Secret Subject Swap: Welcome to the Zoo

Welcome to the May Secret Subject Swap. This month 16 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 Swap participants.

My Subject is: You just inherited a zoo! Congratulations! Now what?
It was submitted by Stacy Sews and Schools.

"I have no idea how I got to this attorney’s office" I'm thinking to myself. "Well, I do know, I drove here, but I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t know him, I don’t know any of these people sitting around this table wearing black and sniffling into tissues. I feel like an intruder."

And then I hear the attorney say my name. Followed by a bunch of words that make less sense than me being here in the first place.

Me: “Wait a second, what do you mean he left me a zoo? I already told you I didn’t even know him. I don’t know any of these people.”
Attorney Doughboy III: “Once again I ask, you are Ms. Tornado, right? First name Baking. Middle name Ina?”
Me: “Well yes, but at the very least you’ve read it wrong. A zoo? Are you sure he didn’t leave me a bakery? A cookie factory?”

Blue Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Attorney Doughboy III: “No, a zoo. The letters are Z then an O then another O. That still spells zoo, right?”

And that, my friends, is how I ended up in this situation. The proud owner of my very own zoo.

Now you’d think this would not faze me. I mean I have 2 boys a year apart. I survived the toddler years times two. I survived the pre-teen years times two and I’m plowing through the teenaged years. So I’ve been living in a zoo for some time now.

My own little animals, it turns out, are nothing like the kind I’d inherited. I mean yes, they’re as temperamental, certainly can growl as loud, eat their weight in beef, run in packs, don’t care where they leave their shit and are every bit as dangerous as the zoo kind. But mine have their moments when they’ll listen to reason. Doesn’t happen often, I admit, but it has before and it’s a distinct possibility that it could happen again.

A funny thing happens when we end up in situations we never planned for. And as I try to adjust to my new normal, learn how to care for my new charges, I find myself the recipient of a gift. It turns out there’s much that I can learn from these animals:

armadillo: when being attacked, you may get hurt if you fight back. Roll up in a ball and wait it out.

elephant: wrinkles can be beautiful.

giraffe: if your neck is the length of a football field, you don’t need plastic surgery, take advantage of the bounty no one else can reach.

goat: the less picky you are, the more you get.

lion: being the king is great, but it also makes you responsible for your subjects.

hippo: sometimes size matters.

kangaroo: pack light, ‘cause chances are you’ll be carrying your own baggage.

koala: it doesn’t hurt to just be your own cute self.

seal: playful is a great way to spend a day.

monkey: if you can’t beat ‘em, mimic ‘em.

sloth: if you’re never in a rush, no one will accuse you of getting old when you slow down.

wolf: walk softly. And carry some big-assed teeth.

alligator: stay below the water if you want, but keep those eyeballs just above the surface.

turtle: they can call you slow, they can call you anything they want. Just develop a tough outer shell and keep on keepin’ on.

bear: when you’ve just plain had enough and aren’t getting what you want, sometimes you just gotta take a deep breath and let out your biggest, loudest ROAR. That should do it.

You know, I may just have to send Attorney Doughboy III a thank-you note.


PS: I'm all over the place this week. Where you can read more:
My recipe roundup Fifty Recipes: Mother's Day All Day was published on The Huffington Post Taste.
My piece Ancestry: Do you Really Want to Know Who you are? was published on BLUNTmoms.
My post Holding On While Letting Go was published on Felicity Huffman's website What The Flicka?
My Strawberry Shortcake, Nacho Style recipe was featured as a Best Strawberry Shortcake on MSN.com Food and Drink.

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 Bergham's Life Chronicles

Spatulas on Parade

Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

The Momisodes

Stacy Sews and Schools

Sparkly Poetic Weirdo

Disneyland in Kentucky

Southern Belle Charm

The Lieber Family

Someone Else's Genius

Confessions of a part-time working mom

Climaxed

Battered Hope

Small Talk Mama
Searching for Sanity 

Blue Raspberrry Chocolate Chip Cookies

                                                                            ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:                
1 stick butter, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
OPT: blue food coloring
2 ½ cups flour
1 packet Kool Aid (.22 oz) Unsweetened Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade mix
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
 
Blue colored sugar
 
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper.
*Beat the butter, margarine and sugars. Beat in eggs, then food coloring if using.
*Stir in flour, KoolAid mix, baking soda and salt. Mix in the chocolate chips.
*NOTE: You can bake right away, but I find the dough easier to work with if you first wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
*Place the blue colored sugar in a dish or a sandwich bag.
*Roll dough into approx. ¾ inch balls. Roll in the colored sugar and place on parchment paper.
*Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, don’t brown.
*Leave on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove and cool completely.