Friday, May 8, 2015

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.

Secret Subject Swap graphic | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


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 | www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #cookies
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:

Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics



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.

38 comments:

  1. You did a terrific job with a very hard subject. I loved it now if we could only look at our kids and see some of the same things haha!

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  2. wow...I don't know what I would have done with this one...but you ROCKED it. I love all the information you have learned from the animals.

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    1. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with this one either, but I'm happy with the direction I ended up taking. These prompts are always so much fun.

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  3. Well done! Way to find a silver lining in this subject!

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    1. Ha, I only found the silver lining because the scenario was imaginary. Now had this been true . . .

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  4. I'll admit, owning a zoo sounds like fun...until you get to the actual care and keeping of animals! Maybe I'll just visit yours! ;)

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    1. Yeah, come on down. But don't be surprised if I put you to work.

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  5. I can see you laughing as you wrote this -- fingers flying as you thought of more animal analogies - great job with the subject.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. Once I got going on the theme it was fun.

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  6. I love the direction you took with your prompt! That would have been a tough one for me.

    I do have a question on the recipe. Is this one of those that you could change the flavor of by changing the Kool-Aid? Cherry would be really awesome with those chocolate chips, but the blue raspberry is such a fun color :)

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    Replies
    1. Yes, absolutely change up the flavors. Have fun with it!

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  7. I LOVE LOVE LOVE what you did with the prompt! SO clever!!!
    Love those cookies, too. So bright and colorful! The kids would love them!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, these cookies are a kids' favorite without a doubt.

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  8. These are great---my favorites are the elephant and the turtle. So true!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, those were some of my favorites too. Maybe because they're newer lessons.

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  9. Middle name Ina, hahahaha!
    What a fun post, and you're right, there are many valuable lessons to be learned from the monkeys and the other animals.
    As for me I still hope to learn from the bears how to hibernate...

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    Replies
    1. Oh yeah, hibernating sounds perfect right about now.

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  10. I love the life lessons!! What a wonderful turn of events for inheriting a zoo (although it would be super cool, for just a bit).

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, it would be super cool until you got the food bill, LOL.

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  11. Creative-I am digging the kangaroo's motto ❤

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  12. So funny - I feel like the elephant these days. And those cookies look delicious and beautiful!

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    1. Yeah, I'm feeling an awful lot like the elephant too. If only I could forget . . .

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    2. Well when you describe the animals like that, they sound pretty awesome. I never knew a zoo would be so inspirational.

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    3. Neither did I, until I had to find something to say about inheriting one, LOL.

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  13. HA! I would immediately put it up for sale and just re-read your post to learn life lessons from the animals.
    Great job

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    Replies
    1. I would too. I'm barely surviving taking care of 2 kids, no way I could take on a zoo.

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  14. We can learn a lot about life from the animal kingdom. I love how you used this prompt, very nice. and WOW congrats on all the social media plugs you're getting. One day I'll be able to say "see that lady on TV, yep, I knew her when she first starting blogging and talking about her evening drinks" LOL

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    Replies
    1. HA. I appreciate the thought but I'd just as soon own a zoo as go on TV.

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  15. I guess we can learn a lot from the animals at the zoo. I never thought about animal in this way.

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    Replies
    1. I never thought about them this way either . . . until I owned the zoo!

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  16. My mom used to refer to my sister as I as living in a zoo as both of our rooms were pig sties!

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  17. I'm overjoyed to see you all over the place! Me thinks my cookie monster would LOVE these cookies. I'd need to gift some Manatees and Owls to your zoo! This makes me need to watch one of my favorite Matt Damon movies.

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    Replies
    1. Believe it or not, I've never seen that movie. I really need to.

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  18. You did amazing! I love the life lessons we can learn from animals. So true. :)

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    Replies
    1. So glad you liked it, I tried so hard not to just talk about the zoo I already live in!

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