Favorite Potables: Eight Winter Cocktails

 

Blogging schedule all worked out,

when a friend stopped by to say,

"Favourite Potables" will be the theme,

for this, Poetry Monday.

Love you Diane, my Canadian friend,

changed my schedule to join in.

But I'll spell "favorite" the correct way,

(though the words are clearly akin).

 

 

Favorite Potables

 

"Whatcha doing?" Hubby asked,

right as he walked in.

"Writing a blog post" I answered.

"Need to see which ones will win."

He saw the mess and looked at me,

face askew . . . or so I thought,

(although it was really hard to say,

since that last, quite generous, shot). 

"The entire bar's in front of you,

most bottles seem . . . quite low."

"Research," I answered smiling,

"How else am I to know?"

"What is it you're researching?

And I'd also like to hear,

how writing for your blog requires,

slurring your words, my dear."

I tried to stand, but no such luck,

so answered on my rear end,

"My favorite potables, for Diane.

Yes, I'm that good a friend." 

 

 

Winning recipes are linked below,

I hope you'll try them all.

Maybe not all at once, like me,

unless . . . you like to fall.

 

 

 WAIT! 

Read more poetry,

you're not through.

Some talented writers,

are in this crew:

 

Diane of On the Border

Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings

Jenny of Procrastinating Donkey

Charlotte of Mother Owl

Links to the posts with the recipes featured above:        

                                                       All recipes developed by ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Spiked Hot Cider

Chocolate Raspberry Pie-tini

Apple Pie Eggnog Milkshake

Strawberry Dalgona Coffee

Holiday Snowflake Cocktail

Red Hot Cocoa

My Mai Tai

Winter Coffee Nog

Miss You More: Fly on the Wall

Welcome to a monthly Fly on the Wall group post. Today 3 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house. At the end of my post you’ll find links to this month’s other participants’ posts.

Me: Do you want to have dinner with us tomorrow night? I'm making Red Curry Chicken and Snap Peas.
College Boy: I'm not sure, I'll let you know.
Me: OK, I'm going to curl up in a throw on the couch, I'm so cold.
College Boy: You're so old?
Me: I said cold. Now you have to have dinner with us.
College Boy: Why?
Me: I need something to put your arsenic in.

College Boy (walking over to where I'm watching TV): MOM! Are you watching a Hallmark movie? You really are old.
Me: It's a Hallmark mystery, not a love story.
College Boy: {{laughs}}
Me: And it takes place back home, on Martha's Vineyard.
College Boy: {{rolls his eyes and laughs}}
Me: It was created by one of my favorite authors, I read all of his books. He died years ago.
College Boy (laughing): You know you're still watching a Hallmark movie, right?

Me: It doesn't matter but I'm curious. Why did you leave your dirty breakfast dishes in the sink? You always put them in the dishwasher. 
Hubs: I forgot.
Me: Forgot?      
Hubs: I got distracted. Look, I'm old, I forget stuff.
Me: Well that's an improvement.
Hubs: What is?
Me: You calling you old instead of College Boy calling me old.
Hubs: See what just happened?
Me: What?
Hubs: We were talking about the dishes and you got distracted . . . 
Me: Are you calling me old?
Hubs: About those dishes . . .

 

My mom has sung "happy birthday" to me on my birthday every year of my life. I'm less enthusiastic about birthdays these days as that age number gets higher and higher.

This year, as usual, she called on my birthday and sang to me.

Me: Thank you.

Mom: Happy birthday.

Me: You know, some things get better with age.
Mom: Yeah.
Me: But your singing voice isn't one of them.

Fortunately, mom can take a joke. ❤ you, Mom.

My boys have some kind of tire jinx. It started when PurDude was out with Hubs learning to drive and got a flat. When he took over the BMW from me, he got at least 1 flat during his high school years and at least 3 while in college.

College Boy bought a new car last January. In this first week he got a flat. Just a few weeks ago, Hubs came into the kitchen where I was on my laptop.
 

Hubs: What are you doing so intently?   

Me: Researching tires. 

Hubs: Oh no, which kid this time?
Me: College Boy again.
Hubs: You're looking for the best price for him?
Me: No.

Hubs: No? Then what are you doing?
Me: Trying to find out whether we can buy stock in a tire company.

 

Orange Spice Cookies (make ahead, slice and bake)

 

It had been raining for days, dark and cold and gloomy and miserable. I'd had enough. But I got a good laugh when a tease for upcoming the local news came on, featuring the weatherman. I guess he was trying to be positive but . . .

 

Weatherman: More rain for the next few days, but there's sun in the forecast, when it comes.

 

So the sun will be back when it gets here? Wonder what that guy makes for a living, 'cause I definitely could have predicted that.

 

And now I can't stop singing "here comes the sun, doo doo doo doo . . ."

 

When I cook on the grill, after I'm done I call to Hubs, who comes and cleans it.

 

Me (calling down to the man-cave): Do you want to get the grill?

 

I went back to the kitchen and waited and waited and waited. He didn't seem to be coming and that's not like him. I walk back towards the stairs and I see him coming in the front door.

 

Me: Where did you go?
Hubs: You asked me to get the mail.

Me: No, I asked you to get the grill.

Hubs: You didn't ask me to get the mail?
Me: Only if it's on the grill.

 

 

We had been trying for a month to replace our fridge. If you follow my Baking In A Tornado facebook page, you may have laughed at my poem about ongoing appliance woes.

 

After the store where we had placed an order put us off twice, I found the one we wanted in a different store. Hubs went in and placed an order. When he got home, we were talking about whether he was able to social distance in the store.

 

Hubs: Yes. Actually usually when you walk into a department, every sales person there is hitting on you in the first minute.

Me: Well, they aren't actually hitting on you.
Hubs (turning red and sputtering): Well, ah, they weren't, ah, hitting on me, ah, you know.

 

Honestly, life would be so much less amusing if he had a sense of humor. Maybe sarcasm isn't dead after all.

 

College Boy: I'm working a 12 hour day today. Try not to miss me too much.

Me: That'll be hard, you know I like you best when you're not here.

 

I often write about my miscommunications in these monthly posts. Many times, in my defense, the unfortunate error can be blamed on autocorrect. Not this one, though.

I was creating a pinterst pin for a recipe I called Baked Garlic Shrimp (no butter). I created the pin with care, uploaded a picture, added the title, description and a link to the blog post. I published the pin, then went to view it in order to get the link. And there it was, a pin for Baked Garlic Shrimp (no bitter). 

 

Because every recipe developer wants to be sure to advertise that their creations aren't bitter, right? 

 

Now click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:

Never Ever Give Up Hope  
Menopausal Mother 

Orange Spice Cookies

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
3 TBSP canola oil

1/2 stick butter, softened

2 TBSP orange juice

3 TBSP orange marmalade

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 12 tsp cinnamon

1 1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/3 cup colored sprinkles

Directions:

*Beat the canola oil, butter, orange juice, orange marmalade, brown sugar and egg.

*Mix in the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and ground cloves.

*Spray a piece of plastic wrap with nonstick spray. Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

*Place the sprinkles on another piece of plastic wrap about 14 inches long and set aside.

*Remove the dough from the plastic wrap, roll into a log about 12 inches long, then roll in the sprinkles on the second piece of plastic wrap. Close the dough log into the wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to a few days.

*Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place parchment paper on cookie sheets.

*Slice the dough log (either round or on the bias for longer cookies) into about 30 cookies approximately 1/3 inch wide. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes before removing to cool completely.

Facets of Fear: Word Counters

Counting my words again. 

Today my fellow Word Counters and I are sharing our monthly group post. Each month one group member picks a number between 12 and 74. All participating bloggers are then challenged to write something (or a few somethings, as the case may be) using that exact number of words. Today we all share what we came up with.

 The October number is 68. 
It was chosen by Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings.

As I've been doing in these Word Counters posts, I've chosen a theme and am using my word count multiple times in keeping with the theme. This month I've chosen the theme Facets of Fear.

~ I'm writing about fear today, it is October after all. This month is associated with fear, thanks in part to Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Chucky (to name a few). Not to mention the fact that I'll never hear a chainsaw without the hair on the back of my neck standing up. But fear isn't just for October, there are many facets of fear in our everyday life.

~ Loss: this is probably one of the most painful fears we have. We all fear loss of many different types, from small and annoying to huge and devastating. I just bought my son renter's insurance, which is actually fear of loss of our belongings, a smaller loss in the scheme of things. The most powerful fear is the death of a loved one. Cancer sucks, by the way.

~ Change: also known as fear of the unknown. There is reassurance in the status quo. Many people are actively fearful of almost any change, find comfort in what we know, the routines that keep us organized, the way things work for us. Change can bring on anxiety, extreme anxiety for some. Anxiety is not fear, but is often a byproduct of it, making this fear a real threat.

~ Stagnation: just as change brings about anxiety, there are also many circumstances in which we fear being stuck in a rut. Same old, same old only takes us so far. We need to grow, to open ourselves to new experiences. Stagnation in a relationship can bring it to an end. 

And who wants to eat the same things every night? Variety is the spice of life, after all.

Shrimp and Scallop Bake

~ Scary movies: I'm convinced that scary movies are fear's version of fun. This is the kind of fear I started this post referring to. It's terror, but not real terror, not for more than a few minutes, anyway. We may very well jump out of our seats, scream out loud, so it's real fear, but it's immediately followed by a laugh, realization that it's all just make believe.

~ Real life creepy crawlies: lions and tigers and bears, nope (brave statement since I've never come face to face with them outside cage at the zoo). Spiders, now that'll do it for me. Not only will we scream, but we'll run (and if you're anything like me you run till you drop), and unlike the Hollywood version of fear, and we'll never follow it up with a laugh. 

~ Others: This fear makes me the saddest, and the angriest, because it's the basis for bigotry. We designate people to groups based on nothing but our own ignorance, on what makes them different from us: their religion or looks, or politics or sexual identity . . . We should only assign value (in terms of whether or not we want them in our lives) by their actions and their character. Period.

~ Ourselves: This is a destructive fear. It's self doubt, insecurity. Truth is, the vast majority of mothers I know have suffered from the paralyzing fear of doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing to our children, often resulting in overthinking the situation. It's the fear of being the cause of harm to those we love. If only we could all go back and reassure our past selves. 

Here are links to the other Word Counters posts:

Messymimi’s Meanderings 
On the Border 

Shrimp and Scallop Bake

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 1/2# large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1# sea scallops

1 1/2 cups broccoli florets

1/4 cup olive oil

3 TBSP cooking sherry

1 TBSP lemon juice

1 tsp dried parsley

3 cloves minced garlic

salt and pepper to taste 

1/4 cup melted garlic and herb butter spread

1/4 cup grated parmesan

1/4 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs 

2/3 cup crushed Ritz crackers

 

sliced lemon for serving 

Directions:
*Pat the shrimp and scallops as dry as you can. Place in a large bowl with the broccoli.

*Whisk together the olive oil, sherry, lemon juice, parsley, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Add to the bowl with the seafood and broccoli and stir to coat all of the ingredients.

*Grease a 9 X 13 baking dish. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

*Mix the seafood again, then distribute evenly into the prepared casserole dish.

*In the same large bowl, mix together the melted butter spread, parmesan, breadcrumbs, and cracker crumbs. Sprinkle on top of the fish and broccoli.

*Bake for 25 minutes or until the shrimp and scallops are cooked through. The shrimp will be pink and the scallops will be opague.

*Serve with slices of lemon.