul.
Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares Relax, My Foot.
Diane of On the Border shares It's Official!

Orange Cream Cupcakes         

                                    ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 box orange cake mix (can substitute white or yellow cake mix)
1 1/4 cups orange soda
1/4 cup French vanilla creamer

1 stick butter, softened
3 TBSP orange juice
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 - 3 tsp French vanilla creamer

OPT: 18 mandarin orange slices

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper cupcake cups in 18 cupcake tins. Very lightly spray the inside of each paper cup with non-stick spray.
*Beat the cake mix, the soda and 1/4 cup creamer for 2 minutes. Divide into the prepared cupcake cups. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes just until the center springs back to the touch. Cool completely.
*Cream the butter with the orange juice. Carefully blend in the powdered sugar. Then, 1 tsp at a time, add in as much of the remaining creamer as you need to bring the frosting to an easily spreadable consistency. Pipe onto cupcakes. Top with a mandarin orange slice if desired.

Skillet Cordon Bleu Dinner: Simplify Your Life Blog With Friends

Today’s post is the next in our series of Blog With Friends theme collaborations. Each month a group  of bloggers get together and each publish a project based on a theme. What I love about this partnership is that it’s not bloggers with similar interests or strengths but a diverse group coming up with a variety of posts. In any given month we may have a recipe, sewing tutorial, crafts projects, book review and/or a technology post all related to the theme of the month.

This month's theme is Simplify Your Life.

There will be individual project pictures and links to what everyone else has to offer at the end of my post, but here’s a peek at what we all came up with:

I made Skillet Cordon Bleu Dinner.

Skillet Cordon Bleu Dinner

Last month for our Anti-Boredom themed Blog With Friends post I made Layered Thai Shrimp Salad. I could have easily used that recipe for today's theme, as it meets all of my criteria. For me, when it comes to recipes, the best way to simplify my life is to come up with a satisfying meal that can be either made ahead or at least prepped ahead, and that uses leftover and/or pre-made ingredients.

Of course, ordering take-out is a great way to simplify life too, and I'm certainly not averse to take-out as an option now and then, but I don't think you need me to tell you how to do that, so for today I'll share a recipe.

I have been deliberately making more food than we can eat. It's partly because I don't know if one or both of the boys might show up for dinner (and whether they'll have friends with them), it's partly because I find it hard to cook for just two, and it's mostly to have leftovers.

In the winter I tend to freeze leftover casseroles to serve another time. In the summer, when leftovers tend to not be in casserole form anyway, I'm looking for easy (but different) repurposing of the leftovers. Frequently it's cold dishes, but sometimes it's something hot. Quick and easy though, to simplify my life.

Although I made Skillet Cordon Bleu Dinner for today's post, you can change this up easily. Switch the flavor of the rice mix, change up the meats and vegetables based on what's leftover in your fridge, skip the sweet hot mustard and you've got another version.

To start, I opened the fridge to check out what leftovers I had. Last week I had made Roasted-style Grilled Chicken:

Marinated Grilled Ham Steaks:

and Pralined Snap Peas and Carrots (for this recipe I pulled out the leftover snap peas from the dish).

Based on the chicken and ham I decided to make a take-off on a cordon bleu. I gathered the leftovers and added a few other ingredients:

Grabbed a skillet, and in about 15 minutes I had a hearty, flavorful dinner on the table. 

Now that is simplifying my life!

 

As always, any time you make one of my recipes, feel free to post a picture of it to my Baking In A Tornado Facebook Page. I'd love to see it!

Be sure to visit all of this month's other Blog With Friends projects:

Dawn of Spatulas on Parade shares her recipe for Parmesan Ranch Chicken: 

Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares Simple (On-A-Budget) Laundry Room Update.

Tamara of Part-Time Working Hockey Mom shares her Keep - Donate - Toss Buckets. 

Rabia of The Lieber Family blog shares tips on how to Simplify Your School Year.

Jules of The Bergham Chronicles shares Easy Ways to Keep Your Family Organized and On Track. 

Skillet Cordon Bleu Dinner

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups chicken stock
1 TBSP butter
1 clove minced garlic
1 TBSP sweet hot mustard
1 (about 5 oz) package of flavored dry rice mix (like Knorr)
1 cup leftover cooked chicken, room temperature, chopped
1/2 cup leftover cooked ham, room temperature, chopped
1 cup leftover cooked vegetables, room temperature
1/2 cup Swiss cheese, chopped

Directions:
*In a large skillet, bring the chicken stock, butter, garlic and mustard to a boil. Add the packaged rice mix, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
*Add the chicken, ham and vegetables. Cover and cook for 2 more minutes or until the rice is tender. 
*To serve, mix in the cheese or sprinkle it over the top.

That's a Wrap: Secret Subject Swap

Welcome a Secret Subject Swap. This month 9 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. Read through mine and at the bottom you’ll find links to all of today’s other Secret Subject participants.

My subject is: You're being interviewed by the local news. Why?
It was submitted by: Rena of The Blogging 911.

Not that I've lead a . . . ahem . . . interesting life, but my first thought was that it could be one of about 20 things. And that's right off the top of my head. Imagine if I thought about it for a while. Or maybe you better not.

My second thought was just "jeez, what the hell have I gotten myself into now?" Because I'd like to say that it's for something good, but you all know me better than that by now.

I'm actually relieved that this is local news. I mean at least I'm not on the national news, got that going for me. And possibly whatever I've done won't get back to my mom on the east coast. 

Perhaps it's for my baking? Naaaa.

Peaches and Cream cake and Sundae

I know! I'm running for office. 

No, not that either. I'm afraid politics in this country has become a blood sport, and I don't like blood. Especially when it's mine.

Here's what actually happened:

In answer to the bell, I opened my door to find a well dressed woman and a man with a large video camera. Behind them, in my driveway was a white car with a big blue "News 8" on the door. 

Me: Can I help you?
Woman: We'd like to interview you for a community story we're doing.
Me: Community story? What story?
Woman: Have you seen our Friday segments featuring people in our viewing area?
Me: The one where people call in to nominate neighbors who have made a difference?
Woman: Yes. You were nominated and will be featured on tonight's newscast.
Me: You don't let people know in advance? I . . . um . . . would have worn something nicer, straightened my hair.
Woman: Someone was supposed to call you, tell you to expect us. Did that not happen?
Me (looking down at my clothes): No.
Woman: Can we come in? I'd like to sit and chat a bit.

I showed them to the den and offered them a drink all while wondering whether, in my ratty old clothes and Rosannadanna hair, I could hope that nobody seeing me would recognize me.

The woman situated herself on the couch while I took the chair opposite her. The camera man found a place to stand off to the side between us where, obviously, he could pan the camera between us.

Woman: I'm Charlotte, the reporter assigned to this series of segments and this (waving her hand to the left) is my camera man, Paul.
Me: Hello. Welcome. 
Charlotte: As I said, you were nominated for your volunteer work at the school.
Me: Me? I can't imagine who would have nominated me. And my boys haven't been in school in years.
Charlotte: Really? That's odd. Was there anything that was noteworthy when they were there? 
Me: Well there was that one time a teacher asked me to cook a turkey for a Thanksgiving celebration. And the time the kids made single cell shaped cookies for science that I was asked to pick up, bake at my house then return to them.
Charlotte: I guess that must be it. Tell me those stories.

We spent a good hour talking about my volunteer work at the school. I was in the middle of another story when my cell phone rang.

Me: I'm sorry Charlotte, can you excuse me for just one minute, it's Kathryn Brandon, my neighbor, she had some minor surgery to her leg, let me just be sure she's OK.
Charlotte (eyes wide): Wait! You're not Kathryn Brandon? 
Me: No, as I said, she's my neighbor.
Charlotte: Isn't this 6243 Grand St?
Me: No, it's 6234.
Charlotte (making a cutting motion across her neck to her cameraman and racing towards the door faster than I thought one could move in heels): Wrong house? I spent an hour listening to stories at the wrong house? We better find the right house NOW or we'll miss our deadline.

And that's it. My five minutes of (redacted) fame. 
Bad news: I'm doomed to end up on the cutting room floor.
Good news: I won't be showing up on TV in my ratty clothes and Rosanne Rosannadanna hair.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

The Lieber Family Blog
The Bergham Chronicles 

The Blogging 911
Cognitive Script 
Never Ever Give Up Hope 
Part-Time Working Hockey Mom 
Climaxed
My Brand of Crazy

Peaches and Cream Cake and Sundae      

                                    ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup ripe peaches, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

vanilla ice cream
caramel sauce, warmed
chopped pecans

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8 X 11 baking pan.
*Cream the butter, margarine, sugars and egg. Carefully beat in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
*Gently mix in the chopped peaches and white chocolate chips.
*Pat evenly into the baking pan and bake for 25 - 28 minutes or until the center is completely set and the bars are browned.
*Cool until just barely warm before cutting. 
*To serve, top each bar with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, warm caramel sauce and chopped pecans.
*Store leftover bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator.