Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Games Without Words

 

Gingered Squash & Apples | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #dinner


 I cheated. Well, not so much cheated really, but screwed up.
 
The difference? Intent. And although there was no intent, there was a screw up.
 
And the screw up? Inevitable. How far it went, though, now that's a story!

Listen. I'm human on my best day, so making mistakes isn't really noteworthy. But I am also two other things: an extremely organized over thinker, and I'm aging. Resulting in a bit of a mental tug of war. Previously, the extremely organized over thinker went for the most part unchallenged. That progressed to there mostly being a precarious balance maintained. But more and more the fuzzy aging brain is becoming a bit more . . . assertive. Tipping the scales in my favor isn't that hard, Googling words, and proofreading posts and recipes the day after I write them.
 
So, on to that story I promised you. It's about a personal Wordle game I host on my Baking In A Tornado facebook page. I've talked about it in a few different blog posts (Wordle, Nerdle, Curdle) so I won't go into it again, I will say that it's gone on SO much longer than I could have expected.

Each week, Monday through Friday, I post the link to a Wordle game, the results of which are a word I've chosen for that day. All of the words are food, cooking, and baking based, of course.


Gingered Squash & Apples | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #dinner
 Gingered Squash & Apples

 
I thought it might last a week or two, maybe a month, and people would lose interest. That's not what happened. Today I posted the link to our 212th game, and people are still playing.

Which is kinda shocking, considering what happened last month.

Now, as I said, I knew I'd screw up at some point. And I did. In a moment of . . . I don't know what . . . in October, I posted a link to that day's game, AND the answer. Ooops, sort of takes away the challenge of playing.

Fortunately, I caught it immediately, deleted the post, moved that word to another day in the future and chose a different word for that day.

Inevitable screw up under my belt, I went happily along posting daily links to games. And those who play went happily along posting their daily results. Fun for them to play, fun for me to see how they all did.

Until one month ago. I announced the day's game and went along my merry way.


Games Without Words | property of www.BakingInATornado.com | #humor #blogging



When I had a chance, I went back to my page to see the results being posted, and whether I'd stumped anyone (insert evil laugh here). Yes, lots of people played, each one showed their results, but they all also made the same comment: this word is spelled wrong.

Huh?

I went to play the game myself, putting in the correct answer as my first guess.

Umm, stupid game, trying to tell me the last 2 letters needed to be switched. Which I did, and which won me the game.


Games Without Words | property of www.BakingInATornado.com | #humor #blogging



OK, that's embarrassing, I SO wish this was April 1st, I could have tried to sell it as a (deliberate) joke. No such luck. But when I went back to my FB page to fess up and delete the game, I noticed something. More and more people were playing, and enjoying it, finding the whole thing funny.
 
I learned two things from that screw up. 
 
First, my friends all have a good sense of humor (phew).
 
Second, that word games are fun. Even when you're playing a word game . . . with a word . . . that isn't a word.


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        Gingered Squash & Apples               

            ©www.BakingInATornado.com 

 

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 acorn squash
1 large Honeycrisp apple (can substitute apple of your choice)
1/2 cup ginger ale, warm
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 TBSP brown sugar
1 tsp orange zest

Directions:
*Grease an 8 X 11 baking dish. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
*Slice the squash in half, clean out the seeds, and slice each half into 8ths.
*Peel and core the apple. Cut into 16 slices.
*Place the squash slices into the prepared pan. Top with the apples.
*Whisk together the ginger ale, ginger, cinnamon, brown sugar, and orange zest. Slowly pour into the pan.
*Bake for 50 minutes. Spoon the squash and apple slices into a bowl, top with the sauce from the baking dish, stir gently.


14 comments:

  1. I’m not sure how your brain works, but it out does mine every time. Donna.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. Yes, but was the oops the misspelling of the word? Or not posting it on April 1st?

      Delete
  3. Wordle makes me feel...inadequate... like my brain is dead. I think I've lost some of my mental agility with words. Thank God I can still write.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hahahaha! Just checking to see if we were paying attention! Which we were! ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, you ere paying attention, and happy to call me out on it!

      Delete
  5. So funny. I need to start playing again. Always fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They really are fun. Especially when the words are . . . you know . . .real.

      Delete
  6. The joy is in the friendship and sharing, not in being perfect. It's a lesson i've had to learn many times.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pestel. Could it be that Custom Wordle is developing intelligence? Better watch out before it teams up with Skynet. On the other hand, it will probably be as poor a speller as I am. Anyway, wish I had Vernor ginger ale in the house. It would have been perfect for your recipe. I used to buy it when I visited Florida. No visit since January 2020.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can you not buy it thought online? I thought you could buy eveything online.

      Delete

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