Goodbye to 2016 and hello to 2017

Table laid for the new year: blue & silver. journal, newspaper and Orwell's 1984

  An early poem of mine is appropriate this week: Titled “Farewell,” it is a double-form piece, an Acrostic and a Farewell pattern. 

Galloping swiftly, as on fire;
Over minutes, hours and days, 
Obeying nature’s agenda,
Dashing through time down the
Backstretch of December, 
You daze us with speed – an
Entire year gone.

            Winter has definitely arrived, and for a few days, at least in central Arkansas--both in late December and early January, it was bitterly cold. At least for us in mid-country. I wore two layers of clothes (and socks) as well as a jacket. And that was inside! But during the Christmas weekend, it was more like spring or early summer.

            The week before Christmas, I put on my baking persona if not an apron. Mincemeat and pumpkin pies, and a recipe for Holly’s Cranberry Chocolate Cookie Bars I’d clipped earlier from an issue of The (Amity) Standard. Here it is, with my observations in parentheses.

COOKIE CRUST: 2 & ¼ c flour (before measuring, I aerated it with a big spoon rather than sifting it), ½ tsp cream of tartar, ½ tsp baking soda [regarding the use of cream of tartar, online sources said cream of tartar along with the soda provided the acid needed for leavening. One could substitute the same amount of baking powder as the two others combined.], 1/2 cup powdered sugar, ½ cup (white) sugar, 10 whole graham crackers (I used 9—an entire sleeve of cinnamon grahams), ½ tsp vanilla, ½ cup vegetable oil, 1 stick butter (I used margarine), 1 large egg.

             DIRECTIONS FOR CRUST: (It doesn’t say so, but I put the crackers in a gallon zip-lock bag, searched until I found a rolling pin, then crushed them.) Mix all dry ingredients well, add wet ingredients and mix very well. Press into greased (I used olive oil spray) 13 x 9- inch pan.

           TOPPINGS: 1 can cranberry sauce (I would suggest 2 cans of berried sauce, but I wouldn’t bother with “running them through a food processor until smooth.”), 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 Tbsp. shortening. Pour sauce over cookie crust and level out over all. Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes (it took longer for my oven) until crust is done and cranberry sauce is a little bubbly. (Mine never bubbled.)

            While it’s baking, add chocolate chips, and shortening to(gether in a small bowl and microwave in short bursts until melted.) a heavy pot and melt over low-medium heat stirring constantly so as not to burn. Pour chocolate over cranberry sauce and cookie crust, cover and let set 4 hours or overnight. (I refrigerated mine, then later, cut into small bars; very good, but better with more cranberry sauce.)

            Since it’s too late for a New Year’s gathering, perhaps a Valentine’s party would be a good time to bake a batch of these.

 The two Couch-Paulus-Laster Christmases at Couchwood were fabulous, as usual.

Ready or not, it’s now 2017. May it bring you and yours more than just worry and wonder about our country and its direction.   

Daughter Annamarie's recycled pumpkins