Friday, October 5, 2018

Did I Do That?: Secret Subject Swap

Welcome a Secret Subject Swap. This month 7 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.

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My subject is: What is the spookiest thing that has ever happened to you?
It was submitted by: Rabia of The Lieber Family.


Let me start by saying that spooky is different things to different people. For most it's creepy, scary. To me it's the unexplained. Not like when my kids would eat a dinner I thought they'd refuse or the sweet rolls would disappear yet no one ate them.


Apple Pumpkin Sweet Rolls, a favorite breakfast treat with added seasonal flavors. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #breakfast

Apple Pecan Sweet Rolls

Apple Pumpkin Sweet Rolls, a favorite breakfast treat with added seasonal flavors. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #breakfast

ready to roll up



More like an episode of Twilight Zone or Unsolved Mysteries.

I tend to be right brained. Analytical, methodical, super organized. I have a need for things to make sense. Even if there isn't proof, a definitive answer, if at least there's a plausible theory, I can live with that. I'm not completely satisfied, but I have the ability to trust that there is a logical answer.

I love to read and my favorite genre is mystery. I frequently don't read to be challenged but to be amused. But I'm not a push over, if I don't like a book, I'll stop mid-read and start another book. And nothing makes me close a book like the unbelievable. If the protagonist constantly gets into trouble then miraculously has the police arrive to save him/her in the nick of time, it ruins it for me and I move on. If the killer kills all of his victims immediately but miraculously captures the protagonist but doesn't kill him/her and he/she is then miraculously saved? Nope, not for me.

So although I've, like everyone else, had some pretty scary spooky things happen to me, and they are admittedly pretty high on the spooky scale, they don't hit the top. Like the time I was walking across campus late at night and thought I heard rustling in the bushes along the way. I had taken a bus from home which dropped me far from my dorm and, when spooked while walking home, held on to my (felt like) 100 pound suitcase and scurried up that hill like someone had set Dracula loose and put a tracking device on me.

There was the time I saw signs from "beyond". I wrote about it in a piece I called Janet Knows. And though I don't know what I believe about that, whether Janet was really "speaking" to me, I do know in my heart of hearts that there are also logical explanations for each of those circumstances that I took as signs. So no, even that does not say "spooky" to me. Possibly because spooky has a negative connotation and "hearing" from Janet actually made me smile.

For me, as I said, the spookiest things are those that I cannot reconcile. They tend to come in groups because just one instance can easily be explained as a coincidence. Like when I just happened to look at a Secret Subject Swap post from 2 years ago and although I didn't remember this at all, it turns out that the prompt I received was Boo! Tell us the scariest thing that has ever happened to you! And it was from Rabia. Not spooky, just a strange coincidence. A cluster of them, though, they are my idea of spooky.

Back in 2007 my Red Sox were playing the Yankees. You may not follow baseball but everyone must know this is an ages long rivalry. Bad enough they were losing 3 - 0, but they were losing at home. I was not amused. It was the third inning, we had 2 outs and no base runners when Manny Ramirez came to bat. "Come on, Manny, home run" I yelled at the TV. And that's just what he did. Next up was J. D. Drew and I said, out loud "we need another home run, J. D." And that's just what he did. Mike Lowell came to the plate. "You too, Mike. Home run." And that's just what he did. OK, this is getting weird. Is it me? Is it coincidence? One more time just to see. As Jason Varitek walked to the plate I said to my family "This is getting spooky. There can't be that many coincidences, am I really doing this? Let's see. You too, Jason, home run". And that's just what he did.

"Come on", you're thinking, "your off-hand remark to Ramirez, who couldn't hear you anyway, didn't start this and your continued calls for home runs didn't keep this going". And yes, I concede that this all COULD have been a coincidence, but all that kept running through my head was Steve Urkel, in his nasal voice saying "Did I do that?"

Did I?

Either way, let me tell you, that was mighty spooky.

What says "spooky" to you?

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:


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Apple Pumpkin Sweet Rolls
                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Ingredients:
1 (1#) frozen bread dough
3/4 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 small apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 cup powdered sugar
3 TBSP apple cider
1/2 tsp apple pie spice

Directions:
*Grease a piece of plastic wrap, wrap the dough completely and thaw in refrigerator overnight.
*Grease a 9 X 13 metal pan.
*Flour your counter and roll out the dough to about a 12 X 17 rectangle.
*Mix together the softened butter, brown sugar, pureed pumpkin and the pumpkin pie spice. Spread over the dough, leaving about 1/2 inch borders. Sprinkle with the chopped apples, then the pecans.
*Barely fold in the short sides then roll up from one long side to the other, as tightly as you can, so you have about a 16 inch long rope. Cut into 16 pieces and place in the prepared pan, center of the pieces facing up. Cover the pan with a warm moist cloth and place in a warm dry place. Allow to rise for at least 4 hours and up to 7 hours.
*Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake the rolls for 15 - 17 minutes.
*While the rolls are baking, mix together the powdered sugar, apple cider and apple pie spice. 
*Remove rolls from the oven. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, drizzle with the topping and serve.



10 comments:

  1. I love baseball. And I just might give your idea a try!
    :) gwingal

    ReplyDelete
  2. And now Urkel's voice is in my head........lol

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't like spooky and scary in books or movies, I like mysteries and crime and history novels but not ott love stories.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have no clue about baseball but I do understand the spooky/unexplainable things. I've experienced many in my life. As for your thinking (right brain) I think right down the middle. LOL sometimes I am left brained and others times very right sided. Odd, but that's me.
    NOW...these rolls. Lady I just might have to make these.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's so funny that you mentioned this. Today at lunch with our friends we were talking about sports and let me start off by". My husband's chin about hit the table and I only know that because of you hahaha!

    ReplyDelete

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