Use Your Words: Sometimes a Gyro

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: gyro ~ thieves ~ scrubs ~ funnel ~ gorgeous
They were submitted by Karen of Dinosaur Superhero Mommy.

                          
Two years ago, for a blog post, I wrote a Fairy Tale. I called it Fairy Tale (creative, aren't I?). I'm not sure what possessed me to write one, but I did and I have to admit it was a lot of fun. Not only did I enjoy writing it, but it was a hit. Tons of page views and people were flooding my FB page telling me I should write a book. Wow. And you know what? I liked the idea. It's different from the types of books so many were writing. No mommy war stories, just fun humorous fiction with a moral. YES. I could do this.

Or not. Seems I'm a ruthless editor. I'd write a story, edit, edit, edit and end up with about 3 words. Eventually I decided I was trying too hard and gave up. There's probably some neutral ground between trying too hard and giving up but I never looked for it. I wrote one more as a blog post and that was it. No book, of course, but today's word prompts have inspired me to write another fairy tale . . . 

She entered the little store, seemingly no different from all the other little stores at the gas stations where she'd stopped over the past 10 hours. Overpriced bags of food and chips, probably been sitting there a year. Walls of refrigerated cases filled with every kind of cold drink on the planet. A scuffed path in the floor to the bathrooms in the back. 

Bethryn followed the path to the public facilities feeling as hungry as she was exhausted. Knowing she'd have to force herself to eat despite the fact that the bathroom would pretty much destroy her appetite. Wishing she had another option, even a funnel and a glass jar to pee in would be a better option to entering one more of these filthy bathrooms. 

Relieved, she decided to check out the drinks before trying to find something edible in this little truck stop. Fresca. Haven't seen that in years. Wasn't till she opened the top to take a sip when she realized she'd been holding her breath since leaving the bathroom. 

Wondering what fast food hell this place might have, over-done hot dogs, microwave pizza, same as all the other places she was sure. 

Smiling at her from behind the counter was the attendant. And to his left was something she never expected to see. Meat. On a rotisserie. Gorgeous beef. Or could that actually be lamb? And she could smell it. Oh, my. This can't be. No matter what it is, she told herself, I'm no newbie. I know better than to order sushi in a gas station and gas station beef comes under the same rule.

"Beef?" she asked the attendant, looking towards the rotisserie. "Lamb," he answered in a thick  Greek accent. "Slow cooked. Delicious. I will own a restaurant some day. Until then I own this station. I work hard. I save my money. And I make my lamb. Many people come for my sandwiches. You must try."

She could hear his pride. And feel her own caution. Hunger won out. "OK, gyro a please." She thought his smile got bigger because she was trusting him but when he responded she understood "Gyro. Good for you. You say as heeero. So many call it jiiro. I know how is spelled, but is not jiiro, is heeero."

As he went to add meat, vegetables (and is that real tzatziki sauce?) to a piece of flatbread, she walked over to the chips. It was then that, just out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man walk in wearing scrubs. "I wouldn't think there'd be a hospital anywhere near this dinky town." she thought, "but that guy's a bit rough around the edges. Either he's no doctor or he's been working a double shift."

Bethryn must have been intensely studying the chips because it took her a minute to realize that the "doctor" was holding up the attendant. Terrified, she froze in place. This would hardly be a spot where she'd expect to find thieves. But that's definitely a gun in his hand. And the attendant was handing him the cash from the drawer while stammering "please, take the money and leave, please, don't hurt me."

Clutching the money in one hand and the gun in the other, the thief turned towards Bethryn. As she started to walk towards her, tears involuntarily streamed silently down Bethryn's face. She'd give him what he wants, her jewelry, her money, but will she live?

Almost before she could finish her thought, she was startled by something flying through the air. A deli paper wrapped sandwich missile hit the thief in the head. He lost his balance, smacked his head on the chip shelf and fell unconscious to the floor.

Maybe she was in shock, but by the time she was able to process what had happened, the attendant was standing beside her and the local sheriff responding to the 911 call was asking her if she was OK.

She was. And 3 hours later when she finally arrived at her son's house. She had quite a story to tell.

And the moral of the story? Wait for it . . . wait for it . . . 

Here it is: Sometimes a hero is just a gyro.

Now for something delicious that is neither a gyro nor bought at a rest area quick shop but perfect for sharing with your Valentine:

Red Velvet Kiss Cupcakes

Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:

Spatulas on Parade
The Diary of an Alzheimer's Caregiver  
On the Border 
Dinosaur Superhero Mommy 
 The Bergham Chronicles
Confessions of a part time working mom 
Not That Sarah Michelle 
Climaxed

Red Velvet Kiss Cupcakes

©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt 
1 TBSP baking cocoa
1 1/2 cups oil 
2 eggs, room temperature
1 oz red food coloring
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
24 Hershey's Kiss candies, your choice of flavor (I used Candy Cane Flavor), unwrapped

1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup white chocolate chips
3 cups powdered sugar
about 1/4 cup milk

red baking sugar

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 24 liners into cupcake tins.
*Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and baking cocoa.
*In a mixer, beat the oil, eggs, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla.
*Beat in half of the dry ingredients, then half of the buttermilk, the other half of the dry ingredients and finally the rest of the buttermilk.
*Divide the batter into the cupcake liners,
*Bake for 17 to 19 minutes or until the center springs back to the touch. Remove from oven and press one Hershey's Kiss, tip facing down, into the center of each. Cool completely.
*Melt butter and white chocolate chips in the microwave until smooth.
*Mix in the powdered sugar just enough so it won't fly out, then beat the mixture.
*Lastly, beat in the milk. Start with 2 TBSP and continue adding until your frosting reaches piping consistency. Pipe onto the cupcakes. Sprinkle with red baking sugar.

Blog With Friends: School Spirit Mini Cupcakes

Today’s post is the next in our series of Blog With Friends theme collaborations. Each month a group of bloggers get together and each publish a project based on a theme. What I love about this partnership is that it’s not bloggers with similar interests or strengths but a diverse group coming up with a variety of posts. In any given month we may have a recipe, sewing tutorial, crafts projects, book review and/or a technology post all related to the theme of the month.

This month's theme is School Spirit. There will be individual project pictures and links to what everyone else has to offer at the end of my post, but here’s a peek at what we all came up with:

I made School Spirit Mini Cupcakes.

  

I have to admit that I was at a bit of loss as to whether to make my first batch for PurDude or for College Boy. Both had challenges. PurDude's school colors are black and gold. I used to have black food coloring but when I finished it I never replaced it. College Boy's school colors are red and white. That would make pretty cupcakes but I don't own, have never had, white food coloring. 

Either way, first step was to make up the batter and divide it into 2 bowls.

 

Decision time. For the first batch I went with Purdue. The black was going to be tricky and would most likely look more grey, but I was good with that.

I piped the batter into my mini cupcake pans. Both colors are used for each cupcake, one below the other. You can bake as is or swirl. I did some of each.

Here's some I didn't swirl. Out of the oven and cooling completely before frosting.

Yup, definitely more grey than black but fortunately it's the taste that counts. And this batch got gobbled up pretty quickly.

B O I L E R    U P !

Considering I had to work with black and gold as my color scheme, I have to admit I'm happy with how these turned out. Now that I've got PurDude's batch made, I'm off to buy some white food coloring for College Boy's batch.

As always, any time you make one of my recipes, feel free to post a picture of it to my Baking In A Tornado Facebook Page. I'd love to see it!

What are your school colors? 

Be sure to visit all of this month's other Blog With Friends projects:


Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares 9 Tips for Chaos Control (Before School Starts).

Dawn of Spatulas on Parade shares School Spirit - Crazy Hat Days and More. 

 Rabia of The Lieber Family Blog shows us how to Organize Your Desk With School Spirit..

 
Minette of Southern Belle Charm shares how to make an easy bracelet in your school color, School Color Bracelet.

Eileen of Eileen's Perpetually Busy shares a recipe for easy cookies that can be made in almost any combination of colors and flavors, School Color Cookies.

Melissa of Home on Deranged shares helpful hints and tips: How Do You Choose The Right Elementary School?

                                     

School Spirit Mini Cupcakes

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients (makes 36):
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 package instant pudding, flavor of your choice.
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt 
food coloring of your choice

3/4 stick butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBSP light corn syrup
2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
up to 3 TBSP milk
food coloring of your choice

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini cupcake pans with nonstick spray.
*Cream the butter and sugars. Beat in the eggs, then buttermilk and vanilla. On lowest speed, carefully beat in the flour, instant pudding mix, baking powder and salt.
*Divide batter into 2 bowls and add food coloring of your choice to each. Pipe or spoon some of each color into the prepared mini cupcake pans. Start half of them with one color and top with the other. Start the other half of your cupcakes with the other color and top with the second. OPT: You can swirl the batters if you want.
*Bake for about 12 - 15 minutes or just until the center springs back to the touch. Run a knife around them and remove to cool completely.
*Cream the butter, vanilla and corn syrup. Mix in the powdered sugar. Add milk, one TBSP at a time until the frosting is of piping consistency. Mix in food coloring.
*Spread or pipe onto cooled mini cupcakes.

Which Witch

Halloween has brought me clarity. I have human nature all figured out. 

It's all about the witches. 

As with any other subculture, there are those labeled "good" and those labeled "bad". Both groups have specific traits, the way they see situations and what they would do to change circumstances. It's the philosophy, the strategies of these groups with which we identify that make us who we are.

There are the "good" witches: Samantha from Bewitched, Glinda from the Wizard of Oz and the sisters from Charmed, for example. 

And then there are the "evil" witches: The cannibal Witch from Hansel and Gretel, and the Queen from Snow White, The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, to name a few.

 

Melting Wicked Witch Cupcakes

Yes, as always, it's about good vs evil. Who do you want to be? What do you want to stand for? It comes down to this: wwtwd (what would the witches do)?

WWTWD:

*Kids who wear their pants around their knees:
     Good witch: gently raise them up to the waist.
          Wicked witch: yank those suckers up over their ears.


*Owners who think I enjoy dispersing their dog crap through my yard with my lawn mower:
     Good witch: make that crap disappear.
          Wicked witch: make all the toilets in their home back up. Permanently.

*Narcissists who take up two parking spaces:
     Good witch: move the car over to a single spot.
          Wicked witch: reduce their car to the size of a matchbox.

*Shoppers with 25 items in the 10 items or less lane:
     Good witch: double the speed of the cashier.
          Wicked witch: tattoo "I can't count to ten" onto their forehead.

*Liars:
     Good witch: change their words to the truth.
          Wicked witch: light their pants on fire.

 *Drivers meandering 20 miles per hour under the speed limit on a 2 lane street:
     Good witch: create. a passing lane.
          Wicked witch: two words: ejector . . . seat.

 *Email spammers:
     Good witch: block their outgoing mail.
          Wicked witch: attach 7 million volts to their "send" button.

 *Shoppers who leave their cart in the middle of a parking space (and always the best spaces, too):
     Good witch: insert the cart into its proper place in the store.
         Wicked  witch: insert that cart into a strategic place where the sun don't shine.

 *Waiting lists, waiting lines . . . waiting:
     Good witch: speed up the wait.
          Wicked witch: obliterate that line. A lightning bolt will do nicely.

 *Happy waker-uppers (you know who you are):
     Good witch: what a lovely trait, lets bottle that.
          Wicked witch: happy waker-uppers, meet witchy morning breath.

 
Which witch will you be? 

As for me, I'm hopping on my broomstick and heading out. Don't want to be late for my appointment with the plastic surgeon, I'm having a wart added to my nose. 

{{flies off, cackling}}

 

 

 

 

Melting Wicked Witch Cupcakes

                                                                        ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
 1 1/2 cups chocolate syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 stick butter, softened
1 container (7 oz) Marshmallow Creme
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 to 2 TBSP milk
green food coloring

1/4 cup chocolate chips 
12 oreos
24 Hershey's Kisses
24 candy eyeballs

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners.
*Beat 1 stick of butter, sugar and eggs until smooth.
*Mix in 1 cup flour, then beat in half of the chocolate syrup.
*Mix in the rest of the flour and the baking soda, then beat in the rest of the chocolate syrup and the vanilla.
*Divide the batter into the 24 cupcake liners. Bake for approximately 18 - 20 minutes, or until the center springs back to the touch. Cool completely.
*Carefully remove the cream center from the oreos. You need only the outer cookies. Unwrap the kisses. Melt the chocolate chips on a plate in the microwave. Dip the flat side of each kiss into the melted chocolate and press onto the center of a cookie. Set aside.
*Beat 3/4 stick of butter and the marshmallow creme until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and green food coloring. Add the milk, 1 TBSP at a time, until it's a good piping consistency. Add more food coloring if needed. Put into piping bag.
*Pipe the frosting onto the top of and dripping down the sides of the cupcakes. Stick an oreo/kiss "witch's hat" onto each cupcake and stick the candy eyes to the frosting, skewed to the side.

Pistachio Blueberry Cupcakes

Today’s post is March’s submission to our monthly theme posts.

This is how it works; we are a group of bloggers participating in a monthly project. Every month one of us picks a theme and each of us post a recipe based on that month’s theme. All the recipes will be featured on my Baking In A Tornado Facebook Page so be sure to check there daily.

December was The 12 Cakes of December
January was Dippin' Through January
February was Love and Food
March is Celebrating Green and Welcoming Spring. 
The challenge is to use an ingredient that’s green in its natural state. No mint baking chips in this challenge.

Today’s the first day of the green posts and it’s my turn. I chose pistachios.

In the name of complete disclosure, the recipe I’m featuring today is my second attempt at a recipe using pistachios. The first one came out delicious but, let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. Literally. Stop by this blog on Friday to see how I ended up incorporating that recipe into an upcoming Secret Subject Swap post. You’ll understand why they didn’t quite belong as my contribution to a monthly challenge populated by such a talented group of bloggers.

So I sent hubs out to buy more pistachios and moved on to Plan B. If you know anything about me, you know it was possible I’d have to move on to Plan C and maybe even D, but not this time. This time I made Pistachio Blueberry Cupcakes with a Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting. And I love them.

Pistachio Blueberry Cupcakes with Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting

I have to tell you, these cupcakes without the frosting could easily be a breakfast muffin. Of course I tasted it before I frosted it and I would definitely love one with my morning coffee.

I think that’s because, as cupcakes go, this one is not terribly sweet. The same is true of the frosting. Although it has jelly in it, the cream cheese cuts the sweet taste.

In my house, of course, it ended up frosted and eaten as a dessert. But that tends to happen with teenagers around.

As always, if you make one of my recipes, please feel free to take a picture of it and post it on my FB page. And watch there for my posts featuring the rest of the green recipes. There are more coming on the dates below:

3/5 Crumbs in my Mustachio's Key Lime Chiffon Cake
3/6 Lemony Thyme's Colcannon Cheesy Potatoes with Kale
3/7 Tampa Cake Girl's Asian Salad with Chicken


3/10 The Rowdy Baker's Chocolate Mint Zucchini Swirl Bread
3/11 Cooking from a SAHM's Roasted Tomato Spinach Foccocia with Parm
3/12 Moore or Less Cooking's Lox Me Up and Throw Away The Key
3/13 Hun . . . what’s for dinner? Maple Poached Pear Salad with Walnut Crusted Goat Cheese
3/14 Manila Spoon

 

Pistachio Blueberry Cupcakes with Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting

                                         ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients, Cupcakes (12):
1 stick butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
½ tsp vanilla
3 eggs
½ cup buttermilk
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
¾ cup unsalted pistachios, finely chopped
1/3 cup dried blueberries, chopped
Ingredients, Frosting:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 TBSP butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
3 TBSP heavy cream
1/3 cup blueberry jelly
¼ cup chopped pistachios, for garnish
 
Directions, Cupcakes:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line 12 cupcake tins.
*Beat the butter and sugar. Beat in the vanilla, eggs and buttermilk. Mix in the flour, baking powder and pistachios, then beat for one minute. Mix in the blueberries.
*Divide the batter into the cupcake tins and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the tops spring back to the touch.
*Cool completely.
Directions, Frosting:
*Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth and fluffy. Mix in the powdered sugar just until incorporated. Add the heavy cream and the jelly and beat until spreading consistency.
*NOTE: if your frosting is too thick you can thin it by adding more cream. If it’s too thin, thicken it by adding more powdered sugar.
*Spread or pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. Garnish with remaining pistachios.