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 39.
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've chosen the theme Respect, and its relationship to Thanksgiving.
~ I'm not going to talk about Thanksgiving, directly anyway. The holiday, how we currently interpret the meaning of Thanksgiving, has evolved over the last four hundred years, mostly because the story has been, I'm sure, white washed (pun intended).
~ The holiday celebration has become difficult. Covid put a damper on our ability to be together. And food prices make the meal itself a challenge. But a thankful meal with our loved ones is a blessing that remains unchanged.
Italian Style Cornbread
~ But to be truly thankful requires more than one meal, one day, and cannot be limited to our own inner circle. And I'm not sure we're capable of much more. Because I don't think thankfulness can exist without respect.
~ Do we respect honesty? Did we have a president tell thirty thousand blatant provable lies while in office? Then stole secret documents? Can a man who claims that parents of dead children are lying possibly have thousands of supporters?
~ Do we respect privacy? Or are we just human fodder for marketers, overwhelmed by phone, door, text, email campaigns? Is our information sold? Can they access to where we go? On the internet, even physically? Marketed to? Or stalked?
~ Do we respect other's freedoms? Is antisemitism skyrocketing, people of color being further marginalized? Are there those who want to mandate who we can be attracted to, how we make our health decisions, based on manipulating one religion's tenets?
~ Do we respect consumers? Do merchants expect us to stand in line, be scrutinized checking ourselves out, just to give them our money, then expect us to prove we did it without cheating on our way out the door?
~ Do we respect medicine and science? When millions of people are dying, do we heed our doctors? Vaccinate? Mask? Social distance? Any of the above? And I'm not talking about questioning. Questioning is healthy. Verbally attacking, threatening, is not.
~ Do we respect our planet? Do we protect our ecosystem? Do we recycle? Or leave trash on our beaches and in our parks? Have we been working to slow down the climate countdown clock? Or has it actually been accelerating?
~ Are we, at this point in history, with a society that has evolved (or devolved) to who and what we are today, capable of respect? Capable of giving, sometimes at our own detriment? Are we truly capable of thanks?
Here are links to the other Word Counters posts:
Italian Style Cornbread
©www.BakingInATornado.com
Ingredients:
1/2 stick butter, softened
1/2 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup Garlic and Herb butter spread
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp Italian seasoning
4 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup chopped pepperoni plus 6 slices
1/4 cup sliced pepperoncini
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 13 baking pan.
Whisk together the softened butter, butter spread, sugar, and Italian seasoning. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
*Add the cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, chopped pepperoni, and the peppperoncini slices and mix well.
*Mix
in the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt until completely
incorporated. Pour into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Top with the
sliced pepperoni.
*Place
in the oven, turn the temperature down to 300 degrees and bake for 50
minutes. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Cut into 12 squares, run a knife
around the edges to remove from the pan.
