That rummy glow

I learned about Atomic Rum Balls from a friend in California. Not being a big drinker, I had never heard of Bacardi 151 rum, nor did I understand the implications of a 151-proof beverage incorporated into a holiday confection. I quickly learned, however, where the "atomic" part of the name came from, as I began to experience that special glow.

The other day, I told someone to look up Atomic Rum Balls online, intending to direct her to the recipe I posted, but later realized it's only up on my Facebook page. So for the total stranger I was talking to in Target, and all other seekers of rummy goodness, here are the original and my Anna's cookies variation.

Mary's Atomic Rum Balls

1 sleeve (5.25 oz) Anna's Thins in whatever flavor you like

1 cup pecans, walnuts or almonds

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tbsp powdered cocoa (or other dry flavoring, like tea -- see below)

2 Tbsp Karo syrup

1/2 cup Bacardi 151 rum (you can use another, or even a flavored rum, but then they won't be Atomic!)

Powdered sugar for coating

Grind cookies in food processor. Dump into mixing bowl.

Grind nuts in food processor. Dump into mixing bowl.

Add 1 cup powdered sugar and cocoa (if using). Mix. Add the Karo and rum and mix thoroughly. If mixture is too sticky, add more powdered sugar, up to 1/2 cup.

Refrigerate overnight.

Roll into 3/4-inch balls (about a teaspoon each). Roll in powdered sugar and place in single layer in airtight container. Allow to age a week or two for best flavor.

Some good flavor combos:

Anna's cappuccino thins, pecans, cocoa

Anna's chocolate chip thins, walnuts, cocoa

Anna's ginger thins, pecans, cocoa (or chai)

Anna's chocolate mint thins, walnuts, cocoa

Anna's almond cinnamon thins, almonds, 2 tsp. chai tea (loose, or open two teabags); spiced rum (= subatomic; I recommend Blackheart 93 proof)

Original Sal's Atomic Rum Balls

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup Nilla wafer crumbs, finely ground

1 cup pecans or walnuts, finely ground

2 Tbsp powdered cocoa

2 Tbsp Karo syrup

1/2 cup Bacardi 151 rum

Powdered sugar for coating

Mix the dry ingredients, then add the rest and mix thoroughly. NOTE: You may have to add more crumbs or powdered sugar if mixture is too sticky. Refrigerate overnight. Roll into 3/4-inch balls (about a teaspoon each). Roll in powdered sugar and place in single layer in airtight container. Allow to age a week or two for best flavor.

Makes 2 to 3 dozen.

How to take a shower when you have Adult ADD

5 p.m. Say, "I'm going to go take a shower." Go to bedroom to get clean clothes. Straighten covers on bed. Adjust window shade. Notice book next to bed that needs to be returned to library. Put book by door. Take clothes to bathroom.

5:06 p.m. Close bathroom door. Notice mirror that needs to be mounted on wall. Go get pencil, drill, drill bits, hammer, screwdriver, screw anchors, mirror clips.

5:11 p.m. Try to hold mirror steady on wall. Fail. Look around for ideas.

5:12 p.m. Find box of cat litter is right height to hold mirror. Mark position on wall with pencil. Drill holes. Find out holes are too small for screw anchors. Drill bigger holes. Fit screw anchors into wall, except for one that bends.

5:20 p.m. Rummage through junk drawer; find thin nail. Notice a couple of dishes that need to be washed. Wash them. Return to bathroom. Forget nail. Go back to kitchen to get nail. Insert nail in screw anchor, pound into wall, remove nail, finish mounting mirror. Put away tools and pencil. Yay! Ready to take a shower.

5:28 p.m. Return to bathroom. Pick up towel and realize you have laundry on the line that needs to come in before the dew falls. Put towel down and go out to bring laundry in.

5:31 p.m. Take clothes to bedroom #1, fold, put away. Take sheets to bedroom #2; put fitted sheet on bed and set the rest aside for later because, by golly, you need to go take a shower.

5:37 p.m. On the way back to the bathroom, notice a tube of Neosporin and an unsharpened pencil on the table. Put Neosporin back in the medicine cabinet; congratulate yourself on not getting distracted by the pencil, because you're on your way to the shower.

5:38 p.m. Notice cat litter tracked onto bathroom floor. Get broom and dustpan and sweep it up. Clean out litter box. Put away broom and dustpan.

5:42 p.m. Pull back shower curtain. Notice tub drain screen is dirty. Clean it. Throw paper towel in garbage. Notice garbage is full. Tie up bag, take out, put new bag in bin.

5:45 p.m. Take shower.

Walking with the onion again

My garden has been busy during all this rain. While I wasn't looking, the rhubarb went from too small for picking to sending up a flower stalk. The walking onions are developing flower heads. The comfrey is three feet tall. The weeds are rampant.

If celandine was a cash crop instead of an invasive weed, I'd be rich -- I have it in every garden, as well as covering the compost heap.

And the lawns? Out of control. Some parts are still too deep in water to mow.

I found a few surprises, like some pink forget-me-nots popping up where they were never planted, and this parrot tulip (I think it's a Professor Roentgen):

The strawberries have taken over the sandy garden. I had to take up well over 150 plants just to make room for vegetables. The rest of the berries are blossoming.

I managed to get in a dozen tomato plants and some cucumbers so far, and planted seeds for bush beans, pole beans, pumpkins and peas.

Now that my walking onions are established in the garden, there are plenty of mature onions to harvest. On the other hand, the leeks have petered out and are going to need replanting.

So when I went out to get ingredients for asparagus soup, I ended up with one leek and two walking onions. I think it came out just as tasty, but I typed up the recipe for folks without the unusual bulbs:

Cream of Asparagus Soup

2 Tbsp butter or olive oil
1 large leek OR 1 small sweet onion*
1-1/2 lb fresh asparagus
1 quart plus 1 can chicken broth
Fresh herbs of choice (I used about 1/2 tsp thyme and 1 tsp garlic chives)
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1/4 cup flour
1 cup Land O'Lakes fat-free half-and-half**

Heat 2 Tbsp butter or olive oil in large soup pot. Add leek or onion and saute until soft.

Meanwhile, cut tips from asparagus and set aside. Cut the rest of asparagus into 1/2" pieces and add to onions in pan. Saute about 3 minutes.

Add broth; bring to boil, then lower heat, cover and simmer until asparagus is very soft (15 minutes or more).

Remove soup from heat; allow to cool enough to put in blender and puree. If you have an immersion blender, you can puree in the pot. You can also use a hand mixer if you're careful, or just skip the puree step altogether.

Return soup to medium heat. Add asparagus tips and herbs. Bring back to a simmer.

Melt 4 Tbsp of butter. Remove from heat. Whisk in flour until smooth.

Add butter/flour mixture slowly to simmering soup, stirring constantly until soup returns to a low boil. Simmer until asparagus tips are done.

Slowly stir in half-and-half, mixing thoroughly, just before serving.

* I actually used one small leek and two "walking onions," each about 3/4" diameter. I used the white and green parts of the leek and the white parts of the onions.

** LOL brand fat-free is the only brand I've found that will mix instead of separating when added to hot liquid.

I'm not having a heart attack; I'm just ticked off

I've found a couple of TV ads really annoying lately. Actually, one is merely annoying; the other is both annoying and kind of scary.

First, has the pharmaceutical and medical industries' campaign to get people to take aspirin at the first sign of a heart attack really been so successful that people no longer know aspirin is a PAIN RELIEVER?

Is the American public really that ignorant?

Or are the Bayer ads, as I hope, patronizing and elitist?

Seriously, folks. Take two aspirin and call me in the morning. Aspirin, the wonder drug. ASPIRIN.

OK, now the scary one:

Guy is out camping with his shiny new giant pickup truck. He's relaxing in nature, campfire going, and there are nature sounds ... like a cricket (or maybe it's a peeper). So he goes to his big shiny truck (while the voiceover says "For the outdoorsman who goes to extremes ...") and gets out his bow and arrow. And Shoots. The. Cricket.

WTF?

The man is camping. Outdoors. In nature. And he kills ... nature.

What does this say about (a) the truck company (Dodge Ram) and (b) the advertising firm's view of the target audience, and, by implication, of the natural inclinations of men? Did some ad executive really go to a Dodge executive with "Trust me, this will really sell trucks"?

The only consolation is that after a moment of silence, a frog starts in. (On the other hand, I figure Mr. Extreme Outdoorsman will just fire off another arrow, and another, and another, until he runs out or nature shuts up and leaves him to his desolate, soundless void.)

OK, now that I've purged my ticked-off-ness, let's do a recipe.

We had 11 people from five households at Easter dinner, so there was a good assortment of food. There was a ham, applesauce, mashed potatoes, green beans and stuffing. Since I don't eat pork, I roasted a turkey breast and made (awesome) gravy. And there was this dish that I've wanted to try for a long time but never made, because one of my family members hates corn:

Southern Spoon Bread

1 (15-1/4 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained

1 (14-3/4 oz) can creamed corn

1 (8-oz) pkg Jiffy corn muffin mix

1 cup sour cream

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted

1 to 1-1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (or other cheese)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In large bowl, stir together all ingredients. Pour into greased 9" x 13" casserole dish.

Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from oven and top with cheese. Return to oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

Let stand 5 minutes, then serve warm.

Credit has to go to Doug Gruse of The Post-Star. I saw the recipe in Doug's column in the paper the day after my sister mentioned someone was bringing this, so I was pretty excited. And it did not disappoint.

Creamy, chewy, sweet, buttery, cheesy goodness.

O. M. G.

I have found side-dish nirvana.

A bright spot in February: The cutest cookies EVER.

It's been a long winter so far. And a cold one. Unfortunately, a lot of the very cold weather hit before the snow did, so I'm a little worried about some of my perennials making it through.

I was surprised in 2010 by how much of my garden flourished despite last winter's even later snow, so maybe it will be fine.

I got snowshoes for Christmas, but I haven't tried them out yet. It's just ... well, too cold. Or windy. Or dark by the time I get my chores done and have time.

My back and elbow are complaining a bit about the shoveling. The good news, I guess, is that between the two of them, they won't let me shovel so hard that my heart is in any danger.

The other good news is that I'm still unemployed. Why good news? Because I don't have to drive on treacherous roads to get to work.

I'm thankful for a warm home, plenty of food, indoor plumbing ... but still, it's been a long, cold winter, and I'm ready for spring.

* * *

My book club was reading "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," and we were scheduled to meet on Groundhog Day. I volunteered to make my Groundhog Cake -- little guy coming up out of the snow to see his shadow, cute cake, simple to make, involved chocolate.

Then I saw these online, and was smitten.

I adapted the recipe, as usual, to what I had on hand. The link to the original recipe is at the end. And yes, the photos are mine. They really came out that darned cute.

(By the way, the book club meeting was postponed a week, due to a snowstorm. So the cake would have been anachronistic anyway.)

Hedgehog Cookies

1 pouch peanut butter cookie mix, prepared according to directions

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

24 Hershey's Hugs or Kisses, unwrapped

2/3 cup creamy peanut butter

2 Tbsp butter or margarine

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 to 3 Tbsp milk

1 cup toasted coconut*

Mini chocolate chips, or black or brown icing with fine tip

*To toast coconut, spread evenly on ungreased cookie sheet. Toast in preheated 350°F oven 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally until light golden brown.

Prepare cookie dough per package directions. Blend in flour.

Scoop out about 1 Tablespoon dough. Wrap around a piece of candy, completely covering it. Shape one end to blunt point. (See photo below.)

Place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Freeze 10 minutes or until firm.

Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes or until firm and edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven. Cool on cookie sheets 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack; cool completely.

Cookies should be about 2-1/2 " long and 2" wide.

Frosting: Beat peanut butter and butter in medium bowl at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended and smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat at high speed, adding milk by tablespoons until mixture is of desired frosting consistency.

(Note: Tasty as it was, this was too oily to spread; I had to mold it onto the cookies. You may want to use a different frosting.)

Frost cookies, leaving pointed ends unfrosted. Place toasted coconut in shallow bowl. Roll frosted ends of cookies into toasted coconut to cover. Attach mini chocolate chips for eyes and nose on pointed end of each cookie (or use icing with fine tip).

Adapted from http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/spiky-hedgehogs-recipe.htm