Friday Food – Experimenting in the New Year

Standard

A bit ago we made a simple dinner: chicken tenders with sweet potatoes and pull apart garlic bread. The chicken tenders were very simply made, and if I were being honest, a little bland so each could add a sauce individually for dipping.

Looking at those sad, pepper covered white tenders, I decided to try something new.

I grabbed a can of mandarin oranges from the pantry, poured them into a saucepan on medium, added dried cranberries, a tiny bit of orange peel and vanilla extract, and mixed them, letting the oranges crush just a little bit. It thickened just slightly, and when it was warmed, I poured it over my chicken tenders.

It was lovely.

From the photo, you can see that I still need to work on my food color balancing, but all in all, delicious.

Orange Cranberry Compote. (c)2025

Election Connection 2025: Day 634

Standard

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Inauguration of the former and next President is in thirteen days, and the mid-term elections are in six hundred thirty-four days, and many of us will be counting the months, weeks, days, and hours until that election day.

We must resist in all our legal capacity, and we must be loud.

My two strongest focuses, in addition to holding onto our democracy by any legal means necessary, are combating antisemitism and trans-hate. Some of it is transphobia, but the majority of what I’m witnessing is ignorance and hate, and we all need to be allies.

The graphic below is useful in vetting news sources. In the coming weeks, this is going to be more difficult with opinion pieces masquerading as facts, with declarative statements masquerading as already existing in law. Two examples of this are:

The media continually calling Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel the next Secretary of Defense and Director of the FBI, respectively. They are not, and they will NOT be until they are confirmed by the United States Senate. They are merely nominees; not even designees yet.

The second is the acquiescing to calling Musk and Ramaswamy as any kind of official and calling DOGE anything other than wishful thinking. A new government department just doesn’t magically appear without Congressional approval, and these two numb nuts have no position within the government. They may still, but not yet.

We must not obey in advance.

Continue reading

A New Year of Inspireds

Standard

We haven’t gotten through the first week of January, and our potential is still out there. Still within us, ready to break forth. Our ambition. Our motivation. Our inspiration. How will we keep it at the forefront in the coming months?

I’ll share five ways that I plan on being inspired this year.

round button colored green with three sentences: 
1. Ankose 
2. Everything is connected 
3. Tout est relie
  1. Remember that everything *is* connected, and look at the world that way. How is what I’m doing affecting the people and spaces around me? Be aware. Be present. And sometimes, be still.
  2. Setting Intentions. I have a great new planner for the year and it has space for weekly and monthly planning/goals/ progression, and I’m hoping to stick with it all year.
  3. My writing group and their encouragement, their feedback, their continuing friendship.
  4. Taking what I need and leaving the rest. Good advice in any situation and hopefully will maintain lower stress even as the world becomes more stressful.
  5. Carry an umbrella, bring a sweater or hoodie, tuck a notebook and a pen in a bag, and go. Go forward. And take notes.
Inspired. (c)2025
Intentionality. (c)2025
Inclusivity. (c)2025
Interconnectedness. (c)2025

My four words for the beginning of the year. They may stay all year; they may transform; they may be added to or replaced. And that will be okay because it will be what I need at that moment. Follow along and let’s see how it goes.


Inspired. Intentionality. Inclusivity. Interconnectedness. 2025.

Remember and Remembering January 6th

Standard

January 6 will forever be Trump’s legacy—a violent, unforgivable assault on our nation’s capitol. No amount of revisionism or whitewashing by the MAGA GOP will erase it. The entire world watched in horror & nothing will ever change the fact that Trump is a fraud.

Olivia of Troye on Bluesky. Olivia is a former Trump Administration official (1st term)

Please visit below the cut and ensure that January 6th is remembered, today and every day.

Continue reading