Luckiest: 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 is the luckiest thing that has ever happened to you?
It was submitted by: Rena of The Diary of an Alzheimer's Caregiver.

Well, it is the month of St. Patrick's Day, isn't it? A month where we look for 4 leaf clovers and chase down that pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. My pot of gold looks a lot different from most, though.

 

I once won a trip for two to Hawaii. It's a bit of a convoluted story, but in the end, I won it. It was a raffle at a work Christmas party. My boss had actually won but you have to be there to get the prize and he had left, they picked again. When he found out, he was not happy. I did not care. I took my sister, and we went to Hawaii. Actually, the trip was to Honolulu, but after spending the free time there, we extended the trip on our own and went on to Maui. That was the luckiest thing that happened to me.

 

Until . . .

 

Hubs and I had moved to the Midwest shortly after getting married. We'd wanted children but it wasn't happening, so I went to a local doctor. He told us that we couldn't have children should go home and accept it. I called my Boston gynecologist, who told me to get to a teaching hospital, there are avenues to explore and possible options. Turns out the doctor who had been recommended to me here was affiliated with a Christian hospital and instead of responding to me medically, he had been practicing his religion on me. 

 

I went to the local medical school hospital. Just about this time they were bringing in a reproductive endocrinologist from another city to start a reproductive department there. This doctor performed all the right tests, got the information she needed, and outlined the options. We were shocked to find out my tubes were fused shut. She tried to open them surgically, but failed, she could only get one partially open. The only biological option was IVF, the place where Hubs and I had drawn the line.

Funny thing about lines, they blur when you've got your toes up against them. But IVF 20 plus years ago was different from now. It was over $10,000 per try and not covered by insurance. The success rate was a terrifying 15%. We went for it. First try had to be stopped due to growths on my ovaries, there was a waiting period before I was cleared to try again. I got pregnant on the next try. And miscarried. 

 

Emotionally fragile, and physically uncomfortable (I was allergic to one of my multiple daily shots) we decided to give it one more try. I did get pregnant, but was understandably nervous that this would end in disaster too. And I was both sick and having sharp pains. The doctor watched me closely, but one night at about the 3 month mark, in the middle of the night, I started to see blood. My panic was exacerbated by the fact that Hubs was out of town, and the local tornado sirens were blaring. I sat straight up in bed until morning and drove myself to the hospital, knowing I was having another miscarriage.

My doctor's partner did an ultrasound and sent me right to the surgical unit. Maud, my doctor, came out, told me that the viable pregnancy had an ectopic twin ironically growing in the end of the tube we'd opened. That tube, supposed to be the size of a hair, was the size of a sausage and had to come out now. Had it ruptured, I probably would have died. I looked at her and, with tears in my eyes, said (of the fetus still in my womb), "please, just save my baby." Maud turned to the patient who happened to be sitting next to me and explained that her egg retrieval would have to be put off for a few hours. The woman looked at me, then looked at Maud and, with tears in her eyes, said "please, just save her baby."

 

 

I was hospitalized and on narcotics when my husband's plane landed. The surgery had been rough and we didn't know if the trauma would result in a miscarriage of the other fetus, only time would tell. I wasn't just in pain, I was terrified about one and actively mourning the other. The next morning, a Sunday, Maud came into my hospital room holding her young daughter. "I know you're mourning," she told me as she turned her daughter towards me, "but I wanted to stop by on my way to church to remind you of what you still have."

Seven months later I brought my son home. It was the luckiest thing to ever happen to me.

Until . . .

I had frozen embryos we'd decided to take. Yet again, everything had to be abruptly stopped when the embryos weren't viable at transfer time. We made the difficult decision to try another cycle. One more. It ended in a pregnancy.

I was 10 weeks along when I'd gone back home for a visit. Hubs was back in the Midwest working, but I wanted my young son to spend some time with my family, swimming in the family pool and going to the beach. It was there where I woke up one morning cramping, in a pool of blood.

Maud called my Boston gynecologist who ordered an ultrasound. It felt like a death sentence, waiting for confirmation that I'd miscarried. Again. My sister, sitting by my side, asked the ultrasound tech what she was seeing. Techs aren't allowed to disseminate medical information, they can only report findings to a doctor. I'd been down this road before though, I knew what I was seeing and started to cry. "That flashing light," I told my sister, "is a heartbeat."

I was put on bed rest. I was bleeding out a blood clot and, once again, playing a waiting game to see if the fetus in my womb would stay or go.

Eight months later, my family was complete. And it was the luckiest thing to ever happen to me.

In this month of leprechauns and four leaf clovers, the pot at the end of the rainbow did not hold money for me. Luck was in the form of something way more valuable.

 

Mint Cheesecake Cups

 

I wish you leprechauns, and 4 leaf clovers, (and Mint Cheesecake Cups), and a rainbow, at the end of which you find whatever it is that makes you feel the luckiest.

 

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 

Climaxed 

Part-time Working Hockey Mom

Mint Cheesecake Cups

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/3 cup mint M&Ms

12 mint Oreo cookies

12 oz cream cheese, softened

2 TBSP sour cream

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp mint extract

2 eggs

2 TBSP mullticolored nonpareils

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place cupcake liners into the wells of a 12 well cupcake pan.

*Chop the mint M&Ms. Set aside.

*Gently run a knife around the inside edges of one of the Oreo wafers and separate so you have 2 chocolate cookie wafers, one plain and one with the mint filling. Place the halves without the filling into the bottom of the cupcake liners, flat side facing up. Set the other halves aside.

*Beat the cream cheese, sour cream, brown sugar, and mint extract until smooth, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the chopped M&Ms.

*Spoon the cheesecake filling into the liners, about 2 TBSP in each. Top with the reserved cookie halves, cream side up. Sprinkle with the nonpareils.

*Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until the cheesecake is set. Cool completely and refrigerate.

 

Green Food and Luck: Word Counters

Counting my words again. 

Today my fellow Word Counters and I are sharing our monthly group post. The bloggers who are joining me this time all picked a number between 12 and 74 and sent it to me. I gave the numbers out as assignments to other bloggers who are then challenged to write something (or a few somethings, as the case may be) using that exact number of words. Today we all share what we came up with.

I got the number 19. It was submitted by Diane of On the Border.

As I've been doing in these Word Counters posts, I've chosen a theme and am using my word count multiple times in keeping with the theme. This month I was in a bit of a conundrum in choosing a theme. The last day of winter is in 2 days. Two days! I am so ready to honor that. But today is St. Patrick's Day, a celebration of all things fun and green and lucky and Irish. I may not be Irish, but one day a year I sure do enjoy celebrating like one. So my theme today is St. Patrick's Day.

~ Crockpot Beer Infused New England Boiled Dinner and Pistachio Soda Bread, what better way to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day?

~ Lucky Rainbow Cookies, Creme de Menthe Shamrock Cake, Pistachio White Chocolate Cheesecake, let's not forget those yummy green desserts!

~ It's called Feast of Saint Patrick, although knowing it celebrates his death takes some fun out of it.

~ No green beer for me, not a beer lover, but Midori, Apple Vodka, so many drinks, so little time.

~ With all this green food talk, guess I just had to come up with a new green recipe, right?

Roasted Broccoli and Red Pepper with Mandarins

~ Closing my eyes, clicking my heels, I expect to be transported to that pot of gold at rainbow's end.

~ Supposedly kissing the Blarney Stone is gives the gift of the gab. Must've done that in a previous life.

~ Leprechauns pinch people not wearing green on today. Making my list of people I hope are wearing purple.

~ Looking for a four leaf clover had to have been started by a mom, to keep her kids busy.

~ Irish songs sung boisterously today: "Oh dear, what can the matter be, seven old ladies stuck in the lavatory".

Here are links to the other Word Counters posts:
Spatulas on Parade 
Messymimi’s Meanderings 
On the Border 

Roasted Broccoli and Red Pepper with Mandarins

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 small can (11 oz) mandarin orange slices in light syrup
1 small head broccoli
1/2 red pepper
3 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP orange juice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease a sheet pan.
*Place the almonds in a small saute pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring very frequently, about 3 minutes or until they just barely start to brown. Remove from the pan immediately and set aside.
*Drain the mandarin orange slices well, place on paper towels and set aside.
*Seed the red pepper half. Slice and cut each slice in half. 
*Cut the broccoli into florets and discard the stems. 
*In a large bowl whisk together the olive oil and orange juice. Add the broccoli and red pepper, mix well.
*Spread the vegetables out on a sheet pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes, mix, then roast another 5 minutes. 
*Remove them from the oven, transfer to a bowl and immediately gently mix in the mandarin oranges. Top with the toasted almonds.

Remind Me, Remind Me Not

Commercials, they aren't what they used to be.

When I was growing up, commercials were actually cute. Many of them funny, "where's the beef?" and "plop, plop, fizz, fizz". Some were heartwarming too. One of my all time favorite commercials was the Super Bowl Diet Pepsi ad with Joe Montana and Dan Marino.

These days they're just a waste of time, filler for grabbing a snack. I mean really, LiMu Emu? Whoever wrote those commercials clearly lives in a state where marijuana is legal. I can so see myself in my college days coming up with something just like that at 2 am, after smoking a joint, sitting in my dorm common room with friends and a mouth full of doritos.

Even many of the Super Bowl commercials over the past few years have been disappointing. That is the one time you're supposed to actually watch commercials, expect to be amused and mostly, I gotta say, not so much. 

But I am in love with the new "Loretta" Google commercial that came out this year on Super Bowl Sunday. It is so poignant. An older man is asking Google to show him pictures of his love with his obviously beloved deceased wife. And as he goes through them, he tells Google to remind him of different thoughts and memories of her. It makes me cry. Every time. I talked about this on my Baking In A Tornado Facebook page and it seems I'm not the only one who tears up every time that commercial plays.

And sometimes, when the tears have cleared from my eyes, I look over at Hubs and wonder what I'd tell Google to remind me. Or maybe NOT remind me.

Google, don't remind me

~ that, no matter how loud he has the TV on, he's able to snore louder.

~ that every time I've made a new recipe and have spent an exorbitant amount of time setting up the kitchen for a picture, he picks that moment to need to empty the entire refrigerator looking for something to eat. No matter the time or the day or the time of day, that is the moment . . .

~ that he can't figure out how to use the washing machine, even with me on the phone walking him through it step by step.

~ that whenever we buy something that has to be put together, he ends up with at least one part on backwards.

~ that he thinks that how much of the dessert he should take is about how much he can eat, not how many others might like a little too.

Chocolate Creme de Menthe Bark

But Google, remind me:

~ that he's always willing to try a new recipe. And if it needs {{ahem}} adjustments, he doesn't complain when he ends up with a bowl of cereal for dinner.

~ that he's the one, after a full day of work, snow blowing the driveway.

~ that as incredibly impatient I am is equaled by how patient as he is.

~ that there were days, while raising the boys, where he was the only thing standing between me and a padded room.

~ that whenever I get new electronics, he's the one who reads that boring manual.

~ that in many things he's oblivious. And really, that often works for me.

~ that, when I come home with way too many packages and quickly hide them behind my back, he pretends not to see them (well, or it's that oblivious thing, one or the other).

Chocolate Creme de Menthe Bark

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chocolate mint candies ( like Andes Creme de Menthe or Dove Promises Dark Chocolate Mint Swirls)
6 Mint Oreo cookies
1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips
6 oz green candy melts

Directions:
*Chop the chocolate mint candies into very small pieces, but not crumbs. Set aside.
*Separately, coarsely chop the cookies. Set aside.
*Cover a jellyroll pan or baking sheet (approximately 12 X 17) with parchment paper.
*Melt the white chocolate chips and green candy melts together in the microwave at 20 second intervals until they are completely smooth when stirred.
*Spread in a thin layer over the parchment paper.
*Immediately sprinkle the chocolate mint candy pieces over the top and, using a toothpick, swirl into the green layer.
*NOTE: If the bottom layer hardens and the mint candies won't swirl, put into a 200 degree oven for about 1 minute, then remove and swirl.
*Top with the cookie pieces and gently press down.
*Refrigerate until completely set, about 15 minutes, then break into pieces. 

Bad Luck and Good Cookies

I had intended to write a blog post today. Witty, fun and amusing in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day.

If you find a post of that sort below, it means all has gone according to plan. Unfortunately, that does not often happen for me. Lately, anyway. I seem to have the luck of a never ending Friday the 13th, Jason Voorhees and all. Apparently we Russian/German mongrels do not have the luck of the Irish. Go figure. 

Here's my story, sad but true. As a blogger, this breaks my heart because many times I have had my content stolen. I would never, ever do it to anyone else. 

There is recourse when that happens, if you find out about it. I have, many time, but I'm sure there are tons of times when I have not. Anyway, I have a form letter I send to the offender and if they still refuse to take down my stolen blog post and/or pictures (yes, many of them actually say they are doing me a favor by allowing more people to see my work), I can go to their web host and demand their site be taken down. It's a long process, finding how to contact the owner of the site, waiting for their answer, emailing the web host if it comes to that, and often the offender then takes down the post. Aggravating, frustrating, but I do go to the trouble.

Now I find myself on the other end of the equation. For years now we have been notified by our cable company of letters they receive saying we are stealing content. It's from large movie studios for the most part, saying we are downloading shows or movies illegally and/or selling them. Each time we are mortified as we are not doing this. Each time we contact our cable company and each time they tell us something else we should buy or do. We've been jumping through hoops for a long time and each time it stops for a while then starts again. We are diligent in letting our cable company know what's going on and following their recommendations, even signing up for their security service for a time. We've changed our modem, router, passwords, everything. We are beyond frustrated.

It all came to a sad end a few days ago. Once the provider gets enough infringement notices they have to cancel our cable or they are liable. After a about 6 month lull, this happened last Thursday. As always I called them very upset. I had, apparently, made my way to the top of the ladder at the cable company and he (yes, I'm furious about this) gave me a way to be sure that only the devices I specify can attach to our internet. Yes, yet another recommendation now that it's too late. Apparently it was reported that someone from our IP address illegally downloaded Indiana Jones Temple of Doom last Saturday night when we were sitting here in a major snowstorm not illegally downloading anything. Doesn't matter, my cable service has been terminated. Period.

There is one other company we can possibly go to and we're trying to get set up with them now. Even if we can, there may be a lag in our service. Even if we can, there's no guarantee we can stop this pirating associated with our IP address.

So if you're reading this, there's no witty blog post today, just a sob story. If and when we're able to access cable again, I'll be back. 

Until then, enjoy these Key Lime Shortbread Cookies. I may not have the luck of the Irish today, but I can bake like I do.

Key Lime Shortbread Cookies

For me, for today, the pot at the end of the rainbow is just internet service. 
 
Wish me luck.

Key Lime Shortbread Cookies        
                                    ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes 50 cookies):
2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp key lime zest
1 cup powdered sugar
2 TBSP key lime juice
2 cups flour
2 TBSP green colored sugar

3 oz green candy melts

Directions:
*Cream butter and lime zest until smooth. Gently beat in 1 cup of powdered sugar until just incorporated, then beat in the lime juice, followed by the flour, slowly at first. Mix in the green colored sugar.
*Form into a dough with your hands, roll into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and about 14 inches long. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least an hour.
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper.
*Remove cookie dough from fridge and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Bake for 13 minutes. Allow cookies to cool completley.
*Melt the green candy melts in the microwave at 15 second intervals, stirring in between, until completely smooth. Dip one side of each cookie into the melts and place onto parchment paper to set.

All Hail the Green

It's March!. It's March! It's March! Finally. March is full of promise. Clocks spring forward making the days longer, St. Patrick's Day brings . . . well . . . fun . . . as does March Madness (Boiler Up, Hammer Down, GO PURDUE!). The first day of Spring brings the hope of warmer weather. My allergies make themselves known but that's OK because, baby, it's all about the green. After a long, cold, snowy, stormy winter, I'm more than ready to kiss the brown landscape and white snow (until it too turns brown, that is) goodbye and say "hello, lover" (hope you read that in your best Carrie Bradshaw voice) to the green.

In nine days, NINE SHORT DAYS, we get to move our clocks forward an hour. Those of you who live in states that don't do daylight savings time (I'm looking at you, Arizona and Hawaii) can't possibly understand the depths of my joy at running around the house happily planning to lose that one hour. Even the fact that no two clocks in the house tell the same time doesn't deter me because it's here! This is how Spring starts.

Next, on the 17th, comes St. Patrick's Day. Right smack in the middle of the month between daylight savings day and the first day of spring comes an official celebration of all things green. A day to celebrate beer 

and leprechauns and beer 

Yes, Lucky Leprechaun is wearing a cookie as pants


and pots of gold and beer and four leaf clovers and did I mention beer?

And the food. What's a celebration without those favorite foods? On St. Patrick's Day I make my Crockpot Beer Infused New England Boiled Dinner, 

served with my Pistachio Soda Bread, of course.

And for March, desserts feature . . . you guessed it . . . green. I've posted a few over the years, and have some more I'll share here this year too. Come back here often (don't make me beg) and watch for upcoming recipes for Key Lime Shortbread Cookies and Green Apple Cookie Bars. For today's recipe, in celebration of the very first day of the month, I'm sharing Pistachio White Chocolate Cheesecake:

Pistachio White Chocolate Cheesecake

As if all of that isn't enough, just 3 days after St. Patrick's Day, the holy grail of warm weather worship (and of the hope of defrosting), the official first day of spring. Hallelujah!

Welcome, March. I have been right here waiting for you (you sang that along with me, didn't you?).

Boiler Up! GO PURDUE! 

Pistachio White Chocolate Cheesecake        
                                    ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
11.5 oz box vanilla wafer cookies, crumbed
1 stick butter, melted

2 1/2 packages (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
14 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup white chocolate, finely chopped (I used a clean coffee bean grinder)
1 box (3.4 oz) pistachio instant pudding and pie mix
OPT: a few drops of green food coloring
3 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup roasted unsalted pistachios, shelled and chopped

Directions:
*Grease a 9 inch springform pan. On the outside of the pan, wrap a sheet of tin foil around the bottom and partially up the sides of the pan. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
*Mix together the melted butter and cookie crumbs. Press into the bottom and halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Set aside.
*Beat the cream cheese, sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the sour cream, heavy cream, chopped white chocolate and pudding mix, food coloring (if using) then the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the white chocolate chips.
*Pour into prepared crust ad bake for 70 - 85 minutes, until the center is just set.
*Remove from oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before removing the sides of the pan. Sprinkle with chopped pistachios.
*Store leftovers, covered, in refrigerator.

Going Green

I truly hope I don't lose readers because of this post. The title is not to be misleading, really it isn't. It's just that, well, there's green and then there's green.

I do recycle. You'd think everyone would but I look up and down my street on trash day and don't see as many recycle bins as I'd like to. I shut off lights obsessively, in fact, don't take extra long showers, reuse bags . . . I try to do my part for the environment.

I say all this in hopes of mollifying those who came here thinking the environment was the subject of this post. No, it's not THE environment I'm hoping to impact, it's MY environment.

I've written many posts lately about the horrendous streak of luck I've been having. In fact, the latest post was just this past Friday when I wrote about my dishwasher going rogue. It's 11 days until St. Patrick's Day and in hopes of trading in the cloud I'm obviously standing under for the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow, I'm embracing the green, going full in. 

Chocolate Mint Cookie Pops

So here it is, the why and how for going green, crossing my fingers, looking for four leaf clovers, chasing rainbows and putting all of my hope and prayers in the luck of (becoming) the Irish:

The why:
*At this point I've got nothing to lose. And I mean that literally. I've pretty much recently placed everything I own, some twice (dishwasher and coffeemaker, I'm looking at you).

*Green is the color of money. And if my bad luck doesn't change I won't have any left (another reason to covet those coins at the end of the rainbow).

The how:
*I am, coincidentally, the size of a Leprechaun. Green hat, spiffy buckled shoes and just watch my luck change.

*There once was a woman from Cork,
made her beef stew 'stead with pork.
"You're daft" husband said,
made twirl signs by his head,
Till she poked his fat arm with her fork. 

Got that one covered, I can limerick with the best of them.

*Four leaf clovers are good luck and I'm great at finding them. This one came from the park near our house.

What? That's not a four leaf clover? Sorry, my bad. Bet it's good luck anyway though. Well, unless you're the police. You're not, right? Crap, I may need a lawyer. Anyone know a lawyer? An Irish one preferably, I'll need their good luck.

*Another way I'll fit right in with my lucky Irish friends, I've already got the gift 'o the gab. In fact, it's often said I'm one of few people who can consistently make a short story long (see above four leaf clover story if you want proof).

*Never really understood it but apparently I'm expected to kiss the Blarney Stone. Not questioning, mind you, if that's what it takes, I'll do it. 

Unfortunately I don't know which stone the Blarney Stone is. Just to be safe, I'll start at my house and kiss them all. If you happen to drive by me and see my face to the sidewalk and my arse in the air, move right along, I'm just fulfilling my honorary Irish obligations.

*Every March I make my Crockpot Beer Infused New England Boiled Dinner recipe and Pistachio Soda Bread recipe. So if I don't have actual Irish blood, at least I've earned my points for trying. But if all else fails, there's the green beer. I don't even like beer (oops, did I just lose my Irish cred?). But if my luck doesn't change, I'll be in the closest Irish pub drowning my sorrows with the best of them. 

Decision made, I'm going green. Wish me luck!

Chocolate Mint Cookie Pops     
                                    ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

NOTE: You can make these pops with lollipop sticks or you can just make them as balls without the sticks.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups chocolate mint cookie crumbs
1/2 cup vanilla wafer cookie crumbs
6 oz cream cheese, softened
7 oz package spearmint leaves candies (15 - 18 candies)
1/4 cup green colored sugar
8 oz package, green candy melts
2 oz white candy melts 

Directions:
*Beat the cream cheese with both of the cookie crumbs. Divide evenly into the same number of pieces as you have candy.
*Push a lollipop stick about halfway up into each candy. Form a ball around each candy with a segment of the cookie mixture, completely encasing the candy inside. Put these pops into the freezer for an hour.
*Place the colored sugar into a dish.

*Melt the candy melts together according to package directions. Dip each pop into the melted candy up to the stick. Allow excess to drip off. Dip top in the colored sugar and place onto a piece of parchment paper to set. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.