Moonlight Moonshine: 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,

Moonshine's what they chose.

Now it's up to all of us,

to put our thoughts into prose.

 

 

Moonlight Moonshine

They'd been together forever,

she and her handsome young man.

Surely they would marry.

someday . . . when they can.

They talked about it in general,

not seriously, not quite yet,

the economy was difficult,

with money, they'd need to be set. 

But she was getting impatient,

would it ever be the time?
She'd marry him in a minute,

didn't care if they lived on a dime.

One day he broached the subject,

at least that's what she thought.

With his words he had convinced her,

and engagement ring he'd bought.

"I have something to tell you,

a decision that I've made.

It's about our future, and I

hope you won't be afraid."

"I have dinner (and dessert) for us,

then later, by moonlight,

I've someplace special to take you,

been working to make it just right."

 

Butterscotch Biscoff Dessert (no bake)

 

Holding hands, they walked together,

through the woods on that dark night.

Doubt began to niggle at her,

this just didn't seem quite right.

"Close your eyes," he told her,

when a clearing they could see,

She knew that when she opened them,

he'd be down on one knee.

"Look, no more money worries."

Her eyes opened to what . . . a still?

"Moonshine, that's the answer," he said,

" . . . though I wouldn't drink that swill."

Shock doesn't even describe it,

this is definitely no wedding vow.

"Hand me one of those cups," she said.

"I think I need some now."

 

 

 

 

Wait!

Read more poetry, 

you're not through.

Some talented writers

are in this crew:

 

On the Border

Messymimi's Meanderings 

Mother Owl 

 

Butterscotch Biscoff Dessert (no bake)         

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe


NOTE: This dessert soft sets, so it works well served scooped out with a spoon as an option to slicing.

Ingredients:
1 box (3.5 oz) butterscotch cook and serve pudding mix

1 1/2 cups milk

5 TBSP cookie butter

2 TBSP butter

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

10 Biscoff cookies

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow creme

OPT: whipped cream for serving

Directions:
*Whisk together pudding mix and milk in a microwave safe medium sized bowl. Microwave on high for 6 - 8 minutes, whisking every 2 minutes, until it comes to a boil. Set aside for 20 minutes, vigorously whisking every 5 minutes.

*Crush the Biscoff cookies and set aside.

*Lightly grease an 8 X 11 baking dish.

*Melt the butter and cookie butter. Mix with the graham cracker crumbs until it holds together. Press into the bottom of the prepared dish and refrigerate.

*Lightly coat your beaters with non-stick spray. Beat together the softened cream cheese, marshmallow creme, and about 2/3 of the crushed cookies, then beat in the pudding mix. 

*Pour evenly into the crust. Sprinkle the remaining cookie crumbs around the edges of the filling. 

*Cover the pan (not touching the filling) with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before slicing or scooping to serve.

*OPT: serve topped with whipped cream. 

*Store leftovers, covered, in the refrigerator.

No Scream Lemon Blackberry Ice Cream

 

I scream, you scream . . .

Oh hell, it's August, in case you didn't notice, it's too damn hot out to scream. Or do pretty much anything else, and I'm a summer person. But being land locked has taken a whole lot of the fun out of summer. Days at the beach are not an option.

But cold dinners, frozen cocktails, and refreshing desserts, those are all great summer options.

Before I go on, I should tell you that I'm not a use every pan in the kitchen and take all day to cook or bake kind of person. Quick, easy, minimal clean up is usually the way to go.

Maybe I'm traumatized. I had a boy friend, just after college, whose mom was Italian. He didn't cook, but decided one day to make me some of her recipes, a big Italian dinner (yay). I offered to help, but he pushed me out of the kitchen, told me not to come back while he was cooking. He'd cook, if I wanted to help, I could do the dishes. OK.

Or not OK. I didn't see him for the rest of the entire day. And don't get me wrong, dinner was delicious, but the clean up? He used every pan in the kitchen and some I didn't even know I had. There was food dripping from the wall, hanging from the ceiling, covering the floor. 

I think it was about seventeen hours later (I may be exaggerating a tad), when I had my kitchen at least somewhat back to functional.  

Fine, so maybe not traumatized really, more inspired (yeah, let's go with that). 

It was at that time that there was a show on TV called Semi-Homemade Cooking. I loved the concept. I'm neither a foodie nor a snob, if there's an easier, less messy, reduced clean up way to cook, I'm in. It's not always about the process (although I admit that sometimes it is), it's about the taste.

Maybe, like me, you're someone who's taken a cake mix and enhanced it to make it your own, more moist and flavorful. You can substitute butter or milk, or add extra eggs, sour cream, yogurt, pudding, fruits, nuts, baking chips . . .

Anyway, all of this came full circle for me on one recent hot summer day. Everyone wanted ice cream after dinner, but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. Actually, I couldn't find anything close to what I wanted.

No need to scream. 

I, like so many others, have made a number of flavors of no churn ice cream. When Little Debbie and Hudsonville collaborated to make ice cream but did not initially use my favorite snack as one of their flavors, I did it myself. My Fudge Rounds Ice Cream is still a popular recipe and family favorite.

But on this day, I was hot and tired. I didn't want to do a lot of work, create a lot of clean up, or take a whole lot of time. That's when I realized I could take inspiration from that cake mix. I didn't need to start from scratch. 

I'd enhance.

Lemon Blackberry Ice Cream

 

And that's exactly what I did. I grabbed some vanilla ice cream, that's my cake mix here. Just two other ingredients would make that base ice cream a whole new treat. Fifteen minutes to prepare, one bowl used, an hour in the freezer, and that's it. 

Delicious, if I do say so myself (and I do).

Let them eat cake? Hell, yeah, I'm all for it. But don't forget the Lemon Blackberry Ice Cream.

Lemon Blackberry Ice Cream         

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 (48 oz) carton vanilla ice cream

12 lemon cream sandwich cookies

3/4 cup seedless, sugar free, blackberry jam

Directions:

*Place the ice cream in a large bowl on the counter for about 10 minutes to soften.

*Chop the cookies. Once the ice cream has started to soften, mix the cookies into the ice cream.

*Pour the jam over the ice cream and using a knife, cut the jam into the ice cream.

*Place the ice cream into the freezer for at least an hour. Store, covered, in the freezer.

Ban Balance Sheet

 

Inflation has hit the Constitution. What was once the Bill of Rights is now chump change. Devalued. Deliberately.

And as if that's not enough, its rights and protections have been compromised by those exact people we put in charge of safeguarding what is at the very core of our system.

We all know that the preamble to the constitution specifically states that we are all created equal, and that we all have the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Further, and this is critical, that our government was created with the clear mandate of protecting those rights. 

That is no longer what's happening here. Our government is now in the business of targeting segments of our society to deny their right to life (women medically unable to sustain pregnancies), limit their liberties (abortion, gender affirming care), and pursuit of happiness (allowing businesses to discriminate, limiting access to information in schools). Acting in clear opposition to their directive. Overstepped their bounds. By a lot.

Although this desecration of our rights, this dismantling of freedom, started with an orange man, and is now lead by the orange state, it's sweeping through this country like a contagion.

 Orange Quick Rolls (no yeast)

 

To better view the direction in which we've headed, to more clearly see the juxtaposition between freedom and authoritarianism, I've prepared a ban balance sheet. Some instances are federal, others are sweeping through the states:

~ Banned: teachers saying "gay."

  Not banned: politicians lying in office.

~ Banned: dressing in drag in public (ie: wearing a dress, wig, jewelry, and makeup). 

  Not banned: wearing speedos in public.

~ Banned: forgiveness of student loans.

  Not banned: companies owned by members of congress took $14 million in Covid relief funds.

~ Banned: women's reproductive rights (abortion),

 Not banned: men's reproductive "rights" (Viagra).

~ Banned: crossing state lines for an abortion.

  Not banned: shipping immigrants across state lines.

~ Banned: access to books.

  Not banned: access to guns (conceal carry).

~ Banned: affirmative action from leveling the playing field for disenfranchised minorities.

  Not banned: whitewashing slavery. 

~ Banned: offering water to citizens standing in line in the hot sun waiting to vote.

  Not banned: armed random people monitoring ballot boxes.

We're the ATM, this is all supported with our taxes. So, profit, loss, or break even, what is the return on our investment?

Supreme Court approval rating: 40%

Americans who support some further level of gun control: about 87%

Americans who support abortion: about 62%

Americans who support LGBTQ+ rights: about 80%

Let's be realistic. The goal is not an untenable nirvana. For a balanced, effective government, when it comes to legislation, we will all sometimes fall into the minority, and other times find ourselves in the majority. Negotiating towards balance is required to make a diverse nation like ours function.

But the clear majority of Americans disapproving of the self-serving choices of politicians over the best interest of our citizens diminishes all that the constitution sets out to ensure.  

Our government is no longer paying dividends, and we are not invested in our own future.

Orange Quick Rolls (no yeast)         

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp orange zest

1 1/3 cups orange Greek yogurt

1 TBSP orange juice

1 TBSP sesame seeds

Directions:

*Cover the bottom of a baking pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

*Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Flour a kneading surface with 1/3 cup of this mixture.

*Whisk the orange zest into the remaining flour, then mix in the yogurt. Turn out onto the floured kneading surface and knead for 5 minutes. It will come together as a dough, but will be sticky.

*Divide the dough into quarters, then each quarter in half. Roll into balls and place in the baking pan.

*Brush the tops of the rolls with the orange juice, and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

*Bake for 25 minutes. Serve warm.