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Third “Tasty Tuesdays” Recipe

I am including Dutch recipes as part of my “Tasty Tuesdays” journal posts because I’ve become enamored with “all things Dutch” ever since I started researching the history of New York City, which arose from New Amsterdam, a settlement in the Dutch colony of New Netherland (once comprised of portions of the following “modern day” states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and, of course, New York). The more research I did for my second “finished” novel, the more fascinated I became with the colony of New Netherland and the Dutch in general. Because I want to represent this culture as historically accurate as possible, I’ve been studying everything I can find about the Dutch, including their cuisine. Consequently, I thought my “Tasty Tuesdays” journal posts would be a good (delicious?) way to share some of my research with you.

The first Dutch recipe I’ll be sharing with you is called “Patatje Oorlog” (which translates to Dutch “War Fries”. I came across it on a Web site called “Tara’s Multicultural Table”. As it turned out, the Dutch love “french” fries, too, as “patatje oorlog” is popular street fare in the Netherlands. Now, I doubt any of my Dutch characters will be enjoying “patatje oorlog” any time soon since I don’t think potatoes would have been available to any of them given the time period and location in which my stories are set. However, you can bet I’ll be enjoying them quite often, especially since I’ll be using my “InstaPot” to make the fries (recipe to follow). I was intrigued by the toppings the Dutch put on their fries, especially after enjoying “wet fries” from a restaurant chain called “The Hat” back in Southern California AND “poutine” up in Toronto, Canada. I guess I seem to like my fries topped with virtually anything but ketchup. I hope you give “Patatje Oorlog” a try and then let me know what you think about the Dutch version of “french” fries.

A now, without further ado, here’s the recipe for this Dutch street fare — along with a variation for making the “fries” part of this recipe. Eet smakelijk… OR Bon appétit!

Patatje Oorlog (Dutch War Fries)

Saté Sauce:

  • 1 Tablespoon peanut oil
  • 1/2 onion, very finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons sambal oelek (something made from red hot chilis)
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
  • 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
  • 1 1/2 cups chicken broth, divided
  • 1 Tablespoon kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
  • 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar

Fries:

  • 4 large ruusset potatoes
  • vegetable oil for frying
  • salt to taste

For serving:

  • 3/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/2 onion, finely chopped
  • freshly ground black pepper

To make the saté:

  • In a medium saucepan, drizzle the peanut oil over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened. Stir in the garlic, sambal oelek, and ginger and cook just until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
  • Once fragrant, add the peanut butter. Stir to combine, then add 3/4 cup of the chicken brothe, the kecap manis, and dark brown sugar. Allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add more brothe if the mixture becomes too thick. Remove from heat. Refrigerate in an airtight container until ready to use on top of the fries.

To make the fries:

  • In a fryer or large pot, add 2-3 inches of oil and heat to 325 degrees F. Peel the potatoes and cut into fries. Soak the fries in cold water to remove any excess starch and pat dry with a towel.
  • Add the fries to the hot oil in batches, being careful not to overcrowd (keep the extra fries soaking in the water until their turn to cook). Fry until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a towel-lined plate and repeat with the remaining fries.
  • Allow the first batch of fries to rest while the others cook, then fry again in 375 degrees F oil until crisp and golden, about 2 minutes. Repeat with the remaining fries.

To serve:

  • Sprinkle the fries with salt and serve immediately topped with the saté sauce, mayonnaise and chopped raw onions.

Crispy Air Fryer Potatoes

  • 1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, halved
  • 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning (optional)
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Lemon wedge, for serving
  • Freshly chopped parsley, for garnish

In a large bowl, toss potatoes with oil, garlic powder, Italian seasoning and Cajun seasoning, if using. Season with salt and pepper.

Place potatoes in basket of air fryer and cook at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes. Shake basket and stir potatoes, and then cook until potatoes are golden and tender, 8 to 10 minutes more. Squeeze lemon juice over cooked potatoes and garnish with parsley before serving.

So, there you have ’em: the recipe for “Patatje Oorlog” (which I found on “Tara’s Multicultural Table” Web site) AND the recipe for Crispy Air Fryer Potatoes (which I discovered at the back of the January/February 2023 issue of Mountain Telephone’s “Connection” magazine. I’m sure I’m going to be making both of these recipes often in the future! Just have to get the timing right for the homemade kecap manis since I boiled it FAR TOO LONG the first time and ended up with a solid mess that refuses to dissolve!

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Second “Tasty Tuesdays” Recipe

One of the things that occupies my time when I’m not writing is being in the kitchen — and, NO, NOT only for the cleaning AND “counter creep”! I love to cook (and bake), especially trying out new recipes. Consequently, I also love collecting cookbooks and finding new-to-me recipes. So… Last year, I asked my family if they had any recipes that they’d like to share with me. At first, I didn’t get much of a response to this request, but that changed when I picked up a package from the post office recently. Not expecting anything (except bills, of course), I checked my P.O. Box and spotted one of the keys that indicated I had a package waiting for me in one of the post office’s larger boxes. When I retrieved it, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a package from Auntie Pat (the eldest of Mom’s two younger sisters). I was even more surprised to discover that she had responded to my call for recipes — in a BIG way! She sent me not one, but TWO wooden recipe boxes! (Don’t see those boxes anymore! I’m old-fashioned, so I absolutely love ’em! Thanks, Auntie Pat!) Anyway… These boxes were chock full of recipes, and there were also a bunch of recipes that wouldn’t fit into the boxes. I’m telling you… It felt like Christmas that day!

Enthralled by the sheer number of recipes in that package, I started going through the recipes one by one. Some of them were handwritten on scraps of paper now yellowed and creased with age while others were typed (not printed) onto index cards — complete with mistakes, too. A veritable treasure trove of recipes! I don’t know how long I spent sifting through many of those recipes, but I suspect that doing so was what solidified my desire to resurrect the “Tasty Tuesdays” feature from back in my LiveJournal days. Because of Auntie Pat’s very generous gift, I’ve decided to share one of Auntie Pat’s recipes with y’all each month. The first one I’m going to share with you is one called “Eggless Spice Cake”, and eventually you’ll be able to see a photograph of the original recipe below.

It was the first word of this recipe’s name that immediately caught my eye, especially after having paid a veritable fortune for eggs during my last trip to the grocery story. (Talk about “sticker shock”!) Given the fact that the price of eggs continues to skyrocket these days, I thought I’d share the recipe for a dessert that does NOT require eggs.

As I’m sure you’ll be able to tell by the photo of the original recipe, I’ve had to modify it slightly — mostly by adding directions for baking. I’ve actually read somewhere that this kind of information was often omitted from recipes since it was just assumed that everybody already knew how to “bake”. Sadly, I don’t think that’s as true today as it was in “the good ol’ days” when this recipe was written. Because of this, I many need to “tweak” more of the recipes from Auntie Pat a bit in order to clarify the directions.

Here’s the first recipe from Auntie Pat’s VERY generous gift:

Eggless Spice Cake

  • 1/2 cup butter or “short’n”
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/3 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 teaspoon cloves
  • 1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Grease and flour two baking pans. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Pour into the prepared baking pans. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean — for about 45 minutes; cool. Frost, if desired.

NOTES:

Since I don’t have a 1/3 teaspoon measuring spoon or any cloves, I used 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon.

Because I don’t like raisins, I omitted them from “my” Eggless Spice Cake”.

I hope you give this no-eggs-required recipe a try, and if you do, I hope you’ll take a moment to let me know how your “Eggless Spice Cake” turned out for you.

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First “Tasty Tuesdays” Recipe

With this first “Tasty Tuesdays” post coming out on the 14th of February, the first recipe I’m going to share with y’all is going to be something sweet in honor of Valentine’s Day. A member of my family absolutely LOVES Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but he has been grumbling A LOT about “shrink-flation” when it comes to his beloved sweet treat. Every time he purchases any size package of ’em, he never fails to show me the size of ’em — “They’ve shrunk… AGAIN!” he’ll complain, adding “AND the price has gone up on ’em, too!”

Well… After hearing this so many times, I decided to give him a homemade version of his beloved sweet treat for Valentine’s Day — as a surprise AND With the hope that they’ll save us some money in the long run. So… I did a quick Internet search and found not one, but two recipes for homemade peanut butter cups. Because I liked part of one and a different part of the second one, I decided to combine the two. Without further ado, here’s “my” recipe for homemade peanut butter cups:

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients

  • 3/4 pound good quality dark or milk chocolate
  • 1 cup smooth or chunky peanut butter
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Bottom:

  • Melt chocolate at 50% power in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds. The chocolate doesn’t have to be completely melted; as it sits, little pieces will melt into the mixture. Be extra careful not to overheat the chocolate.
  • Place about a teaspoon of chocolate into each well of a silicone mold, and with the back of a spoon, “pull” the chocolate up the sides, ensuring that the bottom and sides are completely covered.
  • Place in the freezer for about 30 seconds to stiffen up the chocolate. Afterwards, you can “re-pull” more or fill in any gaps.
  • Place into the refrigerator until cold.

Filling:

  • Mix together peanut butter, powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and salt in a bowl until well blended and free of any large clumps.
  • Using a tablespoon-sized cookie dough scoop or a tablespoon, scoop up some of the peanut butter filling, roll it into a ball with your hands, and then flatten it slightly into a disk.
  • Place the disks into each of the wells in the silicone mold that have already been filled with chocolate.

Top:

  • Spoon enough of the melted chocolate on top of the disks of peanut butter filling to completely cover them.
  • Once all of the wells have been topped off with the melted chocolate, put the filled silicone mold into the refrigerator to set for at least 30 minutes.
  • Enjoy!

NOTES:

I used a silicone mold that I purchased a while ago because I knew I was going to be making these eventually (also bought a silicone egg mold for a spring holiday), but one of the recipes stated that you could use cupcake liners — the foil ones, if I remember correctly, since they’re stronger than the regular paper ones.

When I made a batch for myself, I melted one of the Dollar General’s (“Literacy”) dark chocolate candy bars, and I was definitely pleased with the results. In fact, I much prefer melting the candy bar and then eating it as opposed to eating it straight out of the wrapper. Go figure…

After the success I had with the homemade peanut butter cups, I went on to use the same molds to make MY favorite kind of candy: dark chocolate nonpareils! Had to use rainbow nonpareils since I couldn’t find any of the all-white kind that is use predominately in commercial products. No biggie… Now I’ve just got to figure out how to drop the chocolate, so I can replicate “Sno Caps” (my favorite “movie” candy) at home! If you’ve got any ideas about how to do this, I’d love to hear from you!

Well… This concludes my very first “Tasty Tuesdays” post since my LiveJournal days. I hope you give this easy recipe a try, and if you do, I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know how it went for you!

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Second “7th of the month” Journal Post

Welcome to my second “7th of the month” journal post. I will be following the same pattern that I started in January’s “7th of the month” post by discussing events that fell into the following three categories:

  • Holler,
  • Personal, and, of course,
  • Writing.

Therefore, each of my “7th of the month” journal posts will focus on each of the above-mentioned categories – probably in that order, too – from the day the previous post was published (on the 7th of the month) to the day before the next post will be published (the 6th of the new month). Here goes…

Holler Happenings:

One of the first purchases made in the new year (2023) was of two big “herbies” (similar to the big trash cans that waste management companies in the big cities give residents to use for their weekly trash collection). Since the holler isn’t close enough to a city for weekly trash collection, we’re responsible for disposing of our accumulation of trash. I’m hoping that the two new “herbies” will let us go a bit longer between trips to the local dump. Only time will tell… Now, I’ve got to figure out where to store all of the trash cans. I’m thinking about building an enclosure for the trash cans – something similar to what I’ve seen in the back of a local fast food restaurant. The only trouble with this plan is that the price of lumber is still quite high.

With the price of food skyrocketing these days, the title of a book that I spotted while perusing Amazon Prime’s reading selections caught my eye: “A Year Without the Grocery Store”. I would LOVE to skip going to the grocery store for an entire year, especially since I experience something akin to “sticker shock” every time I go to the grocery store! I’ve only skimmed through the book, so I haven’t been able to put anything into practice yet. I’ll try to give you an update about this in future “7th of the month” posts, and if I don’t, feel free to leave me a comment to remind me.

Since winter is the time for making plans for gardens, that’s exactly what I spent some time doing this month – since I am bound and determined to harvest something one of these years! I managed to come up with a list of six goals for my 2023 (and beyond) garden, and here they are:

  • build more SFG frames AND covers for all of them;
  • use my new “grow tent” to start LOTS of seeds indoors;
  • reclaim the area between the peach trees (near the pond in the front yard) and create an “al fresco” dining area, a bean pole tipi (something I’ve wanted for a long time), and/or a medicinal garden;
  • learn how to can and preserve food from my garden (assuming I’m, indeed, successful at harvesting something from my garden);
  • turn the side porch into an outdoor kitchen (a space for the canning and preserving);
  • build/purchase a storage shed for all of my gardening supplies and seeds.

As I hinted at when I added “(and beyond)”, I have a sneaking suspicion that I probably won’t be able to accomplish all six of these goals this year, but they are always at the back of my mind – “the big picture”, if you will. Even though I may not be able to cross off all of these goals completely (especially the last two), I will be “taking baby steps” when it comes to them. For example, I’ve got to spend some time clearing off the side porch by organizing many of the gardening supplies that are currently located in that space, and by doing this, I’ll be just that much closer to accomplishing those last two goals. Every little bit of progress helps!

The last thing I want to mention in the “Holler Happenings” section is placing a Pampered Chef order. My darlin’ daughter has recently started hosting Pampered Chef parties, so I thought I’d support her efforts by placing an order through her party – to give her an opportunity to earn some of the benefits for hosting parties. So… I spent some time perusing the Pampered Chef Web site, and while doing so, I came up with a list of a dozen possible items to purchase. After prioritizing the items on the list, I then had my daughter help me place my order – to make sure that she received the credit for my order. Without further ado, here’s a list of the items I purchased through my daughter’s most recent Pampered Chef party:

  • Mix ‘N Chop (to help “Sweet Thing” when he makes his meat sauce and taco meat);
  • Can Strainer (to help him when he makes his big batches of chili);
  • Burger & Slider Press (something we’ve been wanting to get for quite some time);
  • Apple Wedger (an all-metal one to replace my cracked plastic one); and
  • Salt & Vinegar Seasoning (to put on fries cooked in our InstaPot).

My daughter threw in a jar of “Everything Taco Seasoning” (since she knows that we eat a lot of tacos), and I selected an avocado tool (even though I don’t really like avocados) since I didn’t really like the other “free” offering. Overall, I’m very pleased with everything I purchased, and I’m looking forward to her next party, so I can order the remaining items on my list.

Personal Events:

The first thing I want to mention in this category is that I created a “Winter Bucket List” – a list of things that I want to accomplish this winter. Because I know that “all work and no play” isn’t good, this list contains both things that will require some effort (read: work) to accomplish and things that can be used as rewards for getting the work done – in other words, activities that I think are fun. I’ll have to type it up, print it out, and post it somewhere prominent, so I’ll be able to tell how close I am to accomplishing everything on this list. This was an idea I first came across in one of the newsletters I receive from Maria Gracia, the founder of the “Get Organized Now!” Web site.

In addition to this list, I placed another order – for the 2023 edition of the original Lunar Phases Calendar, a tradition that I started quite a while ago. I’ll use this calendar to determine when I’ll be digging out our telescope for some “moon watching parties” this year! Some of the other things that fall into the “Personal Events” category are as follows:

  • tried a new recipe for “InstaPot” fries (the main reason I purchased the Pampered Chef’s Salt and Vinegar Seasoning). By the way… Even though that appliance is now called the “Instant Pot”, I’ll always know it – and refer to it – as the “InstaPot” since that’s what it was called when it first hit the market. It just has a certain ring to it that I like. So, yeah… I love my “InstaPot”, and I always enjoy trying out new ways to use it. The next thing I think I’m going to try to cook in it is a rib-eye steak.
  • had more enjoyable phone calls from my darlin’ daughter, who calls to “check to see how we’re doing” – though she invariably calls when I’ve just sat down to eat, I always enjoy her phone calls.
  • listened to more UK games – when I remembered to do so! Until I got used to their Tuesday and Saturday schedule, I ended up forgetting about some of the games until afterwards. OOPS!

Writing

As far as my writing is concerned, I spent some time finalizing my writing goals for the first 100 days of 2023. Given how distracted I can get, I’ve found that having a list of such goals helps me stay focused – and redirected should I find myself distracted. As with my “Winter Bucket List”, I’m going to have to print out and post my writing goals somewhere prominent in my office, so I’ll be able to do periodic progress checks to find out how productive I’ve been. In addition, I started organizing my two writing spaces: “my wall” in the office, where my desk is located, and the area at the end of the sofa in the front room, where I go for some peace and quiet. I spent much of January doing research for – and developing – a story (historical romance) that will be set in the Dutch colony of Curaçao (a Caribbean island that has family ties). Like most of my ideas for stories seem to do, this story quickly became yet another trilogy. By doing this research, I guess you can say that I spent part of my winter enjoying a beautiful Caribbean island! A wonder way to spend some time – even though it’s just been as an “armchair traveler”!

One more thing… Beginning this month (February 2023), I’m going to start a new feature on my Web site. Every Tuesday, I will be publishing something called a “Tasty Tuesdays” post. These “Tasty Tuesdays” posts are a throw-back to my LiveJournal days when I enjoyed sharing some of my favorite recipes. Since I miss posting on a weekly basis, I thought “Tasty Tuesdays” would be an excellent way to get back into doing so. At this point, I’m planning to follow the following schedule for these “Tasty Tuesdays” posts:

  • First Tuesday of the month = a favorite recipe of mine;
  • Second Tuesday = a recipe for something sweet;
  • Third Tuesday = a Dutch recipe of some kind (in honor of my fascination with the Dutch);
  • Fourth Tuesday = a recipe from my Auntie Pat’s collection (that she recently gifted to me);
  • Fifth Tuesdays = a barbecue or picnic-related recipe

All right, I think this sums up the month of January for me quite well. I’d love to hear what y’all did last month, so please take a moment to leave a comment! Looking forward to hearing from you! In the meantime… Take care.

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First “7th of the month” Journal Post

After publishing my NaNoWriMo 2022 “wrap up” journal post on the 7th of last month, I thought it would would be fun to put together “wrap up” journal posts about what’s been happening in my life – a series of “time capsules” of sorts. While perusing my “Holler Happenings” notebooks (where I keep all of my various lists and notes), I noticed that everything fell into one of three categories:

• Holler,
• Personal, and, of course,
• Writing.

Therefore, each of my “7th of the month” journal posts will focus on each of the above-mentioned topics – probably in that order, too. Here goes…

Holler Happenings:
I spent the majority of “the month” (from 7 December 2022 to 6 January 2023, which will be the typical time period for each of these journal posts) doing a lot of brainstorming – to come up with a list of projects that I want to accomplish around the holler. All of these projects revolve around making improvements to both the holler house and the holler itself. In addition to these improvements, I also brainstormed a list of projects related to my “kitchen garden” – since I’m still determined to actually harvest something one of these years.

Personal Events:
For 2023, I decided to do something that I’d heard about during discussions regarding New Year’s resolutions. Instead of creating such resolutions, several people recommended coming up with a “word of the year” – a word that will help one stay focused on goals throughout the year. Since I gave up setting New Year’s resolutions quite a while ago – in favor of creating goals that I’d work on throughout the year (my birth year instead of the usual calendar year), I found the “word of the year” idea intriguing. So…
After a great deal of thought, I’ve settled on a single word (which was definitely tougher than it first sounded) and my 2023 “word of the year” is…

ACCOMPLISHING

I selected this word since I want to (finally) accomplish LOTS of projects during this brand-new year!

The biggest news this month was the “winter blast” that hit the holler – and most of the country – right around Christmas. I didn’t really mind the “winter blast” at all since winter is one of my two favorite seasons, AND it may have initiated a new Christmas tradition: something I’ll be calling my “winter blast staycation”. Because the “winter blast” weather prevented me from leaving the holler, I decided to do things at home that I’ve always wanted to do – but never took the time to do. The three main things that I wanted to do during my (first) “winter blast staycation” were as follows:

• make a gingerbread house (from scratch);
• make a Yule Log (something I’ve been wanting to do since my high school french classes);
• watch LOTS of holiday movies (complete with candy and popcorn).

Sadly, I wasn’t able to do the first two things – primarily because I was afraid to make the royal icing needed to keep the house together, AND I didn’t have a jelly roll pan. I’m still not sure about that icing, but I’ve since ordered a jelly roll pan. From the look of it, though, I’m not sure how effective it’ll be. However, I’m going to attempt to make both of these things (as part of an upcoming holiday celebration), so I’ll be ready for this year’s “winter blast staycation”!
No “Personal” discussion about me would be complete (especially at this time of year) without a mention of one of my two favorite sports: UK Basketball! I’ve been a big fan of the University of Kentucky (UK) men’s basketball for a VERY long time – since BEFORE I relocated to the Commonwealth of Kentucky seven years ago! Back when I lived in California, I listened to UK games – thanks to the wonder of the Internet (specifically, iHeart radio), and even though I’ve had the ability to watch UK games on television, I still listen to their games – mostly because I like the play-by-play calls, something that the TV announcers don’t do! Like my other favorite sports team (Portsmouth Football Club), I’ve followed the University of Kentucky Wildcats through their “ups” (winning national championships) AND their “downs” (not even making it into the NCAA tournament). I’m happy to report that after a rough start to the season, this year’s team has gradually started improving! Go, Cats!!

Writing:
As above, no discussion about me would be complete without mentioning my writing. By the time I managed to “win” NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) last year, I was (as usual) VERY stressed and ready to throw Zenny (my current laptop computer) out the window. So… I “took a break” from writing in December – though I do try to write every day: a “Pages” entry (my equivalent of Julia Cameron’s “Morning Pages” since I’m not much of a “morning person”), a “free writing” entry, a “meeting my quota” (with a quota of one page) entry, and a “Gratitude” journal entry. In the first three entries, I discussed things such as how I thought NaNoWriMo went and what projects I want to work on for the next year’s NaNoWriMo events – two camps and the main one in November. In the last type of entry, I create lists of things for which I’m grateful. As I mentioned, I try to write every day, but on the days I’m not, for whatever reason, able to write, I’ll write what I call “catch up” entries – which is nothing more that the next day’s regular entry with a “catch up” date entry such as this: Monday – Tuesday, 12-13 December 2022. This indicates that I didn’t write on Monday.
As far as what projects I’ll be working on in 2023 is concerned, I will continue to work on “The McGrath Family Chronicles” series, something that started out as a single contest entry (a story called “A Gangster’s Love Affair”) and morphed into a four-story series (a story for each of the McGrath Family members). This series sparked my interest in New Netherland, the Dutch colony out of which New York City grew, so I’ll be continuing to research the history of New Netherland and other Dutch colonies for the purpose of setting stories in these locations as well. If, for whatever reason, I lose interest in these projects, I’ve got LOTS of other story ideas to pursue. So many ideas, so little time… as they say, so I’ve got to be as efficient – and productive – as I can when it comes to my writing. To this end, one of the other things I want to work on – and accomplish – this year is to come up with a “work flow” that will take me from story idea to finished manuscript ready to submit for publication. If y’all have any ideas and/or suggestions regarding “work flow” for writers, I’d love to hear about it!

Well… I think I’d better close this, my very first “7th of the month” post before it becomes any longer than it already is! In future posts, I hope to add pictures to these posts, but I have to figure out how to do so first. Shouldn’t be too difficult to do since I’ve already managed to add a couple of NaNoWriMo banners to previous posts. In addition, I’ll have to go through my multitude of pics to decide which ones would be appropriate. Anyway… Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this post! Please leave me a comment to let me know what you thought of the type of post. Hope to hear from ya soon!

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NaNoWriMo 2022: “It’s a wrap!”

The main event of NaNoWriMo has come and gone, and even though I didn’t feel ready for it, I managed to cross the 50,000-word “finish” line. As with many of my other NaNoWriMo “wins”, this one was definitely at the last minute!

In my first post about NaNoWriMo 2022, I mentioned that I was going to be a rebel — by writing a series of short stories that I hoped would “read like a novel”. Well… The first “short” story morphed into a novel! So, I have yet to finish a short story, but that’s another journal entry…

In my (few) posts about my NaNoWriMo progress, I used the following format for updating my official word count here in my journal:

Day # — daily word count (total word count)

Since I posted the first four days in an earlier journal entry, I figured that I would include this information for the last four days of NaNoWriMo 2022:

Day 30 – 3,488 (51,015 total words!)

Day 29 — 1,610 (47,527 total words)

Day 28 — 2,219 words (45,917 total words — Note: I didn’t record this data on 11/27/22.)

Day 26 — 1,979 words (43,698 total words)

I absolutely LOVE the fact that I ended NaNoWriMo 2022 with a total word count that is a PALINDROME: 51015! It just happened! I don’t think I could’ve planned it that way! Well… Maybe I could’ve noticed I was close to a palindrome and then did what I could to end with one… Only I will know for sure!

Since I livened up my first NaNoWriMo 2022 post with some NaNo “swag”, I’m going to do it again — by adding some WINNER’S “swag” to this last NaNoWriMo 2022 post…

And there you have it: PROOF that I am, indeed, a NaNoWriMo 2022 WINNER!

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Slowly, but surely…

I’ve readjusted my writing schedule (by instituting a series of three (4-page) writing sessions per day as follows:

the first session — after midnight and before I “hit the hay”

the second session — middle of the day (after my “morning” routine)

the third session — at my “usual” writing time (sometime after my 9:30 PM alarm goes off)

By breaking up my word/page count, I have a better shot at “meeting my quota” each time because it’s much easier for me to write four pages in one sitting than it is to write eight or more. These multiple sessions allow me to write twelve pages in a single day!

Even though I’m STILL way behind as far as a NaNo pace is concerned, I’ve been making progress ever since I readjusted my writing schedule.

In addition to this readjustment, I’ve also got my “Friendly Competition” chart “up and running”. I’m tracking my ten current NaNoWriMo postcard swap recipients as well as eleven of my previous “postcard pals”. Of these twenty-one, only fifteen of ’em have been writing regularly. When I first started tracking progress, I was in 11th place with a mere 7,539 words on Day 9 while the person in the top spot had a whoppin’ 37,467 words! (I wasn’t surprised by her word count since she’s been a VERY prolific writer during NaNoWriMo for as long as I’ve been tracking her during my “Friendly Competition”! Always thousands of words ahead of me.

Having said this, though, I discovered that I wrote more words in one day (Day 10) than she did that day! Thanks to my readjusted writing schedule! She wrote 3,086 words that day while I wrote a whoppin’ 4,350 words. Yay, me!

Just gotta try to keep up the pace that this readjusted writing schedule is allowing me to have!

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Came up short…

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that I was going to try something new as far as my word count is concerned. I was going to try to write five pages during my first writing session of the day, which will be after I update my word count and before I go to bed. Then… During my usual writing session (after 9:30 PM), I’ll try to write the rest of my 10-page quota.

Well… As the title of this post indicates, I came up short — by 410 words. 🙁 Instead of writing 2,500 words (ten 250-word pages), I only wrote a little over eight pages. I think the reason I came up short was two-fold:

First, I didn’t write the full five pages before I went to bed “last night”, and

second, I didn’t start writing early enough today.

Oh, well… I’m sure it’s going to take some time to get used to the new “catch up” writing schedule! However, the good news is that this new writing schedule maintains my “Unplugged Sundays” — though I might try to do some writing the old-fashioned way: pen on paper in order to prevent myself from falling too far behind to catch up.

Speaking of getting caught up, I did a bit of figurin’ after updating my word count, and I figured that I’d be able to get back onto a NaNoWriMo pace by Thanksgiving AND get AHEAD on Black Friday. Of course, this may depend on what we end up doing for the holiday. If I’m able to get my writing done on Thanksgiving AND maintain the 10-page quota I started today, I should be able to cross the 50,000-word “finish line” A DAY EARLY — on the 29th of November. If I continue at this accelerated pace, I might end NaNoWriMo with a grand total of…

(Wait for it…)

52,639 words.

That would be SO COOL, but only time will time if I’ll be successful in this endeavor! So… If you’re curious about whether I’ll be able to maintain this rather grueling pace, you’re welcome to check back as often as you’d like!

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Ugh! Flat-lining…

Even though I managed to write more words today, the word-count graph on my official NaNoWriMo stats looks like it has been flat-lining for five days! Almost a week!! Ugh!!!

By the end of today (Election Day 2022), I should have written a grand total of…

(Wait for it…)

13.336 words.

Sadly, I only have a grand total of 5,449 words. Consequently, I’m a whoppin’ 7,887 words behind! (Like that number, though, because it’s a PALINDROME!)

All is NOT lost, though. Tomorrow, I’ll be starting a new tactic: writing TEN 250-word pages in a single day. I’m going to be doing this by splitting the ten-page quota in half — writing five pages after updating my word count (read: before I go to bed) and then writing another five pages in the evening when I normally do my writing. We’ll see how that goes…

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Dismal, dismal, dismal…

By this, I’m referring to today’s NaNoWriMo word count. Due to a variety of factors (that, I think, shall remain nameless), I only managed to write less than 100 words before midnight today. 🙁

The past couple of days haven’t been a complete loss, though. Yesterday was one of my “Unplugged Sundays” (the day of the week when I try to remain “unplugged” — by not using any electronics), so I didn’t get on the computer to “meet my quota”. However, I did spend much of the day researching the main historical event upon which one of my NaNoWriMo short stories will be based; created a timeline of this historical event, AND, most importantly, tried to figure out how my fictional characters will fit in with — and be affected by — the event. Today, I did a bit more research, specifically, about one of the “real life” people that was affected by the historical event in a major way and with whom my characters will interact.

Because I am now a whoppin’ 6,429 words behind a NaNo pace, I REALLY need to figure out how I can get caught up while maintaining my “Unplugged Sundays”. At this point, I think I’m going to start putting in TWO writing sessions per day:

The first one will be after midnight since I’m a “night owl”. Haven’t been doing this one since I’ve been trying to get all of my writing done before midnight — in order to update my NaNoWriMo word count for the day.

The second one will be in the evening — when I’ve currently been doing all of my writing. This should allow me to “double up” on my writing and thus, help me get caught up — and maybe even ahead — in word count.

Well… That’s the plan now. Only time will tell how effective this plan will be in the long run. Wish me luck ‘cuz I’m definitely going to need all I can get in order to “win” this year’s NaNoWriMo event!