Use Your Words: Guilty

Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers pick 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: stand ~ filtering through ~ looking away ~ crowd ~ levied
They were submitted by: Someone Else's Genius

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I stand here before you representing myself in the punishment phase of this trial. I do so to plead personally for your mercy. I do so to show that I accept my guilt and am determined to move on from this life changing experience.

As I look at the crowd in this courtroom, I have to acknowledge that a crime of this magnitude garners huge interest. Curiosity has filled each and every seat in the court gallery today.

And yet, as I turn towards them as I speak, I see them all quickly looking away. I can feel the disdain, the disgust at my deplorable actions. And I am truly ashamed.

Despite my attempts to explain myself during the trial portion of this proceeding, I do hope that some of the remorse I feel is filtering through.

To you the jury and to the spectators as well, I say that I am sorry. I got carried away, I see that now. I did not show any restraint, any self control. As was proven in my trial, I really have no defense. It was ill-conceived as a concept and ill-advised as an action.

I also want to publicly declare that I do not blame my children, my very own boys, for having turned me in. I raised them to do the right thing, I cannot blame them when they do so.

I know that you jurors have a difficult decision before you. As you retire to the jury room to deliberate, to determine my fate and ultimately decide what punishment will be levied, I ask you to consider the level of my contrition. I ask you to weigh my determination to never again get so carried away. I am not at risk of being a repeat offender. I have seen the error of my ways.

I swear to you here and now in this open courtroom, just as I have committed to my boys in private, that I will never again try to incorporate chopped brussels sprouts into a dessert. If I want green I’ll stick with mint. Or lime.

Key Lime Meringues

I thank you all for your careful consideration of this matter. My fate is in your hands. I hope you can find it in your hearts not to impost the maximum sentence. Please don’t take away my precious stand mixer.

Links to the other Use Your Words posts: 

Spatulas on Parade

The Bergham's Life Chronicles

The Momisodes

Southern Belle Charm

Confessions of a part-time working mom

Someone Else's Genius

Stacy Sews and Schools

Searching for Sanity

Sparkly Poetic Weirdo
Climaxed 
 Eileen's Perpetually Busy
Juicebox Confession 
Battered Hope 

PS: I have been selected as one of the 100 nominees in Dedicated2Life's Passionate People of 2015 awards. If you'd like to vote for me, you can do that HERE.

Key Lime Meringues

                                                                         ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
3 egg whites
½ cup powdered sugar
1 TBSP key lime juice
¼ tsp lime zest
dash of salt
½ cup white chocolate chips
 
Directions:
*Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
*Beat egg whites until soft peaks begin to form. Slowly add the powdered sugar, key lime juice, lime zest and salt. Keep beating until stiff peaks hold.
*Gently mix in white chocolate chips.
*Spoon onto parchment paper.
* Bake for 20 minutes.
*Turn oven off but leave the cookies in the cooling oven for 20 minutes.
*Remove cookie sheet from oven and remove cookies from the sheet.
*Store in a sealed container at room temperature.

Why? Why? Why?

Why? Is there a more annoying question? For parents with little ones, there is not. Sometimes I heard “why?” so much I swear it was a conspiracy. Those kids didn’t even care why, they just wanted to see me sweat. Why? Why? Why?

“I don’t know. Here, have a cookie.”

Maybe THAT’S why I started baking.

Of course I don’t have little ones any more. Not that older kids don’t ask some pretty difficult “why” questions too. I’ve spent way too much time lately trying to explain why marijuana’s illegal here but drinking is legal. Oy. And, sadly, they’re no longer distracted by a cookie. I think they’re on to me.

Distraction, though. It worked before, I just need to up my game. Turn around is fair play, isn’t that how the saying goes? So now every time they ask a “why”, I ask one of my own. And guess what? I get it. It’s fun.

 

So boys:

*Why is water clear but snow is white?

*Why do necklace chains tie themselves in knots while sitting inside my jewelry box?

*Why do we draw hearts heart-shaped instead of in the shape of a heart?

*Why is Nancy Grace still on TV?

*Why does cookie end in “ie” instead of “y”.

Giant Fudgy Flourless Cookies

*Why does wool itch me but not itch the sheep? 

*Why do we use the same word, bark, for the silent outer coating of a tree and the loud yapping of a dog?

*Why does “i” come before “e” except after “c” or when sounding like “a” as in “neighbor” and “weigh”?

*Why does the garage door only break when it’s winter?

*Why are spiders silent? Shouldn’t we get some kind of warning?

I have to admit that they answered every single one. And not with a cookie either. More with their most epic eye roll and a “stop asking stupid questions”. Now WHY didn’t I think of that?

 

PS: I have been selected as one of the 100 nominees in Dedicated2Life's Passionate People of 2015 awards. If you'd like to vote for me, you can do that HERE.

Giant Fudgy Flourless Cookies

                                                                         ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
3 egg whites, room temperature
Dash salt
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup sugar
¼ cup baking cocoa powder
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
 
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
*Beat egg whites with salt and vanilla just until foamy. Add the sugar a little at a time and continue beating until soft peaks form.
*Sprinkle the cocoa powder over the top and beat until stiff peaks form.
*Fold in the chocolate chips.
*Drop by rounded teaspoon onto baking sheets. Leave plenty of room between them as they spread.
*Bake for 30 minutes. Turn oven off but leave the cookies inside for 20 minutes to allow them to dry out for a bit.
*Remove to counter to cool completely.

Secret Subject Swap: Can You Haiku?

Welcome to the April Secret Subject Swap. This month 15 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 Swap posts.

My subject is: Write an Easter Haiku

It was submitted by: The Bergham's Life Chronicles

Oy . On a number of levels.

First, there’s the whole I-don’t-celebrate-Easter thing. So . . . pretty much my participation in this holiday consists of my memorizing the egg and bunny-shaped treat options in the candy aisle. Don’t underestimate that, it’s quite an accomplishment. I know where all the good stuff is kept.

Second, sadly, I’ve tried my hand at poetry before on this blog and in most cases they were failures of epic proportions.

A Haiku is a very specialized form of Japanese poetry. It’s written in three lines and sticks to a syllable count, generally 5 – 7 – 5. It’s also supposed to marry two different, often contrasting parts and is frequently about nature. That’s a lot to accomplish in seventeen syllables.

I guess I should start with a few apologies. The first one goes to my friends who really can write poetry. Even those who can’t but have an appreciation of it as an art form. I’m sorry.

I also want to apologize to all of my friends who celebrate Easter. I know that it’s a very holy and serious time, not really reflected in my latest attempt at poetry.

Apologies well established up front, an Easter Haiku for my friends back home in Boston:

It’s now Easter time?

Good thing colored eggs stick out

in mountains of snow.

It’s also Passover time, a time when, not to boil every holiday down to food or anything, I cannot eat anything with leavening. We have tasteless crackers that take the place of bread and instead of rolls we have something that if black would resemble coal. There’s no question that we struggle through the dietary restrictions of these 8 days.

Last year when Passover ended, my boys drove to a local sub shop known for making subs using French bread they bake in the shop throughout the day. It was fine with me if they wanted to buy themselves subs for dinner. But imagine my surprise when they got home, sat down at the counter and started eating French bread. No meat, cheese or veggies, they just sat there gnawing on loaves of warm bread.

Since I wrote an Easter Haiku, in the name of fair play here’s my Passover Haiku:

I’ve got my boys beat

not bread when Passover ends,

dinner will be pie.

Yeah, yeah, I know, don’t quit my day job. Got it.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookie Pie

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 Bergham's Life Chronicles

Spatulas on Parade

Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

The Momisodes

More Than Cheese and Beer

Southern Belle Charm

Confessions of a part-time working mom

The Lieber Family

Someone Else's Genius
Climaxed
 Stacy Sews and Schools
Sparkly Poetic Weirdo 
 Searching for Sanity
Silence of the Mom  

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookie Pie

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup baking cocoa
 
2 cups heavy cream
¼ cup powdered sugar
 
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup chocolate wafer cookie crumbs
 
1/4 cup seedless blackberry jam
 
Directions:
*Cream the butter, sugars, egg and vanilla. Carefully, on the lowest setting at first, beat in the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
*Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10 inch pie plate.
*Place the dough in the plate and evenly spread out on the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate. *Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until it’s mostly set. Remove from oven and immediately, using a heat proof spatula, press down the center and along the sides to form the cookie into a pie crust.
*Cool on the counter for 20 minutes, then move to refrigerator to cool completely.
*Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks hold. Remove and divide evenly into two separate bowls.
*Beat peanut butter and cream cheese for one minute. Mix in the cookie crumbs, then add half of the whipped cream. Beat on the lowest speed for just a few seconds until it’s all mixed together. Place into the cooled cookie crust and put into the refrigerator.
*Beat the jam for one minute. Add the rest of the whipped cream and beat just until mixed together. Top the pie and refrigerate.