Use Your F 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: frivolous ~ fatal ~ fluffy ~ featured ~ final ~ feeble
They were submitted by Diane of On the Border.

                          
What's the matter, Diane? You don't like fudge? It's fuel for the soul. And food you don't have to eat with a fork.

In fact, where's the fish (with fries, please)? Fresh fruit? Figs perhaps?

Now fava beans, I don't blame you for skipping. Thanks to Hannibal Lecter they're officially forgettable, fear inciting.

But there's always fondue. Feta's quite flavorful. If you like dipping (who doesn't) a flowing chocolate fountain is fierce.

What about drinks? It's only fitting we add a few. I favor a frozen frappe? Oh, add some Frangelico, now that sounds fab.

And just to be inclusive, how about some "f" words with international flair, French onion soup, fettuccine, falafel. And don't forget fajitas and frittatas. 

Jeez, wonder why I'm famished. Feeling faint, even.

Luckily, I can feast on today's featured recipe, these fluffy Orange Cinnamon Rolls. 

 

Orange Cinnamon Rolls

Had your fill? I'll bid you farewell (for today, anyway) with my final, frivolous, feeble (but hopefully not fatal), attempt at "f" word domination, let me just say this: I tried to embrace the frightening (but fair) nature of these word choices, Diane, and whether I succeeded or failed, you are still my friend. And that's despite your obvious floccinaucinihilipilification of fudge. Fact.

OK, I admit it, that was fun. 

 

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

 

Climaxed

The Diary of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver 

On the Border 

 

Orange Cinnamon Rolls

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 (1#) loaf frozen bread dough

4 TBSP butter, softened

4 TBSP cookie butter (speculoos)

2 TBSP fresh squeezed orange juice

2 tsp orange zest

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp orange juice

Directions:

*Lightly grease a piece of plastic wrap, enclose the dough in the wrap and refrigerate for 6 hours.

*Whisk together the butter, cookie butter, 2 TBSP orange juice, and orange zest. Set aside.

*Grease a 9 X 13 baking pan.

*Flour a rolling surface, place the dough on the flour, cover the dough with the plastic wrap and roll out to about 16 inches long and 9 inches wide.

*Spread the butter mixture onto the dough. Using one long side, roll the dough all the way up to the other long side, creating a 16 inch long tube.

*Cut the dough into 18 evenly sized piece. Place them, flat side down, into the prepared pan. Gently press down.

*Cover the top of the pan with the plastic wrap, and allow to rise for 4 - 5 hours.

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove the plastic wrap from the pan. Bake for 25 minutes.

*Whisk together the powdered sugar and remaining 2 tsp orange juice. Drizzle over the warm rolls.

Love and Smoothies: Poetry Monday

 

 

 

Poetry Monday's once a week.

I bet you know which day.

I don't participate every time,

But today I've come out to play.

My friends assign each week a theme,

Frozen Yogurt's, what they chose.

Now it's up to all of us,

to put our thoughts into prose.

 

 

Love and Smoothies

 

Valentine's Day rhyming,

I was all set.

But our theme's frozen yogurt?

So here's what you get . . .

 

Roses are red,

violets are blue.

I like frozen yogurt,

well, don't you? 

Roses are yellow,

and violets are purple.

Frozen yogurt in the blender,

I watch it circle.

 

Violets are lavender,

and roses can be pink.

Frozen yogurt can make,

such a yummy drink.

 

Violets are violet,

and roses are white.

A frozen yogurt smoothie,

for Valentine's night?

Pear Ginger Smoothie

 

Violets are mauve,

roses can be peach.

Made frozen yogurt smoothies,

one for us each.

 

Violets are amethyst,

roses can even be black.

If you don't drink that smoothie,

I may take it back. 

 

 

 

Wait!

Read more poetry, 

you're not through.

Some talented writers

are in this crew:

 

On the Border

Messymimi's Meanderings 

Mother Owl 

 

 

Pear Ginger Smoothie Smoothie         

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients: 

2 cups vanilla yogurt

2 medium sized ripe pears

1/2 cup spinach

1 tsp ginger paste

3 TBSP honey

Directions:

*At least 2 hours before blending, cover a small baking pan (toaster oven size) with a lip so the yogurt doesn't leak out, with parchment paper. Spread the yogurt onto the pan and lay flat in the freezer.

*Peel, core, and chop the pears.

*Clean the spinach and pat dry.
*Once the yogurt is frozen, remove from the parchment paper, chop,and place in a food processor with the chopped pear, spinach, ginger, and honey. Blend, then scrape the sides down, blend, scrape the sides down, and continue until smooth.

 

AntiSocial Media: Secret Subject Swap

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This month 3 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: What is one of the biggest problems the internet has created socially?

It was submitted by: Jenniy of Climaxed.

 

 

I want to start with positives. I guess I just like balance.

 

There are a lot of people, especially through blogging, who I never would have met otherwise. And although these social relationships are limited, being online only, they are valuable.

 

I also want to talk a little about all of the negativity I hear about social media posts. They are often criticized, characterizing them as being misleading, as we mostly highlight only the parts of our life we choose to brag about, pretending, is the perception, that we are more perfect than we are, and less real. 

 

First, many people are very real. In fact, the flip side of this coin is that I sometimes get bombarded with TMI posts about body parts or body functions or relationship matters that are none of my business, and I'd like them to stay that way.

 

Second, I have a hard time seeing someone looking to, highlighting, sharing the good in their lives as either negative or not real. I think we all need to spend more time concentrating on those actions or people we're proud of. It's healthy not only for our state of mind, but for our self esteem. 

Now to answer the question. There are many negatives, one of which being that the internet can be a black hole, you can get lost in there, spending time best spent elsewhere. It can, and does, isolate us socially, emboldening many among us to cater to their darker side.

 

 

 

 

The less we look each other in the eye, the more we take a step away from seeing each other not only wholly, but really at all. It is, in many ways, an erosion of humanity. 

 

And adding Covid to the mix just made the whole situation worse. Not only did we need to curtail social functions, but many of the day to day things we did that at the least provided face to face interpersonal interaction, we were all now doing online. Never did I think that I would be able to deal with someone else picking my groceries for me. But I did.

Listen, all I want to do is share a laugh, a love of word games, yes, often express my opinion, and, of course, some recipes. I'm shocked by what some of these anonymous people are willing to say.

 

Butterscotch Crunch Bars

You all know what I'm referring to, either you've seen something similar or you've been the victim yourself. And I do mean victim. Not being face to face makes bullying easier. Fact. 

In a recipe share group, there was a person who went up and down the page leaving insults in the threads of every post. On one, "looks like what I vomit after sex." And although I couldn't help but think how disgusting they were, that one actually made me laugh. I mean, that sex thing? I think she's doing it wrong.

 

Someone with a Google account left a hate filled rant for me. Their name? "Liberals Deserve To Die." Think about that for a minute. A person went to the trouble of opening an account in that name. Some of the words used in the comment: "retard," "bitch," "shut the f*ck up," "fagget" (their spelling). And then "PS: nice recipes."

 

Would they say all that to my face? Maybe. But them hiding behind a "name" not their own makes me think that the anonymity of the internet brought this particular hater (and so many like him/her) out from under their rock.

  

But . . .

Besides the internet itself, the social and the social media aspects, the introduction of Covid into the mix, there's one other important component and that's our own free will. We have the power to shape and define our own online experience.

With that in mind, I'll end where I started, pointing out the importance of balance. 

 

 

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:

Climaxed

The Diary of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver 

 

Butterscotch Crunch Bars         

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 stick butter, melted

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 cup white baking chips

3/4 cup toffee baking chips

1 cup butterscotch baking chips

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup Cinnamon Life, Cinnamon Chex, or Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal

Directions:

*Grease a 9 X 13 baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

*Mix the graham cracker crumbs with the butter, then press into the bottom of the prepared pan.
*Distribute the white baking chips over the crust, followed by the toffee chips, then the butterscotch chips.

*Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the top, then end with the cereal.

*Bake for 30 minutes, until the top is browned and bubbly.

*Cool for 20 minutes. Run a knife around the edges, then cool completely before slicing.