Can't Just Go: Escape Poetry

February, dark and cold,
leafless trees, sad to behold.
Even Valentine's a day of love,
can't these dreary feelings shove.

Monthly Poetry Group considered all,
this was our resulting call:
when it comes to February in prose,
Escape is the theme that we all chose.

But my poem today isn't about the weather.

Can't Just Go

"Escape" it said,
voice in her head.
"Go laugh, have fun,
you need to run."

"Escape" it said,
voice in her head.
Stop being naive,
I can't just leave.


"Escape" it said,
voice in her head.
Can't just dismiss,
signed up for this. 

"Escape" it said,
voice in her head.
But I can't go,
needs me to grow.

"Escape" it said,
voice in her head.
Just eats sweets without me, 
I'm no longer free.

Big Heart Cookies

"Escape" it said,

voice in her head.

Though tempted to run, 

she loved her "bun".

"Escape" it said,
voice in her head.
"Hang in" thought she,
he'll soon be three.

Before you go, click on these links to more poetry from some of my friends:
Dawn of Spatulas on Parade shares The Great Escape. 
Diane of On the Border shares Escaped.
Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares Escape the Madness.

Big Heart Cookies  

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes 12 large cookies):
1 stick butter,room temperature
1 stick margarine, room temperature 
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg 
2 tsp strawberry extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 TBSP red colored sugar
2 - 3 drops red food coloring

Directions:
*Cream together the butter, margarine and both sugars. Beat in the egg and strawberry extract. Mix in the flour, baking power, salt and red colored sugar, then use your hands to form into a dough.
*Place the dough onto plastic wrap and flatten to form a disk. Wrap the dough completely and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to 2 days.
*Cover baking sheets with parchment paper.
*Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut out 12 hearts with a large heart shaped cookie cutter. Using a small heart shaped cookie cutter, cut and remove a small heart from the center of each cookie and set aside with the excess dough. Move the large hearts to the baking sheets and refrigerate.
*Add 2 - 3 drops of red food coloring to the remaining dough, form a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Roll out this dough and, using the small heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out 12 hearts. Place these into the center of the large cookies, gently manipulate them with your fingers so they fill the entire space, and return them to the refrigerator.
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
*Remove the baking sheets from the refrigerator and bake for 15 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheets before removing to cool completely.

Nutella King Cake: Mardis Gras Blog With Friends

Today’s post is the next in our series of Blog With Friends themed collaborations. Each month a group of bloggers get together and each publish a project based on a theme. What I love about his 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 a recipe, sewing tutorial, crocheting, crafts project, book review, and/or technology post all related to the theme of the month.

This month's theme is Mardi Gras.

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 my version of a King Cake.

Nutella King Cake

I think Mardi Gras may be my spirit animal. Name a day Fat Tuesday, celebrate it by eating rich, fattening foods with reckless abandon, observe it publicly with parades and costume balls and parties and dancing in the streets? Sign me up.

King Cake reigns supreme for Mardi Gras. It's basically a filled, baked dough that is baked or fried, topped with a glaze and decorated with gold, green and purple colored sugars. A little plastic toy "baby" is baked into the cake and whoever gets that toy in their slice is supposed to be lucky. To me, skipping a trip to the dentist is lucky so I'm going to leave the it out. 

And that's not the only way I'm breaking with tradition. If you know me, you know that yeast and I are mortal enemies. I say "do what you're supposed to do" and it says "not a chance." So I'm making my King Cake starting with a frozen dough. My version is basically a giant braided glazed cinnamon roll. Works for me, hope it does for you. 

I start by defrosting a 1# frozen bread loaf, which I cut in half. I make my filling. 

Then roll out each piece of dough separately and slather them with my filling.

I roll them up, 

entwine them and allow to rise. 

Then bake.

While baking, I make the glaze.

Cool the Nutella King Cake slightly, drizzle with the glaze and sprinkle with the colored sugars.

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

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!

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

Kia of The Ground Beneath My Feet shares Let the Good Times Roll!

 

Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares Carnival in the Spanish Classroom. 

 

P.J. of A 'lil HooHaa shares Masks and Beads and Food and Drinks, OH MY!

 

Melissa of My Heartfelt Sentiments shares Jazz it Up!

 

Jules of The Bergham Chronicles shares Find the Baby.

Nutella King Cake

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 loaf (1#) frozen bread dough
3/4 stick butter, softened
1/3 cup Nutella
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup powdered sugar 
1 tsp vanilla
purple, green and yellow or gold colored sugars

Directions:
*Encase the dough tightly in greased plastic wrap and defrost in the refrigerator. You can do this overnight.
*Grease a baking sheet and the bottom and sides of a clean metal can. Mix together the butter, nutella, brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
*Unroll the dough and cut in half. Flour your counter and rolling pin. Roll each half out separately between pieces of wax paper to about 18 inches long by 7 inches wide. 
*Carefully spread the Nutella mixture onto each sheet of dough, leaving about 1/2 inch on the long sides. Roll each up tightly.
*Entwine the 2 dough ropes together and move to the baking sheet. Form them into a circle and pinch the ends into each other to hold. Place the greased can in the center and allow to sit for 2 hours. 
*Fully line the lower shelf of your oven with tin foil as the cake may leak while baking and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
*Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Carefully slide the cake onto a platter and remove the can.
*Mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla and about 4 tsp water until your topping is of drizzling consistency. Drizzle over the warm cake. Sprinkle the purple colored sugar in one section, then the green, then the gold and repeat so the bread has 6 sections of colored sugar, two of each.

We're Havin' a Party: Secret Subject Swap

Welcome a Secret Subject Swap. This month 9 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. Read through mine and at the bottom you’ll find links to all of today’s other Secret Subject participants.

My subject is: Unbeknownst to you, your friends are planning a party to celebrate you! They need to pick one song to start the party with. What do you think they'll pick and why?
It was submitted by: Minette of Southern Belle Charm.

Before I start let me just say that if you don't recognize a single song in this post, it's because your "the rest is still unwritten" is obviously longer than mine (yes, that's my way of saying I'm old). We can still be friends, just don't rub it in. Like the first thing that comes to mind, a song sung by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Bet you've never heard of them, we're "Havin' a Party." But as much as I love that song, it's too generic, nothing says MY party.

As for the theme song for MY party, it's easier to say what they wouldn't (dare) pick. Well, to start with anyway. I'm guessing they won't go near, with a ten foot pole as they say, what I had come to think of as my theme song back in the day. I can remember driving in my car, windows and sunroof open, hair flying in my face, radio turned up to an ear splitting level, wondering when exactly Elton John had met me while singing along:

"I'm a bitch. I'm a bitch. Oh, the bitch is back.
Bitch, bitch, the bitch is baaaaack."

So no, I'm guessing they'll stay away from that one.

But what would they pick? "That's What Friends are For"? "You've Got a Friend"? "Thank You for Being a Friend"? All good choices I suppose, but a little too cliche, and not really the way to start a party. My kind of party anyway.

They may consider one of my all time favorite songs, Desperado:

"It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you.
You better let somebody love you.
You better let somebody love you.
Before it's too late."
 
No, a little too melancholy, not exactly situation appropriate.

How about a song about food?

Lady Marmalade: "Voulez vous coucher avec moi, ce soir."
Brown Sugar: "Brown sugar, how come you taste so good?"
Pour Some Sugar on Me? "I'm hot, sticky sweet, from my head to my feet."

Nope, none of those are about me. Or about food apparently, for that matter.

Peppermint Chocolate Swirl Ice Cream, No Churn

Or drink?

If they're my friends, they know I've wasted away in a Margaritaville or two. But I don't like Jimmy Buffet (sorry) and it's been years since I've not been able to find my shaker of salt.
 
"Red red wine you make me feel so fine.
You keep me rockin' all of the time."

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a dance fanatic. But I'm not doing much "Dancing in the Street" these days. Or "on the ceiling" either for that matter.

I've got it! The perfect start to a party about friendship, a reminder of where we've been and all that's to come. Dye your hair before attending, friends, channel your inner Cyndi Lauper and sing along with me:

"Girls just wanna have fun.
Oh girls just wanna have fun.
They just wanna, they just wanna . . ."

I know you didn't ask, but for the end of the party? Another Southside Johnny song:

"I know that it's getting late 
but I don't wanna go home.
I'm in no hurry baby time can wait,
I don't wanna go home."


Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Spatulas on Parade 
Wandering Web Designer 
Part-time Working Hockey Mom 
A 'lil HooHaa 
Southern Belle Charm 
Climaxed 
Sparkly Poetic Weirdo 
 Medicated Musings

Peppermint Chocolate Swirl Ice Cream, No Churn

                                                              ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe


Ingredients:

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp peppermint extract
2 cups heavy cream
25 red and white peppermint hard candies (like starlight mints)
OPT: red food coloring
6 TBSP chocolate syrup

Directions:
*Line a 9 X 5 loaf pan with an extra long piece of plastic wrap, so the inside of the pan is covered and the plastic wrap hangs over both sides. Place in the freezer to cool.
*Crush the mints in a food processor until you have pea sized or smaller pieces.
*In a large bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk, peppermint extract and candy pieces. You can add a few drops of red food coloring if desired.
*Beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks hold. Fold the whipped cream into the condensed milk mixture.
*Remove the loaf pan from the freezer. Pour about 1/3 of the ice cream mixture into the pan. Drizzle 2 TBSP of chocolate syrup over it and, using a toothpick, swirl into the ice cream mixture. Repeat this step 2 more times.
*Freeze for about 6 hours (best if left overnight). Store in the pan with the long ends of the plastic wrap folded over the top.