Grocery Games from the Couch

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 Me!

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 Grocery Games from the Couch.

 

~ There's Guy's Grocery Games, then there's mine. Guy's winners get ten thousand dollars. My prize is . . . way less.

 

~ I don't run down aisles with a kiddie sized cart, in fact, mine is played from my couch.

 

~ But I do still buy some of my groceries online for pick up. It's quicker, safer and easier.

~ But no more absurd ingredient substitution game. Seems oregano in place of cinnamon just doesn't work. Who knew?

 

Toffee Crunch Cinnamon Donuts

~ Sometimes I win. Fifty dollars a pound for chicken wings, I got four pounds for thirteen dollars. SCORE!

~ Strategy hint, don't just look for what ingredients, pay attention to cost. Avoiding twelve dollar frosting? Another win.

~ Read the ingredients! Don't buy fig jam made with pee . . . unless you want fig jam made with pee . . .

~ And sometimes I lose. Couldn't find fresh squash anywhere (why?). Stealing from someone's garden would be cheating, right?

~ Finally gave in, took a chance buying frozen. And what's in the bag wouldn't fill a cavity. LOSE!

~ Going to apply for Guy's games. Maybe if I win ten thousand dollars I could afford some zucchini.

Here are links to the other Word Counters posts:

On the Border 

Messymimi’s Meanderings 

 

Toffee Crunch Cinnamon Donuts        

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes 12 donuts): 

5 TBSP butter

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup cinnamon baking chips

1/3 cup toffee baking bits

1 cup milk

3/4 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

4 TBSP butter

1/8 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup toffee baking chips

Directions:
*Melt 5 TBSP butter and set aside.

*Grease 12 donut pan wells. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

*In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, the cinnamon baking chips, and 1/3 cup of the toffee baking bits.

*In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, ,vanilla, and eggs. Add the wet ingredients and the melted butter to the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.

*Spoon evenly into the prepared donut pans and bake for 10 - 12 minutes, just until the center springs back to the touch, don't over bake. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes before running a knife around the edges and removing.

*Using a food processor or clean coffee grinder, chop the remaining 3/4 cup toffee baking chips to fine crumbs. Place in a bowl.

*Melt the remaining 4 TBSP butter in a bowl and mix in the remaining 1/8 tsp cinnamon. Dip the top of each donut first in the butter, then in the toffee chips.

Side Effects: 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:  fall ~ depression ~ sneeze ~ tiny trash can ~ pen needles
They were submitted by Sarah of What TF Sarah.

                          

Last month I used my Use Your Words prompts for a fun challenge to my readers that I called Speculation. I wrote a story studded with hints and asked that you guess the character's profession. There were 16 guesses in total, and 2 people got it right. I have to admit that I had a lot of fun with that post.

If you didn't read it, or my addendum to the post in which I divulge her profession, please click on that link in the paragraph above ↑ and check it out. It's a really short post, but sort of a prequel to today's piece, where I give you a glimpse into that character's life:

 

As much as she loved her job, the diversity and the autonomy, she also had to admit that it had profoundly jaded her, permanently skewed the way she thought. She wasn't just skeptical of the people around her, it was much more than that, her mind could turn any mundane daily experience into a conspiracy. It was a side effect of the job, plain and simple. And it was a job she'd not just chosen, but honed, one that had provided her with a home, car, any needed equipment, and a lifestyle of comfort. Comfort, yes. Relaxation, never.

 

 

 

Because, although she rarely took dangerous assignments, it's nonetheless a fact that any job she agreed to take could become dangerous. You don't always see that component coming, but you'd also be naive to not be on high alert whenever working. Call it a side effect, so to speak, of the job. Danger could insert itself when you least expect it.

 

And that high alert bleeds into everyday life. Vigilance, hyper vigilance in her case, cannot easily just be turned on and off as if there's a switch in her brain. She found that her safety, on rare occasions even her life, could depend on her not turning it off when in what could easily be perceived as a non-threatening situation. It had become second nature, even when she wasn't working, even when she was in the most benign of everyday situations. She found that she no longer had the option of taking that heightened alert mindset and chucking it into a tiny trash can in her brain. 

This morning, for instance, when stopping for a snack on the way to her appointment, she couldn't help but study that Blackberry Cheesecake Bar she'd ordered. That glassy looking top with little depressions, was she sure no one had doused it with Rohypnol?

Blackberry Cheesecake Bars

 

She continued putting herself in these situations, quite deliberately. The alternative, never going to a coffee shop, or a bar or restaurant, could make her not just vigilant, but unable to function on a personal level. She needed to have a life, do errands, enjoy time out with friends, go on dates. So she went to that coffee shop, and she thoroughly enjoyed her treat.

On to the next stop, her appointment. Despite not being on the job, on any job at the moment thanks to falling and twisting her ankle on her last job, she carefully, stealthily, catalogued the room she sat in and the people in it. Hearing a sneeze, she turned, knowing that could easily be a diversion method, or a signal to a co-conspirator. 

 

No reason to be alarmed, the sneeze came from a baby. 

 

Turning her head back towards the front of the room, she heard a crash, another of her diversion triggers. Had she not been turning that way already, she wouldn't have caught a glimpse of the cause of the noise. Back behind the desk someone had tripped, sending a tray clanging to the floor. Her view obstructed by the desk, she couldn't see what had fallen off of that tray, but in the split second before the fall, she was sure she'd seen pen needles! In her line of work, just like conventional weapons or stun guns, needles signaled imminent danger.

Fight or flight, it was a life saving instinct, and hers was well developed. Despite the swelling in her ankle, she jumped up, ready to leave. It was just then that she heard her name called out from the front of the room.

"Come on in," the nurse said, "the doctor will see you now."

 

 

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 

 

Blackberry Cheesecake Bars

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup blackberry jam

12 oz cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup vanilla yogurt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2cup sugar

2 eggs

6 oz blackberries, halved

OPT: 3 TBSP blue sanding sugar

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 13 baking pan.

*Cream the butter, 1 tsp vanilla, and almond extract. Mix in the powdered sugar and flour to form a dough. Press the dough into and just a little bit up the sides of the prepared pan. Refrigerate.

*Beat the cream cheese, yogurt, remaining vanilla, and sugar. Beat in the eggs, then gently mix in the blackberries.

*Remove the crust from the refrigerator and spread the jam evenly onto the crust. Add the cheesecake filling over the jam and spread evenly. Sprinkle with the sanding sugar.

*Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool completely. Refrigerate for 1/2 hour to set before slicing. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Going Grey

 

 

 

Poetry Monday's once a week.

You may have guessed, it's each Monday.

I don't participate every time,

But today I've come out to play.

My friends assign each week a theme,

Cats is what they chose.

Now it's up to all of us,

to put our thoughts into prose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cats

 

Options viewed that morning but

no decision had been made.

Stopped at the salon to talk,

stylist always comes to my aid.

 

Sat down in Jenna's chair as she,

began to cut my hair.

Started through the options so,

my decision she could share.

 

"Now blond," I said, "is pretty

but standoffish, don't you think?

Of course, not ruling anything out,

I'd go there in a blink."

 

"Red is just so playful,

ginger's such a favorite of mine.

So that's another option 'cause

that color's so divine."

 

"Black is without any doubt,

dramatic, don't you think?

Although rumored to be bad luck, I

love that deep dark color of ink. "

 

"White is not my first choice but

I feel guilty saying so.

And admit there's so much beauty in

that first white winter snow." 

 

Jenna stopped my cut and said,

"let's get coffee and a snack.

I think you need to take a break.

We'll decide when we get back."

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Scones

 

 

"Wait! One more! Let's not forget,

my final choice, it's grey,

So pretty with blue eyes, I think,

perhaps I'll go that way."

 

The woman one chair over got

my attention with a wave.

"Sorry for interrupting but,

you should go grey, it's just so brave."

  

First shocked I then began to laugh,

as I turned to her to say,

"Not hair color we're deciding but

which cat to adopt today."

 

 

Wait!

Read more poetry, 

you're not through.

Some talented writers

are in this crew:

 

On the Border 

Messymimi's Meanderings 

Mother Owl 

 

 

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Scones        

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients: 

3 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 TBSP baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 stick butter, chopped

6 oz fresh raspberries, halved if they're large

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips 

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk, divided

1 tsp vanilla

 

2 TBSP butter

 

Directions:
*Place parchment paper onto a baking sheet.

*Add the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and 1 stick of chopped butter into a food processor. Pulse a few times until crumbly. Move to a bowl.

*Mix in the raspberries and mini chocolate chips.

*In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, 1/3 cup of the milk and the vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated. Add only as much of the rest of the milk, if needed, just until the dough is moist. You don't want it wet.

*Turn the dough onto a floured counter, flour your hands and knead a few times just until the dough holds together.

*Move to the baking sheet and gently form a rectangle approximately 9 inches long by 6 inches wide. Cut the width in half and the length into 3 equal pieces. You'll have 6 rectangles, cut each into 2 triangles. Gently move the pieces apart a bit.

*Place the baking sheet into the refrigerator for 1/2 hour.

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

*Melt the remaining 2 TBSP butter. Brush onto the scones. Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Serve warm.