A New Milestone

I started this blog in the fall of 2008. It was my second attempt at a blog. The first one ran from 1999 to 2004 and featured posts that appeared anywhere from monthly to quarterly and which ran up to 35 pages each when you printed them out. They were a lot of fun to write, but I eventually just ran out of time. These smaller, more frequent posts are a lot easier.

What got me back into blogging was a sense that I wanted to tell stories – to record thoughts and events as they came so that someday I could remember it all, the usual historian’s motivation for just about anything, really. And if I could write these well enough, perhaps others might read them and enjoy them too.

Since a lot of writing is about reading, I went off in search of other blogs to read. I wanted to find people who could write, and more importantly people who could tell stories – people who had something to say, whether it was just about what crossed their mind that day or about big ideas and issues. It’s all good if it’s done well.

I found a bunch of those blogs. There really are a lot of talented people out there in teh intarweebs.

One group of bloggers in particular seemed to have an organization – the UCF. I found Jim Wright’s Stonekettle Station first. From there I found Janiece’s Hot Chicks Dig Smart Men, Eric’s Standing on the Shoulders of Giant Midgets, Nathan’s Polybloggimous, Vince’s Reality is Frequently Inaccurate, and several others that were worth reading as well. If I could remember how to make those names into links I would, but you will notice that there are no links to anything anywhere on this site other than what commenters have posted, so you will just have to look them up yourselves.

And you should, because they’re worth reading.

Someday I will put up one of those blogroll things that Blogger lets you do, and you’ll see then, won’t you? Yes you will.

Nathan liked the post about the Atomic Pepper Sauce enough that it set off a few of his own memories, which he linked to in the comment section of that post. And in the comments of Nathan’s post, I seem to have been ordained as an Auxiliary UCF member.

I find this highly flattering.

I'm not sure what this means in concrete terms other than that apparently I am responsible for baked goods – originally pies and cakes, but since my talents lie in other baking directions I am hoping that they will accept cookies. Except that cookies don’t travel well through the internet, so really all I can do is post a couple of recipes here and hope someone tries them out.

So for Nathan who likes oatmeal raisin cookies, I give you my friend Tiffany’s “Oaties:”

1. Cream together 1 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup white sugar, 2 eggs and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.
2. Add 1.25 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp cinnamon, 0.5 tsp ground cloves and 0.5 tsp nutmeg and mix well.
3. Stir in 3 cups rolled oats, 1.5 cups raisins and 1 bag chocolate chips (that used to be 16 oz, but has since been shrink-rayed down to 12).
4. Chill dough 30 minutes then drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2” apart on a cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 350F and cool.

And for WendyB, who likes chocolate, I give you Swedish Chocolate Balls, which is not a straight line at all.

1. Cream together 0.5 lb butter and 1.5 cups sugar. Blend in 2 eggs. Add 0.5 cups strong cold coffee (instant espresso works well), 1 tbsp vanilla extract and 1 cup cocoa and mix well.
2. Grind 4 cups of uncooked Quick-cooking oats in a blender (oat flour will work but the texture is wrong) and mix into batter.
3. Chill 1-2 hours minimum.
4. Shape dough into balls roughly 0.75 to 1 inch across (a very messy process). Roll balls in sweetened shredded coconut flakes.
5. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Makes 4-5 dozen.

I am not sure what other responsibilities come with my Auxiliary Membership. But it's cool to be part of it, no matter how tangentially.  And I will keep writing and telling stories, because that’s what I came here to do.