Friday, January 7, 2022

Recalculating Our Go To: Secret Subject Swap

 

Air Fryer Crab Rangoon: creamy filling in a crispy wonton shell, cooked in the air fryer for a lower fat option. | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #appetizer


 

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This month 4 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.

 

My subject is: What's a thing people turn to you for all the time?
It was submitted by: Tamara of Part-time Working Hockey Mom.

 

 

I guess, like everything else, this changes as we go through the seasons of our life.
 
From the time I was a little girl, it would be finding things. When something was lost, but even more often, when something was dropped and couldn't be found, people would turn to me. I could literally (well, almost) find a needle in a haystack. It was part that I was observant, part that I had really good eyesight, and part that I was just tenacious. When others were finally willing to give up and call it lost, I'd be there till I found it. Not exactly a honed skill, something I'd worked at and accomplished, but useful nonetheless.
 
Later on? I won't tell you that my friend Laurie didn't like me to be the driver when we went out because I had to pull over and get out to read street signs at night, let's just say that at this point I have to put on my glasses to find my glasses. 
 
Recalculating. 

Recalculating Our Go To | Graphic designed by, featured on, and property of www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


From the time my boys were little, straight through high school, we were the house where all the kids would congregate after school. Probably because I always had fresh baked goods, and it was well known that any kid still here at dinner time could get either a ride home or a seat at the table.
 
I knew most of the kids who were here, as they were friends of my boys. But there was actually one time right after school when I was sitting on the front porch when a woman I'd never seen before pulled into my driveway, didn't say a word to me, dropped off a kid I'd never seen before, and drove away.

But the kid isn't still here now so I guess that worked out OK.
 
Recalculating. 

Recalculating Our Go To | Graphic designed by, featured on, and property of www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics
 
It was also during those years that I was the go-to person for party planning and party menu planning. We had tons of parties at our house, large and small. I am exceedingly organized (some would say to a fault), and often planned theme parties for the kids and their friends. At their elementary school, I was always voted head class parent and put in charge of the group of volunteers putting together class celebrations (although, in retrospect, this may have been less acknowledgement of my skills and more that no one else wanted to do it). 


Air Fryer Crab Rangoon: creamy filling in a crispy wonton shell, cooked in the air fryer for a lower fat option. | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #appetizer
Air Fryer Crab Rangoon

 

Friends as well would run party plans by me and request input, especially about the food. There was actually one time that a friend had stopped by the house looking for me to ask about ingredients for an appetizer for an upcoming party but I wasn't home. Unbeknownst to me, Hubs must have told her where I was because one minute I was pushing my cart down the grocery aisle looking for pasta and the next I was hearing my name yelled out from across the store.

 
It's that same friend who actually started calling me the Martha Stewart of our group. But since I find Martha rather obnoxious, and given the fact that I think she was in jail at that point, the jury's out as to how, exactly, my friend meant it. 
 
Recalculating. 

Recalculating Our Go To | Graphic designed by, featured on, and property of www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics
 
I was also always the go-to person to provide meals for sick friends and to take friends' kids on a minute's notice, if needed. But I think most people with a tight group of friends would do the same.

And what do people turn to me for all the time now? I'd like to say my sense of humor, but given the state of our politics, our environment, and our economy (just to name a few), I frequently find my sense of humor hiding like a needle in a haystack, comfortable with the knowledge that my glasses are lost.
 
As I said, where we fit, what we bring to the table may differ as where we are in life evolves.
 
But it matters, what we contribute. Yes, we're wanted, but over and above that there's a level of self worth involved in being needed, being recognized as productive, knowledgeable, and giving. That when a specific need arises, it's us, no question, and we're trusted to come through.

Recalculating.

Recalculating Our Go To | Graphic designed by, featured on, and property of www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

 

 

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

The Diary of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver 

Part-time Working Hockey Mom 

Climaxed



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







Air Fryer Crab Rangoon
                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

 
*NOTE: Air fryer sizes and configurations are different so you may need to make minor adjustments to your cooking times. Check them regularly as they cook.
 
*ALSO NOTE: Be very careful when working with a hot air fryer. Follow your manufacturer's directions for safety to avoid burning yourself.


Ingredients:
16 wonton wrappers
6 oz can white crabmeat, well drained
5 oz cream cheese, softened
2 TBSP mayonnaise
2 green onions, chopped
1/8 tsp salt
dash cayenne pepper
 
3 TBSP olive oil, divided
1 tsp sesame oil

Directions:
*Whisk together the crabmeat, cream cheese, mayonnaise, green onions, salt, and cayenne.
*With a pastry brush, lightly grease the shelves or basket of your air fryer with olive oil. Mix the remaining olive oil with the sesame oil and set aside.
*Place a small bowl of water by your working space. Also wet (just moist, not dripping) a towel.
*Place about 1 1/2 tsp of the crab filling into the center of a wonton. Dip your finger into the water and use it to wet the edge of each wonton, and fold into a triangle, making sure the filling stays inside. Press all of the edges closed. Place under the damp paper towel and continue with all of the wontons and filling.
*Preheat your air fryer to 350 degrees for 5 minutes. If you're using a 3 shelf air fryer, you should be able to cook them all at once. For a smaller air fryer or one with a basket, you'll make multiple batches. Do not overcrowd.
*Brush the sesame oil and olive oil mixture lightly onto the top of the wontons you're cooking. Keep any others under the damp towel.
*Cook in the air fryer at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Flip over and lightly brush the other side with the sesame oil and olive oil mixture. If using shelves, put them back into the air fryer in different spots than where they had been. Cook at 350 for another 5 - 7 minutes, checking at the 5 minute mark to be sure they aren't getting too brown.

16 comments:

  1. "Recalculating", hahahah! That's why my navigation system is muted ;-)
    You have wonderful qualities, and I would certainly turn to you if I had questions about food, in particular baking. I may actually have done so once or twice.
    A woman dropped off her kid at your place without introducing herself??? Did she pick them up later? Or how did you figure out where to take them later? I'm stunned.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have no idea how the kid got home, just know he wasn't here at dinner time. All these years later and I'm still stunned. Not just at the fact that she did it, but not acknowledging me at all was flat out rude.

      Delete
  2. We are about as opposite as humanly possible. I could have used you to plan parties (on a stress scale of 1-10, parties are a 15 for me), find things (fortunately my spouse is good at that) and cook (ditto). But what could I have done for you? Anyway, spouse is interested in the air fryer crab rangoon, maybe for Super Bowl. Hope you keep those air fryer recipes coming! Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You provide support in the blogosphere, and for that I'm grateful.
      This is my 2nd and last for now planned air fryer recipe, but you can bet I'll be playing with it more in the future.

      Delete
  3. None of these 'go-tos' in your life come as a surprise, my friend! I think you summed up 'you perfectly in your final statement:
    "being needed, being recognized as productive, knowledgeable, and giving. That when a specific need arises . . . we're trusted to come through.
    That's definitely you!
    And I'm so glad you're my friend!

    ReplyDelete
  4. People turn to you, it's that simple. You're a good friend to those in your life, and it shows.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I found this funny and that is a good thing

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love the questions, maybe I'll try to answer a few for my blog next week. People turn to me for resources, I think I was a social worker in my previous life. I help with jobs and I help them with housing and signing up for services like health care.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was actually a social worker in this life!
      Tried to find your blog but can't. Your google profile doesn't link to a blog like mine does.

      Delete
  7. I'm late as usual! Those look so good! You're always my go-to person when I need a friend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're right on time for such a kind compliment. I feel the same way about you.

      Delete
  8. I love that your house was the place to go to for food. I've been thinking about how I can get my son in the community. Being on the 10th floor of an apartment building makes it hard for him to run outside but I have a few ideas up my sleeve.@theglobaldig.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd imagine it must be in some ways harder in an apartment building, but in some ways easier too, if a lot of kids live there.

      Delete

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