Short and Clear: Freedom Poetry

Freedom is the theme,
Monthly Poetry Group chose.
Choosing it was easy,
not so, doing it justice in prose.

But here it is another month,
and again I'm going to try,
to write about a July theme,
as American as Key Lime apple pie.

Short and Clear

Gonna keep this
short and clear,
it's up to you if
you want to hear.

"Let freedom ring"
throughout the land,
but here's the thing
we must understand.

Don't fool yourself,
we are not free,
unless it's equitable
among all we see.

Freedom does not
pick and choose, 
that's not the intent
of our red, white and blues.

Black or white,
yellow or green
freedom cares not if
you're straight or Queen. 

Bigotry and biases
have no place,
equality lives
in freedom's space.


That's all I've got
short and clear,
it's up to you if
you want to hear.

Key Lime Parfait (low fat and sugar)

Before you go, click on these links to more poetry from some of my friends:
Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares Cost of Freedom. 
Diane of On the Border shares When Freedom Isn’t.

Key Lime Parfait (low fat and sugar)

                                                         ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes 4):

1 box (1 oz) sugar free Cheesecake instant pudding mix
8 oz fat free cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup Key Lime juice 
1/2 tsp lime zest
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup fat free or 1% fat milk
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup crushed ginger snap cookies
about 8 TBSP Redi Whip
4 lime slices for garnish
OPT: 2 drops green food coloring

Directions:
*Beat the pudding mix, cream cheese, Key Lime juice, lime zest, honey, brown sugar, and milk until smooth.
*Sprinkle 3 TBSP graham cracker crumbs into 4 glasses or glass bowls. Top with 1/4 cup of the cream cheese mixture.
*OPT: add 2 drops green food coloring to the remaining cream cheese mixture.
*Gently sprinkle with the ginger snap crumbs, followed by the remaining cream cheese mixture. Top each with 1 TBSP of graham cracker crumbs.
*Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
*To serve, top each parfait with about 2 TBSP of Redi Whip and garnish with a slice of lime.

 

Wild Side: April Poetry

Sometimes, when we're choosing a theme for our monthly poetry and we don't want to go with the quintessential representation for that month, we google things like "silly April celebrations". That's what happened this month and let me tell you, there were some really interesting subjects we could have gone with. Turns out that tomorrow is both Walk on Your Wild Side Day and Blame Someone Else Day. Quite honestly, this seems like a perfectly symbiotic pairing, but we needed to choose just one. There wasn't any lose here, both would be fun challenges. That said . . . I lost. Walk on Your Wild Side won out by one vote.

Actually I'm glad it did. This was fun.

Wild Side

Life is short, 
we hear them say.
Find your joy,
live for today.

But right and wrong,
we're raised with rules.
Walk on my wild side?
Do I have the tools?
   
Safety matters, 
manners too.
Don't play in traffic,
or talk about poo. 

Find my wild side,
do I dare?
Drive a race car?
Parachute through the air?

Wait . . . 

Maybe just start
with one baby step.
A trial run,
like "wild side" prep.

So . . .

Walk on my wild side,
it's my new goal.
That's it! Tonight
I lick the bowl!

Sorry, Mom.

Mandarin Brownie Parfait with Nutella Whipped Cream

Before you go, click on these links to more poetry from some of my friends: 

Maja of 12personalities12 shares Earned Wilderness. 

Dawn of Cognitive Script shares Walking Wild. 

 Diane of On The Border shares Really Wild.

Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares Wild Child. 

 Jenn of Sparkly Poetic Weirdo shares Wildly Cautious. 
Sarah of My Brand of Crazy shares The Wild Ride.

Mandarin Brownie Parfait with Nutella Whipped Cream        

                                    ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes about 4):
1 can mandarin oranges, well drained
1 stick butter
2 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 TBSP orange liqueur
2 eggs
3/4 cups flour
dash salt
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 TBSP powdered sugar
3 TBSP nutella

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 X 8 baking pan.
*Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave until smooth when mixed. Mix in the sugar, then the orange liqueur. Whisk in the eggs, then add the flour and salt. Spread into prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven, cool completely and cut into about 16 pieces.
*Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and nutella. Beat until firm.
*Assemble the parfaits. Place a few mandarin oranges in serving dishes. Top with the brownie pieces, another layer of oranges and then dollop with the whipped cream.

It's Spring

It's Spring! It's Spring!

Spring started 54 hours ago. Finally! And I should know, I've been counting down the months since Fall. OK, I've been counting the weeks . . . ummm days . . . alright, the hours. Not the minutes, I swear. Even I don't have that kind of time on my hands.

And I bet I'm not alone is saying that I love Spring. In fact, let me be the first to give this season a warm welcome (get it? warm? no? lame? OK, never mind). What exactly do I love about this Spring? Let's see . . .

Spring is coming out of winter hibernation with all that extra weight. No, that's not it.

Spring is coughing, sneezing and itchy eyes. Not that either.

Spring is spiders climbing my leg while I sit outside. Umm, no.

Spring is sinking into mud as the snow melts into my lawn. Not this one.

Spring is putting on capris for the first time and blinding the neighbors with the whiteness of my skin. No, that's not it.


Spring is cooking out without slipping on the ice on the porch. That's better.

Spring is running out barefoot to grab the paper from the driveway and not having my skin freeze to the concrete. Getting there.

Spring is blasting the car stereo and driving around with the windows open so I can share my mad singing skills. Closer.


Spring is buying ice cream again. Exactly.

Spring is picking out flowers for my pots. YES!

Spring is wearing sunglasses. There's another one.

Spring is that flip flops beat boots any day.Word.

Spring is Spring Break. Bingo!

Speaking of Spring, I developed this recipe with warmer weather in mind:

Banana Split Pie and Parfait

Banana Split Pie and Parfait

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
2 cups finely diced walnuts
3 TBSP melted butter
4 TBSP brown sugar

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 TBSP powdered sugar

vanilla instant pudding mix
2 cups milk, divided
1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapples, drained well but reserve juice

2 bananas
 
strawberry creme instant pudding mix
6 strawberries, cleaned, hulled, chopped


chocolate syrup
maraschino cherries
multicolored jimmies (sprinkles)

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
*Mix the diced walnuts, melted butter and brown sugar. Press into bottom and just barely up the sides of a springform pan.
*Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
*Beat the heavy cream 1 minute. Add the powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks hold. Remove about 1/3 of the whipped cream and place in a plastic bag in the fridge for decorating the top of the pie.
*Whisk the vanilla instant pudding mix with 1 cup of milk until it thickens. Mix in the drained crushed pineapple. Fold in about 1/2 of what is left of the whipped cream. Pour evenly into the pie crust and refrigerate 1/2 hour.
*Slice the bananas into thin slices. Dip in the reserved pineapple juice. Place the slices on top of the vanilla pudding layer.
*Whisk the strawberry creme pudding mix with 1 cup of milk until it thickens. Mix in the chopped strawberries. Fold in the remaining whipped cream.
*Layer the strawberry pudding over the bananas. 
*To serve right away as a parfait: Spoon the pie into a large glass dish. Be sure the crust comes out last so the toasted nuts are on top. Drizzle chocolate syrup over the pie, pipe with the remaining whipped cream. Garnish with maraschino cherries and multicolored sprinkles.
*To serve as later as a pie: Freeze at least 3 hours or until hard. Carefully remove side of springform pan, drizzle chocolate syrup over the pie, pipe with the remaining whipped cream. Garnish with maraschino cherries and multicolored sprinkles.