Recalculating Our Go To: Secret Subject Swap

 

 

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. 

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. 

 

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

 

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. 

 

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.

 

 

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

Air Fryer Crab Rangoon

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

 

*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.