Mad as hell and about to blow up!

Ever since the election in 2016, I have been angry.

Some people might say I have always been an angry soul but now I am on the edge of going off at all times.

I want to scream and yell all of the time. I want to eat birthday cake and all the bad things I shouldn’t eat all of the time. I completely understood Tina Fey’s rant a few months ago after Charlottesville.

Everyday our President or our majority party congress does or says or tweets something that makes me want to scream, loudly.

Taxes, sexual harassment, North Korea, Russia, healthcare, racial agitation, nazi sympathies, anti-woman sentiments, anti-middle class sentiments are just a few topics that push me over the edge.

Our president and his supporters creep me out. All they seem to do is hate, hate, HATE!

They hate Mexicans, Muslims, women, blacks, immigrants, gays. Transgenders, journalists, anyone different.

They can’t stand the fact that they might not be in power and they turn their sights on anyone who can take that power away from them. Intelligentsia, the press, the scientists are all evil.

They think their guns are going to be taken away, that a wall will protect us, that the earth is not warming and climate change is a big fat lie. That women are more evil than cats. that stories or videos on what they have said or done is all fake news.

Worse yet, all of the things that 45 decided were not true have become true in his head again.

This is what happens when a business man becomes a governmental leader who does not understand how government works. Businessmen expect to snap their fingers and the changes they want will happen. But it doesn’t work that way as my own governor is finding out. You actually have to work with people, write things out, make sure they are legal, sit through committee meetings.

So these guys are trying to force the world back to something that is great for them and they don’t care if it doesn’t work for the remaining 95% of the country. They turn off their phones and refuse to meet with constituents, the people who voted for them. Who cares about small businesses and the middle class – you know them as the people who buy your products. But after this bill passes and taxes lose all of the deductions for the middle class, life won’t be the same. You can take off your expenses for that jet but not your healthcare costs, state taxes, and real estate and student loan interest.

Who cares about seniors? Or veterans or the disabled? Meals on Wheels simply is “just not showing results” according to Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s budget chief.

While I call my representatives in Washington, it is like singing to the choir. I do it now for the tallies so they can go back and say “see, my constituents hate this!” On the other hand, my state rep still thinks bump stocks are not worthy to fight about. Shooting up a grade school and music concert and a church is simply not enough reason to make consistent gun laws across the country

I understand why people are going off. I won’t be surprised if senators find themselves in front of angry constituents during the next round of town hall visits. I wouldn’t be surprised if their local offices are egged, tp’ed, or blown up. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they all have armed guards paid for by tax money.

People are angry, fighting mad. They know that around the corner or at the next family gathering is a Trump supporter gloating at all of the winning that is not happening. And on days that another indictment or guilty plea comes out, I feel like we can throw it all right back in their faces even though we shouldn’t.

While I try to keep my cool, I find myself not listening to the news. I have a steady stream of audio books to get me through when the classical station refuses to come in. I’m working on scarves to put on our church’s mitten tree. I am eating more (dark) chocolate and bread. (love white bread but avoiding it like the plague). I am also trying to work out more and drink a little extra alcohol to take the edge off.

Now that the tax bill nightmare has come true, Congress is moving on to net neutrality and social security.

I might need to move on to a gallon of ice cream to get through those issues.

What are you doing to relieve the stress of the Trump administration?

Advertisement

Spice Cake Adventure

Oh, I know what you are thinking.

“She had an adventure with a Spice Girl.”

As if. I mean, I am a small town girl who loves her small town life and cannot fathom paying anything over $50 for a handbag. Posh Spice went to the Royal wedding. Scary Spice has her own reality TV show and a baby with Eddie Murphy. I don’t know what the other Spice girls are doing. Probably laughing everytime they go to the post box and pick up some ridiculous royalty check.

Spice Cake with Peanut butter Icing

My adventure had everything to do with cake. In this case it was the cake for Father’s Day that had to be spice cake with Peanut Butter Icing.

It started when I went to my local grocer and there was not a single box of spice cake mix on the shelf. None.

Cherry Chip, yes. Various chocolate, yes. Funetti, oh yeah. But no spice cake. I knew what was going to happen at that moment if no spice cake with peanut butter icing showed up for dessert the following night. Personally, I was not in the mood for tears and frustration. So I grabbed a box of yellow cake mix and plotted my next move.

I thought about what makes a good spice cake which are the spices. I knew there were spice cake recipes from scratch. I knew those recipes would detail the type and amount needed. So I looked up a recipe for spice cake and found one that would help me get there.  

Everything I need to make faux spice cake

I grounded the ginger and cloves, using the last of what I have in the grinders. I would really like more of these as the flavor is wonderful but I am not sure I can find them anymore.

 

My 14 y.o. measured out the rest in order to complete his present to dad of helping to make the meal. I mixed it all together put it in the bundt pan and, well, there it is. Those lines mean a part of the cake stuck to the pan and I had to play “jigsaw puzzle” with the cake.  Hate it when that happens.

 

Naked Spice Cake

While it was baking, I found the Peanut Butter Icing recipe on line. I thought I had printed a copy a few years ago. But it, like so many things, has disappeared in my house.

 

So the recipe which I once again cannot find combined 1 stick of butter, 2 cups confectioner’s sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 5 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk. I blended by hand and all turned out fine.

 

Maybe I am not like my grandmother who could make anything from scratch. But I can make a tasty cake from a box even when the box mix did not start that way.

 

Oh, and the husband loved it.

 

What did you make special on Father’s Day?

Pretty, Pretty

Betty Crocker Easy Writer food decoration

Last week I shared the product that made our Dress Cookies. But what I did not talk about was one of the products that we used to decorate those dresses.

 

With every birthday party, I have kids decorate cupcakes. This is a fun activity and I try to find a new decoration thingy to try out. Sometimes it is a Wilton’s mix of sprinkles or colored sugars. But a few years ago I tried these Betty Crocker Easy Writer food markers. I found them at Kroger or Ultra. This link will take you to Walmart.

 

My thinking was along the lines of “won’t it be fun to write messages or put little figures on the cupcakes, maybe draw faces. “

 

That is not what happens.

 

We have discovered that the tip is very sensitive and bleeds quite easily. But that can also make for some interesting creations.

 

Swirly dress

 

 

My six-year-old created this swirl-of-color dress. He used the green pen to create the swirls on the blue frosting.

 

This weekend we are having a graduation party for the boys who are done with eighth grade and kindergarten. I plan to let the frosting on the sheet cake dry a little before I use them to write on the cake. That is the advice I have seen from other people on websites and I am heeding it.

 

As for the cupcakes I plan to make as well, I think the graduates can take care of decorating those tasty delights.

 

 

Every Thursday, I review a product or service. If you have a suggestion or product you would like me to review, please contact me at bowmankaryn@sbcglobal.net.