Thanks Requires Respect: Word Counters

  

Counting my words again. 

Today my fellow Word Counters and I are sharing our monthly group post. Each month one group member picks  a number between 12 and 50. All participating bloggers are then challenged to write something (or a few somethings, as the case may be) using that exact number of words. Today we all share what we came up with.   

This month's number is 39.  

It was chosen by Diane of On the Border.

As I've been doing in these Word Counters posts, I've chosen a theme and am using my word count multiple times in keeping with the theme. This month I've chosen the theme Respect, and its relationship to Thanksgiving.

 

 

~ I'm not going to talk about Thanksgiving, directly anyway. The holiday, how we currently interpret the meaning of Thanksgiving, has evolved over the last four hundred years, mostly because the story has been, I'm sure, white washed (pun intended). 

~ The holiday celebration has become difficult. Covid put a damper on our ability to be together. And food prices make the meal itself a challenge. But a thankful meal with our loved ones is a blessing that remains unchanged.

 

Italian Style Cornbread

 

~ But to be truly thankful requires more than one meal, one day, and cannot be limited to our own inner circle. And I'm not sure we're capable of much more. Because I don't think thankfulness can exist without respect.

 

~ Do we respect honesty? Did we have a president tell thirty thousand blatant provable lies while in office? Then stole secret documents? Can a man who claims that parents of dead children are lying possibly have thousands of supporters?

~ Do we respect privacy? Or are we just human fodder for marketers, overwhelmed by phone, door, text, email campaigns? Is our information sold? Can they access to where we go? On the internet, even physically? Marketed to? Or stalked?

~ Do we respect other's freedoms? Is antisemitism skyrocketing, people of color being further marginalized? Are there those who want to mandate who we can be attracted to, how we make our health decisions, based on manipulating one religion's tenets?

 

~ Do we respect consumers? Do merchants expect us to stand in line, be scrutinized checking ourselves out, just to give them our money, then expect us to prove we did it without cheating on our way out the door?

~ Do we respect medicine and science? When millions of people are dying, do we heed our doctors? Vaccinate? Mask? Social distance? Any of the above? And I'm not talking about questioning. Questioning is healthy. Verbally attacking, threatening, is not.

~ Do we respect our planet? Do we protect our ecosystem? Do we recycle? Or leave trash on our beaches and in our parks? Have we been working to slow down the climate countdown clock? Or has it actually been accelerating?

~ Are we, at this point in history, with a society that has evolved (or devolved) to who and what we are today, capable of respect? Capable of giving, sometimes at our own detriment? Are we truly capable of thanks?

 

Here are links to the other Word Counters posts:

On the Border 

Messymimi’s Meanderings 

Italian Style Cornbread

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 stick butter, softened

1/4 cup Garlic and Herb butter spread

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp Italian seasoning

4 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup shredded cheddar

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

1/4 cup grated parmesan

1/4 cup chopped pepperoni plus 6 slices

1/4 cup sliced pepperoncini

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

 

Directions:

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

Whisk together the softened butter, butter spread, sugar, and Italian seasoning. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time.

*Add the cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, chopped pepperoni, and the peppperoncini slices and mix well. 

*Mix in the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt until completely incorporated. Pour into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Top with the sliced pepperoni.

*Place in the oven, turn the temperature down to 300 degrees and bake for 50 minutes. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Cut into 12 squares, run a knife around the edges to remove from the pan.

Gerrymandered Domestic Tranquility: 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:  absolute ~ blanket ~ gerrymander ~ steel ~ relief
They were submitted by Diane of On the Border.

 

 

I just want to say, for the record, that this won't be a political post, despite the fact that these words catapult me right into a political mindset.

 

It's not that I don't talk about politics on this blog all the time, you know I do. But I need to lighten it up a bit, for my own sake. 

 

OK, so maybe I just need to get it out of my system, then we'll move on: As we were nearing the midterms, the level of voter suppression (we had an initiative on our ballot in this state that is thinly veiled voter suppression) and gerrymandering became so terrifying, there were days when the news has me feeling like going to bed with a bottle of absolut(e), pulling the blanket over my head, and staying there until Thanksgiving. All members of the cult that the republican party has become belong behind steel bars. I think that day is coming for many of those politicians, and when (if?) right is reestablished over wrong, it will be a relief.

 

Sorry, just felt like that had to be said.

 

Now back to our previously scheduled program . . . a PSA of sorts. About gerrymandering of a different sort, and women's right to control their bodies. And no, I'm not talking politics, I'm talking domestic tranquility. With a little helpful advice to men.

Let me start by saying, no matter what we feel about aging, and how our bodies change, and even some of the ways we can exhibit some level of control over those changes, it is the absolute truth that we're all aging. And as steely as our resolve may be to fight the process, there are some aspects we're going to experience.

So some sage advice to the husbands out there, especially those whose wives do the cooking . . .

 
                       

 

Pear and Feta Bites

. . . there will come a time when you'll notice a redistricting of sorts. In the bedroom. 

 

I'm talking about that dreaded time when women's internal thermometers go on the fritz. You know what I mean (and if you don't yet, you will). It is during that time, in constant search of fleeting relief, that the normal borders of your blanket will be gerrymandered. Redistricted. Continuously. Up, down, up, down, on the bed, off the bed, at the foot of the bed, over your head.  

 

And you have no vote in the matter.

 

So, if you want to keep eating, it is my advice that you allow the rather constant blanket redistricting. Because an exhausted wife benefits no one. So, in support of her, you have a difficult decision to make. Do you want to sleep? Or eat? 

 

 

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

On the Border 

The Diary of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver 

Climaxed

Part-time Working Hockey Mom 

Pear and Feta Bites

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 small red pear

3 TBSP shelled pecans

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 TBSP apricot jam

12 wonton wrappers

 

1 TBSP olive oil

Directions:

*Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the wells of a 12 count mini muffin pan with non stick spray.

*Core, skin, and chop the pair. Place in a mixing bowl.

*Chop the pecans and add to the bowl along with the feta.

*Add the apricot jam and mix well. 

*Gently press the center of each wonton wrapper into each of the 12 mini muffin wells.

*Divide the filling into the center of the wonton wrappers. For each wonton, dip your finger into water, wet all of the wrapper edges, and pinch the edges in to enclose the filling.

*Spray of brush the tops with olive oil

*Bake for 25 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.

Oatmeal Dos and Don't: 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,

Oatmeal is what they chose.

Now it's up to all of us,

to put our thoughts into prose.

 

Oatmeal Dos and Don't

 

Two things I'll talk about today,

you may think they're unrelated.

But I've a story to tell you now,

a rule to be instated.

 

The story's about a party that, 

little kids helped plan for mom.

It was a special birthday and,

told dad it must "be the bomb."

But let me mention oatmeal,

it's today's theme, as you know.

Such a versatile ingredient,

and it's healthy, while you grow.

Kids love it for breakfast,

in bread with soup for lunch,

and, this one's the most popular,

in snacks the little ones munch.

 

So there was plenty always,

in the pantry, bought in bulk

Need to throw something together?

There's oatmeal, no need to sulk! 

 

 

Chocolate Cream Cheese Oatmeal Cookies

 

 

Here's the problem, really,

dad learned it, and the hard way,

before your party guests arrive, 

there are things that you must say.

 

You'll be sorry, mark my words,

when dressed up, party ready. 

If you've never taught your little kids,

that oatmeal is not confetti!

 

 

 

Wait!

Read more poetry, 

you're not through.

Some talented writers

are in this crew:

 

On the Border

Messymimi's Meanderings 

Mother Owl 

 

Chocolate Cream Cheese Oatmeal Cookies        

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes about 32):

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese baking chips, divided 

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 stick margarine, softened

1/4 cup melted semi sweet chocolate chips

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla 

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup baking cocoa

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup quick oats

 

OPT: 1/3 cup multicolored nonpareils for decorating

Directions:
*Finely chop 1/4 cup of the cream cheese baking chips. Set the rest aside.

*Cream butter, margarine, melted chocolate chips, and sugar. Once fully incorporated, beat in the egg and vanilla.

*Carefully beat in the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, oats, and 1/4 cup chopped cream cheese baking chips. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper.

*Roll the dough into balls, about an inch in diameter. Using a greased glass bottom, flatten gently.

*Bake for 12 minutes. Allow to cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes before removing to cool completely.

*Once the cookies have cooled, melt the remaining cream cheese baking chips in the microwave. Start at 50% power for 30 seconds. Mix well. Return to the microwave at 50% power for 10 second increments, stirring well in between, until smooth.

*Either dip one side of each cookie into the melted baking chips, place onto parchment paper and sprinkle with nonpareils (if desired), or drizzle the melted baking chips over the cookies and sprinkle with nonpareils (if desired). Allow to set completely.