Friday, March 11, 2022

Wordle, Nerdle, Curdle: Use Your Words

 

Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake, a creamy speculoos cheesecake studded with mini chocolate chips. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #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:  deported ~ joker ~ soluble ~ Wordle ~ out of line ~ controversy
They were submitted by Tamara of Part-time Working Hockey Mom.

                           
Yes, I play Wordle. I've played every one of the original games, as a matter of fact. The game is the kind I like to play, thoughtful games in which you challenge yourself. Like the daily Sudoku I play. 

When the boys were little, we used to play Master Mind. It's what Wordle seems to be based on, but instead of letters, Master Mind is played with colored pegs. It's a great game for kids, I loved how it engaged their minds, encouraged them to come up with a strategy, then learn to make adjustments based on the clues they got along the way.

What I think is out of line are the people who made fun Wordle when it was first "discovered" in the social media world, posted memes mocking people who play, then all of a sudden started posting their own scores. I mean, I get that people don't want to seem like sheeple, joining a fad just because others are. It's a bit of a "wag the dog," if you ask me, trying to create a controversy where there is none. Seriously, not only is ridicule never necessary, imagine actually trying something before you make fun of it? Turns out, others aren't so much focused on doing the cool thing, they just gave it a shot and found out they liked it.
 
Wordle, Nerdle, Curdle, playing brain games | graphic designed by, featured on and property of www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

 

There are others, of course, offshoots. Once the original creators sold Wordle, they started Wordle2. Six letters instead of 5 and 2 new puzzles every day. I play those too. And then, of course, there are the jokers who take it a step over to the dark side. Heard of Lewdle? I think you can guess what it is. Those words don't bother me at all, but I tried and I couldn't play, turns out I don't know enough of those words. Maybe they'll use that as my epitaph: "In her later years, she actually deported herself with a level of dignity."

I've now taken to posting my results on the Baking In A Tornado FB page. There's a core group of people there who read and support my blog, and interact regularly with the content on that page. I started posting my Wordle results there daily, and many others added theirs to the thread. It was in one of those threads that a regular reader challenged me to play Nerdle. Nerdle, if you don't know, is Wordle using math instead of words and it is hard. HARD. My second try it took me an hour to figure it out. But now that I've got the hang of it, I average 3 - 4 tries and just like Wordle, I'm addicted. 

The Nerdle daily puzzle doesn't post until 7pm Eastern time, which is perfect. Once my day has started to wind down, I can sit down with a piece of cake and attack that Nerdle challenge.
 
Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake, a creamy speculoos cheesecake studded with mini chocolate chips. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #dessert
Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake



And then there's Quordle. Another reader challenged me to that one. That's when I realized that Nerdle isn't so hard at all. Four words, 9 total tries to come up with all of them. I scored 6, 7, 4, 5 the first time, swore I would never darken the door of that game again for fear of over exercising my brain (don't want to strain something), then scored 5, 6, 8, 7 the next day {{sigh}}.

At one point I wanted to create my own game. It would be food related, and I even had a fun name, Curdle (get it, lol??). I even talked to PurDude (and Tamara) about it. PurDude could do all the back end coding for me, but I would need a dictionary API, and a data collection system, both of which could be monetarily prohibitive, as they charge per use, the scope of which is (in)soluble up front. 
 
Although I didn't end up starting my own site, I do now create a daily food based Wordle. And guess what? People are playing. Regularly. They tell me it's fun, but I'm willing to bet it's nowhere near the enjoyment I get from seeing their results.

So, I now post 3 Wordle based FB posts a day. The first is a link to my original Baking In A Tornado game of the day (today is our 20th game), the second is my results of the Wordle, Quordel, and first Wordle2 of the day, and then in the evening I share my Nerdle and second Wordle2 results. Phew!
 
What adds to the excitement is when everyone posts their results in the threads of all of 3 of those daily posts. Some of us are competitive, some just relieved to have solved the puzzles, and some just curious as to how others do. And you know what? No controversy here. It's just plain fun.
 


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:
Part-time Working Hockey Mom



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






Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Ingredients:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup crushed Biscoff cookies
1 TBSP brown sugar
4 TBSP melted butter

2 1/2 bars (20 oz total) cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup cookie butter (speculoos)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream, room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips, divided 

4 Biscoff cookies
2 TBSP cinnamon baking chips

Directions:
*Lightly grease a springform pan and wrap the bottom with tin foil. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
*Mix the graham cracker crumbs and Biscoff crumbs with 1 TBSP brown sugar. Add the melted butter and stir. Press into the bottom and partially up the sides of the prepared pan.
*Beat together the cream cheese, cookie butter, sugar, and the remaining brown sugar. Once incorporated, beat in the heavy cream, sour cream, and vanilla, then finally, the eggs, one at a time. Mix in 1/2 cup of the mini chocolate chips.
*Place the cookies and cinnamon baking chips in a food processor and crush completely. Sprinkle over the top of the cheesecake.
*Pour into the prepared crust and bake for 70 - 85 minutes, until the center is just set. Allow to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least one hour before sprinkling the edges with the remaining mini chocolate chips and releasing from the pan.
*Store, covered, in the refrigerator.

20 comments:

  1. I'd play Curdle! Will check out your Wordle spin off now!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's great, we'd love to have you join the party! I'll bring the cake . . .

      Delete
  2. I'm perhaps the only person I know who doesn't (or didn't) play Wordle. I'm not a puzzle person - call me a lazy thinker. Right now my part time job keeps me mentally sharp but when I fully retire I am going to need something. Not Wordle, since it's apparently going to be behind a paywall (NY Times) but..hmmm. I do get your daily food Wordles. Too bad Curdle would be prohibitively expensive. And PS That cheesecake sounds yummy! Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are lots of other Wordles not behind the NYT paywall. The original developers have Wordle2. And I do wish I could have done Curdle on my own site, but I am still enjoying seeing the results of the people who are playing on the site I'm using.

      Delete
  3. I just solved the first of your Wordles! I'm so proud of me!
    This is rather fun!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good for you! My three Words with Friends games is all the excitement I can handle.

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    Replies
    1. I'm one of the few people who never really got into Words with Friends, I did love playing online scrabble with friends, though.

      Delete
  5. It sounds like some great ways to keep the brain sharp and do something fun with friends at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The people who are mocking us for playing (and posting) Worlde probably need a piece of your delicious looking Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake - this might shut them up at least while they're eating?
    3/10 people at our office play Worlde during lunchtime, and it's a combination from competition and mutual support. Sometimes the first person to solve it will continue making conversation with the non-players, casually using the word the others are struggling to find out. We're also playing the German and Austrian version, but these are sort of too hard for me. My brain is English-wired!?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I cannot even imagine trying to play in multiple languages.

      Delete
  7. Wow, that Wordle really took off and its cool that you know how to make your own creations of the game. Makes me want to learn more about it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love that recipe. I love Biscoff cookies.
    I play Wordle everyday and sometimes even get the word right. lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You should join our daily Wordle results threads on FB.

      Delete
  9. I play wordle, wordle2, nerdle, framed, and globle daily still but I've never really felt like I had to post my scores or anything. I just really enjoy these style games. However I am very close to a 69 day streak on nerdle and I reckon I might have to brag about that one. Nice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's a whole group of us who really enjoy sharing & comparing scores, talking about strategies and games, it's fun. My current Nerdle streak is 75, hope I didn't just jinx that.

      Delete

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