A Quick Note to my Sons on their Future

Max & Aaron

Today we are looking at your future. It has become clear that the job we thought we were doing well needs an overhaul. I am just one person and for too long I have used that justification to not get involved, or comment on the sidelines as a spectator. The truth is I’m afraid. I’m afraid I’ll say or do the wrong thing and then I’ll have to be accountable for that. Well, that’s what being an adult is…being responsible for what I do (or don’t do) and for what I say.

Today I take a stand: I am accountable for your future. What I do belongs to you, your friends and your future. This is not to say I won’t benefit from what I do for I believe you want happy, healthy parents. I promise to think of you first before I make any decisions. Before I buy that dress, I’ll think of you; before I throw out that glass bottle in the garbage can, I’ll think of you. I’ll think of you and ask myself – is there some better decision I could be making right now? It is only by paying attention to the meta moments in life that I have any hope of impacting the massive world out in front of me so that you both have a world you’ll want to raise your grandchildren in.

I love you both more than you will ever be able to imagine, until you have children of your own. I will do what I can to make sure you get that chance.

Here’s to the future – here’s to your future.

Love Mom

New Theme for a New Mind Set

Change is the theme of the moment and so I’m changing my weblog theme to reflect the general mood of the streets where I live; dark, somber, a little depressing. But hope remains while the company stays true. Thus attention is put to fostering friendships, loving ones already loved, hearing those who need to be heard and being graceful with one another.

Peace.

MMN

Snickerdoodles for the Masses

Some of you who’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook may have noticed a fair amount of recent commentary on my postings surrounding a certain signature cookie that has come to define my greater moments as a mother. Yes I am a mom who’s identity as such is partially linked to the making and sharing of Snickerdoodle cookies. Just to show I’m a generous person who likes to pay it forward when she can, I am posting my own personal recipe here for you wonderful people to make, eat and share this holiday season.  I composed this for a PTA cookbook some years back when my first born was in elementary school.

Peace!

CARRIE’S SNICKERDOODLES

A favorite childhood memory of mine was baking Snickerdoodles with Carrie, a wonderful woman who helped take care of my family when I was a little girl. I loved to mix everything together and roll the dough balls in cinnamon sugar. Carrie always cleaned up after me, God bless her soul. Now my sons, Max & Aaron, love to help mix everything together and roll the dough balls in cinnamon sugar just as I did. It is my turn to do the clean up and I think of Carrie every time I do. Her memory is certainly a blessing to me. Oh, and the cookies are by far the best around. Each one is crisp on the edges and soft on the inside with a perfect balance of flavors that leave an indelible mark of deliciousness on the taste buds.

Note: I always find that cookies come out best when mixed from scratch by hand. All that work manufactures a secret ingredient you can’t buy in any store – love.

~

INGREDIENTS

1 Cup (two sticks) of sweet, unsalted butter – room temperature

1 ½ Cups Sugar

2 Eggs – also room temperature

2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

2 ¾ Cups All-purpose Flour

3 Tablespoons Double-acting Baking Powder

¼ Teaspoon Salt

2 Extra Tablespoons of Sugar Mixed with 2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon – set aside for later

MATERIALS

Two kitchen bowls

Two stirring spoons

The requisite measuring devises

Two standard baking pans

One three-pronged fork

Two or three ramekin bowls

At least one enthusiastic helper for you to clean up for afterwards

~

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 400° F.

Put the eggs in a bowl of warm water if they are cold to bring them to room temp.

Cream together the butter and 1 ½ Cups of sugar until they are light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter/sugar fluff (I always allow the vanilla to overflow a bit as I’m pouring – yum) stir well but don’t overdo it.

In a separate bowl combine the flour with the double-acting baking powder and salt. Be sure there are no clumps of baking powder, it can tend to stick together.

Incorporate the dry ingredients with the wet. You will quickly end up having to kneed the cookie dough with the back of your spoon as it gets rather stiff but don’t worry, it doesn’t take too much to get it mixed together well.

In a small bowl or ramekin, combine the additional sugar and cinnamon. Prepare two or even three ramekins so your enthusiastic onlookers can join in on the fun. (note: be sure all help wash their hands thoroughly before the next step.)

Pull a small amount of dough and quickly roll it into a ball. Drop it into one of the ramekins and swirl the ball around until it is well coated with the cinnamon sugar. Place the prepared dough ball on an ungreased baking tray and repeat until the tray is full of little round Snickerdoodle dough balls, generally four across.

With a fork (I like to use the three pronged fork my mother gave me for my 35^th birthday) gently push the dough balls down into a 1” disk.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes and remove immediately from the baking tray as you don’t want them over cooked.

Tell your kitchen help to wait an excruciating five minutes before sampling.

Enjoy and share with your neighbors, co workers, PTA volunteers and local grocery clerks; they’re people too.

Marianna Mott Newirth

New York City 2004

Editor’s note: this recipe is culled from a wide array of suggestions posted on line, jotted down in old note books and pulled from childhood memory. Like the great chocolate chip cookie fiasco on line a few years ago I cite this information as Public Domain and available for all to use and enjoy.

MMN

Invoke the Damour Act of Decency

Black Friday was a black day, indeed, for a Jamaica, Queens family who will never be able to face an American Thanksgiving weekend the same way ever again. Jdimytai Damour was killed in a Long Island Wal-Mart by roughly 2000 people* stoned on hyper consumerism.

I am ashamed, deeply ashamed of my countrymen and women. I want to point my finger at those people; those stupid, selfish, brain dead idiots and yell “Murderers! Assassins! Cannibals!” but I can’t. The truth is I would be pointing the finger at myself. I am as guilty as the seething mob that blindly trampled on the body of a fellow human being to get to the next sale item. While I made a point of NOT shopping this past Friday or online the following Monday, the blood stains of that young man are on my hands too. I cannot turn away from this tragic, unnecessary loss of life. I wish I could just blame Wal-Mart and be done with it but we drove Wal-Mart to be what it is. Our culture demands that we demand our STUFF and so what if a guy dies getting in-between me and a great deal on a coffee maker or hair dryer or flat screen TV or what ever?

Not anymore!

Mr. Damour’s untimely and completely unnecessary death draws a line I refuse to cross. There is nothing more precious than a life. There is no bargain mark-down or tempting super-offer to make it anything remotely near to acceptable that he was murdered on Black Friday. It is NOT OK!

I propose we institute a Damour Act of Decency where upon we all pledge to put the value of each other above all material things in this world. I want to see TV commercials that tout the amazing properties of a genuine act of compassion, sale signs that promote hugs with every purchase, where the value of a smile and a kind word are splashed across giant billboards along the Jersey Turnpike.

Do not mistake this for some Polyanna remedy to all our problems. The world will still be a dark and scary place. We will continue to grope hopelessly for meaning to our existence but remember that we are capable of transcending our present reality. We are America; we generate possibility. Bring value to human acts of decency; bring value to Jdimytai Damour’s life. Remember him next time you go shopping and invoke the Damour Act of Decency.

MMN – 12/2/08 NYC

*Daily News|NY Local
Gould, Trapasso & Schapiro
Daily News writers Updated Friday, November 28th 2008, 10:46pm

status rpt

Ok, interruptions continue. I’ve not been able to get back to study hall. Now I know why we pay upwards of $100k to go to college…structure!