Friday, January 10, 2020

Nailed the Fail: 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.

Secret Subject Swap, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics



My subject is: Nailed it.
It was submitted by: Tamara of Part-time Working Hockey Mom.

You'd think this would be a pretty easy prompt, wouldn't you? Not at all restrictive but wide open, I could write this one with my eyes closed.

Or could I?

Seems even with my eyes open this one gave me trouble.

Because, honestly, I don't feel like I've been nailing anything lately. 

The end of 2019 kicked my butt. And the end of the year festivities are a favorite. I love playing with my food, so Halloween is my spirit animal. I was sick. Thanksgiving is a lot of work, but I get to have my whole family home. Which I did, but I was sick. Chanukah is a favorite holiday and we all love the traditions, the Crusted Prime Rib, latkes and roasted asparagus. Which I made, but I was sick. On Christmas I always roast a turkey and we sit by the fire, mouths watering. Which we did, but I was very unhappy with the turkey and will never buy that brand again. Can't say I nailed anything these past few months.

Even my favorite things let me down. I have a Sudoku app and I play the game-of-the-day every day. It's my down time, my chance to use my brain and be challenged and have some fun. From easy through expert I conquer them all. But the whole time I was sick I could not finish a game. I didn't nail Sudoku, Sudoku nailed me.

I've always prided myself on my memory. If you said something to me 10 years ago, I could remember it. But lately I've found my memory has been letting me down. More times than I'd like to admit I've had to google "what's the word for . . ."

OK, now I'm getting desperate, so let's break it all the way down basics, shall we? Like breathing. I mean, breathing is an involuntary function, you basically don't need to put any effort into it, it just happens. If I'm alive I must be nailing breathing. Or not. Since I've been waking up wheezing every night for the past 3 weeks. 

Now if you want to talk about taking some bright green liquid medication and not making it from my bed to the bathroom (did I mention my bedroom carpet is white?) well, that I nailed.

But "nailed it" infers an accomplishment and, honestly, no one's gonna call what I did to that carpet an accomplishment. 

And it was Hubs who nailed getting the stains out of the carpet. Only took him 3 days, poor guy. 


Before the December flu phase, when I was in my October and November shingles period, I probably was eligible for the Guinness Book of World Records in the category of saying "ouch" the most times in a two month period but, again, not really a boast worthy achievement.


Seems all I can nail is the epic fail.
 
But then there's this: last week, when I finally stuck my big toe into the recovery segment of our program, I came up with the idea for these French Vanilla Butterscotch Refrigerator Bars. I couldn't do anything about them at the time, but now that I've been healthy (knock wood) for a hot minute, and I even remembered how I'd envisioned making it (well, mostly) while I was delusional, I finally got a chance to give it a try.



French Vanilla Butterscotch Refrigerator Bars are a no-bake dessert. A vanilla cookie crust is topped with both French Vanilla and creamy butterscotch layers. No baking required, refrigerate and serve. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #potatoes

French Vanilla Butterscotch Refrigerator Bars


French Vanilla Butterscotch Refrigerator Bars are a no-bake dessert. A vanilla cookie crust is topped with both French Vanilla and creamy butterscotch layers. No baking required, refrigerate and serve. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #dessert


Nailed it! 


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






French Vanilla Butterscotch Refrigerator Bars
                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com


Ingredients:
11 oz box of Vanilla Wafers
5 TBSP butter, melted
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 box (3.9 oz) French vanilla pudding mix
3 1/2 cups milk, divided
1 (12 oz) cool whip, defrosted
1 box (3.9 oz) butterscotch pudding mix

Directions:
*Grease a 9 X 11 baking dish.

*In a food processor, pulse the cookies until they are crumbs. Set aside 1 cup of the crumbs for later use. Mix the remaining crumbs with the melted butter and press into the bottom of the baking dish.
*Whisk the French vanilla pudding mix with 1 3/4 cups milk for 2 minutes. Set aside.
*Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Beat in 1 1/4 cups of the pudding mix until incorporated. Fold in 1 cup of the cool whip. Carefully spread onto the crust and refrigerate for 5 minutes.
*Whisk the butterscotch pudding and 1 3/4 cups milk for 2 minutes. Carefully spread onto the cream cheese layer, sprinkle with 3/4 cup of the reserved cookie crumbs and refrigerate for 5 minutes.
*Fold the remaining cool whip into the remaining French vanilla pudding. Carefully spread onto the butterscotch pudding and sprinkle with the last of the reserved cookie crumbs. Refrigerate for at least a few hours or overnight until set. Store in the refrigerator.

18 comments:

  1. Well even with all the illness and feeling like run over poo, you have nailed every assignment without fail and no one would have known if not mentioned that you were sick. You wrote, posted, scheduled and ran our group like a champ. So no fail there lady, you nailed it.
    Spatulas On Parade

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for such kind words, great start to my weekend. ❤

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  2. Cool idea for a blog challenge. I hopped over from one of the others. Neat idea.

    And those bars ... good lord, yes please. I am not sure my blood sugar would truly enjoy it, but goodness... those look divine. It might be a Lay's commercial with me... you can't eat just one!

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    Replies
    1. So glad you stopped by, PJ, I've visited your blog too (and I'm also from the Boston area).
      If you're interested, I run 7 monthly blogging challenges and anyone's welcome to join in. You're welcome to email me (email address is at the bottom of my "About Me" page here on the blog), or send me a DM on twitter.

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  3. Being sick sucks. Good thing you're finally getting better and not only nailing this dessert but the writing challenge. Happy weekend!

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    1. Doing my best to keep my head above water when it comes to the blog, just working on getting my strength and stamina back at this point.

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  4. Blogging while sick or injured (or both) is an activity few can do successfully. Girl, you nailed it! And don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Now, get moving deeper into the recovery part of the program. It's about time! Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com

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  5. Nailed it, I have trouble nailing anything...................

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  6. Ugh! I’m so sorry the end of 2019 was so bad! I. Hate that! But you handed it like the boss you are, so I consider that worthy of a “nailed it!”

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    Replies
    1. Well, I'm still finding mistakes I made while sick (like expecting you to have posted a Fly on the Wall when you hadn't signed up), but all in all I made it through fairly unscathed (knock wood).

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  7. Breathing is an involuntary reaction and a good calming technique. It's hard to think to breathe in moments of anger, but highly necessary. I've been responding to people's post later and later on Sundays. I've got an improv class at 12, and usually a follow up theater review to write from a show the night before.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I'm finally breathing normally again and I have to admit I'm enjoying it very much.

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  8. I am so happy you're getting better. You've had such a miserable fall/winter holidays! That was me last year with a broken leg and pneumonia. I said I was going to make up for it this year but I didn't even put a tree up. Went to my daughter's and put my feet up!

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    Replies
    1. I think going to your daughter's and putting your feet up is the best idea of all.

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  9. sudoku is my way to relax too! I cant imagine not being able to finish any, and I would definitely be feeling off if I couldn't the same way I do when I can't focus on reading for a while. Hopefully you've gotten back into the swing of things now.

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    Replies
    1. Another thing we have is common. And yes, I've been solving them every day. Love it.

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