No Go

10 . . .
    9 . . .
         8 . . .
            7 . . .  
                6 . . .
                     5 . . .
                         4 . . .
                              3 . . .
                                  2 . . .
                                      STOP!

Stop the countdown, I want off of this ride.

If you read this blog at all, it’s no surprise that my baby graduated high school a month ago and is preparing to go to college in about (gasp) 6 weeks. A college that is (sob) 600 miles away.

It’s also no surprise that I’m not doing well with this upcoming change. I’ve talked to him about home schooling and I’ve even threatened to considered getting an apartment in West Lafayette. So far this kid is still on track, however, to move forward with his plans. Seems he got his stubbornness from his mom.

So now I’m getting desperate. I’m bringing out the big guns. I realize that I’ve approached this all wrong. I’ve been appealing to his heart. This is a really smart kid, time to appeal to his brain. So I’m back. And this time using logic.

Ten reasons why you should not go away to college, son:

* What if Indiana secedes from the union? I know you’re willing to live in another state, but with exchange rates, electrical voltage differences, and a new language to learn, are you really prepared to live in another country?

* West Lafayette is a pretty rural area. Plenty of room for a space ship to land. You don’t want to be beamed up and used for scientific research, do you?

*I know how much you love your little BMW and Indiana is not a safe place to drive. I hear they go over 150 miles an hour. In big circles. For like 3 hours.

* I’ve been looking into some local laws and it seems that in Indiana it’s illegal to catch a fish with dynamite, a gun, a bow and arrow or even your bare hands. I know you don’t fish but it’s the whole principle of the thing. You go to college to have your options expanded not limited, right?

*I’m very concerned about your safety. What if the Flying Monkeys from The Wizard of Oz have a GPS failure and end up in Indiana?

Lemon Berry Bread

*The Tooth Fairy won’t be able to find you.

*Seriously? The Colts? Are you trying to kill me?

*I called the school but it seems that no one there is willing to use you as a Guinea Pig bake new dessert recipes for you to try. I just don’t know how you’re going to adjust to that.

*While I had the school on the phone, I asked who would be in charge of doing your laundry. You may want to sit down for this . . . you’d have to do your own. Deal breaker, right.

*What if all that chicken fat DOES go away and it goes to Indiana? Then you’ll be stuck in Indiana doggy paddling through chicken fat.

Intelligent, well thought out arguments, that’s the way to go with this kid. So. . . I kept the receipt, can I return the trunk now?

      

Lemon Berry Bread

                                             ©www.BakingInATornado.com


Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
6 TBSP butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
3 TBSP lemon juice 
1 1/2 cups lemon yogurt
2 cups flour
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ cups mixed berries
1 TBSP flour
 
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 TBSP water
½ cup powdered sugar
 
Directions:
*Grease loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*Rinse and dry the berries. Chop or slice the larger ones. Mix with the 1 TBSP flour.
*Cream the butter and white sugar. Beat in the eggs, 3 TBSP lemon juice and yogurt.
*Mix in the flour, salt and baking powder just until incorporated. Gently mix in the berries.
*Spread into the loaf pan, building up the sides just a little and bake for approximately 55 to 65 minutes or until the center of the top springs back to the touch. Cool for 10 minutes in the loaf pan.
*Wisk together the 1 TBSP lemon juice, 1 TBSP water and ½ cup powdered sugar.
*Remove the bread from pan, drizzle with the topping and allow to cool completely.

More than Words

It’s an interesting thing about words that they don’t just have meanings but connotations. We have dictionaries for definitions but many words, when heard and when used, are interpreted more in the context of what they mean to us personally. I’ve had this conversations recently with my older son in terms of words that segments of our society consider derogatory. There are words used against people of my religion that bother me. I don’t want to hear them and  I wouldn’t use them. These same words don’t bother my son. He says they are just words and can’t hurt him. So who decides what’s inappropriate? I believe that if your words hurt someone, whether you understand it or not, you need to acknowledge their experience and adjust your language, out of respect.

And yet when it comes to terms that we all acknowledge are abusive, I have such a hard time reconciling the fact that often I hear people at whom these words are targeted being enraged at their use, yet comfortable using them. Like the words have ownership.

We spoke about intent. It’s possible to use words with the intent of hurting and, on the flip side, to innocently use words or sayings you don’t think are hurtful but which can nonetheless cause pain. I’m less apt to be angry if I know the intent to harm wasn’t there.

On this Fourth of July, I started thinking about words that you hear thrown around a lot this time of year; what they mean to me and what they might mean to others. So I chose eight people and I asked them two simple questions. First, I asked them to tell me what “independence” means. It could be to them specifically or in a more general way and it doesn’t need to be in reference to the 4th of July. They could give me a word or a dissertation, I just wanted a sense of what comes to mind. Then I asked the same eight people to do the same with the word “freedom”. I have to say that I love every one of these answers. They’re age appropriate, they’re thoughtful and they’re timeless.

*Child: Fireworks. Pretty colors and loud bangs and booms.

*Child: The Statue of Liberty. It guards us and makes us remember to be free.

*Teen: Not having to discuss every decision as I make it.

*Teen: Being able to be part of making the rules, not just having to live by them.

*Young Adult: It means that I am the boss of me and we are the bosses of us.

*Young Adult: Knowing that no matter what happens around me, I can depend on me and know that’s a good place to start.

*Adult: Being able to engage at all levels.

*Adult: Standing on your own two feet.

*Child: I can do whatever I want. Because I’m free.

*Child: No bed time. I can stay up as late as I want. No naps either.

*Teen: Finally having my own car. It makes more of the world mine and I’m free to explore it.

*Teen: Learning as I go.

*Young Adult: You need money to be free and you need to be free to make money.

*Young Adult: Living without fear.

*Adult: Making my own choices. It’s not like I don’t have responsibilities and obligations, but even then I get to decide how to fulfill them.

*Adult: The ability to chase my dream. And to change it.

Baked Individual Pancake Puffs

Happy Independence Day.  
Let Freedom ring.
 

 

 

Baked Individual Pancake Puffs

                                                                           ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 TBSP orange juice
1 cup plus 1 TBSP flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
6 thin slices of butter
Approximately 1 cup of Berry Syrup, room temperature
NOTE: Berry Syrup recipe here: http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2014/06/all-aboard.html
Opt: Powdered sugar to sprinkle on top
 
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
*Spray your muffin tins with cooking spray.
*Put 1/2 slice of butter in each muffin tin.
*Whisk eggs. Whisk in milk and orange juice, then the flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
*Put the muffin tin into the preheated oven and leave just until the butter melts.
*Take muffin tin out and move the pan around a bit to swirl the butter around in the bottom of the tins.
*Quickly fill each of the muffin tins just past half full with the batter.
*Bake for 25 minutes. *DO NOT OPEN OVEN at all during cooking.
* Remove from muffin tins, spoon Berry Syrup over the top and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

That’s My Kid

We all do it. We say we don’t, that we’re above it but puh-lease. We all play a version of the “mine is bigger than yours” game. As parents it often translates to “my kid is tougher than yours”. You know what I mean, the one-up-manship that ends with you wondering “why, exactly, did I want to win that one?” I understand the pride involved in bragging about our kids’ accomplishments, but I’m a little fuzzy on the competition that revolves around having the most challenging child.

Yet I’ve been there many times, one parent says “my kid. . .” and the next parent says “you think that’s bad, well my kid. . .” and on it goes and on it goes.

Well, back off folks, awards have been bestowed, the queen has been crowned, the title is taken. Let me clear it up for you right now; I win. The answer to the question “who the hell would do that?” is this: that’s my kid.

When you see photographic evidence of a kid taildropping his classroom desk (that would be jumping off of it on a skateboard) on the last day of elementary school?  That’s my kid!

When you go the first middle school track meet and there’s one kid at the start line without his shoes tied? That’s my kid!

When you’re informed that a house key is missing and the whole family spends the day searching until you find it in the front door from the night before? That’s my kid!

When a house key is missing (yes, again) at 2am so entrance is made through the garage door which is then left open all night long (and the GPS is missing from our car in the morning)? That’s my kid!

When the doorbell rings at dinner time because a key (no, not lost) was given to a friend? For reasons I STILL haven’t been able to figure out? That’s my kid!

Red White and Blueberry Cookies

When the phone rings at 2:00 am (yes, that’s a popular time) because a teenager takes a car he doesn’t usually drive (probably because it’s the one that has the most gas) then figures out that he doesn’t know where the button for the garage door is in this car so he calls the house from the driveway and wakes everyone up to find out? That’s my kid!

When students are told to leave their dorm room in the same condition as they got it or they’ll be charged, then on move-out day there’s superglue all over the desktop? That’s my kid!

When the lawn gets mowed in record time but then the neighbors call to ask what’s going on, you look and see that every other row was mowed and then YOU get chastised for not appreciating his artistic aesthetic? That’s my kid!

When you’re spending a lazy day on a Cape Cod beach and you’re told “don’t freak out, but look at where I just got stung by a jellyfish!” That’s my kid!

 And when you’re at a high school graduation and they announce that with 600 students they’d appreciate if everyone held off cheering until the end, but when your other kid’s name is called an air-horn blasts everyone around you out of their seats? Yup. You guessed it. That’s my kid!

I’ll take my trophy now. And the crown. Oh, and a glass of wine. Better make it the bottle.

Red, White and Blueberry Cookies

                                                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
½# Strawberries; rinsed, hulled and chopped
½ cup white chocolate chips
1 pint blueberries, rinsed
 
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper.
*Beat the butter, margarine and sugars until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Slowly and carefully beat in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
*Gently mix in the strawberries and white chocolate chips.
*Very carefully and using as few strokes as possible, mix in the blueberries. Try not to break them open.
*Spoon onto baking sheets, about 1 TBSP per cookie. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until they are just barely starting to brown. The berries may start to leak.
*Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a rack sprayed with nonstick cooking spray to cool completely.
*Store in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving.