Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Great Online BISCUIT Exchange Extravaganza

I'm not Southern - but my mom and her family are.  I learned to make biscuits the hard way - hand kneading, very persnickety recipes...  Then I found this.  And they are sooooo simple, and sooooo good - no persnicketiness at all, and work in my KitchenAid.
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 scant tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter
1 cup whole buttermilk.
1. Preheat oven to 425. Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut butter into pats and add to flour, mix until crumbly. Add buttermilk and mix  until it forms a rough ball.  Add more flour until dough is rough and sticky.
2. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and pat it down into a rough rectangle, about an inch thick. 
3. Cut dough into biscuits using a floured glass or biscuit cutter. Do not twist cutter when cutting; this crimps the edges of the biscuit and impedes its rise.
4. Place biscuits on a cookie sheet and bake until golden brown, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Serves 6 to 8.
Thank you AGAIN this year Jz!!!!!!  


And here are the others.......

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Great Online Cookie Exchange - Popcorn Edition.


The inimitable Jz has done it again.  This year I'm contributing something for having a small break from the ooey-gooeyness of the holidays.  
12 cups Popped Popcorn
1 teaspoon Granulated Garlic
1/2 teaspoon Dill
1/2 teaspoon Cumin
1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
4 tablespoons Butter
2 teaspoons Hot Sauce (I like Franks)

Cooking Directions

1.              In a small bowl combine granulated garlic, dill, cumin, and sea salt. Set aside.
2.              In another bowl melt butter and add hot sauce. Mix until combined.
3.              Toss butter with popcorn in a large bowl.
4.         Then toss with seasoning


I hope everyone has a wonderful season and thank you to Jz!


Sassy

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Great Online Cookie Exchange Extravaganza

Thanks again to Jz.  

I was such a good girl last year with an actual cookie recipe.  Not so much this year...  This year's recipe isn't cookies, and isn't really even a recipe.   

I make these for occasions that I need to be able to bring or serve something a bit fancy, but gluten free.  This is more a conceptual outline than a recipe.  Change the flavors altogether by changing the spices you toast the sweet potato in, and add different toppings to match.  


Sweet Potato Appetizers

Sweet potato slices ~ ¼” thick, diameter your choice
      Coat lightly with olive oil and ground cumin – easiest way is to toss them all together gently in a
       container. 
             * can also add some kosher salt
             * or use whatever other spices you would like instead of cumin - e.g., paprika, cayenne, 
                    cinnamon, cardamom, clove  
     Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet 
     Bake at 350 until cooked through and beginning to brown - turn if one side is browning and the 
         other is not or if one side is burning

Roasted red pepper
      Halve and remove seeds and ribs, place skin side up on an old cookie sheet, 
      Roast under broiler until blackened
      Place into a paper or zip-lock plastic bag and wrap in towels until mostly cooled
      Remove skins
      Slice into bite size pieces

Goat cheese or another semi-soft cheese you like
Chopped chives
Balsamic vinegar

Assemble by placing a few pieces of red pepper then a spoonful of goat cheese then some chives on top of each slice of sweet potato.  Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and serve.



And here are all the other wonderful Great Online Cookie Exchangers...

selkie (recipe here)

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Sugar Cookies - Yay Jz!

Look at me being all conformist and following the rules and putting up a recipe of actual cookies....

Life here rolls along - I hope all you you have peace and joy - in whatever form you need that to be.


1/2 lb unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt

1 - with electric mixer on low speed, combine butter and sugar then add the egg yolk then flour, cornstarch and salt - until the mixture barely holds together.  Don't overbeat!
2 - Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, until firm.  Roll out on a lightly floured surface until it's 1/4" thick.  Cut into any shape you like then put cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Chill for at least 1 hour.  [alternatively: shape dough into a log and refrigerate or freeze until firm then slice 1/4" cookies and place on cookie sheet.]
3 - heat oven to 225.  bake cookies until just firm but still tender and not at all brown (~ 30 min).  Cool for a minute on the cookie sheet before using a spatula to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

The fun part **** substitutions
1 - melt one ounce bittersweet chocolate in a double boiler and let cool a bit.  Beat into butter and sugar before adding the egg.  Add 1 tbsp instant expresso powder with the dry ingredients.  To dip: melt 1 cup semisweet chocolate in a double boiler.  Stir until smooth.  Dip the cooled, baked cookies into the chocolate and put on waxed paper to harden.
2 - reduce butter to 14 tablespoons, add 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 tbsp lemon zest with the egg yolk.  Add 1 tbsp poppy seeds with the dry ingredients.
3 - Reduce sugar to 1/2 cup and add 1/2 cup crystallized ginger finely chopped.
4 - reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup and add 1/4 cup brown sugar then 1 tsp cinnamon or 1 tsp vanilla and/or 1/2 cup chopped nuts.


And the other cookie/not-cookie recipe posters........
Ryan
Sassy

Thursday, June 2, 2016

not goodbye

But i hate discovering blogs and the last entry just leaves you wondering what happened, how things turned out, where it went from there...  Or blogs you follow to some extent and they seem to be going along and then just stop.  I always wonder about that.

So - I don't know that this is goodbye.  I hate clicking links and finding that the name of a blog i used to like now sells pantyhose or used cars or some such crap.  So i think i will stay as long as it stays safe.  But i really don't feel the call to write here anymore.  Given that i felt most compelled when i was most angsty - this is a good thing.  I love the interactions - and people - this has brought into my life.  I have felt odd about commenting on other blogs lately because i don't write - have essentially disappeared.  Maybe this will make me more comfortable that way.

I feel like things are both very stable and on the cusp of big changes - and oddly, i feel very good about both.  I feel like power exchange and kink are both part of us and not going away.  I worried about that for a very long time - i love this way of being - and i would miss it if whatever circumstances meant it would go away. I worried that it would be replaced by resentment - that its loss would have meant a failure somewhere and then regret and resentment.  But we've changed and evolved and grown and backtracked and imploded and leapt ahead, and have come out stronger on the other side each time.  So i have faith that it will certainly change and evolve, but that we have the power to decide what we do and how we grow, we have the power to decide how to respond to the inevitable changes life brings.

I have faith in him.  That's different than trust.  I have always trusted him, our whole lives together - I've never mis-trusted him.  That extended to power exchange and to physical submission without missing a beat.  I haven't always had faith - I've worried and fretted that he was doing this in a bid to keep me, because he thought he had to, to please me, to take care of me (because that's what he does, has always done), to humor me, etc, etc...  I've fretted that i come up with the ideas and he may choose to do something or not - but that it is always my idea.  I've worried that i'm too much for him, a bother, a pain in the ass (that one he will say is true).  But I have come to have faith in him - that he truly is leading this in exactly the way he wants it to go - when that happens to overlap with what i want, and when it doesn't.  I have faith that this is good and right for him, and for us.

So we are stable - more so than ever - but we are on the cusp of life changes - becoming empty nesters, new phases in our careers, different routines, different obligations, different focus...  And i am excited (and more than a bit nervous) to see where things go, what new forms power exchange takes, what diabolical ideas he has, what plain old life looks like through this lens.

Maybe i'll be back, maybe not - but this is where we are now.  And it is good.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

To the rage...

There are things he likes and things he chooses less often.  He loves, loves his canes, and also the crop, and other implements; he chooses hand spanking less often.  He uses spanking to communicate and to accomplish an awful lot of different things as well: never punishment, but definitely discipline; attitude adjustments, mental health maintenance (his, but mostly mine); fun; foreplay; stress relief (his i think,  and mine); re-connection and reminders of our places; and often just because he loves my ass to be hot and red - i think he surprised himself with how much he loves that.  For me, it’s all good - he knows by now very well what i need, how to give me what i need, what he needs, what he can take.  The thing that stands in the way is time, time together just the two of us, time to give it the time it needs, time to explore it more, time/freedom to make the noise.  
It has been a long time since we’ve had that kind of time.  And it has been a time of change and transition and also really, really hard work in both of our lives, professionally and personally.  We have been able to connect maybe the bare minimum necessary to keep us and our dynamic above water, but barely. Last night we had time and he took it. He pushed me harder than he has in a long time.  He pushed beyond pain, and beyond anger and resistance.  
He started with his hand, which should have told me something.  Then he bound my limbs, which also should have told me something.  He moved onto the most wicked of his canes.  He made everything hurt, then he want back to the most painful places and doubled down. He pushed me straight into rage, blind, furious rage.  I know he stopped a few times to whisper good girls into my ear, to tell me this was indeed what he intended and what he knew i needed and what he needed.  That last part - that is the part that let me go on.  Funny how in the midst of irrational fury i could still process that piece. 
He brought me into the rage, kept me there just a bit, then brought me slowly back.  And he was dead right.  I did need it.  It is one part of us and part of what we need.  It’s part of the vocabulary of spanking for us.  

Friday, May 6, 2016

good intentions

So - he’s had an absolute shit week - was supposed to get home days ago and his trip keeps getting extended - and not for fun or nice reasons.  Hence the excerpts …….
Me: Does it help or make it worse for you to know that i am horny as hell and been having thoughts of the other night - or maybe tonight - worshiping you until you release, relax, breathe and fall into a deep sleep
Him: i think i probably will take some of my frustrations out on you this weekend … i need to control something … and i’m not able to control work right now
i love you .. 
I’ve been - well - besides horny beyond the point of distraction - i cannot concentrate at all, my pussy keeps twitching involuntarily - what was i saying —oh yea, i’ve also been feeling very submissive (any chance that’s related to the horniness?), very desirous of being in that space deeply, and very much wanting to be able to turn myself over to making his life easier - 
So the trick will be to keep that mindset through him actually being here in person.  Sometimes - sometimes that gets lost in translation; from what i want in my heart to what happens in the unpredictable, share him with the kids and work and fatigue, messiness of reality.  I have beautiful intentions - but there’s that whole road to hell thing.  So when he sends this  - from the actual airport - meaning he is actually on his way home, and if the stars align we might have 24 hours to ourselves - how is it that my overwhelming urge is to be a total smartass?   

I want you to pack bag of toys for us. 
Only request are the candles 

Otherwise I look forward to being creative with what I find


Good thing it's text and i have a filter between my brain and his ears.

yes sir