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: purpose ~ get a grip ~ compound ~ perimeter ~ rescue ~ track
They were submitted by Tamara of Part-time Working Hockey Mom.
I bake. A lot. Perhaps you know that. I started this blog, in fact, because I was sharing food pics on FB and people were asking for recipes. I have to admit that although that was what got me thinking about starting a blog, it was the push from a few friends, and my own agenda, that pushed me to jump off this particular cliff.
I had teenagers at the time. No need to pity me now, I survived it (with a whole lot of grey in my hair but I'm still breathing, so there's that). But this blog and the distraction it provided is without a doubt part of what rescued me. Through humor and creativity, I was able to get a grip on some pretty stressful times. Yes, by just avoiding them, at least for a part of the day, but it mattered. A lot. The writing, running of challenges, graphics creating, recipe developing, picture taking and editing served its purpose, distraction, just allowing my mind to be somewhere else for a chunk of the day.
Distraction is something most of us do in some way or another, it's about self-preservation. But this is especially true for those like me who have an extreme level of anxiety running through our family trees. There always has to be a way to either release or escape the stress on a regular basis. Like when College Boy lights my car on fire, or PurDude falls out a window at his frat and breaks a leg. You know, those kinds of kid-induced stresses.
There are those who run. Not as in away, as in a circle around a track over and over again. Truth is, exercise does get those endorphin levels up, helping alleviate stress. When the boys were little, I had a double stroller and I'd walk/run them 4 miles a day through the neighborhood. We'd talk and sing and, in fact, that's how they learned their phone number. At a very young age, I made a song of the number (no, it's not 867-5309, didn't even use that song) and we'd sing it over and over so if they were ever in a situation where they needed help, they could tell an adult how to get hold of their mom.
So although I could do a 4 mile walk/run, once they had broken the second double stroller I'd bought, forcing me to admit they were just too big for that situation, I stopped going. First, I couldn't leave them at home and second, I needed the talking and the songs to keep me going. It just wasn't the same alone. And there are no mountain trails here, nor beaches to walk {{sigh}}.
Next I turned to reading. It was, and remains, a love of mine. If you knew me at all back then IRL, you know I'm skipping over my shopping phase and jumping right over to reading here. Yes, I admit it. My name is Karen and I'm a shopaholic. In my defense, we'd sold our house and bought a much bigger one. The single guy who bought our last house also bought most of the furniture from me. So really, compound interest be damned, I could either shop or we could sleep on the floor. Of course this doesn't explain the decorations and tchotchkes and all, but I could say I was just creating a pretty environment for the family. The fact that the family could care less about pretty was not even on the perimeter of my thought process back then. But the reality of the situation is that despite how much I enjoyed this distraction, once the house was furnished and decorated, it was done (although many years later my youngest son got his first apartment which I furnished and decorated in one rather exhausting weekend. It was fun though, you can read about it and see the pictures here: Home with an H.
So on to reading which, although it was a good escape, didn't allow me to be creative at all. I needed more than just books (yes, I can see some of my avid reader friends shake their heads at this blaspheme, trying to figure out what more than books a person might need). Finishing
a book is not the accomplishment that creating a recipe and seeing the
boys' eyes light up (well, and all those of all the other kids who
started coincidentally stopping by at snack time).
Pear and Apple Galette
My
mom bakes. In fact, at any family event she was always asked to bring
dessert. Or multiple desserts. And she never disappointed. So maybe
along with that anxiety, there's also a baking gene somewhere in my DNA.
I'm nowhere near as good, but it sure did serve multiple purposes as
the boys were growing up. And really brought so many people into my life
through this blog. I am eternally grateful.
These days I'm a semi-empty-nester. Actually, a revolving-door-er. They come and go and although I'd love to have my younger son closer, I do appreciate that when he's here, it's for chunks of time during which I get to see him living in his childhood room, something that makes me infinitely happy. Other than when the boys are around, recipe development and interpretation has taken on a whole new purpose. With Hubs' gallbladder acting up, I've had to learn to shop and cook and bake completely differently. Functionally, at a time when I thought I'd be cooking and baking less, he's provided me with the challenge necessary to keep me blogging through the anxiety and aggravation and sky high stress of the trump debacle and the coronavirus. Don't tell Hubs, but as unhappy as he is with that gallbladder, I'm thinking I owe that particular bile storing organ a debt of gratitude.
Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:
Pear and Apple Galette
©www.BakingInATornado.com
Ingredients:
1 refrigerated pie crust (half of a 2-crust package)
1 apple of your choice (I prefer Braeburn or Honeycrisp)
1 ripe Bartlett pear
1/4 cup apricot jam
3 TBSP apricot brandy (can substitute orange juice)
2 TBSP brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
OPT: whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for serving
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the pie crust on a piece of parchment paper so it's about 12 inches in diameter. Move the crust, on the parchment paper, to a baking sheet.
*Whisk together the apricot jam, apricot brandy (or orange juice), brown sugar, and cinnamon. Using a pastry brush, paint about half of this mixture onto the crust.
*Peel, core and slice the apple into thin pieces (approximately 24 slices). Core and slice (you can peel also if you prefer) the pear into thin pieces (approximately 16 slices). Fan out the fruit, alternating between pear and apple slices (it'll work out to about 2 apple slices, the 1 pear slice then 1 apple slice then 1 pear and repeat) in a circle about 1 inch from the edges, then fan the remaining slices around the center to cover the crust. The center slices will overlap some with the edge slices).
*Fold the 1 inch edges over the fruit. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven but leave the oven on. Drizzle with the remaining apricot jam mixture, sprinkle with the walnuts and bake for another 15 minutes. Serve warm.
