Instacart Mistakes made me

Hi all

My Instacart shopper made a few mistakes the other day and I have an overabundance of Ham lol. Time to make some quiches and a monte cristo sandwich with raspberry dipping sauce.

The first quiche is going to be a creamy Ham and Cheese

Ingredients
1 (9 inch) refrigerated pie pastry

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, divided

½ cup shredded Swiss cheese

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided

½ cup diced cooked ham

2 tablespoons honey mustard

1 ¼ cups half-and-half

5 eggs, beaten

¼ cup chopped green onions

¼ teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Press pastry into the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate.

Bake in the preheated oven for 5 minutes. Poke holes into the pastry with a fork and continue cooking until lightly browned, about 5 minutes more.

Remove crust from the oven, and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Mix 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese, and 1 tablespoon flour in a bowl; spread over warm crust.

Mix ham and honey mustard together in a bowl; spoon over cheese mixture.

Mix half-and-half, eggs, green onions, remaining 1 tablespoon flour, and salt together in bowl. Pour mixture carefully over ham layer; top with remaining Cheddar cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes until set in the center. Cool for 10 minutes before cutting.

The next one will be a Ham and Asparagus Quiche which I will serve with a Hollandaise Sauce

INGREDIENTS
1 pastry shell unbaked
4 eggs large
½ cup milk heavy cream or half & half
½ cup shredded cheese
½ pound asparagus chopped
½ pound ham chopped
salt and pepper to taste

instructions
Preheat your oven to 350F and get your pastry shell ready.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the dairy and add the cheese, asparagus, and ham. Season with salt and pepper, about a teaspoon of each. Pour mixture into pastry shell.
Bake on a baking sheet to catch any overflow, for 40-55 minutes, until the mixture looks puffy and slightly browned at the edges.
Cool for 10 minutes and slice - you can serve this warm or room temperature reheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

A Monte Cristo Sandwich is a perfect Breakfast fo Dinner meal or a lazy Sunday morning bunch

Ingredients
2 slices bread

1 teaspoon mayonnaise

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

2 slices cooked ham

2 slices cooked turkey meat

1 slice Swiss cheese

1 egg

½ cup milk

Directions
Spread mayonnaise on one side of one bread slice. Spread mustard on one side of remaining bread slice and top with alternate slices of ham, turkey, and Swiss cheese. Close sandwich with remaining bread slice, mayonnaise-side down.

Beat egg and milk in a shallow bowl until well combined. Lightly grease a small skillet over medium heat.

Dip sandwich into egg mixture to coat on both sides. Transfer sandwich to the hot skillet and cook until golden brown on both sides and cheese is melted. Serve hot.

I like to melt some raspberry jam and use it for a dipping sauce after i sprinkle it with some powdered sugar.

Thank goodness lol i can freeze the ham in small packets and pull out what i will need for each recipe.

They also gave me a whole pound of hot capicola ham that i will figure out a way to use the extrra half pound in some creative manner.

Oh and for those of you wodering, Instacart did credit me the differrece of all the oveages.

Churro Oyster Crack Snack Mix

I will be making this later this week. It is a variation of my Christmas Crack I make with Saltines and chocolate.

Churro Oyster Crack Snack Mix

Ingredients

1 8oz or 9oz package of oyster crackers
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Butter a baking sheet or line it with foil then butter it. Arrange the whole package of oyster crackers in a single layer on the sheet. Mix one teaspoon cinnamon with the granulated sugar and salt. Set aside.
3. Heat the butter and brown sugar over medium heat until boiling. Let it boil for exactly two minutes without stirring it. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract and one teaspoon cinnamon. Pour this over the oyster crackers. Gently mix the caramel into the crackers until they're evenly coated.
4. Bake the crackers for 10 minutes. The mix will be golden and bubbly. Remove from the oven.
5. Immediately sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar/salt mixture evenly over the baked crackers and let cool.
6. Crack and break the oyster cracker snack mix into small pieces before serving.

Love, Loss, and Dick Sucking Robots - I found this on FET and couldn't stop laughing

Love, Loss, and Dick Sucking Robots
Sometimes the most complex and challenging part of a story is finding out where to start. Our lives are nothing but these flow charts of connected experiences, and when you find yourself at a certain stopping point, there is a required level of context building to be able to begin your story. In this instance, I can’t just start with: “I bought a dick sucking robot”

I’ve got to belly-crawl through the muck and razor wire of my recent history to get back to the catalyst that set into motion the circumstances that lead me to dick sucking robot ownership. And I’d like to do it eloquently - because as a member of the Dick Sucking Robot Owners Association, I want to uphold our standards of classiness and sophistication.

Love and Loss
The weight of my head on my hand is pressing my elbow into my desk in just such a way that makes my funny bone tingle. It’s not comfortable, and it’s a minor deflection from the gaping hole in my chest. The hole from where she crawled out and strutted away. I’m hurt. I’m confused.

None of this situation is new to me, but it’s the latest iteration of a failed relationship, and this one just hit different.

So I do that thing I do: I drew back from the world, buried myself with work, and waited for time to exfoliate the layers of my brain that still had her fingerprints etched in them.

My sex drive, which is normally higher than Tommy Chong on a Tuesday, didn’t just “drop”. It burned in at terminal velocity from a near-space orbit like a half-assed Guatemalan satellite.

Dick Sucking Robot
Weeks passed with nothing that even resembled arousal. I’d wake up every morning and glare at my hard dick like I knew that it had stolen my sandwich out of the fridge even though it was CLEARLY LABELED.

I found myself on a late-night/early-morning phone call with a friend, and in talking about being in the golden era of female sex toys, she asked if I had ever tried male-specific toys. It occurred to me that in my 25+ year career of making myself cum OR my 20+ year long assemblage of sexual experiences - I’d never so much as used a pocket pussy or Fleshlight. In fact, I was under the impression that those two devices were the only real options available. My “sex toy spirit guide” told me that there was an entire plethora of toys designed to empty balls.

The Amazon app was opened. A search for “Blowjob Toys Men” was run… The results of which opened my mind to an entire universe of possibilities…

I’m going to admit I wasn’t mentally or spiritually prepared for the complexity of the options available. Spinning, thrusting, sucking, heat, Bluetooth-control, dedicated apps… These aren’t simple sex toys, these mutherfuckers are devices. As a guy who is more than suspicious of the current development of AI, I just naturally assume that machines are eventually going to take over and replace mankind as the dominant species on Earth.

It’ll be MY luck that the first device in my house to become self-aware would be my dick sucking robot - all full of cum and rage.

second thoughts develop

After waffling for a period of time that’s rivaled some of my truck purchasing decisions, I told my spirit guide to just pick one. The order was placed and the wait began…

The Beta Test
I’m on my bed, knife in hand, working my way through what seems like way too much packaging…

First impression: this box is big.

Second impression: this device is big.

It’s the size of an old Coleman Thermos, shaped like a rhinoceros suppository, and weighs about 3 pounds.

(I’d like to note that this is the first moment I worried that I was in over my head.)

The “opening” is a soft silicone donut that looks like the sucking mouth of some weird sea eel found at depths that only billionaires in homemade submarines have seen. After the “maw”, there’s a 1.5-inch gap, and then a soft silicone sleeve. The sleeve is textured with ridges channels that I can only imagine took a team of scientists and doctors to design. On the round end of the device, there are four buttons that are probably explained in the user manual I just threw in the box with the other trash. I click the button with the universal power symbol and it lights up. I click the button that looks like spinning arrows and the sleeve starts to rotate. I click the button that looks like a mouth and I can hear the suction of a vacuum pump. I hit the 4th and final button which prompts a combination of suction and spinning. Each subsequent click changes to a different suction and spinning combination.

I got this, it’s not rocket surgery.

I dump an irresponsible about of water-based lube in the opening and prepare myself to enter the technological revolution of masturbation. (pun intended)

I’m holding my phone in my left hand watching pure naughtiness. I’ve got this artillery round of a device in my right hand. I’m intently watching the situation unfolding on my phone. I can feel myself getting harder. I click the suction button as I maneuver the maw toward my cock…

Why was it an “irresponsible amount of lube”? Because as I tilt this thing down, it slips in my hand, slides down, and makes the briefest moment of contact with my scrotum while the little vacuum pump is at full speed…

JEEZUS. POWERLIFTING. CHRIST - IT’S GOT A BALL!!

My right testicle gets sucked so far into this fucking thing I thought I was going to have to mail it a postcard to tell it to come home. A panicky thumb starts jabbing buttons trying to turn the suction off while my favorite nut is getting unwittingly power-washed in water-based personal lubricant. I’m not kidding: If I’d used Dawn liquid soap, my nut would have come out ready to clean oil spill birds.

What’s worse - I’m panicking and yanking on this ball-sucking monstrosity - stretching my nutsack out like some demented bat wing.

So yeah, not going great at this point…

I manage to find the right button to cut the suction off and reclaimed my testicle. I’m seeeeeeeeriously questioning so many decisions in my life at this point. Like, I’m thinking about that time when I was in 8th grade and got kicked out of the Boy Scouts - how different would my life have been with their guidance? Boy Scout’s version of me probably wouldn’t have gotten his ball sucked into a male sex toy.

I collect myself. I find My center. I remind myself that I’m $55 American dollars and too far down the rabbit hole to quit…

Maw finds tip and I am slurped into the silicone sleeve.

… Oh. Okay, yeah, this makes sense. This makes a lot of fucking sense.

3 minutes in and I’m getting fancy with the modes. I’m using the constant suction feature to tighten the sleeve’s grip as it spins in alternating clockwise/counter-clockwise rotations. I’m clicking out a masterpiece of technological sexual mastery…

There was no “edge” of the orgasm, it just happened as a gaping sinkhole into bliss.

I came so hard my entire body locked up like I was laying on a metal box spring attached to a cargo ship battery.

Now, when I make myself cum, there’s an immediate slowing of strokes, an easing of pressure, and a slow, calculated tactical retreat from the orgasm.

Dick Sucking Robots DO NOT retreat from orgasms. They plow into them like the 60-foot waves on the cliffs of Nazarene, Portugal. My balls ripped a hole in the fabric of space and time to produce semen from an alternate dimension.

…just in time for the fucking battery to die.

What happens when the power is cut off to even a small vacuum pump? The valve that opens the air release gets stuck in the closed position. My dick is now stuck in a 3-pound, thermos-sized device and marinating in a concoction of lube, cum, and regrets - and as far as I can tell, that’s where it’s staying until I get a cutting torch or head to the emergency room. I am sweating from my muscles contracting so hard. I’m still harder than granite. I’m practicing my speech for the nurses.

I let go of the mechanical Chinese dick trap and miraculously, the silicone donut’s seal with my CHUPA (chubby upper-penis area) is broken with a sound that can only be compared to fisting a triceratops.

I lay in my bed staring cross-eyed at the ceiling trying to decide who to write the first angry letter to. Somewhere between “Congress” and “the entire country of China” I determine that I am the one to blame. I’ve spent my life making decisions that lead me to this exact moment. Every right or wrong turn has brought me right here…

Well… I guess I’d better plug this bitch in - it’s gonna be a long weekend.

Love, Loss, and Dick Sucking Robots: Epilogue

I’m laying on my back, panting like a diabetic dachshund that’s been death-marched through a Sonoran desert 5k in August…

My eyes are almost surely permanently crossed…

The corner of the left one is twitching out a silent, panicky S.O.S. faster than a methed-up skipper on a sinking boat…

My earlobes are sweating…

…Oh yeah, and there is a 3-pound dick sucking robot suctioned to my now half-hard dick with an intensity that I’m worried is creating irreversible chemical bonds.

This is my life now.

I’ve just used a 57-dollar device to achieve orgasm, and I’m not sure what the future looks like at this point. Everything I thought I knew about life has changed. I have changed. My seemingly stalwart self-actualization has been shaken to the core.

You know what I want after I cum? Snuggles. A snack. A Nap. You know what I DON’T want after an orgasm? An existential crisis.

I manage to break the seal holding my ham candle in what is essentially a warm, gooey decompression chamber without making eye contact with it, my dick, or a reflective surface. Which is actually more difficult than you’d expect. I come (pun) to the realization that in my quest for sexual enlightenment, I have in fact created a whole new set of problems:

1. A New Dilemma
You see, when a man has an orgasm from jerking off, having sex, or even dry-humping an old couch under a bridge - there is a rhythm to it. There is a build to an edge, and then a calculated explosion. With a dick sucking robot, there is no edge. It’s just 0-60 at an even, steady pace.

So now I have a choice: a super-intense 20-second orgasm, or a mildly-intense 90-second orgasm.

“Gee, that doesn’t sound terrible.”

You’re right, both orgasms have their appeal, that’s not the issue. The issue is: I’m not used to having options at all. I’ve cum one way for nearly 30 years, and now I have a veritable masturbatory menu. Every time I get hard, I’m going to have to weigh my options, and that just introduces chaos into my existence. The next catch is:

2. Volume
When I perform what I now call “The Amish Shuffle”, or regular masturbation, I know what to expect volume-wise, and can control the release based on speed of stroke and intensity of grip.

With the Dick Sucking Robot - the whole time that minute-plus “Cumapalooza” is ticking along, my balls are frenziedly producing man-goo like I’m trying to extinguish a housefire with ejaculate. I'II cum so continuously that I’m seriously concerned I’m going to blow an O-ring and end up peeing every time I sneeze. I’m working with 41-year-old gaskets here - I’m not trying to have my asshole mechanically sucked inside out through my clam hammer.

Which, incidentally creates the third major issue:

3. The Aftermath
I have faced a lot of challenges in my life. Bad decisions, alcoholism, trauma, literally dying a couple of times on an operating table… But I’ve never faced a challenge quite like how to clean a dick sucking robot.

No one teaches you this kind of stuff. Probably for good reasons. I can just imagine hearing my dad’s voice saying “And now that your checkbook is balanced, let’s talk about how to clean your masturbation aids.”

cringes

Okay…

deep breath

It’s got to be done. The last thing I want is this fucking thing showing up in 9 months with a blue-eyed smartwatch and talking about 18 years of robot support.

Oh geezus, this thing is FULL. I’m not kidding, this thing has enough of my genetic material, combined with an absolutely reckless volume of water-based lubricant, that it sloshes when I wiggle it.

To complicate the matter that if I tilt this fucking jizz jug too far, under a blacklight, my entire domicile will light up like a Russian discotech - I can’t figure out how to take it apart properly.

Okay, gameplan: I take 3 industrial-strength paper towels, twist them up, cram them into the opening, set the device on my nightstand, and just let gravity do its work while I slip off into a shallow coma.

Waking up the next morning, I get to deal with a wad of paper towels marinated in enough unborn children to populate a medium-sized country. I’m also faced with the problem of cleaning the silicone sleeve.

The outer shell that’s attached to the pump/motor/silicone sleeve, which holds the “donut” I insert myself into, all comes off in one piece. That leaves me with the silicone cup and “control center”. I try pulling the sleeve out, but it’s like trying to grab ice while wearing latex gloves. I’m not sure if the motor and pump portion is waterproof, so I can’t just rinse it in the sink…

Shit.

A solution comes (pun) to mind:

I take another paper towel, wet it with soap and water, and use a pistol-cleaning rod to cram it in the silicone cup like I’m swabbing a fucking cannon. The whole time all I can think about is a documentary I watched about chimps and how they use sticks as tools to collect ants.

To be read as Richard Attenborough

“We see the male of the species using rudimentary tools to vigorously and thoroughly clean his robotic dick sucking apparatus as he contemplates the complexities of his existence.”

THIS is how the machines take over and enslave humanity. It’s not some self-aware artificial intelligence that causes societal collapse by sabotaging military defense systems and launching nukes. It’s something as simple as technological sex toys reverting us back to our most primitive state, and at the rate I’m going, I’ll be baring my teeth for territorial dominance and flinging shit by Tuesday.

What a hell of a way to go as a species…

So here I am: a day older, dozens of fluid ounces of cum lighter, and having had the experience of reverting myself to the level of a primate to swab out a mechanical cum extraction unit. There’s not enough hemp oil on the planet to pump the brakes on the downward spiral my brain is sliding into…

Overall: 4/5 would recommend.

September 11 2001 a day I will never forget

I was on the phone talking with a Navy Commander in the Pentagon when the first plane hit. As it flashed across my computer screen and I told him, we both said what a horrible accident. When the 2nd plane hit we quickly hung up realizing this was not an accident. By the time the 3rd plane hit the pentagon, I was down the hall ushering the Base Commanders out of our Decision Center and into a secure space to watch in horror what was unfolding before our eyes. Many of them needed to get back to their bases, but with ground stops issued, planes wouldn't be flying for days afterward. The rest of the day became a blur, assisting in evacuating our building and accounting for every person in our Dept. Some of them were in the Pentagon and fortunately made it out narrowly. I made my way home that day and watched TV and remember just crying for the thousands of lost lives. Below is a chronology of the events that day that I copied from an article I read.

Within three hours, New York’s tallest buildings were reduced to rubble, and the Pentagon—the nerve center of the American armed forces—was burning and partially collapsed. Thousands of civilians had lost their lives and were seriously injured, and the entire country was in collective shock, still trying to make sense of how a coordinated act of terrorism of that magnitude was allowed to take place on American soil.

Sept 11, 2001, 7:59am – American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 carrying 81 passengers and 11 crew members, departs from Logan International Airport in Boston, bound for Los Angeles International Airport.

8:14 – United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767, carrying 56 passengers and 9 crew members, departs from Logan International Airport in Boston, bound for Los Angeles International Airport.

8:14 – Flight 11 is hijacked over central Massachusetts. There are five hijackers on board.

8:20 – American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 with 58 passengers and 6 crew members, departs from Washington Dulles International Airport, for Los Angeles International Airport.

8:42 – United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 with 37 passengers and 7 crew members, departs from Newark International Airport, bound for San Francisco International Airport.

8:42–8:46 – Flight 175 is hijacked above northwest New Jersey. There are five hijackers on board.

8:46 – Flight 11 crashes into the north face of the North Tower (1 WTC) of the World Trade Center, between floors 93 and 99. All 92 people on board are killed.

8:50–8:54 – Flight 77 is hijacked above southern Ohio. There are five hijackers on board.

9:03 – Flight 175 crashes into the south face of the South Tower (2 WTC) of the World Trade Center, between floors 77 and 85. All 65 people on board are killed.

9:28 – Flight 93 is hijacked above northern Ohio. There are four hijackers on board.

9:37 – Flight 77 crashes into the western side of The Pentagon. All 64 people on board are killed.

9:45 – United States airspace is shut down; all operating aircraft are ordered to land at the nearest airport.

9:59 – The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses, 56 minutes after the impact of Flight 175.

10:03 – Flight 93 is crashed by its hijackers in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Later reports indicate that passengers had learned about the World Trade Center and Pentagon crashes and were resisting the hijackers. All 44 people on board are killed in the crash.

10:28 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses, 1 hour and 42 minutes after the impact of Flight 11. The Marriott Hotel at the base of the two towers is also destroyed.

10:50 – Five stories of the western side of the Pentagon collapse due to the fire.

Two and a half hours after the first plane left Boston, the iconic “Twin Towers” lay in ruins in Lower Manhattan, and brave first responders and military personnel were scrambling to save lives and secure the country.

The Worth of a Woman ( from a writing on Fetlife)

I loved how this gentleman wrote this. Enjoy my friends.

God created the world in 7 days. The first day, light was created. The second day the sky was created. The third day dry land, seas, plants and trees were created. The fourth day the Sun, Moon and stars were created. The fifth day birds and sea animals. On the sixth day he made land animals and mankind. By the time the Lord got around to making woman, he was into his sixth day of working overtime. An Angel appeared and asked, Why are you spending so much time making a woman? The Lord answered, Have you seen my spec sheet on her? She has to be completely submissive to her mate. Have over 200 movable parts, all replaceable. Able to run on diet coke and leftovers. Have a lap that can hold four children at one time. Have a kiss that can cure anything from a scraped knee to a broken heart. And she will do all that with only two hands.

The Angel was astounded at the requirements. All that with only two hands, no way! The Lord continued, And that's just on the standard model. There's Grandmothers, Mothers, Sisters, and Daughters. The Angel replied, That's too much work for one day. Wait until tomorrow to finish. The Lord protested. I want to finish this creation, so I can rest tomorrow. The Lord continued explaining the spec's. She heals herself when she is sick and can work 18 hour days. The angel moved closer and touched the submissive woman. But you have made her so soft, Lord. She is soft, the Lord agreed, but I have also made her tough. You have no idea what she can endure or accomplish. Will she be able to think? asked the angel. The Lord replied, Not only will she be able to think, she will be able to reason and negotiate.

The angel then noticed moisture on the woman's cheek. Oops, it looks like you have a leak in this model. I told you that you were trying to put too much into this one. The Lord corrected, That's not a leak, that's a tear! The angel asked? What's the tear for? The Lord replied, The tear is her way of expressing her joy, her sorrow, her pain, her disappointment, her love, her loneliness, her grief and her pride. Women bear hardships and carry burdens, but they also hold happiness, love, and joy. They smile when they want to scream. They sing when they want to cry. They cry when they are happy and laugh when they are nervous. They fight for what they believe in. They stand up to injustice. They don't take no for an answer when they believe there is a better solution. They go without, so their family can have more. They cry when their children excel and cheer when their friends get awards.

Women truly have strengths that are amazing. They love unconditionally. They are happy when they hear about a birth or a wedding. They go to the doctor with a frightened friend. Their hearts break when a friend dies. They grieve at the loss of a family member yet they are strong when they think there is no strength left. Women come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. They will drive, fly, or walk to you to show how much they care about you. The heart of a woman is what makes the world keep turning. They bring joy, hope, and love to our lives. They give moral support to their family and friends. They have compassion and ideals.
HOWEVER, IF THERE IS BUT ONE FAULT IN WOMEN, IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

NC Lemon Pie

Ingredients

For the crust
1 1/2 sleeves of saltine crackers (about 6 ounces or 60 crackers)
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
3 tablespoons sugar

For the filling
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup lemon or lime juice or a mix of the two

Fresh whipped cream, for garnish Coarse sea salt, for garnish

Directions Preheat oven to 350°F. Crush the crackers finely, but not to dust. You can use a food processor or your hands. Add the sugar, then knead in the butter until the crumbs hold together like dough. Press into an 8-inch pie pan. Chill for 15 minutes, then bake for 18 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

While the crust is cooling (it doesn't need to be cold), beat the egg yolks into the milk, then beat in the citrus juice. It is important to completely combine these ingredients. Pour into the shell and bake for 16 minutes until the filling has set. The pie needs to be completely cold to be sliced.

Serve with fresh whipped cream and a sprinkling of sea salt.

Air Fryer Oreos

Ingredients

8 oz can crescent rolls
8 Oreo cookies
2 tablespoon powdered sugar

Instructions

Preheat the air fryer at 350F degrees for 3 minutes.

Unroll and separate the crescent rolls and place an Oreo on the wider end of each of the pieces of dough.

Fold and wrap the dough up around the Oreo and press to seal.

Spray the basket of the air fryer with coconut oil or olive oil or use a pastry brush to brush vegetable oil on the bottom of the basket.

Place the crescent wrapped Oreos in the basket about an inch apart and cook at 350F degrees for 4 to 5 minutes.

Remove from the air fryer and dust with powdered sugar.

Notes

Best enjoyed warm, but you can reheat in the air fryer if you have leftovers.
They keep about 3 days or so in a sealed container.

You can use any Oreos that you like, regular, stuffed, mega stuffed, double stuffed or even the specialty flavored Oreos for this recipe.

These are best enjoyed warm, while still soft.

You can easily double this recipe to make more!

Topping with powdered sugar is a must! You can leave it off but I would highly suggest using it.

You could also make a powdered sugar glaze to go on top of these as well.

Lemon Curd Shortbread Thumbprints

Makes 34 small cookies

20m prep time 14m cook time

INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for garnish
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup lemon curd


PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes. Add in egg yolks, extracts, and salt and mix until uniform in color.

Mix in flour until just blended, but do not over-mix.

Form dough into balls slightly smaller than golf balls.

Place cookies on greased or lined baking sheet and depress each cookie in the center using thumb (or back of a spoon). Use light pressure to avoid cutting through all the way to the pan.

Fill each cookie with a dollop of lemon curd and sprinkle with a little sugar.

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the bottom of the cookies is golden brown.

Transfer cookies to a wire rack after 5 minutes. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Christmas Goodies 2021

Let the baking commence. I will post the recipis here for those wanting them. Starting off today with my XMAS Crack.. 2 Varieties.


YIELD: ONE 9X13-INCH PAN

Graham Cracker Toffee (aka Graham Cracker Crack)

prep time 10 MINUTES cook time 14 MINUTES chill time 3 HOURS total time 3 HOURS 24 MINUTES
If you're looking for a recipe that will disappear at holiday parties or cookie exchanges, these graham cracker toffee bars are a guaranteed winner.


INGREDIENTS
about 10 full-size honey graham crackers, or enough to cover pan (I used low-fat)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup toffee bits
INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9×13-inch pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
Place graham crackers in pan in a single, flat layer so pan is completely covered with them. You will have to break some crackers to fill in the smaller spaces at the edges. It’s ok if there are slight gaps, doesn’t have to be perfect; set aside.

To a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan with high sides, add the butter, brown sugar, salt, and heat over medium-high heat to melt. Stir constantly until butter has melted.

After butter has melted, allow mixture to boil for about 4 1/2 to 5 minutes at a medium-fast boil (lots of bubbles). Stir constantly to prevent burning. As you approach the 4 minute mark, mixture should seem thickened with the consistency of medium-thick caramel sauce. I pulled mine off the heat at 4 1/2 minutes because it was thick enough.

Evenly pour mixture over graham crackers.

Bake for about 7 minutes, or until there’s bubbling around the edges.
Remove pan from oven, evenly sprinkle with chocolate chips, return pan to oven, and bake for about 2 minutes, or until chocolate chips are glistening and have softened.

Use a spatula to smooth the chocolate chips into an even, smooth layer of melted chocolate.

Evenly sprinkle with toffee bits. I chopped up a few heath bars

Allow toffee to cool for about 2 to 3 hours, or until chocolate has set up and dessert is sliceable.*

NOTES

Toffee will keep airtight at room temp for up to 2 weeks, or in the fridge for up to 1 months, or freezer for up to 3 months.

Variation : Use Saltine Cracker (approx 1 Sleeve) and substitute Toffee Bits with whatever you like. I have used marshmallows and walnuts for a rocky road type treat, dollops of peanut butter swirled. etc.

Enjoy

9 Things Women couldn't do in 1971

The following list is of NINE things a woman couldn’t do in 1971 – yes the date is correct 1971. You can thank RBG.

In 1971 a woman could not:

1. Get a Credit Card in her own name – it wasn’t until 1974 that a law forced credit card companies to issue cards to women without their husband’s signature.

2. Be guaranteed that they wouldn’t be unceremoniously fired for the offense of getting pregnant – that changed with the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978.

3. Serve on a jury - It varied by state (Utah deemed women fit for jury duty way back in 1879), but the main reason women were kept out of jury pools was that they were considered the center of the home, which was their primary responsibility as caregivers. They were also thought to be too fragile to hear the grisly details of crimes and too sympathetic by nature to be able to remain objective about those accused of offenses. In 1961, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a Florida law that exempted women from serving on juries. It wasn't until 1973 that women could serve on juries in all 50 states.

4. Fight on the front lines – admitted into military academies in 1976 it wasn’t until 2013 that the military ban on women in combat was lifted. Prior to 1973 women were only allowed in the military as nurses or support staff.

5. Get an Ivy League education - Yale and Princeton didn't accept female students until 1969. Harvard didn't admit women until 1977 (when it merged with the all-female Radcliffe College). Brown (which merged with women's college Pembroke), Dartmouth, and Columbia did not offer admission to women until 1971, 1972, and 1981, respectively. Other case-specific instances allowed some women to take certain classes at Ivy League institutions (such as Barnard women taking classes at Columbia), but by and large, women in the '60s who harbored Ivy League dreams had to put them on hold.

6. Take legal action against workplace sexual harassment. Indeed the first time a court recognized office sexual harassment as grounds for any legal action was in 1977.

7. Decide not to have sex if their husband wanted to – spousal rape wasn’t criminalized in all 50 states until 1993. Read that again...1993.

8. Obtain health insurance at the same monetary rate as a man. Sex discrimination wasn’t outlawed in health insurance until 2010 and today many, including sitting elected officials at the Federal level, feel women don’t mind paying a little more. Again, that date was 2010.

9. Also, take the birth control pill: Issues like reproductive freedom and a woman's right to decide when and whether to have children were only just beginning to be openly discussed in the 1960s. In 1957, the FDA approved the birth control pill but only for "severe menstrual distress." In 1960, the pill was approved for use as a contraceptive. Even so, the pill was illegal in some states and could be prescribed only to married women for purposes of family planning, and not all pharmacies stocked it. Some of those opposed said oral contraceptives were immoral, promoted prostitution, and were tantamount to abortion. It wasn't until several years later that birth control was approved for use by all women, regardless of marital status. In short, birth control meant a woman could complete her education, enter the workforce and plan her own life.

Oh, and one more thing, prior to 1880, the age of consent for sex was set at 10 or 12 in more states, with the exception of our neighbor Delaware – where it was 7 YEARS OLD!

Feminism is NOT just for other women.
KNOW your HERstory.