Which Word: 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 18. 
It was chosen by Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings!

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 Word.

 

~ To say I chose the theme "word" is misleading, I didn't. In retrospect, I should have chosen . . . something.

 

~ Mind blank, I turned to College Boy, eating his breakfast. "Look around," I said, give me a word.

 

~ He'll pick something, nature based I assumed, "I'll write about it in eighteen word snippets," I thought. Easy.

 

~ "Word," he said.

"What kind of inspiration is that?" 

"You said to pick a word. I did, word." 

~ "I meant to pick a word I can write about, like (looking out the window) green, or sky."

 

Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

 

~ "I include recipes in my posts so you could even have picked "blueberry" or "cinnamon" or "breakfast" or . . ."

 

~ "Using words and writing about them are two different things," I whined, continuing to make my case.

 

~ But once he's got me, he knows he's won a game he wasn't even aware he was playing.

 

~ "I quit. You beat me at my own game. Word? I can't write a whole post about word."

~ "Word," he responded.

"So, wait, are you saying "word" meaning okay? Or "word" meaning word's still the word?

~ Walking away laughing, I shouted after him "you're evil."

"I Learned from the best," he replied, winking.

"Word."

 

Here are links to the other Word Counters posts:

On the Border 

Messymimi’s Meanderings 

 

Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 tube (8 count, 12 oz) refrigerated cinnamon rolls

1/4 cup blueberry jam

1 TBSP brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup blueberries

2 TBSP cream cheese, room temperature

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8 inch pie plate. 

*Set aside the icing that comes with the rolls.

*Cut the cinnamon rolls in half lengthwise. Set the tops aside. Place the bottoms in the pie plate.

*Whisk together blueberry jam, brown sugar, and cinnamon, then mix in the blueberries.

*Dollop the blueberry mixture into the centers of the rolls in the pie plate, then add a cinnamon roll top to each. 

*Bake for 20 minutes.

*While the rolls are baking, whisk the icing with the cream cheese.

*Once cooked, remove the rolls from the oven, drizzle with the cream cheese icing.

The Lime Tree Blossom Blues: Use Your Words

 

 

 

 

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: lime-tree blossom ~ unlimited ~ residential ~ steep ~ seamless ~ championship They were submitted by Tamara of Part-time Working Hockey Mom.

 

 

 

Hold on a second, be right back, have to go google "lime-tree blossom".

 

OK, got it. So, basically, a juvenile lime tree flowers but doesn't grow fruit. After it flowers and the flowers die, there's an interval of a few years before the tree reaches maturity, at which time it can then bear fruit. I'm not sure what your thought process was for picking this as one of the prompts Tamara, or how you knew about the life progression of a lime tree to begin with, but to me it seems as though parallels could easily be drawn between that lime tree life cycle and humans. 

 

It could be that my view of the progression of tiny humans is a little skewed, blurred by time perhaps. But like the lime-tree blossom, our children are beautiful perfection in our eyes. We look back at pictures and see laughs and fun, first foods and first steps, first trip to the beach and the park, a time of blossoming.

I'm willing to bet those lime trees don't produce an unlimited bounty of dirty diapers, endless crying jags and sleepless nights . . . but through a lens of love, we see the beauty.

However, between the flowering stage and reaching some level of maturity there is a steep (parental) learning curve. Yes, the well planned, but completely naive, dream of familial bliss in a quiet, peaceful residential setting can blow up in your face. Literally. House set on fire (OK, an imaginative interpretation of a school assignment but jarring nonetheless),

 

 

my car set on fire (for reals),

 

broken legs,

 

 

many, many, many, many late night flat tires,

 

 

 

missed (obliterated) curfews, jumping out of windows, falling out of windows . . . And let's not forget the bills: sports and lessons, cars, insurance (and tires), tuition, and the ever-growing food bill.

 

 

Alouette & Gnocchi Filled Portobellos

As the saying goes, life is not a bed of roses (or even lime tree blossoms). The years of that achingly slow growth between flowering and maturity can turn a mama's hair grey and spawn (yes, I used that word deliberately) a fairly permanent eye twitch.

I should have given birth to a lime tree.

 

{{Sigh}}, the road to this point has most certainly not been seamless. But we made it. I wouldn't say unscathed, but we're here, we have reached the championship. Maturity. Productivity. I can lower my bills, color my hair, and get rid of that annoying tic. Right? 

 

Oh, did I tell you that I recently got a late night frantic, terrified (and terrifying) call from one of the boys? He'd just totalled his car.

 

{{twitch, twitch}}.

Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:

On the Border 

Wandering Web Designer 

Climaxed 

What TF Sarah 

Part-time Working Hockey Mom 

Alouette & Gnocchi Filled Portobellos

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups gnocchi

4 TBSP olive oil divided

1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, cut in half

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped red pepper

salt and pepper

1 package (6.5 oz) Alouette Garlic and Herb Cheese

4 Portobello mushroom caps

2 TBSP dried chives

Directions:

*Boil the gnocchi for 2 - 3 minutes. Drain well and place into a bowl and cover to keep warm.

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking pan.

*Heat 2 TBSP olive oil in a saute pan over medium high heat. Add the tomatoes, onion, and red pepper, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring now and then, for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and add the cheese. Stir until the cheese starts to melt, just about 2 minutes.

*Add the tomato mixture to the bowl with the gnocchi. Mix together gently, don't break the gnocchi.

*Brush any dirt off of the mushroom caps. If there is a stem stump, carefully remove and discard them, then drizzle the mushrooms with the remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

*Place the mushroom caps, gills side up, into the prepared pan. Spoon the Alouette/gnocchi filling into the centers of the portobellos, sprinkle with the chives. Bake for 20 minutes.

Bound: Best Friends Poetry

 

 

 

Poetry Monday's once a week.

You may have guessed, each Monday.

I don't participate every time,

But today I've come out to play.

My friends assign each week a theme,

Best Friends Day, they chose.

Now it's up to all of us,

to put our thoughts into prose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Bound

 

 

"I often wonder," I said one day,

"how we can be best friends.

When thinking about our differences,

the list just never ends."

"Like you're a staunch conservative,

I'm liberal through and through.

Our viewpoints could tear us apart,

it's happened to more than a few."

"And faith is a defining point,

religion's a priority for you.

I too am grounded by beliefs,

but you're Christian, I'm a Jew."

"You're comfortable in any crowd,

outgoing, all the way.

Me, I'm more an introvert,

don't quite know what to say."

"You're scattered, don't know how you find,

pretty much anything at all.

When it comes to organizing, I'm the queen,

messy truly makes my skin crawl."

 

"Procrastination's your middle name,

though you always get things done. 

I'm compelled to complete my tasks,

before I'm able to indulge in fun."

 

Trail Mix Cookie Bars

 

 

"You always try to diet and,"

I went on, "I always bake."

"Your friendship," (pun intended here),

"it truly takes the cake."

 

Heard me out, from start to end,

and here was her reply: 

"differences, they matter not,

love and respect binds you and I."

 

 

 

 

Wait!

Read more poetry, 

you're not through.

Some talented writers

are in this crew:

On the Border 

Messymimi's Meanderings 

Mother Owl 

 

Trail Mix Cookie Bars

                                                              ©www.BakingInATornado.com


Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 tube (16.5 oz) sugar cookie dough

1 bag (14 oz) trail mix (without candy included)

1 cup Reese's pieces or peanut butter M&Ms

3/4 cup fruit flavored mini marshmallows

1 can (15 oz) sweetened condensed milk

Directions:
*Grease a 9 X 11 baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

*Press the sugar cookie dough into the bottom and partially up the sides of the baking dish.
*In a bowl, mix together the trail mix, Reese's pieces or peanut butter M&Ms, and mini marshmallows. Pour evenly over the cookie dough.

*Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the trail mix. 

*Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature before cutting into bars.