I wanted to do something a bit different this year so I have been doing some holiday cooking lately. A lot of it. Most of what I made is for family, but I made sure to save a piece here & there for the cook’s share.

On top of my normal cooking, I made up pans of ready-to-bake lasagna, brownies, berry muffins, raspberry oat bars, and Medjool dates stuffed with cashews then dipped in chocolate.

It all turned out really good. Of course, a few were packaged mixes (brownies and muffins) I bought but some I made from scratch.

The nice thing about mixes is you don’t have to buy a bunch of stuff that may die of old age in the pantry. Most everything that is needed are normal pantry staples you probably use often so it’s easy.

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Another year is coming to a close. In two days’ time, many will be whooping it up. Some of those will end up in jail, some will just go to bed early and wake up to a new year.

The last few years I have usually just gone to bed early – I don’t need an reason like a holiday…I can make up my own reason, and I have had plenty of those! It’s not a good night to be out on the roadways with it being Amateur Hour. If you are going to drink or get high, stay where you are and be safe. It’s not worth jail and all the legal issues. Most of all it is not worth endangering yourself or anyone else.

I wonder sometimes if life were not so fast-paced would the time come and go so quickly. Perhaps it comes from the days I worked in television, watching life go by with 30-second commercials and timed program segments. Or…maybe it’s just how it is as we get older.

Be safe over the holiday and here’s hoping for a better, less hateful 2024.

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That’s all for this post. See you next time.

Shawn