Tis’ The Season To Be Judging.

This time of year is when peoples hearts supposedly get filled with so much joy and love, when people start to think of others and are willing to give more than usual.  The time when people talk about the love mankind should have and how other people should to treat others, is also the time of great judgement.  The judgement of others who choose not to celebrate Christmas for whatever their personal reason, or those who choose to celebrate during this time of year for other reasons that are not linked to Christmas.  I saw this post in my FB feed from a friend Val which was a repost of someone’s “rant”.  I often find that many times when people are talking truth for more than a couple of sentences or a couple of minutes, it gets chalked up to being a rant instead of just being what it is, the truth.  I do not celebrate Christmas, I am not Christian and I have been told and asked many things as to why it we don’t celebrate.  Well, it’s simple really but the way I live and how I choose to raise my children and build my family should not affect anyone else, especially being that we are very positive people.  I have been told it’s not fair to my kids, they’re missing out and how do they feel about it….well, if my children have never celebrated, eaten or been exposed to something how can they miss that something??  Anyway, I’m not going to rant, and not that I wouldn’t want to rave about my wonderful life and family but I found this FB status post to be quite plainly full of truth that I wanted to share it.

To everyone wherever you are, all I wish for you is good health, joy, happiness and cherish your family and good friends.

PEACE!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

REPOSTED AND WRITTEN BY SHANDRA SPEARS,,,,THANK YOU SHANDRA.

No Xmas But I Still Have A Heart

(with thanks to Glen who inspired this rant)

The Grinch is a character created to shame non-Christians and non-xmas people into getting “hearts” and becoming loving and generous. He is part ofa propaganda machine that programs everyone to feel that they have to get on board with this holiday whether it’s in their culture or not. Scrooge is a lonely old miser who screwed everybody over and treated his employee and partner like shit. He had to be dragged through a series of awareness-raising experiences in order to find his way. Well, life has done that to all of us in some way, but not necessarily relating in any way to xmas. Again, if you don’t groove on xmas, the propaganda message is that you’re just as messed up as Scrooge and have no love or relationships in your life. Well I have a heart and I am a loving and generous person already. I do have relationships and I do care about people. I don’t need “the spirit of xmas” to be who I already am.

A secondary effect of these story-lines is that people, who treat other people like shit all year long, make everything right with that one day of love and generosity, and then get to sneer at everybody else who doesn’t celebrate this cultural way. We have our own ceremonies and our own teachings, and it is not wrong or ungenerous to do our giveaways and our feasting in our own way.

It is also not wrong to do Diwali or TIFF or xmas or Afrofest or any of the other cultural, religious, artistic and/or community celebrations that are part of our lives now in TO. But we shouldn’t feel we “have to” live by the rules of any of these settler groups.

So Grinch it up, or Scrooge it up, remember it’s not always Bah Humbug — it could be Hah Bumhug. But don’t let the shame-machine get you down. It’s the same shame-machine, crown jewel of the cultural imperialism meat-grinder that has killed and/or damaged many millions of our people, and it ain’t worth thinking about. If you want to eat with your family, visit and laugh, give presents and feel joy together, go for it! If you have midwinter ceremonies or other reasons to get together, that’s great! And if you do the full church service and prayers and Santa, good for you. But just because you do all that doesn’t make me an asshole, no matter what your ethnocentric propaganda says. I hope everybody does this time in a way that’s good for you, whether it’s hiding from all the xmas stuff or covering yourselves in tinsel and mistletoe!

Have a happy day and enjoy your lives on this and every other day!

Cake Balls! Get Your Cake Balls!

This is a post I had sitting in my drafts and forgot to post a long while ago… better late than never because holidays are here and this still applies.  Happy baking.

Cake pops, cake balls, they aren’t really new on the scene but there are late comers.  There are many people who have businesses making special customized cake pops and places like Starbucks sell them too (for a $$, no thanks, overpriced for a chomp full of candy-coated cake).  I’ve been online finding different recipes and ideas to make them.  So, when my daughter’s 4th bornday came up, I usually like to do as much of the prep on my own and I love creating ideas for party themes, activities etc.  I was thinking of making cake pops to give out and it would be perfect especially because the kids will be younger and usually waste piece of cake anyways; these would be a perfect size.

What’s the difference between cake balls and cake pops?

One’s on a stick (like a lolli) and ones just the ball.

Now before I would make them for her party, being a new jack to making them, I figured it would be best to try them out first.  Long weekend came and we had a family dinner.  I made candied yams and thought it would be a perfect occasion to try out the recipe, but instead of cake pops I decided to make my own recipe of cake balls.  Plus I didn’t want to waste money buying the sticks, as they weren’t necessary for the occasion.  It was easy, I put my own twist to the recipe and EVERYBODY LOVED THEM!  Soooo good they were.

Without further adieu, here’ my recipe for:

Chocolate Banana Dulce de Leche Cake Balls!

Ingredients:

Devils food cake mix (whatever brand you like)

whipped cream cheese frosting

President’s Choice Banaa Dulce de Leche

semi-sweet chocolate chips

Tools:

Large mixing bowl for cake mix

rectangle cake pan or round (doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s something to bake the cake in)

small pot

2 small bowls (that fit on top of the pot, make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t go past half the depth of the pot.)

cookie sheet

wax paper or foil paper ( I didn’t have wax on hand so I used foil)

STEPS

• Bake cake according to direction on the box.

• Once done, let cool, then scoop out cake into a large bowl.  Crumble the cake real good with your clean hands.

• Add one container of whipped cream cheese frosting.  Mix until well blended.

 

 

• Scoop out small portions and hand roll into 1 inch balls.  (yes, your palms will get a bit messy and sticky)

• Place the balls on your lined cookie sheet.  When done making all the balls, put the tray in the fridge for a couple hours (even overnight if you make the batch in the evening). Allow the balls to set.

• Before you’re ready to take the cake balls out the fridge, put a small pot on the stove on medium/low heat with about 1/4 water in it.  Place a small bowl on top of the pot and make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t sitting in the water.

• Spoon 1/4 portion of the Banana Dulce de Leche in the bowl. Let it warm a couple minutes and stir until the consistency is more smoother to dip in. Mind you it’ll still be thick, it won’t thin out so much so make sure only add portions at a time as needed while dipping the cake balls in it.

 

 

• Once you coated all the cake balls put them back in the fridge or freezer to speed up setting/cooling time.  Now they won’t set hardened they will still be sticky.

• After an hour or so, prepare your melted chocolate the same way you did with the Dulce de Leche. Add handful of chips to melt as needed, do not dump the whole bag in. Put chips in a new clean bowl and they’ll get soft stir them around to blend.  And do not allow any moisture or water drips to get in chocolate, it’ll make it clump and thicken, no good and no turning back once the chocolate does that, (keep this in mind when doing chocolate covered strawberries or chocolate covered fruit or foods of any kind.)

• When chocolate is melted, take bowl off stove.  Drop balls in one at a time, spoon chocolate over top, roll them around and then take them out once coated and place them on a wax sheet lined or foiled lined tray.

 

 

• Place tray in the fridge so chocolate can harden.  Then when ready take out and serve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Going, Going …

 

 

 

 

 GONE!