Who Doesn't Like Upside Down Cake?

It's November, and this means cranberries, Internet.  Lots and lots of cranberries.  And if you're not like me (I eat them raw & served on plain yogurt - no sugar, but full of fat), there are other, sweeter ways to eat them.  Such as this cake that I made earlier this month.  

See, ya take some butter and sugar and water and melt it all together, and then rinse a whole mess of cranberries.  Kinda like this: 

And then ya put the whole mess of cranberries into the butter/sugar/water mix, and butter up a springform pan (though you could use the cast iron skillet, but in this case, I didn't): 

Then ya dump all of those cranberries into the pan, kinda like you see here (along with foil wrapped all up underneath the pan so the juices don't leak out too much during the bakin' process):

And then ya whip up a sour cream cake batter:

So then ya put the batter on top of the mess of cranberries and throw it all in the oven:

Bake the whole thing until it looks sorta like this:

And after a few minutes, you flip it over and make cranberry upside down cake (and use a party platter like I did here when I realized I didn't have anything that would fit a 10-inch round cake):

Voila!  Because of the cranberries, it's actually tart & sweet, all at the same delicious time.  Eat lots of it.  I took it to work, and it went really fast.

xoxo,
Minny LinnEy

At Odds...and Odds & Ends.

Dear Internet,

Let's discuss some contrasting things, and then maybe some comparisons.  Or just some stuff, either contrasting or comparing.  Or whatever.

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Last night at 8:30, my car told me it was 67 degrees outside.  Then tonight at 10, my car told me it was 23 degrees.  And snowing.  (My car did not tell me that it was snowing.  I had to figure that one out on my own.  The only variable that was the same both nights was that it's been rather windy here for several days now.)

Last night, I wore my lightest fleece jacket, and I was hot.  Tonight I wore my heaviest fleece jacket and I was cold.  (I should probably actually get out my winter coats and jackets now.  And maybe some gloves.  But I'm not ready for hats until it's only 15 degrees.)

So, it's cold outside.  And yet inside orchestra rehearsal tonight, a box elder bug decided to join my stand partner and me for our last piece of the evening (probably because it's cold outside, and who wouldn't want to live indoors and listen to us play some Mozart?).  Mr. Elder obscured the notes of our musical score, and I flicked him to the ground with the tip of my bow.  (Those violin bows are handy objects - I didn't even have to actually touch the bug with my hand!  Also, I'd say the bows are good for closing freezer doors, too, but that's not really true, because when I was a kid, I broke a bow trying to close a freezer door, and had to pay my parents back to get another one.  Why was I closing a freezer door with my violin bow?  'Cause I was probably lazy and didn't want to move two feet closer to it, that's why.  (I wish I could say I practiced so much that the bow really became an extension of my body, and *that's* why I did it, but let's not kid ourselves.)  Or maybe there was a box elder bug trying to get inside the freezer.  I don't rightly remember.  But if you're wondering what I was doing in the kitchen while I was obviously in the middle of violin practice and what I was putting into or getting out of the freezer, I couldn't answer that.  It was a long time ago.  Like, last week.  Kidding, kidding.  It was sometime between last week and Mr. Lincoln's second inaugural address: a very long time ago.)

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Happy Birthday, Stacey!!!

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I went to see a Guthrie play yesterday, and I have to admit, I'm not enjoying the new season so far.  Two plays, both by Christopher Hampton.  If Mr. Hampton was a professor teaching a history course at a university or community college (woohoo!  the 13th grade!), I might enjoy the lectures he pawns off as scripts.  However, I was at a theater, not a college lecture hall, and really just wanted to be entertained.  Yesterday's offering (Appomattox) was marginally better than last month's (Tales from Hollywood - it's awful; though Lee Sellars did a good job with the acting, my belief is there were absolutely no other redeeming qualities in the production), but neither was worth it.  I don't mind getting a history lesson whilst I'm being entertained, but please have some sort of purpose to it, man!    Instead of random bits of history stuck together (turn in an accurate timeline to receive extra credit!), or presidential speeches verbatim that I could read elsewhere (or blog about!  Yes, Appomattox starts out with the very same Lincoln's second inaugural address that I quoted only days ago!), put together something interesting and amusing instead of a hodgepodge that makes me feel like I'm going to be tested on the subject matter (must receive a grade of C or higher to be allowed to leave the theater!).  

Part of it is the Guthrie's fault.  Mr. Dowling, in future please do not put two plays such as these on your two main stages at the same time and force poor season ticket holders to endure such similar, drab productions contiguously.  Sure, teach me something important, but put something lighthearted before it!  Or after it!  Or even during it!  

Next up is The Servant of Two Masters, and at least it sounds a bit more frivolous (but likely has a good moral to the story; hidden messages are sometimes okay - especially the dull history ones - like hiding vegetables in something really tasty!).  The picture looks entertaining!

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I get tomorrow off as Veterans Day observed.  But really, veterans should be thanked today and tomorrow, so: Thank you, veterans.  I am very appreciative of the fact that I can blather on and on and on and on on this little ol' blog because of how you've fought for me and my freedom of speech and freedom of religion and pretty much all of my constitutional freedoms.  And for that, I'm much obliged.

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Oh, bother.  Yesterday was just not such a good day for firing on all cylinders (except for that 67 degree part).  After the play, two friends and I went to a restaurant that's new to us for dinner.  Keeping with the whole English pub-named places as last month, we went to Porter & Frye.  Internet, don't go there, either.  The food is mediocre (except the bread and butter at the beginning...and that's probably not a good enough reason to go.  I'm told you can get nearly that same combination in jail), and the service is terrible.  I loved that they had so many fig dishes on the menu - but while the mushroom risotto with figs was actually pretty good, the fig tart for dessert was horrible.  I really do wish that chefs and restaurant owners would understand that dessert is not something to be skimped on - it is the last impression a person frequently has of their establishment, and if it disappoints, it leaves a sour taste in one's mouth.

But the company and conversation were very pleasant, and the weather was good for strolling around downtown Mpls a bit on the way home, so there's that.

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So, Internet.  That's all of the stuff at odds, and odds and ends I can think of at the moment, so here's to ending oddly abruptly.

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

Honestly, Abe got it right.

Modern times, pop culture, technological advances.  None of that really matters when you get down to it in many respects because human nature is still human nature, and we still struggle with the same things we always have - just a different time and place and subject (sometimes).  I do not say this lightly, Internet, especially on election day.  But it needs to be said - whatever the outcome from today's voting, God is sovereign and in control.  And it's not as if my entire life rests on election outcomes.  (However, this doesn't mean I don't think people should vote; they should, and I did.)   

"The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will."  Daniel 4:25

"He removes kings and sets up kings."  Daniel 2:21

Abraham Lincoln in his Second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865, got it right, and if you merely substitute any "modern" issue in place of slavery and divided parties in place of North and South, it still holds true today:

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'

And would you look at this: again, human nature does not change, even though the times have.  Abraham Lincoln during the height of the Civil War (Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day, March 30, 1863):   

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness...All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

Happy voting,
Minny LinnEy

Principled President

Beloved all over the world:

Statue of Ronald Reagan in Liberty Square, Budapest, Hungary

Beloved not just for his fight for freedom during the Cold War, but also because of his moral values and boldness to proclaim his faith:



As we get ready to vote tomorrow, I pray we elect principled politicians who will steer our country down a moral and faith-filled path.  Happy voting!

Police Blotters

Internet, 

There is something so quaintly small-town about police blotters.  Sometimes they're dull as dirt, but sometimes they can provide a girl with several minutes of entertainment.  Take, for instance, one that I recently found from Montana - the Flatwood Beacon blotter.  They use terms like "getting sassy" and "grayish orange" and such, and automatically jump to conclusions like "the neighbor kids were playing with 'dynamite'" when they hear noises, and liberally apply quotation marks, and whatever the issue, people call in "to talk about it."  Hilarious, I tells ya.  The best part is that they name the daily blotter with the "criminal" headline of the day: pure gold.  There are oft-repeated themes throughout the blotter, the most common of which apparently include the following:

Intoxication

Animals (wild AND domesticated)

Paranoia (sometimes justified, see 8:50 p.m.)

Marital Bliss/Domestics

Hunger (especially when applied to animals, see above)

Pyrotechnics/Dynamite/Arsenals

Crazy People/Hallucinations

Homespun Resolutions to these "Problems"

I am also amazed at how often these stories are really like soap operas - if you read through enough of them, you can follow entire story lines from start to finish.  For example, at 11 a.m. on October 18, "A Hungry Horse resident found a bullet hole in one of their windows.  The caller has a suspect in mind."  Then later at 8:33 p.m., "The Hungry Horse resident who called earlier about the bullet hole called back, this time intoxicated."  I believe if we wait long enough, we'll find out more about this unfolding drama in next week's episode.  

Anyway, I have culled through about a week's worth of blotter to find the gems below, and have included my very own commentary for your convenience, Internet.  

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Sunday, October 21 - "Hunter Hallucination"

8:36 a.m.  Someone driving down U.S. Highway 93 North reported that a bearded man was walking down the "suicide lane" trying to hitch a ride.

1:08 p.m.  A Columbia Falls man claimed that a dirty-mouthed hunter in camouflage was in his neighborhood aiming his bow at homes.  The reporting party was arrested for outstanding warrants and later admitted that the bowhunter was probably a "hallucination."  ['Cause any story like this will really help to clean up the stereotype of Montanans we all have in our minds.]  

Monday, October 22 - "Rabbit Infestation"

2:08 p.m.  A man on Ezy [I wouldn't have expected Montanans to be the type of people to modernize  the spelling of "easy"] Drive called in to complain about a rabbit infestation.  He said that the neighbors have between 30 and 40 uncontained rabbits and admitted to using them as target practice.  [Seems as if he already has the problem under control.  But then again, it sounds like he had previously reported the situation of "perpetually multiplying rabbits" the week before, and just decided it was faster to take the matter into his own hands...and the week before that the guy who owned the rabbits seems to have called in, and now the whole thing has taken on a Hatfield-McCoy-like feel.]  

Tuesday, October 23 - "Sad Cows"

'Twas a hopping one o'clock hour:

1:26 p.m.  Someone in Hungry Horse wanted to talk about their granddaughter's bad habits.  [Criminal habits?  Tough love, Granny, tough love.]  

1:40 p.m.  Reportedly, a woman renting property on Twin Lakes Road pulled the landowner's property stakes out of the ground and made her own creative property line.  [Give it another 10-20 years depending on state law, and you've got a decent case for adverse possession, I suppose.]  

1:53 p.m.  A woman on Mission Trail heard cows "crying" and coyotes howling.  She felt unnerved by what she heard and hoped a deputy might check it out.  [I assume the deputy's response was along the lines of, "Um, yeah, lady - it's called the circle of life."]  

Wednesday, October 24 - "Gas Station Blacklist"

3:01 p.m.  There was an incident in Evergreen involving a woman with "wild hair" and Bud Light pants.  [What the heck are "Bud Light pants"?]

6:22 p.m. A woman on Eagle Drive threatened to shoot the neighbor's barking dog.  She was advised to not shoot the dog.  She responded that she would call 911 every time it barked.  She was told not to do that either.  [Love this.]

Thursday, October 25 - "Sick, Sad Pony"

9:48 a.m.  Apparently, one battery was lying on the highway near Lakeside.  [While littering is bad, people, really?  I wonder what size it was...AAA?  D?  Car battery?  I need more information, Flathead County Sheriff and/or Kalispell Police.]  

2:10 a.m.  Someone called in to talk about a "very small, tiny pony" that hangs its head down like it doesn't feel very good.  

6:03 p.m.  A Kalispell man complained that his mom was trying to steal his truck.  [I wonder if the mother was intoxicated?  See next entry.]

7:49 p.m.  An intoxicated Kalispell woman called in hoping that a deputy would arrest her husband because he refused to allow her to drive.  She later admitted to feeling "stupid" for calling.  [Again, could this be the same woman as the 6:03 p.m. incident, or do they just have a lot of family driving issues?]

9:29 p.m.  Happy horses ran free on Middle View Trail.  They were collected and taken home.  [Now we know why there was a sad pony - he wasn't allowed to go out and play with all of his friends.]  

Friday, October 26 - "Stuffed Dog"  

7:29 p.m.  Reportedly, someone was swerving and driving down Birch Grove Road without their [sic] headlights on.  The owner of the vehicle explained to a deputy that he was unfamiliar with the operation of such things.  [The owner?  I suppose that could happen when you rent or borrow a car with which you're unfamiliar, but owner?  I certainly hope it was a new car.]  

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Internet, I will most definitely be bookmarking this site so that I can keep up with the goings-on over in Flathead County.  It's simply too entertaining...

xoxo,
Minny LinnEy