Deferred Maintenance: Word Counters

 

Counting my words again. 

Today my fellow Word Counters and I are sharing our monthly group post. Each month one group member picks  a number between 12 and 50. All participating bloggers 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. 

 This month's number is 43. 

It was chosen 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'm talking about Deferred Maintenance.

~ It was late, I shut my tablet, Hubs closed his laptop. When heading upstairs, I heard him mutter about "deferred maintenance."

~ I'm self-conscious on a good day. Between aging and having been isolated during Covid, he was right, I'd let myself go.

~ Looks aren't paramount in life, but I used to feel good when looking my best. Not THE best, but my best.

~ When did I last shave my legs, tweeze my eyebrows? And pulling out the grey hairs will soon leave bald spots . . .

~ Maybe I could be a little less . . . ahem . . . aggressive . . . with taste testing responsibilities when baked goods are the day's recipe attempt.

Very Berry Bundt Cake

~ Next morning over coffee, he broached the dreaded subject. "Deferred maintenance," he said. Should I start with an apology? Action plan?

~ "Every six years the assessor's office requires us fill out a form. You know, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, a finished basement."

~ "They also ask about deferred maintenance. All I can think of is we really need to replace some windows. Anything else?"

 

Here are links to the other Word Counters posts:

On the Border 

Messymimi’s Meanderings 

Very Berry Bundt Cake         
                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
3 TBSP sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cup milk

1/3 cup oil

1/4 cup sour cream

3 eggs

1/4 cup blackberries, quartered

1/4 cup raspberries, halved

1/2 cup blueberries

2 TBSP blueberry jam

1/2 cup chopped strawberries

2 TBSP strawberry jam

3 TBSP flour, divided

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt pan. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle all over the inside of the pan, all the way up the center and sides.

*Beat the cake mix, milk, oil, sour cream, and eggs for 2 minutes. Move approximately 1/4 of the batter into a clean bowl and about another1/4 of the batter into a third bowl.

*Toss the blackberries and raspberries with 1 TBSP of the flour. Fold into the 1/4 of the batter and pour evenly into the prepared pan.

*Toss the blueberries with another TBSP of flour. Fold into the original bowl, holding about 1/2 of the batter, along with the blueberry jam, and spoon into the pan.

*Toss the strawberries with the remaining TBSP of flour. Fold into the last bowl of batter along with the strawberry jam, and spoon into the pan.

*Bake for about 35 - 45 minutes, until the center springs back to the touch. Allow to sit in the pan for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edges and removing from the pan to cool completely.

Say Hello: Poetry Monday

 

Poetry Monday's once a week.

I bet you know which day.

I don't participate every time,

But today I've come out to play.

My friends assign each week a theme,

Telephone (Say Hello Day)'s what they chose.

Now it's up to all of us,

to put our thoughts into prose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Say Hello

 

In the 1800s the telephone,

was a most amazing invention.

Saying "hello" to those not there,

was the original intention. 

No one cared that it required,

the help of an operator.

Or that others knew what you had said,

from "hello" to "see you later."

 

The day came when the phone was used,

without operator assistance. 

By then all were accustomed to,

saying "hello" to those long distance.

The phone went from it's only place,

attached right to the wall,

to multiple locations in the home,

like a table, in the front hall.

Dragging circles around a dial,

you had to use your finger.

And sometimes it would make you jump,

with its loud, alarming ringer.

Next thing you know, untethered,

you could talk and walk around.

Buttons instead of an awkward dial,

and a much more pleasing sound.

 

But now, oh wow, our cell phones,

are personal computers, and more.

Ask questions, or get directions,

find recipes galore!

 

Scallops with Spicy Peanut Pasta

 

 

I think it's rather funny,

ironic, you could say,

we text and post and share our lives,

our pocket phone's never far away.

 

So many options for communication,

but the purpose, from long ago?

The one thing I rarely use it for,

is to make a call to say "hello."  

 

 

 

 

Wait!

Read more poetry, 

you're not through.

Some talented writers

are in this crew:

 

On the Border

Messymimi's Meanderings 

Mother Owl 

 

Scallops with Spicy Peanut Pasta       

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients: 

12 oz spaghetti

1 cup broccoli slaw

1 green onion, chopped

1/2 red pepper, chopped

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tsp ginger paste

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter 

1/3 cup soy sauce

2 TBSP cooking sherry

1 tsp sesame oil 

1 TBSP brown sugar

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 1/2# bay scallops

salt and pepper

 

1 TBSP toasted sesame seeds

 

Directions:
*In a large pot, cook the spaghetti to al dente. Drain, mix in the broccoli slaw and set aside, keeping warm.

*Whisk together the green onion, red pepper, garlic, ginger, peanut butter, soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes. Set the sauce aside.

*Using paper towels, pat the scallops dry.
*Spray a large skillet with non stick spray and heat over medium high heat. Add the scallops and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until the scallops are cooked through, no longer opaque. Remove and keep warm.
*Drain the skillet, reduce the heat to medium low and add the sauce. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Add the spaghetti to the pan and cook, mixing the sauce into the pasta, for another 2 minutes. Add the scallops and mix again until everything is incorporated and hot.

*Sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

She Didn't Speak English

She didn't speak English. By the end of the conversation, neither was I.

I was in the grocery store last week and the check-out line was rather long. It's unusual, really, they're generally pretty quick there but I suspect that between colds and the flu they may have been short a few employees. I'm an impatient person by nature but I really wasn't in any rush so I settled into my spot for the long run. There was one person checking out, two others, then me. I could go take a look at the only other check-out line open but even if it were shorter I knew damn well that if I moved to it, that line would somehow take longer. 

Not much to look at standing there. I was not, by a long shot, new to this grocery shopping thing I was immune to the diversions in the form of candy, nail clippers and other cutely packaged but unnecessary items surrounding me. Just as I'd finished snooping into the cart of the woman ahead of me, I noticed movement behind me. I turned and saw that someone had joined the line. I smiled. She smiled. A social convention, nothing more. But as I was turning back, I noticed a few items in her cart that I'd never seen before. I faced forward for a while, checked my cell phone for messages, noted the progress of the checker, took my coat off. A bit of boredom tinged with a heaping dose of curiosity got the best of me. I like to try new recipes. Maybe you know that about me by now. FYI, you can rationalize nosiness by thinking of it as "new ingredient recipe development research". 

Noodle and Vegetable Strata

I turned to the woman behind me and asked about an item at the top of her cart that was unfamiliar. She said something in Spanish. I know a tiny bit of Spanish, enough to recognize the language and pick out a few words, hold my own in a superficial social situation but that's it.

About a year ago I'd gotten a private message on my blog Facebook page. It was in a language I didn't know. Puzzled, at first I ignored it. It bothered me though and it later dawned on me that in this day and age I have the world at my fingertips. I popped onto a translation website, copied and pasted her message and found out that she was asking me a question in (I think it was) Danish. I typed in my response, copied the Danish translation and pasted it into the private message.

Standing in the grocery store looking at this woman, both of us now a little uncomfortable, I remembered the Danish conversation and realized that I had a hand-held translator in, well, the palm of my hand. 

I got onto the translate site, typed in my question and read her the translation. She took out her cell phone and answered me. Yes, it was a little stilted, and we certainly butchered (grocery store pun intended) each others' languages a bit. A few times we had to look at each others' cell phones because verbalizing in other languages, (English especially) is hard. If you don't speak English, you can see the word "laugh" and try your hardest to sound it out phonetically, but I'd take the Vegas odds that there is no way you're going to say anything that resembles "laugh." 

But by the 3rd or 4th interaction I realized what was happening. I was, at this point, speaking solely in her language. And she was exclusively speaking mine.

Ultimately I did learn a bit about achiote paste and before I even realized it, I was at the head of the check-out line. As I was leaving, I turned to her one last time, said "adios y gracias", waved and left the store smiling.

I don't know what this woman's story is. I don't know if she's here visiting, has moved here or has always lived here. I don't know if she is learning English or not. None of it is my business.

What I do know is that it doesn't matter what you speak. Words, language, they're about communicating, connecting. And on that day, in a grocery store check-0ut line, with a little help from technology, that's exactly what we did.

Noodle and Vegetable Strata      
                                    ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 stick butter, divided
12 oz wide noodles
1/3 cup grated parmesan
1/2 tsp salt 
1/4 tsp pepper 
2 eggs 

2 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz bag uncooked spinach
3 slices provolone, cut in half

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1/2 red pepper, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 cup shredded mozarella

Directions:
*Grease a bundt pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*Melt 6 TBSP butter. Cook the noodles until al dente. Drain. Mix in the parmesan, salt and pepper. Refrigerate to cool a bit.
*In a saute pan, over medium heat, melt 1 TBSP butter. Add the garlic. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Add the spinach and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Cook and stir until the spinach starts to wilt. Remove from heat.
*Mix the eggs into the noodles. Place about 1/3 of the noodles into the bundt pan. Top with the spinach, then a layer of the provolone cheese, followed by another 1/3 of the noodle mixture.
*Return the saute pan to the stove and melt the last 1 TBSP butter. Add the mushrooms, red pepper, green onion, salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring, until soft. Drain. Spread over the noodles in the bundt pan. Top with the mozarella, followed by the remaining noodles.
*Bake for 45 minutes.
*Remove from oven. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before running a knife around the sides and center of the pan to loosen. Place a plate over the top, flip over onto the plate and remove from the bundt pan.