Thanks Requires Respect: 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 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:

On the Border 

Messymimi’s Meanderings 

Italian Style Cornbread

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
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.

Snowstorms, Salubrity and Smoothies

'Tis the time of year for gifts. Well, it's the time of year for a lot of things not gift related, of course, like family and friends and parties and beliefs and traditions and compassion and charity. 

But it's still undeniably the season for gifts, both giving and receiving, and I've been fortunate enough to have been on the receiving end of quite a few lately. Three, in particular, are on my mind today. Not quite as symbolic and consequential as gold, frankincense and myrrh, but meaningful to me nonetheless.

third gift
pictured with ingredients for my Apple Pie Eggnog Milkshake

First, it was just a month ago that I was able to have my youngest home for Thanksgiving. It would have been enough just to have him here, but the way it all played out was a gift, and I would have been heartbroken if it had gone any other way. The circumstances, the perfect storm (pun intended, as it turns out), all the stars miraculously aligning in such a small window of opportunity is the only reason he was on that flight.

Originally he wanted me to fly him home on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as he wasn't taking Tuesday off from work. For some reason, I don't even know why, I happened on a flight on Tuesday night at 9pm. With the time change, he'd arrive at about 11pm our time. He could work Tuesday, he's a little under an hour drive to the airport and, knowing the Denver airport is always a nightmare, had just successfully gone through the TSA preapproval process. I booked it.

Unless you're living under a rock, or even if you are, you know what happened next. A storm of epic proportions had other Thanksgiving plans for those in the Denver area. It started on Monday and by Monday night his flight was on waiver (they would allow him to rebook another day without a fee - but there weren't any flights available on Wednesday). I thought that since the snow was supposed to stop on Tuesday between noon and 2pm, his flight actually had a chance of getting out. He checked in.

Tuesday morning PurDude woke up to 18 inches of snow. The highways around Denver were closed for hours overnight due to accidents and hundreds of flights out of Denver were canceled. PurDude lives in Boulder but works in Louisville and when I talked to him he was still at home. He said that he'd try to get to the airport but I didn't want him driving. I looked into the bus schedule between Boulder and the airport but by the time I got the schedule to him he had already driven to work, (which is about 10 minutes closer to the airport), had been told (thank you, coworker) of a lot near the airport where he could reserve a spot for his car and be shuttled to the airport. He was going to try to drive there. 

Colorado is fantastic about clearing their roads, and the snow did stop around 1pm but between all the traffic and the windy conditions I still didn't like the thought of him on the roads. And he would have to leave early, to get from the parking lot to the terminal, and even with the TSA preapproval, the lines just to check your bags at Denver can be 4 hours long and could be much longer with so many people in them trying to rebook their missed flights. I told him, more than once (OK, more than 10 times), that if he started out and felt in any way unsafe that he was to get a hotel room and go back home the next morning. Nothing, nothing, mattered more than his safety. Even having him here.

I sat on my couch shaking, literally shaking, while he drove to the airport. Bless you, Colorado Department of Transportation, for (even after 20 inches of snow) pretty clear roads. There was no line to check his bag, he sailed through TSA and was at the gate about 4 hours early. Where we found out that the flight coming in that he'd be taking out had left 2 hours late.

Fingernails were bitten to the quick as his flight was delayed, and over the next 4 hours moved up and back and all over the place. Finally, 1/2 hour late he boarded and was one of the few who actually got out of Denver on Tuesday. A holiday miracle.

The second gift I'm grateful for is an important one but still comes second to having had my son here. It's my health. I've talked 'til you're all rolling your eyes about having had the shingles for pretty much all of October and to the third week of November so I don't need to go into detail. Turns out it was just a week before Thanksgiving when I was finally feeling well, could even wear a bra again (although in the balance sheet of pros and cons, I'm not sure where that one falls). 

I consider myself lucky to have been healthy for our family Thanksgiving, but right after that, probably because my immune system was so low, was when I came down with the flu. A pretty much completely lost two weeks later and I was starting to feel myself again. Just in time for Chanukah. I'm grateful. Again.

Third is a blender. No, that's not a typo, I said a blender.

This blog gets email offers and solicitations constantly. Most all of them have a catch. I'm either supposed to be honored to write for web sites for free or promote products or add (free advertising) links to my posts. I'm offered link filled (again, promotion for them) guest posts and even food or items in exchange for my promotion (which I will never agree to in case my assessment is negative). Most of the emails are immediately deleted. A few times, after careful vetting, I've accepted.

I almost deleted the email in October offering me a free KitchenAid #K400Blender. I could promote my own recipes using the blender or not, my choice, but I didn't have to agree to anything. Yeah, right. Except the email was from Yummly, a recipe search engine website I am a member of and, it turns out is owned by the same parent company as KitchenAid. I finally decided to follow through and just before Thanksgiving, there it was, pretty as can be, my brand new (and yes, totally free) blender. Within a day I had made a delicious Apple Pie Eggnog Milkshake (I'll be sharing the recipe next Tuesday), and since this blender is strong enough to double as a food processor, I next made Red Pepper and Spinach Hummus.

As I'm now making my way through the eight nights of Chanukah, prepping for a Christmas day feast and working on my New Year's Eve menu, I'm grateful for many things: the gift of the memories of a Thanksgiving with the family under one roof, the gift of my health, and the gift of a blender that makes a breakfast smoothie a quick, delicious and healthy treat. Just when I need it.

Basic Mixed Fruit Smoothie

Whatever you celebrate, I wish you all a magical holiday season. I wish you the joy of being surrounded by your family, I wish you good health, and I wish you gifts that make your life easier.

Basic Mixed Fruit Smoothie        
                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes 2):
16 oz frozen pineapple, strawberry, peach and mango fruit mix (can substitute any frozen mixed fruit)
1 cup apple cider (can substitute apple juice)
5 oz orange cream yogurt (can substitute any flavor)
1/4 cup eggnog (can substitute milk)
2 - 3 TBSP honey 

Directions:
*Place all ingredients except for 1 TBSP honey into a blender. Pulse and then blend until smooth.
*Turn off the blender and taste with a spoon. Adjust consistency and flavor:
Add ice if you prefer a thicker consistency.
Add honey if you prefer more sweetness.
Add eggnog or milk if you prefer more creaminess.
*If you've added anything, blend again briefly.

I'm Thankful I Swear

It's November and you know what that means, right? The month of thankfulness is here. No need to be thankful year round, we've got a month for that.

Truth is, we are thankful year round. Most of us fully appreciate our blessings. When things are tough we look to the good days and when things are good we breathe a sigh of grateful relief.

But I do love having a time of year when we remember to express our thanks for all things large and small that make our lives fuller, happier.

In this spirit, as we begin November and I count down the days until I get my arms around PurDude, hopefully cast and crutches free but honestly any way I can get him, I've made a list I'd like to share. Some of the smaller, less frequently mentioned things I'm grateful for:

Kaopectate.

Slowest checkout clerk on the planet - how else would I know (thank you lady behind me talking on your cell phone loud enough to wake the dead) that you can get herpes if someone with a cold sore sneezes near you. This is important information, people.

chicken Feet - because if you make the mistake of going to the grocery store hungry and want to buy everything, one look at a package of chicken feet is the cure. PS: although I no longer wanted to buy everything, or even anything, I do wish I had thought ahead and brought a barf bag in my purse.

Chicken Feet (again) - for making me laugh while I gag. Apparently these were originally called "Chicken Paws" and priced accordingly. They didn't sell. New strategy: lower the price and call them "Chicken Feet". Way more appealing. Now I want them.

Allergies - 'Cause really, where's the challenge in being able to breathe?

commercials - How else would I know how to handle my prolapse, erectile dysfunction, varicose veins, dating dilemmas, vaginal dryness, body odors . . . I know people walk away during commercials but pay attention folks, there's valuable information here.

Thanksgiving Cheese Ball Appetizer

Note: No chicken feet were used in the making of this recipe  

Swears - Swearing relieves stress. I don't know why but it's true. Angry? Aggravated? Let out a good loud F**K and already I'm feeling better. My boys are old enough now, there's nothing I can say that they haven't heard. So, like taking an aspirin for a headache, I'm letting 'em rip. And I'm enjoying the f**k out of it.

Speaking of swears:

Kim Davis - You can talk to kids and talk to them and talk to them about right and wrong, about obligation and integrity and sure, some of it gets through. But show them one good example of how destructive bigotry can be and you don't need to say another word.

And speaking of relieving stress:

"The" Donald - It's a proven fact that laughter is good for you. And knowing that I can count on someone being there each and every day to say something that will make me laugh is a gift for which I'm thankful.

Got anything to add to my list?

Thanksgiving Cheese Ball Appetizer

                                                                        ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
16 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1 TBSP dried onion flakes
1/3 cup apricot jam 
OPT: 1 TBSP orange liqueur
1/2 cup cranraisins
1 cup pumpkin seeds, shelled

fruits, vegetables and crackers for serving

OPT: red pepper slices for garnish
OPT: oval shaped crackers to fan out as the turkey feathers for presentation

Directions:
*Beat cream cheese, cheddar, onion flakes, jam and orange liqueur together until well incorporated.
*Reserve 2 cranraisins for the "eye" decorations, if you choose. Mix the rest of the cranraisins into the cheese mixture.
*If you want to make a turkey "snood", cut 2 fairly thick slices of red pepper. Shape into "snood" on a piece of plastic wrap and fill center with about 1 tsp of cheese mixture. Top with a few pumpkin seeds, carefully cover and allow to set in fridge until serving.
*Roll the rest of the cheese mixture into a ball and place in fridge for at least one hour or until serving.
*When ready to serve, roll the cheese ball in pumpkin seeds, add the reserved cranraisins for eyes, place the snood on the platter under the cheese ball and fan the crackers out behind the cheese ball to look like feathers.
*Store leftovers in fridge.