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Friday, April 3, 2020

Call Me Pistachio: Secret Subject Swap

Welcome a Secret Subject Swap. This month 6 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: You are what you eat.
It was submitted by Tamara of Part-time Working Hockey Mom.
  
Hello, my name is Karen and I'm a pistachio. A proud pistachio at that. 

I tend to go on binges. You can't really do that with meals, there'd be an uproar if I served the same meals day after day and, to be honest, I'd be one of those on the picket line. Even when it comes to sweets, everyone likes a little diversity. In fact, part of the joy I get from creating new desserts is the look on friends and family's faces as they try something new I've created.


But you can go on binges when it comes to snacks, and I do. If you are what you eat in the sense that you're not everything you it but what you eat consistently, right now I'm a pistachio, it's my afternoon snack of choice.

Lemon Pistachio Cake with Pistachio Frosting starts with an enhanced cake mix, is studded with pistachios and topped with a Pistachio Whipped Cream frosting. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #cake

 Lemon Pistachio Cake with Pistachio Frosting

Lemon Pistachio Cake with Pistachio Frosting starts with an enhanced cake mix, is studded with pistachios and topped with a Pistachio Whipped Cream frosting. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #cake



And really, it's an improvement. Because if you'd asked me this question during my previous snack jag , you'd be calling me Cheeto. Before that, a Hot Tamale (which, at my age, I'd happily take as a complement).

I could go back in time and easily name all of the "you are what you eat" foods I have been over the years.

Childhood? Easy, I was a fluffernutter. Don't know what that is and clearly you're not a New Englander, Google it.

In my teens I'd have to say that I, along with most of those of us who had cars and therefore freedom, were fast food cheeseburgers. With fries.

In college? That was a tie. I was definitely a pizza. At around 11:00 pm, a local pizza shop filled large corrugated boxes with boxes of small cheese pizzas and sent employees into the dorms. They'd go up and down the halls calling "hot pizza". They cost $2 and we'd all pair up putting in a dollar each and sharing one. More often than not.

But I was also a butterscotch sundae. When I had sundaes, but previous and since, I always have hot fudge. But there was an ice cream shop in Amherst which made all of their ice creams and toppings in house. A friend had me try their butterscotch sundae early in my 4 year stint there and I was hooked.

After college, working and living on my own, I'd come home from work most days, go for a walk, then go to a local sub shop and get a vegetable pita. Fresh cooked vegetables with gooey cheese in a warm pita pocket. I loved them. I do have to say though, that if I could go back to the days when I could eat the same meals over and over again without it affecting anyone else, hands down I'd be a lobster.

Once married I really can't say that I could be classified. I'd diversified. I cooked for two and rarely snacked but when I did have a treat, it was mint chocolate chip ice cream. In fact, my oldest son loves it and I always tell him that he acquired that taste in utero.

And now I'm a pistachio. But it won't be long before I'm on to the next thing.

Whichever way I go, I have to admit, you are what you eat? I can live with that. Just don't tell me I am what I 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:


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Lemon Pistachio Cake with Pistachio Frosting        
                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 box lemon cake mix
3 eggs 
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 box pistachio instant pudding mix, divided
OPT: 2 - 3 drops green food coloring
1/2 cup shelled, chopped pistachios

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar


Directions:
*Grease and flour a 9 X 14 baking pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*Beat the cake mix, eggs, sour cream, water, vegetable oil, 2 TBSP of the pudding mix and food coloring (if using) for 2 minutes. Mix the chopped pistachios.
*Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes, just until the center springs back to the touch. Cool completely.
*Beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Beat in the powdered sugar and remaining pudding mix. Frosting will be thick.
*Frost the cake. Store, covered, in the refrigerator.

21 comments:

  1. What an interesting and diverse culinary journey!
    The thing with pistachio (any any sort of nuts for that matter) is once I start, I have to finish the bag. What does that say about me, I don't like unfinished business, haha.

    Happy Friday!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha ha, I have to stop myself from eating the whole bag too. Now that I'm stuck at home, that's easier because I know I won't be running out to buy more.

      Delete
  2. Right now, probably peanut butter crackers or cheese crackers. I love vegetables, but that gene did not pass on to my children, si vegetables are a treat.
    Growing up stewed squash was a favorite, and every time I went home, Mama always had a big bowl for me.
    Chocolate Cake, Mama’s. Yellow cake mix and she used an iron skillet for a mixture of chocolate powder, sugar and butter I think. She never taught me to cook and I regret not hanging out with her to learn on my own.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I tried so hard to get my boys to learn a few basic cooking lessons in the kitchen but they refused. {{sigh}}.

      Delete
    2. My boys can cook, a couple better than I ever could.

      Delete
  3. Well if I am what I eat, until a few years ago I would be chocolate or a potato. Now...who knows. Everyday is different. But lately I've been on an oatmeal kick every morning and Greek yogurt everynight.
    Dawn aka Spatulas On Parade

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hmmm . . . Pistachio, eh? I polished mine off. So right now I'm an almond... or a cashew. Walnut. Okay , just call me a nut! ;)
    From day one, I was a chocolate. In high school, I refined it a bit and I was a Mars bar.
    College? Fries and gravy.
    Newlywed? Mac and cheese.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Funny how we can trace those food binges all through our lives.

      Delete
  5. Pistachio is a good thing to be, i might be macadamia if i had the money!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love me some hot fudge on a sunday. I just bought some halal salami and there was pistachio inside, kinda cool.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That salami sounds delicious. Now I have to look for it.

      Delete
  7. You know, I do love me some pistachios. But it's funny.. I tend to not like anything pistachio unless it's just the nut itself. And anymore, I like to get them already shelled. Life is easier that way! As for what I might be... it would likely be a sandwich of some sort!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I only get them shelled if I'm baking with them, I'm afraid that otherwise I'd just tip the bag into my mouth and they'd be gone in a second.

      Delete
  8. i do love pistachios too. there's a website i get coffee from called nuts(dot)com that has some different flavor roasted pistachios. my favorite is the chile lemon. not hot at all really, but they're amazing. pretty much all the flavors are and for a decent price.

    i go through cycles too especially now when what i can and can't eat is so limited, but here lately it's been this avocado salsa from Tostitos brand. it's not quite guacomole but similar, and I put it on everything. it's amazing. Before that it was pesto.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now I'm off to google those chili lemon pistachios. And that avocado salsa sounds like something I'd love, I need to look for that . . . if I ever get back into a store again.

      Delete
  9. If I am what I eat then I'm a chicken tender because I've been on a kick. Have you ever had a Zaxby's chicken tender OMG! Heaven!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, never heard of Zaxby's. Now I'm wondering what I'm missing out on.

      Delete

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