Friday, February 11, 2022

Basket Blues: Use Your Words

 

Strawberry Crème Blondies, impress your valentine with this strawberry swirled blondie topped with a strawberry crème heart. | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #bake #dessert



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: sympathetic ~ clergy ~ hot air balloon ~ air fryer
They were submitted by Rena of The Diary of an Alzheimer's Caregiver.

                           
Confession time: when I first saw my word prompts included clergy, and since we're so close to St. Valentine's Day, I thought I'd take my post in that direction. Turns out that was a mistake. That's what happens when the Jewish girl gets the clergy prompts.
 
Googling to be sure I had my facts straight, I ended up more confused than when I started. Seems there were a plethora of St. Valentines, and even one pope. I started to rethink where I'd take this post when I read that although the St. Valentine we all think of, the patron saint of epilepsy and beekeepers (isn't that an esoteric pairing) is still recognized as a saint, but is no longer on the General Catholic Calendar of Saints.
 
But I put the brakes on hard when I went on to read that the skull of St. Valentine is adorned with flowers and on display in Rome (with other parts of his skeleton in churches in other countries). Time to pick a new direction. 
 
Maybe I could see if I can use all my words in one sentence. Or one story. Or one story using all of my words in each sentence.
 
Or maybe I need a nice long rest in a peaceful monochromatic rubber room.

But until then . . .
 
If ever there was a time to be sympathetic, it's when one of the local clergy tossed his cookies air fryer hot wings, in the basket of the hot air balloon

But being sympathetic was not on the hot air balloon owner's agenda, even if it was a member of the clergy, and it was he who had actually offered his guests pre-flight appetizers, including the air fryer hot wings.

The (decidedly unsympathetic) hot air ballooner committed then and there that since he couldn't (and wouldn't) ban the clergy from rides (since it's his business), he'd skip the air fryer hors d'oeurves, offering only (oven baked) snacks from now on.

 
Strawberry Crème Blondies, impress your valentine with this strawberry swirled blondie topped with a strawberry crème heart. | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #bake #dessert
Strawberry Creme Blondies
Strawberry Crème Blondies, impress your valentine with this strawberry swirled blondie topped with a strawberry crème heart. | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #bake #dessert



Fellow hot air ballooners, having had similar issues with clients before (although admittedly involving neither clergy nor air fryers), laughed quite unsympathetically at their friend's afternoon basket clean up {{ewww}}.

But while cleaning out the hot air balloon basket, the owner, feeling badly about his unsympathetic attitude, decided that he would later drop by the church with a gift for the clergy: his (barely used but no longer wanted) air fryer.

And maybe a free pass to the local hot air balloon festival, where the clergy (along the rest of the attendees) could watch from the ground, eating air fryer hot wings to their hearts' content, while the owners (their sympathetic tendencies, or lack thereof, now immaterial) float happily above.
 


Use Your Words, a monthly group writing challenge | developed by and graphic property of www.BakingInATornado.com | #bloggingchallenge #MyGraphics
Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:
 


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







Strawberry Creme Blondies
                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 TBSP strawberry jam, divided
3/4 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

24 Hershey's strawberry creme hearts

Directions:
*Grease a 9 X 13 baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*Melt the butter in the microwave. Whisk in the brown sugar, 1/3 cup of the strawberry jam, and the vanilla. One at a time, whisk in the eggs.
*Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl. Make sure it's all well incorporated.
*Spread evenly into the prepared baking dish.
*Whisk the remaining 2 TBSP strawberry jam to loosen it up a bit. Drizzle over the batter. Drag a toothpick gently through the jam to spread over the top of the batter.
*Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges are brown and the center is set.
*Cool on the counter for 30 minutes. While the blondies are cooling, unwrap the candies. After 30 minutes, place the candies onto the brownies in 6 rows of 4. Place the blondies into the fridge and cool completely before removing to slice. Store, covered, at room temperature.


18 comments:

  1. Now you have me craving air fryer chicken wings! (but without the hot sauce or blue cheese). Your prompt words intrigued me. That was kind of evil of the person who assigned them to you,lol. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, not evil, just challenging. But the sender doesn't assign the words, they just send them in. I'm the one who assigns them!

      Delete
  2. Now I want food nice warm biscuits would be nice, just saying

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just don't cook them in an air fryer and then go up in a hot air balloon . . . just in case.

      Delete
  3. Hahahaha! Brilliant! And now I'm craving chicken wings...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too. And they're almost impossible to find in the stores.

      Delete
  4. I've never been in a hot air balloon, but was under the impression that it was a mild ride, not something that would cause the air equivalent of mal de mer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In general I'm sure they are, but you never know what could happen . . .

      Delete
  5. Heeheehee! That's a great way to handle it.

    Those saints can confuse the daylights out of me, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure you do better than I do, St. Patrick and Valentine are pretty much the whole of what I know. And, of course, I'd had no idea about any of the truth about St. Valentine.

      Delete
  6. I'm like you, I like learning about things but I really want to make sure my t's are crossed before I post it to my blog. Lol I still make lots of mistakes and have to routinely get three reviewers everytime I post my own theater review.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a good way to learn new things and reinforce what we know. Don't know what I'd do without Google.

      Delete
  7. Thanks for the recipe. Those look great.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You are hilarious! Now those blondies...I'm totally serious about those!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hilarious? I like that. It's a way better word than nuts.

      Delete
  9. I may be blunt here, but who needs to worry about clergy if there are Strawberry Creme Blondies? What's more, with chocolate hearts?
    One of the Swiss Mommy groups on Facebook had a post about what these ladies were doing for their husbands on Valentine's Day. (I have add that it's not as huge a thing as in the U.S.) Most of them said "nothing". Some referred to it as commercial pressure, and they were not going to be told when and what to do or give. Hello anti-vaxxers. Anyway. I liked the one who said "Valentine's Day? I am doing laundry as we speak. This has to be enough." Hahahaha!

    ReplyDelete

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