The Lime Tree Blossom Blues: Use Your Words

 

 

 

 

Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. All of the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the recipient will take them. Until now.

At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.

I'm using: lime-tree blossom ~ unlimited ~ residential ~ steep ~ seamless ~ championship They were submitted by Tamara of Part-time Working Hockey Mom.

 

 

 

Hold on a second, be right back, have to go google "lime-tree blossom".

 

OK, got it. So, basically, a juvenile lime tree flowers but doesn't grow fruit. After it flowers and the flowers die, there's an interval of a few years before the tree reaches maturity, at which time it can then bear fruit. I'm not sure what your thought process was for picking this as one of the prompts Tamara, or how you knew about the life progression of a lime tree to begin with, but to me it seems as though parallels could easily be drawn between that lime tree life cycle and humans. 

 

It could be that my view of the progression of tiny humans is a little skewed, blurred by time perhaps. But like the lime-tree blossom, our children are beautiful perfection in our eyes. We look back at pictures and see laughs and fun, first foods and first steps, first trip to the beach and the park, a time of blossoming.

I'm willing to bet those lime trees don't produce an unlimited bounty of dirty diapers, endless crying jags and sleepless nights . . . but through a lens of love, we see the beauty.

However, between the flowering stage and reaching some level of maturity there is a steep (parental) learning curve. Yes, the well planned, but completely naive, dream of familial bliss in a quiet, peaceful residential setting can blow up in your face. Literally. House set on fire (OK, an imaginative interpretation of a school assignment but jarring nonetheless),

 

 

my car set on fire (for reals),

 

broken legs,

 

 

many, many, many, many late night flat tires,

 

 

 

missed (obliterated) curfews, jumping out of windows, falling out of windows . . . And let's not forget the bills: sports and lessons, cars, insurance (and tires), tuition, and the ever-growing food bill.

 

 

Alouette & Gnocchi Filled Portobellos

As the saying goes, life is not a bed of roses (or even lime tree blossoms). The years of that achingly slow growth between flowering and maturity can turn a mama's hair grey and spawn (yes, I used that word deliberately) a fairly permanent eye twitch.

I should have given birth to a lime tree.

 

{{Sigh}}, the road to this point has most certainly not been seamless. But we made it. I wouldn't say unscathed, but we're here, we have reached the championship. Maturity. Productivity. I can lower my bills, color my hair, and get rid of that annoying tic. Right? 

 

Oh, did I tell you that I recently got a late night frantic, terrified (and terrifying) call from one of the boys? He'd just totalled his car.

 

{{twitch, twitch}}.

Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:

On the Border 

Wandering Web Designer 

Climaxed 

What TF Sarah 

Part-time Working Hockey Mom 

Alouette & Gnocchi Filled Portobellos

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups gnocchi

4 TBSP olive oil divided

1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, cut in half

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped red pepper

salt and pepper

1 package (6.5 oz) Alouette Garlic and Herb Cheese

4 Portobello mushroom caps

2 TBSP dried chives

Directions:

*Boil the gnocchi for 2 - 3 minutes. Drain well and place into a bowl and cover to keep warm.

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking pan.

*Heat 2 TBSP olive oil in a saute pan over medium high heat. Add the tomatoes, onion, and red pepper, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring now and then, for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and add the cheese. Stir until the cheese starts to melt, just about 2 minutes.

*Add the tomato mixture to the bowl with the gnocchi. Mix together gently, don't break the gnocchi.

*Brush any dirt off of the mushroom caps. If there is a stem stump, carefully remove and discard them, then drizzle the mushrooms with the remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

*Place the mushroom caps, gills side up, into the prepared pan. Spoon the Alouette/gnocchi filling into the centers of the portobellos, sprinkle with the chives. Bake for 20 minutes.