Barefoot Days: May Poetry

This month our poetry group chose the theme Barefoot Days. I love this theme not only because I love the comfort and ease of being barefoot but because it seemed that Spring this year was just took so long in showing up. I start thinking about, longing for really, barefoot days on March 1st. Yes, that's pushing it, but the first day of Spring is officially in the third week of March, so not that far off.

I got a little taste of the joys of being barefoot as I was on vacation at the beach on the first day of Spring. But, sadly, I returned home to winter weather, which continued (in temperature anyway) pretty much until May 1st. 

Here we are now just days from the first day of summer and I am joyfully in full barefoot mode. The perfect time to pay homage to Barefoot Days through poetry.

Barefoot Days

Boots and clogs and thick wool socks,
winter fashion woes.
How I long to walk around,
nothing on my toes.

Even indoors, toddler years
really are no joke.
We all know the leggos curse, 
holes in feet they poke.

But summer, how you bring me joy,
outside, I barefoot go,
Not a thought is given now,
to ice or sleet or snow.

Barefoot are the days for me.
Beach . . . lawn I care not.
Going shoeless is a dream
even when pavement's hot.

Maybe I should move down south,
live there all year long,
Throw those boots all in the trash,
right where they belong.

Spend all day outside the house,
naked as can be,
Mind out of the gutter, friends,
meant only to the knee.

Leggo minefields are long gone,
winter weather too.
Barefoot. How could that be wrong?
Squish. Neighbor's doggy's poo.
Ewwwwww!

Wishing you all, be it on the beach or on your lawn, a lovely barefoot season. And a home with considerate neighbors.

Cinnamon Cheesecake with Mixed Berries

Before you go, click on these links to more poetry from some of my friends: 
Jules of The Bergham Chronicles shares Barefoot with You. 
Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares Barefoot Summer. 
Diane of On the Border shares Peace. 
Dawn of Cognitive Script shares My Barefoot Days.

Cinnamon Cheesecake with Mixed Berries

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 TBSP sugar
6 TBSP butter, melted

2 packaged (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla 
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup cinnamon baking chips, finely chopped (I used a clean coffee bean grinder)

1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup chopped raspberries
1 cup chopped strawberries
1/2 cup sugar

Directions:
*Greas a 9 inch springform pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
*Mix together graham cracker crumbs, 2 TBSP sugar and butter. Press into and up the sides of a springform pan.
*Beat the cream cheese, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until smooth. Beat in the sour cream and heavy cream, then the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the chopped cinnamon baking chips.
*Pour into prepared crust and bake for 60 - 75 minutes, until the center is just set.
*Remove from oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
*Once the cheesecake is refrigerated, mix the blueberries, raspberries and strawberries with 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl. Place on the counter and stir now and then.
*Gently run a knife around the cheesecake before removing the side of the springform pan. Spoon the berries over the cheesecake and serve.
*Store leftovers, covered, in refrigerator.

Onion Poppy Bagels: Truth or Dare Blog With Friends

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 Truth or Dare.

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 made Onion Poppy Bagels.

Onion Poppy Bagels

"I dare you". Those are pretty scary words, especially coming from your kid. 

I talk to the boys often about this blog, whether to continue writing or if it's time to just let it go. The last time we spoke, I was met with a dare. "Try something outside your comfort zone, Mom, make it more of a challenge".

It's a funny statement coming from my sons. The recipes I develop changed quite a bit once they came along. Before kids, I was more adventurous with ingredients, but once I started cooking for a family, I had to make foods I ultimately thought I had a chance of them eating. So my recipes here have been less avant garde and more pedestrian. They are now grown adults, but they are here for dinner now and then and although their tastes have progressed, they are still rarely adventurous in the foods they are willing to try. And face it, who wants to put their heart and soul into a dish just to throw it out?

One thing I have tried, over and over again, and I have to admit, this is hardly an exotic ingredient, more something most people use fairly regularly, is making breads. The truth is, yeast hates me. We have a history, a longstanding war. I have won a battle or two, but the white flag clearly keeps ending up in my hand.

When the boys had the nerve to dare me to make a bread . . . well, what choice did I have. So for my truth or dare post, I made bagels. Did I cheat? Yes. But I still fulfilled the challenge of this group post.

There is a recipe going around the interwebs, a very popular one for 2 ingredient bagels. I started there, but made some adjustments in ingredients and in the baking. My recipe has just 7 ingredients, all of which I had in the house.

I mixed up the dough and unlike the recipes I'd seen, flavored it. I then kneaded and formed the bagels. Many recipes called for an egg wash, but I used melted butter. And although I used poppy seeds for our topping, since that is a favorite around here, next time I'll try a few different toppings including sesame seeds and dried minced onions.

I baked them in a hotter oven than the recipes I'd seen and this worked out perfectly for me.

Even though they smell delish baking, I let them cool completely before slicing.

 

They came out great, crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Perfect.

We toasted ours, smeared with cream cheese and topped with some green onions.

Yes, I cheated. I didn't live up to the spirit of the dare. I did make a bread product, but I avoided using my nemesis ingredient. So for the purposes of this post I chose truth, admitting my ongoing, embarrassing defeat to a fungus. And, I made a delicious breakfast we all loved. Take that, yeast!

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:

Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares Surviving the Beach with Kids.

 

Dawn of Spatulas on Parade shares her recipe for  Chocolate Chip Pound Cake with Fresh Strawberry Sauce and Homemade Chocolate Whipped Cream.

Tamara of Part-Time Working Hockey Mom shares Truth or Dare, a handful of truths and dares:

Rabia of The Lieber Family Blog shares Dare to Wear:

Be sure to stop by again next month for more theme based projects.

Onion Poppy Bagels

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/8 cups flour, divided
2 1/4 tsp baking powder, divided
3/4 + 1/8 tsp salt
2 TBSP dried minced onions
1 cup unflavored Greek yogurt
1 TBSP butter
4 tsp poppy seeds

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt butter and set aside.
*Mix together 1/8 cup flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/8 tsp salt and spread over your kneading surface. 
*In a bowl, mix the remaining 1 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp salt with the 2 TBSP minced onions.
*Mix in the yogurt until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated. Transfer to the prepared surface. Knead for 5 minutes. The dough will come together but still be sticky. Divide into quarters.
*Roll each dough quarter into about a 9 inch log. Form a circle and pinch the ends together. You will have to pinch one side, turn it over and pinch the other side a few times.
*Brush the tops with the melted butter and sprinkle with the poppy seeds.
*Place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven. Cool completely before serving.

Practice Makes Improved: Secret Subject Swap

Welcome a Secret Subject Swap. This month 10 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: Tell us about a first time.
It was submitted by Jules of The Bergham Chronicles.

It's hard to talk about, even now, but then these things tend to be. I suppose that's because it ended up being an unmitigated disaster, but I guess that's par for the course too. I'll tell you about it, since Jules asked, but for the record, I do so under duress. Sometimes it sucks being a rule follower.

I think it goes without saying that first times are most always memorable. Often wonderful, but frequently painful as well. If you're brave and you try again over time it changes from what it was that first time. At least we certainly hope so.

I can't say, in retrospect, what specifically lead up to it. I guess these things build up over time. One day you're not ready and then, little by little without even realizing it you inch forward to the place where you find that you are.

I'd like to say that the less than enjoyable first experience is because I was young, but not so much, that would be a lie. Inexperienced but not young. Sometimes it takes time and maturity to really put yourself out there, be vulnerable, expose yourself. Even then, there's no guarantee as to how you'll be judged, how your vulnerability will be handled. Not everyone is kind, friends.

The first time, most first times, should really be well thought out. Maybe I wasn't as mature as I'd thought because, really, I feel like I just sort of did it, pulled the trigger without careful consideration of repercussions. A "do it, do it, don't be such a baby, do it" mantra running through my head along with a little "you know you want to" and a "bet you love it". After all, there was protection in place, so only be those I was closest to would ever be aware it had even occurred. 

Looking back now I realize just how awful it was. Seeing it from my current perspective, my enhanced abilities (if you will), I'm incredibly embarrassed. But the thing about first times is this: you can regret them, but you can never take them back.

However, as humiliating as it is to admit here, I also have to say that some good came of it. After all, that first experience, as they all tend to be, was an initial step towards where I am today. Turns out embarrassment is a great motivator. I've worked at it from all positions and although I'm still no expert, I'd like to say that I've made strides. In all aspects.

But back to that first time. As I said, I just did it, made it public. Posted my very first picture on FB of cookies I'd tried to decorate for the kids. I still cringe when I look at that picture, yet (thanks, Jules) here I am posting it today on my very own blog.

I had made a lot of cookies in my day, but had never before tried to decorate them with icing. What a disaster. Just as a side note here, lesson learned, if you're going to try something new, read up on it first. Turns out there's a whole art to icing, different consistencies needed for the outline (which, duh, goes on first, not after the icing has run over the sides) as well as the flooding. And there are ways that photography can enhance (or detract) from the looks of whatever you're photographing. 

All these years later, here I am with a blog where I share recipes I develop myself, photograph and post for all to see. Here's hoping practice has made, well, not perfect, but maybe improved?

Cashew Nutella Snowballs

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 

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

Cashew Nutella Snowballs

                                                              ©www.BakingInATornado.com


Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes 32 cookies):
1 stick butter, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
1/3 cup Nutella
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups chopped unsalted cashews

approximately 3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 TBSP baking cocoa

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper.
*Cream the butter, margarine, Nutella and vanilla.
*Starting on low until it's incorporated, beat in 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar, flour and salt. Mix in the cashews.
*Roll the dough into approximately 1 inch balls. Place on cookie sheets and bake 10 - 12 minutes or until set.
*Cool completely. Roll in the remaining powdered sugar. Dust with cocoa.