Saw this today and it just struck a chord with me and thought it worthy of sharing here today. Bit of reminder of one bringing out the best in others as well as the best of one’s own self. To my dear friends, thank you for being the best and helping me to rise up to be better as well.
One always has a choice, choose wisely.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! And since today’s Music Monday falls on the holiday, I figured a nice Irish song was in order. This is a recent upload, and the singer is totally new to me, but I like the song so I may take a listen to other songs of his as well. Have a favorite tune with an Irish connection? Feel free to post it for today’s Music Monday!
Today’s video is another oldie but a goodie. So, crank up the volume, sit back and groove out to this wonderful artist! Have a favorite tune? Feel free to post it for today’s Music Monday!
Today I am actually posting two videos by the same person just at different times in their life. The first video is actually one of their more current songs. To me, her voice sounds like a cross between Adele and Amy Winehouse.
The second video is of the singer when she was 8 years old. I believe she was a year younger when she won Norway’s Got Talent Show. You can find a lot of her earlier stuff when she was just a little kid and it’s amazing the voice she had at such a young age.
Second earlier video of hers at a much younger age…
Have a favorite tune? Feel free to post it for today’s Music Monday!
I came across this recipe quite some time ago and decided to give it a try to use up a little bit of molasses left over from the holidays. I will post the ORIGNAL recipe first, and then I will post MY VERSION that I ended up making.
Original Recipe:
Beat until Creamy:
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4th cup molasses
Stir in:
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups of flour
Bake at 325 degrees for 20-22 minutes, in a greased 9×13 pan.
Frost when cool with frosting:
4 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup softened butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Now I came across several versions of this recipe and most were similar, but some had more baking soda, some had more or different spices, some said it could be made in a 9×13 pan, some recipes said for a thicker bar it could be made using an 8×8 pan.
So…I basically doubled the recipe and made it in a 9×13 inch pan. I baked at 350 degrees and added more spice.
My Recipe Version:
Beat until Creamy:
1 cup butter softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup molasses
Stir In:
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3 tsp. baking soda
4 cups flour
Bake in a greased 9×13 pan for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool and frost with cream cheese frosting.
Frosting:
1 8oz block cream cheese
1 stick of softened butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
This cookie bar tastes a lot like a blondie with spice. I prefer my recipe for molasses cake bars as this cookie seemed to be lacking a bit. I think when making it again I would punch up the spice level more with the ginger, cinnamon and cloves. I think it is because there isn’t much molasses in this recipe that is what I find lacking in the flavor department. I want a bit more depth, but it is a solid cookie. And let’s face it, anything with cream cheese frosting can’t be all that bad. The cookie’s flavor does improve the next day as the spices have melded more together.
Overall I give it a B, B+ (with the frosting).
It’s the last Monday of the month and as we get closer and closer to spring and warmer weather, the music seems to be a bit brighter…or maybe that is just me.
Today’s tune for today, another golden oldie that I haven’t heard in ages and thought it should be dusted off to listen to again.
Have a favorite tune? Feel free to post it for Today’s Music Monday!
Do you know the Muffin Man,
The Muffin Man,
The Muffin Man
Do you know the Muffin Man,
Who lives on Drury Lane?
Yes, we know the Muffin Man,
The Muffin Man,
The Muffin Man
Yes, we know the Muffin Man,
Who lives on Drury Lane!
Inspired by Suzi’s posting yesterday about muffins and discussion about bananas, I whipped up a batch of banana muffins this morning. Fresh out of the oven, feel free to have one!
Banana Muffins
In a bowl combine:
1 and 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Combine thoroughly and make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
Mix together:
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 well beaten egg
3 ripe bananas that have been mashed.
Add the wet ingredients into the well of dry ingredients and stir until combined. You can at this point add Chocolate chips, if desired.
Spoon batter into cupcake lined pans and bake 350 degrees for roughly 25 minutes. Check sooner if your oven runs hot.
Makes18 cupcakes.
Today’s video is by a gal that hit the airways during the big days of Shania Twain. She certainly has the same sort of look of Shania, but she hasn’t hadn’t the same amount of success. Still, she has some nice stuff out there. It was a choice of posting this song or “A Woman Gets Lonely”, both hits for her years ago.
Have a favorite tune? Feel free to post it for today’s Music Monday.
I wrote an email the other day to one of my brothers. The title in the subject line was “Hello!” In the email I talked about the recent weather, told him that someone had bladed my driveway and knowing he had plans to come over soon to get the snowblower out, I told him to not worry about it. Especially as we were forecast to get more snow over the weekend and again on Monday and Tuesday. I always try and send a blind carbon copy to myself as well so I can reference it if I need to send another email with other information and basically make sure that I am not repeating myself on anything I had wrote earlier. I had included in the email, a couple of quick pics of the drive to show how much snow I had gotten in my area.
Later on, the next day, I clicked on that bcc email to see if I had asked him about my sister-in-law’s work schedule for the week. I was more than a bit surprised to see a large box at the top of that email with a new title of “Snow Removal Update” with a note saying, “Consider delaying your trip until weather improves”.
Now if you use Yahoo much, you know that they have revamped their webpage and have a new yahoo mail updated page as well. The differences are very apparent, much so with the new email page. Now I know that the response was computer generated on my email to my family member, but it does not sit well with me. It felt invasive.
There are going to be those who say if you have nothing to hide it shouldn’t matter. Well, I have nothing to hide, but the blatant obviousness of the monitoring of my email (and everyone else’s) is disturbing.
And it continues to grow, this invasiveness of computers in our lives that seem to always be taking a step further. Generated pictures, AI dubbed voices, and a general assessment of each individual of their tastes, hobbies, shopping habits that get absorbed and spit back out at us in marketing bombardments of more emails and ads each day.
It reminds me of the movie, “The Truman Show”, where complete strangers are peering into your world and casting judgement. Taking an assessment, and then pigeonholing me into a group or slapping a label on me whether to keep an eye on this individual, or to send advertisements for snow shovels and more ice melt.
Yeah, one can joke about it, but it gives me an uneasy feeling about where our world is headed. If we are all condensed into a single computer-generated page, what is to say that page isn’t modified or hacked into something else not of our own making or doing? How easy it would be for any agency or government to point a finger or make a claim of whatever they feel like making.
I don’t like it at all. Who in the end is controlling the computer? You? Me? The government? Another foreign government? The computer itself? How will our communications in the future be dictated? Phones? Email? Or hushed passed notes in fearfulness and looking over our shoulders? Don’t kid yourself if you think I am being overly dramatic. It’s apathy that contributes to man’s downfall.
It makes me uneasy. It makes me worried. It makes me question what our near future will bring. I don’t think it’s looking all that rosy.
Morning Bloggers, it’s another Monday. I’ve been busy reading and watching the weather forecast for the past few days. Of course, it changes constantly but the general consensus is snow starting Tuesday into Wednesday and again on Friday into Saturday. Just how much remains to be seen. Talks of a couple of inches to half a foot for both storms that will move thru this week. Of course, it happens to fall on the day I have an appointment that is a makeup appointment for one that was cancelled last month. Looks like I may be cancelling again. I think I am going to hibernate and not come out until I see something green outside and I no longer have to bundle up!
I chose this oldie for today’s Music Monday. Hadn’t heard it in ages but it was one that popped up on YouTube while I was listening to some music Sunday Evening. Have a favorite tune? Feel free to post it for today’s Music Monday!