Rebuild and Recharge: 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: stomping ~ music ~ screaming ~ brown leaves ~ green grass. They were submitted by Dawn of Cognitive Script.

                          
The brown leaves gave way to bare trees and, like it does every year, winter arrived. Shaking my fists and stomping my feet (and that's even before they were snow covered) I railed against the cold and the ice and the snow, but still, as I knew it would, it came.

Today, for the fourth glorious day in a row, I'll walk past the beautiful, vibrant emerald green grass, over the bridge and onto the beach. Waves lapping is music to my ears I'll walk barefoot with my tootsies in the gulf, eyes peeled for some of my favorite shells: conch, spiral, and of course the elusive sand dollars. I'll feel the sun on my sunscreen covered shoulders and sigh, as I always do as I head towards Tigertail beach, or the other direction, towards the Marriott.

My mindset switches to content here, my soul is nourished. The sun, the beach, the salt air, it all does that. I'll be back here this afternoon with my boys and a beach chair but for now I just walk. And breathe. Grateful that the island is still here. Battered and bruised but here.

picture taken by cousin Mira Dee

In September Hurricane Irma hit this beautiful little island head on. Smacked it silly. Streets were flooded, homes and businesses destroyed. Never in my life have I seen a bare naked palm tree and I hope to never again.

picture taken by cousin Mira Dee

She will carry her scars, but the beauty of this island will live on, and for that I am eternally grateful. Because, it turns out, I need her. I realize that every time I return and walk this beach. Just as this island is making her way back to her best self, she lifts me up to my best self.

Tonight after a dinner of fresh fish, we'll sit on the deck with a cocktail (Pina Colada for me, thanks), my mom and my sons and I, and watch the big red glorious sun slowly sink into the Gulf. If we're lucky, a pod of dolphins will show themselves just before dusk takes one more day of heaven on earth away.

Pina Colada Popcorn

In 6 short, way too short, days I will say "good-bye" to my mom and to my younger son, to this glorious island, and get on a plane and head back to the land of the coats and gloves and scarves. And although I know I must go, chances are College Boy will have to drag me onto that airplane, kicking and screaming.

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

Bookworm in the Kitchen 
On the Border
Cognitive Script
 The Bergham Chronicles
Southern Belle Charm
The Blogging 911
Part-Time Working Hockey Mom   
Climaxed

Pina Colada Popcorn

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
3 TBSP salted butter
1 tsp of rum extract
2 tsp grenadine syrup
1/2 cup chopped dried pineapple
about 12 cups Kettle Corn (sweet popcorn)

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the coconut flakes on a baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake until it just barely start to brown, about 5 minutes. Remove immediately and set aside to cool.
*Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl. Stir in the rum extract and the grenadine.
*Place the popcorn in a large bowl. Drizzle half of the butter mixture over the popcorn, mix well, add the rest of the butter, mix well. Last, mix in the toasted coconut and dried pineapple.

March Madness: March Poetry

Once again this month our poetry group got together to pick a theme. I have to admit that I was surprised when we chose March Madness. The truth is, though, that although sports come to mind, turns out there's so much more madness that happens in the month of March than college sports. 

I'm currently going through withdrawal. Oh how I miss the Olympics, I think I watched every minute of it. I'm not a sports fan, I'm a team fan, if my team's not playing I'm not interested. Except during the Olympics. Watching these young athletes chase their dreams, and win or lose showing character is uplifting. I'm hoping to see the same level of sportsmanship this month. 

But as I said, there's more to March than basketball. Here's my take on the theme:

March Madness

What is this madness I hear?
Lose an hour of sleep, I do fear.
But the first day of spring,
that can sure make me sing.
It's a day that I truly hold dear. 

Put away that damn blower of snow,
the lawnmower not yet needs to go.
But dust off that grill,
sip Berry Sangria and chill.
Good-bye winter, my erstwhile foe.
 
And vacation, let's not forget that,
On the beach with my book and a hat.
The boys by my side,
and Mom to confide,
My idea of pure bliss, yeah, true dat.

St. Patrick's Day, a day of luck,
chasing rainbows for a buck,
Irish whiskey and green beer,
traditions I personally hold dear,
A day that's always been epoch.

"March Madness" brings one thing to mind,
no, not allergies though I'm resigned.
A court and a ball, 
dribbling, shooting and all,
brackets done and the seeds are assigned.

Not a sports fan, then it's true,
this March Madness thing's just not for you.
But we'll watch frozen in one place,
we got a horse in this here race,
Hammer down, Boiler Up! Go, Purdue!

Be sure your family settles in for a day of basketball watching with a full stomach. Start your day with these Breakfast Nachos:

Breakfast Nachos

Before you go, click on these links to more poetry by some of my friends: 

Dawn of Cognitive Script shares Mad as a Hatter. 
Jules of The Bergham Chronicles shares Mad, Mad World. 
Diane of On the Border shares Mad March.

Breakfast Nachos

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 of a 24oz bag frozen waffle fries
1 cup chopped Canadian Bacon
1 packet dried Hollandaise mix along with the butter and milk specified on the packet directions
2 TBSP butter
4 eggs 
1/3 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 green onion, sliced
1 cup spinach
1/4 cup shredded cheddar

Directions:
*Cook the waffle fries according to package directions.
*Wrap the Canadian Bacon in tin foil and place in a warm oven. You want to warm it, not cook it.
*Prepare the Hollandaise according to package directions.
*Whisk the eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Heat the butter in a saute pan and add the eggs and green onion. Scramble until completely cooked.
*Place the waffle fries on a serving dish. Top with the Canadian Bacon, then scrambled eggs, then the spinach and cheddar. 
*Drizzle Hollandaise over the top and serve. 

Shamrock Breakfast Treats: Rainbows Blog With Friends

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

This month's theme is Rainbows.

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 Shamrock Breakfast Treats.

Shamrock Breakfast Treats

I actually had a bit of a hard time with this post. First, I had already published four years ago, my Lucky Rainbow Cookies. 

I even wrote a funny story in that post about a Leprechaun who found my cookies and used them for . . . well . . . pants.

So a cookie was out for this project. Plan B, I'll do a cake. Nope. Tamara had already signed up for a Rainbow Cake. 

Good thing there are a lot of letters in the alphabet, I may need them for this project. OK, Plan C. Thinking it through again, focusing on the fact that St. Patrick's Day is just a few days away, I decided to go with the shamrock. 

Turns out it's good I'm not making a cake after all, as, a year after the Rainbow Cookies post, I continued the story of Lucky Leprechaun and included the recipe for a Creme de Menthe Shamrock Cake. BTW, I realized when looking at shamrock pictures for this project that shamrocks actually only have three leaves. I'd made a Creme de Menthe Four Leaf Clover Cake, not shamrock cake. Oops, my bad.

In order to keep with the theme here, I need to be able to incorporate rainbows. Desserts (and pants) pretty much covered, I decided to go in a completely different direction, breakfast. I'd make Shamrock shaped cinnamon roll treats and I'd use colored sugar to make them the colors of the rainbow.

This is a really simple recipe, using packaged cinnamon rolls both for quick baking since they're a breakfast, and for the ease of starting with a "cheat".

I rolled out the dough between waxed paper to between 1/4 inch and 1/3 inch thickness and cut out small hearts to use to make the shamrock leaves.

 
On parchment paper already placed on the baking sheet, I formed the dough shamrocks using the hearts and then rolling scraps for the stem.

I brushed with butter, added colored sugar and a small candy pearl to the center of each shamrock. I used five different colors and made one multicolored.

They puff and rise when they bake. I let them cool for a few minutes, then thinned the icing provided and drizzled over the cooked treats. If you use a long spatula and remove from the baking sheet carefully, they will stay together. If not, just reshape on the plate. Enjoy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Wishing you luck that's more of the "end of the rainbow" type (which I'm actively aspiring to, myself) and less of the "Murphy's Law" type (which is, sadly, my current streak).

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:

Tamara of Part-Time Working Hockey Mom shares how to make a Rainbow Sheet Cake. 

Jules of The Bergham Chronicles shares Rainbow Colored Glasses, affordable rainbow items that can be bought to add color to your life. 

Dawn of Spatulas on Parade shared Rainbow Muffins and Sprinkled Treats. 

Melissa of Heartfelt Sentiments shares how to Color Your World with handmade cards.

Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares how to find the beauty in the midst of chaos, Finding the Gold.

Be sure to stop by again next month for more theme based projects.

Shamrock Breakfast Treats

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

NOTE: I use a small heart shaped cookie cutter to form a shamrock for St. Patrick's Day but you can make them any shape and incorporate any colors for other occasions.

Ingredients:

1 tube refrigerated cinnamon rolls
2 TBSP butter, melted
1/2 tsp each of 6 different colored sugars (can use multicolored also)
6 candy pearls or mini M&Ms

1 TBSP milk

Directions:
*Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Set aside the icing packet that comes with the rolls.
*Roll all of the dough into a ball. About 1/4 of the dough at a time, roll between 2 sheets of wax paper to about 1/4 to 1/3 inch thickness.
*Using a small heart shaped cookie cutter, cut hearts out of the dough until you have 18 hearts.
*On the parchment paper, use the hearts in threes to form shamrocks, attaching at the points. Repeat until you have 6 shamrocks. 
*Roll the remaining scraps into a thin log. Cut 6 pieces and curl below shamrock, attaching at the tip of the hearts to form a stem.
*Using a pastry brush brush all of the shamrocks with melted butter. Sprinkle each with a different color of baking sugar. Place a candy pearl or mini M&M into each where the stem meets the hearts.
*Bake for about 12 minutes or until they puff and barely start to brown. Allow to sit on the baking sheet for 2 minutes.
*Place the icing into a bowl. Whisk in a TBSP milk to thin it a bit. Drizzle over the shamrocks. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes. 
*Remove from the baking sheet with a large flat spatula and they should stay together. If not, reassemble on plates.