That's a Wrap: 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: You're being interviewed by the local news. Why?
It was submitted by: Rena of The Blogging 911.

Not that I've lead a . . . ahem . . . interesting life, but my first thought was that it could be one of about 20 things. And that's right off the top of my head. Imagine if I thought about it for a while. Or maybe you better not.

My second thought was just "jeez, what the hell have I gotten myself into now?" Because I'd like to say that it's for something good, but you all know me better than that by now.

I'm actually relieved that this is local news. I mean at least I'm not on the national news, got that going for me. And possibly whatever I've done won't get back to my mom on the east coast. 

Perhaps it's for my baking? Naaaa.

Peaches and Cream cake and Sundae

I know! I'm running for office. 

No, not that either. I'm afraid politics in this country has become a blood sport, and I don't like blood. Especially when it's mine.

Here's what actually happened:

In answer to the bell, I opened my door to find a well dressed woman and a man with a large video camera. Behind them, in my driveway was a white car with a big blue "News 8" on the door. 

Me: Can I help you?
Woman: We'd like to interview you for a community story we're doing.
Me: Community story? What story?
Woman: Have you seen our Friday segments featuring people in our viewing area?
Me: The one where people call in to nominate neighbors who have made a difference?
Woman: Yes. You were nominated and will be featured on tonight's newscast.
Me: You don't let people know in advance? I . . . um . . . would have worn something nicer, straightened my hair.
Woman: Someone was supposed to call you, tell you to expect us. Did that not happen?
Me (looking down at my clothes): No.
Woman: Can we come in? I'd like to sit and chat a bit.

I showed them to the den and offered them a drink all while wondering whether, in my ratty old clothes and Rosannadanna hair, I could hope that nobody seeing me would recognize me.

The woman situated herself on the couch while I took the chair opposite her. The camera man found a place to stand off to the side between us where, obviously, he could pan the camera between us.

Woman: I'm Charlotte, the reporter assigned to this series of segments and this (waving her hand to the left) is my camera man, Paul.
Me: Hello. Welcome. 
Charlotte: As I said, you were nominated for your volunteer work at the school.
Me: Me? I can't imagine who would have nominated me. And my boys haven't been in school in years.
Charlotte: Really? That's odd. Was there anything that was noteworthy when they were there? 
Me: Well there was that one time a teacher asked me to cook a turkey for a Thanksgiving celebration. And the time the kids made single cell shaped cookies for science that I was asked to pick up, bake at my house then return to them.
Charlotte: I guess that must be it. Tell me those stories.

We spent a good hour talking about my volunteer work at the school. I was in the middle of another story when my cell phone rang.

Me: I'm sorry Charlotte, can you excuse me for just one minute, it's Kathryn Brandon, my neighbor, she had some minor surgery to her leg, let me just be sure she's OK.
Charlotte (eyes wide): Wait! You're not Kathryn Brandon? 
Me: No, as I said, she's my neighbor.
Charlotte: Isn't this 6243 Grand St?
Me: No, it's 6234.
Charlotte (making a cutting motion across her neck to her cameraman and racing towards the door faster than I thought one could move in heels): Wrong house? I spent an hour listening to stories at the wrong house? We better find the right house NOW or we'll miss our deadline.

And that's it. My five minutes of (redacted) fame. 
Bad news: I'm doomed to end up on the cutting room floor.
Good news: I won't be showing up on TV in my ratty clothes and Rosanne Rosannadanna hair.

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:

The Lieber Family Blog
The Bergham Chronicles 

The Blogging 911
Cognitive Script 
Never Ever Give Up Hope 
Part-Time Working Hockey Mom 
Climaxed
My Brand of Crazy

Peaches and Cream Cake and Sundae      

                                    ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup ripe peaches, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

vanilla ice cream
caramel sauce, warmed
chopped pecans

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8 X 11 baking pan.
*Cream the butter, margarine, sugars and egg. Carefully beat in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
*Gently mix in the chopped peaches and white chocolate chips.
*Pat evenly into the baking pan and bake for 25 - 28 minutes or until the center is completely set and the bars are browned.
*Cool until just barely warm before cutting. 
*To serve, top each bar with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, warm caramel sauce and chopped pecans.
*Store leftover bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

In the Process of Losing

Loss is a subject often discussed. Losing is not.

Loss is a permanent state of depletion. Losing is a prolonged torture. 

I've written about loss before. I don't make any attempt to define it because words are just not enough. Especially when it's new, but even many years later thoughts still have the ability to rip our hearts. Grief, at some level, is never-ending.

There are many kinds of loss. Sudden, no matter when it happens is always too soon. Expected. no less painful. I don't claim that one is better than the other. It all sucks, leaves us changed, in some ways diminished.

When we have had a loss, friends, neighbors, even acquaintances cocoon us. There are social and religious conventions that kick in, they come to our homes, bring meals, join in religious rites, call, text, email, send cards. Our community place their hearts with our as we take those first steps into grief.

Jamaican-Style Grilled Chicken

Going through the process of losing is altogether different: the cancer that took my brother and the Alzheimer's that stole my father were traumatic. On a daily basis. Having to watch someone slip away is nothing short of torture. 

Because when you are in the process of losing, you are actively moving towards loss. You know how this story ends, that agony is ahead. Your brain and your heart scream at you "turn back, don't go there" but the thrust forward is completely out of your control. You cannot turn back. You cannot even stop and catch your breath. 

And during these long, drawn out, devastating times we are not cocooned, we are book-ended. When that prognosis is first delivered we hear words of compassion and encouragement from friends, neighbors, acquaintances. Then, when the journey ends in the eventual loss, we are supported by all of the societal and/or religious rituals of mourning. But in between we frequently walk alone. By alone I mean as a family, of course, but they are as emotionally and physically diminished by the unremitting assault as we are. 

I have a friend, one I've never met, whose young daughter recently went through a year long cancer regime. Let me just say now that this is not a story of losing (well, a lot actually was lost, but not a life), her daughter is currently back home and in remission. But there is a correlation to be made through this example, and it's what got me thinking on these terms to begin with. 

When her daughter was first diagnosed, her family was surrounded with warmth and good wishes, hopes and prayers. And through that lifetime-long year, whenever she posted pictures or updates on social media they were met with an outpouring of love. I am many miles away, but I checked in with her privately on a regular basis, not only to see how her daughter was doing but ask about how she herself was coping. You know what she told me at one point? She said that she appreciated my checking in on a personal level, that I was one of very few who still did. 

I was shocked.

I do understand that when those around us are going through a long term crisis it is hard to reach out to them for a multitude of reasons. First of all, we fear we don't know the right thing to say, or what it's OK to ask. We are afraid of bothering them, that it's not the right time, or that they don't want to be forced to talk about their pain. Second, it brings us absolute terror. We put ourselves in their place and for even that one minute we just cannot deal, even hypothetically.

In many cases it's much simpler. It's that our lives go on, they are hectic and complicated. It's not that we forget what they're going through, we just don't focus on how quickly time flies by for us. But minutes, for them, move at once both excruciatingly slowly and with unbearable speed.

I'm not saying that those suffering through a prolonged period of losing don't have any support outside the family at all, of course they do. But between the diagnosis and the loss, it's not constant and consistent, it's spotty at best. And during this time it is not some level of compassion that's needed, it's all of it.

I have a few other friends, also ones I've never met, who are currently in the process of losing. I am committed to making sure that they are not just book-ended.

Because I now realize that if we have enough of a connection with a family to reach out at the beginning, and we know them well enough to support them in the end, then we should consider making the ongoing effort to be there to help fill the middle.

Jamaican-Style Grilled Chicken

                                                              ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
4 bone in chicken breasts
3 TBSP vegetable oil
2 TBSP Jamaican jerk marinade
2 cloves garlic
1 TBSP brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Directions:
*Rinse chicken and pat dry. Place chicken pieces into a gallon sized resealable bag.
*Mix together all of the remaining ingredients. Pour into the bag with the chicken and massage to be sure that all of the pieces of chicken are completely coated. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to overnight, turning the bag now and then.
*Heat the grill to medium and grill the chicken, turning once, until the chicken is fully cooked and the juices run clear.

The Answer to Evolution is Cake Balls

When it comes to the question of evolution, the answer is cake balls. Always.

I have to tell you that the perpetual question of what came first, the chicken or the egg, has always been a fascination. Much time and energy has been spent trying to figure this one out. Like a Rubik's Cube it was part fun, part challenge, all interspersed with exasperation. I mean, how can there be a chicken without the egg, but how can there be the egg without the chicken? One of them had to have come first, but how can that be? Often I hear a one word answer "G-d". But that is not enough of an explanation for those of us dominated by our logical side.

I recently read that there is an actual scientific answer to the whole chicken and egg puzzle and honestly, it was a let down. I always thought I wanted to know, that perpetual curiosity is frustrating. Turns out I was wrong. The answer ruined the question.

But for me, it's not what came first anyway, it's where it went from there. The reconfiguration from good to better to best. Ask not where it began, ask just how very far it can go.

Mocha Cinnamon Cake Balls

When it comes to my Mocha Cinnamon Cake Balls I can easily tell you what came first, the cake. Actually I can follow the blood line even further back than that. It's genesis was the drink. In the beginning I created the Chata Iced Coffee. One taste and I saw that it was good.

Next came the cake. Yes, I could have left it at that (not really), but how to have more of it without walking around all day with a drink in my hand? After all, what would the neighbors think? 

It took a day for the idea to fully form, and another to bring it to fruition. If the drink is good, Coffee and Cinnamon Cake Squares are even better (if I do say so myself, and I do). And the evening and the morning were the third day.

And on the fourth, and fifth day we ate cake.

Here's the thing about cake, though. It requires a plate and a fork. When we had demolished about half of it, I realized how much easier my life would be if this cake were more portable. Think less dishes, less crumbs on the floor, more "pop in your mouth".

On the sixth day I created balls.

And I saw what I had made and behold, it was very good. 

As much as the family loved the cake, the cake balls were . . . well . . . the balls. I mean take a drink, interpret it into a cake, then roll it into a ball and cover it in chocolate? Just when you thought it couldn't get any better and whoomp, there it is.  

And on the seventh day, I rested. 

Mocha Cinnamon Cake Balls

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com 

Printable Recipe

NOTE: This recipe calls for 1/2 of the recipe for my Coffee and Cinnamon Cake Squares. To make ahead, make the cake squares recipe and serve half of them as cake squares. With the other half of the recipe, follow directions below. When the balls are frozen, put them into a sealable bag in the freezer and leave there up to a month or until ready to make these cake balls.

Ingredients (makes about 30):
1/2 recipe of my Coffee and Cinnamon Cake Squares (including frosting) click HERE for recipe
1/4 cup chocolate syrup

12 oz dark chocolate chips 
3/4 cup chocolate jimmies (sprinkles) 

Directions:
*Place the cake squares (half of the full recipe), including the frosting, into a large bowl. Drizzle the chocolate syrup over the top and mix well.
*Roll into 3/4 inch balls. Place on a pan in the freezer and leave for about 2 hours or until hard. NOTE: To make these later, place the balls into a sealable plastic bag and leave in the freezer for up to a month.
*Place the sprinkles onto a small plate. Melt the dark chocolate chips in the microwave, at 15 second intervals, until they are completely smooth when stirred.
*One at a time, press a toothpick into each of the cake balls, dip in the melted chocolate, press the top into the sprinkles, place on parchment paper, gently remove the toothpick and allow to set before serving.