Pomp and Circumstance: 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: aggravate ~ college ~ integrity ~ longitude ~ restaurant
They were submitted by Rena of The Blogging 911.

                          
Now I'm not saying that he's doing it just to aggravate me, but my youngest son graduates from college tonight. ★  

Granted I'm grateful to be finished with the huge bills we've been paying for the past four years, not just tuition and housing and food and books and spending money and gas money and frat dues, but airfare every time we brought him home. And let me just tell you, having a kid live in a latitude and longitude 10 hours from mine makes everything more difficult. Like when he broke his leg, when his frat brother/chef died unexpectedly, when he had a flat tire (3 in one year, actually) . . . I could go on but you get it.

So yes, the finances and the logistics have been a challenge. But what really has me annoyed, flabbergasted actually, is that I was just attending college myself about a blink of an eye ago, how can it possibly be that I'm old enough for my baby to be graduating himself? How? Really? I want to know.

Well, now that it seems inevitable, (both his graduation and my advanced age), we all enter the next phase of this journey. I am hoping that he will take a few months off before starting work, but the reality still is that my favorite (well, one of them) taste tester will no longer be spending 4 weeks in the winter and 10 weeks in the summer home with me.

Orange Sesame Thumbprint Cookies

Whichever job offer he accepts, we will set him up, make sure he has a place to live, furniture, a car and whatever else he needs. I will try, yet again, to make him understand that he needs to learn to cook a little. Fast food restaurants cannot be the source of his every meal like it has been this past year since he moved out of his frat.

But that is for tomorrow. Tonight is for reflection. Celebration. For Pomp and Circumstance and a tear or two.

It's been quite a ride, these past four years. It's been full of successes but also set-backs. It's been an eye opening experience for him, having to deal with so much on his own. And all while achieving over a 3.0 GPA with a BS in Computer Science and a Minor in Organizational Leadership Skills. Because in the end his integrity has been a beacon. We know, and he knows, that in good times and in bad (sometimes really, really bad), we have his back. But more importantly, we know that he stands firmly and solidly on his own two feet.

Congratulations, PurDude. So very proud to call you my son. ❤

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

On the Border
 The Bergham Chronicles
Southern Belle Charm
Cognitive Script 
Part-Time Working Hockey Mom 
My Brand of Crazy 
Climaxed

Orange Sesame Thumbprint Cookies

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes about 30):

1 sticks butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 oz sesame seeds

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup orange jam
1 TBSP orange juice

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper. 
*Separate the eggs. Place the whites in a bowl and whisk lightly. Place the sesame seeds in another bowl.
*Beat the egg yolks with the butter, brown sugar, almond extract until smooth. Mix in flour and salt.
*Make approximately 3/4 inch balls with the dough. Dip them into the whisked egg whites, then press the tops into the sesame seeds. Place on the baking sheets.
*Make an indentation into the center of each cookie. Don't press all the way through.
*Bake for about 12 to 14 minutes or until light brown. Press the centers gently to reform the indentation. Cool completely.
*Whisk the powdered sugar, orange jam and the orange juice. Spoon about 1 tsp into the indentation of each cooled cookie. 

Ode to a Sock: Lost Sock Memorial Day Poetry

The Monthly Poetry group is at it again. This month we've decided to pay homage to that never ending laundry dilemma, the lost sock.

Yes, today is Lost Sock Memorial Day. It's a plague we've all dealt with, may as well just acknowledge it, right.

Funny story: kids tend to be serious about rule following. Well, sometimes. Anyway, when College Boy was little, I bought him a 2 pack of socks that actually said "right" and "left" on them. Why? I have no idea. But true to form, one of each pair eventually were lost in the wash. Unfortunately, it was both "right" designated socks. And it took some doing to convince him that it was OK to wear both "left"s. Oy. 

Without further ado (yes, that's an old timey saying), my poem, Ode to a Sock.

Ode to a Sock

Who'd have thought,

you're a worthy foe.
How could you, dirty socks,
inflict so much sorrow?

Mocking me each laundry day,
with your disappearing act.
I know I always start with two,
then one you do subtract.

One by one you sneak away,
leaving mates behind.
Me to wear a red with blue.
Why are you so unkind?

Looking dignified while mismatched,
has become quite a feat.
I imagine you're still close to home,
laughing, what a treat.

Bet that there's some sock folklore,
tales of a hideaway.
A magical place where you all go,
to sing and dance and play. 

I've hunted and I've searched for you,
"please come back" I say.
Torn the laundry room apart,
nothing . . . to my dismay.

Sock nemesis, you win, I lose, 

Mr. Red, Mrs. Blue, Ms. Teal.
I will not try to bring you home,

I'm here to make a deal. 
 
I'll keep your secret, missing socks,
of this I pledge and swear.
May need a hiding place myself.
So tell me, where's your lair?


NOTE: I decided not to try to tie a recipe into the dirty laundry theme today, for rather obvious reasons, instead giving it a gratuitous mention here at the end of my post:

Lemon Raspberry Punch

Before you go, click on these links to more poetry from some of my friends: 
 Dawn of Cognitive Script shares Ode to My Sock. 
Diane of On the Border shares The Monthly SWS.

Lemon Raspberry Punch

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

NOTE: You can make this in a punch bowl or pitcher for a group

Ingredients (per drink):

about 4 fresh raspberries
2 small scoops rainbow sherbet 
4 oz raspberry lemonade
1 oz lemon liqueur
3 oz raspberry liqueur
2 oz ginger ale

Directions:
*Place 4 raspberries in the bottom of a large glass. Add 2 small scoops of sherbet.
*Mix together the raspberry lemonade, lemon liqueur and raspberry liqueur. Slowly add the ginger ale. Pour into the prepared glass.

Bountiful Stuffed Tomatoes: Gifts from the Garden BWF

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 Gifts from the Garden.

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'm sharing a recipe for my Bountiful Stuffed Tomatoes.

Bountiful Stuffed Tomatoes

I really felt that this choice was a no-brainer. My goal was to highlight as many fresh vegetables in my dish as I could. And I wanted to give a little nod to growing up, when Mom would take us to the local farm to buy corn and plump juicy vegetables. My sister and I would get a tomato and eat it like an apple. Not something we'd do with store bought tomatoes, but those farm ones were delish.

I have to admit that, for a number of reasons, I don't have a vegetable garden. I do get to enjoy the fruits of friends' and neighbors' labor. There are often tomatoes, squash, peppers and more on my doorstep once these beauties are ready for harvest. Although I knew from experience that most fresh vegetables had enhanced flavor, I never expected to notice a difference in potatoes until my neighbor dropped off some freshly harvested New Potatoes. Wow. It was like I'd never tasted a potato before. 

Although I didn't use potatoes for this dish, I did use a number of garden vegetables. 

First, gather your beautiful fresh vegetables. I chose onion, summer squash, orange pepper, spinach and mushrooms, but you can play with the ingredients depending on your family's personal tastes or what vegetables you have available.

I chopped the vegetables and cored the tomatoes:

The vegetables were pan sauteed:

The tomatoes were stuffed:

Then just bake and serve. A versatile dish, they can be served with bread and/or a salad for lunch, or work perfectly as a side dish for dinner.

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:

Dawn of Spatulas on Parade shares her recipe for Strawberry Cream Cheese Stuffed Angel Food Cake.

Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares a project, Children's Garden, DIY Upcycled Door.

Melissa of My Heartfelt Sentiments shares Documented, a new floral product line.

Minette of Southern Belle Charm shares Gifts From the Garden, what playing in the dirt does for her soul.

Bountiful Stuffed Tomatoes

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

4 Large tomatoes 
2 TBSP butter
1 small summer squash, chopped
4 oz mushrooms, sliced
1/2 pepper (green, red, yellow or orange, your choice) finely chopped
1/4 onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp Italian seasoning 
1/2 cup (packed) fresh spinach
3 TBSP grated parmesan
1 cup seasoned croutons

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a baking pan.
*Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the squash, mushrooms, pepper, onion, garlic and Italian seasoning. Cook and stir until the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. 
*Add the spinach and sweat down for just a minute. Mix in the parmesan and croutons. Cook and stir for one more minute. Remove from heat.
*Rinse the tomatoes and cut off the tops. Set aside if you want to use for presentation. Using a spoon, take out the seeds and just some of the pulp. Do not leave the tomatoes too thin. Place in the prepared baking pan.
*Scoop the vegetable mixture into the tomatoes. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove carefully from the pan to serve. Add the reserved top of the tomato if desired.