I fell in love with Chinese almond cookies the moment I tasted one with a “Chinese take-out” order. In addition to the usual fortune cookies, this particular Chinese restaurant also served Chinese almond cookies with their meals. One bite, and I was hooked, so I always made sure I got at least one package of these delicious treats.

Years ago during one trip to my local grocery store, I was overjoyed to discover pink boxes of Chinese almond cookies in the “Asian” section. So… Whenever I went grocery shopping, I’d pick up a couple of those pink boxes to tide me over until the next “Chinese take-out” order OR to accompany any Chinese entrees that I made at home.

Sadly, though, I can no longer get those pink boxes of Chinese almond cookies. After relocating to “my holler in Kentucky”, I was VERY disappointed when I couldn’t find ’em in the “Asian” section of any local grocery stores. Consequently, I was VERY happy when an unintentional online search led me to the recipe I’m going to share with you in today’s vanity post. It’s from redhousespice.com, a Web site that was founded by a woman who “was born and raised in China”, so ya know it’s got to be authentic! Without further ado, here’s the recipe for…

Chinese Almond Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cups almond flour (see note 1)

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup neutral cooking oil (see notes 2 & 3)

40 almonds, toasted

1 egg yolk (skip for the vegan version)

Instructions

Make the dough:

1. Add all-purpose flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a large bowl. Use a fork to mix them well.
2. Pour in the oil and mix with the fork until no dry flour remains.
3. Combine and press all the lumps together (to form a big ball). It’s okay if the dough falls apart easily, as long as it has a uniform texture (see note 2).

Shape the cookies:

1. With the aid of a kitchen scale, divide the dough into 40 portions, with each weighing about 1/2 ounce (15 g).
2. With gentle pressure, shape a piece of dough into a (small) ball. Place it on the palm of your hand. Press one almond halfway into the dough.
3. Repeat to make all the cookies, then put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving a little space in between.
4. Optional step: Mix egg yolk with 1/2 teaspoon of water. Brush it over the cookies.

Bake the cookies:

1. Put the baking sheet on the middle rack of an oven preheated to 350 degrees F.
2. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until the cookies brown nicely. Cool them completely on a wire rack before storing them in air-tight containers.

Notes

1. Almond flour can be replaced with almond meal, which includes almond skin and usually has a coarser texture. In this case, the dough tends to be more crumbly, thus requiring gentler handling.
2. Since the brand and accuracy of the measurement affect how the flour absorbs moisture, you may need to slightly adjust the amount of cooking oil. If the dough appears overly dry, add a little more oil.
3. Unsalted butter (melted) can be used as a substitute for cooking oil, but you will need to use 2 additional tablespoons beyond the suggested amount.

So, there you have it: A recipe for Chinese almond cookies that you can make at home if, like me, your local grocery doesn’t have those pink boxes OR (I suppose) you can just get ’em with your next “Chinese take-out” order. Your choice, but I know which choice I’ll be making!

Today, I started yet another major project around “my holler in Kentucky” — getting my travel trailer cleared out and ready to relocate to the “back 40”, where I’m going to turn it into my “writer’s retreat”. While going through some of the “stuff” that has been stashed in it through the years, I found a wooden plaque that featured what appears to be an island sunset and some “words of wisdom” in the form of a poem called “Don’t Quit”. Because of the timeliness of this poem, I’m going to transcribe it here, so I’ll have easy access to it on the days when I find myself in need of encouragement. Without further ado, here are the “words of wisdom” that I found on a plaque in my travel trailer:

DON’T QUIT

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low, and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

*******

Life is strange with its twists and turns,

As everyone of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about,

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow.

You may succeed with another blow.

*******

Success is failure turned inside out.

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you can never tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit.

It’s when things seem worst

That you must not quit.”

Unfortunately, I’m not able to give proper credit to the author of this poem because there was no name beneath it.

However, I hope this poem — and its “words of wisdom” — gives each of us the encouragement we need to keep going with whatever major project we happen to be dealing with at the time, which, for me, is going through boxes and boxes of “stuff” that as accumulated through the years! Wish me luck in this endeavor. I’m certainly going to need it as I navigate my way uphill through the mountain of boxes in my travel trailer now!

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I took a break… a hiatus… from the publication of my vanity posts. This was primarily because of an extremely busy schedule during the last week or so of June, but I’m happy to report that I’m slowly getting back to these vanity posts. So… I hope you’ve found your way back and will continue to join me during the coming days in my ongoing “vanity post experiment.

Anyway… I’ve long thought that “hiatus” was a strange word, and, to be honest, I wasn’t even sure whether I’d used the word properly above, so I figured I’d better look into the word to satisfy my curiosity AND make sure I was using it as it was intended to be used. Went to my favorite online resource (dictionary.com) since my good ol’ Webster’s dictionary wasn’t at hand, and I discovered that I had, indeed, used the word properly — according to the first definition listed for “hiatus”:

“a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.”

Yay! That made me feel good, but I was still curious about the history of the word, so I continued scrolling down through the other four definitions until I came to what I was looking for: the “etymology” or origin of the word “hiatus”. This is what I found:

“Origin of hiatus

First recorded in 1555-65; from Latin hiatus “opening, gap,” equivalent to hia(re) “to gape, open” + tus, noun suffix”

Here’s dictionary.com’s explanation for the word “hiatus”:

“A temporary gap, pause, or absence can be called a hiatus. When your favorite TV show is on hiatus, that means there are no new episodes — not forever, just for a little while.

Even things that go on for a long time take a break once in a while: one kind of a break is a hiatus. If someone has to leave her job for a time, she’s going on hiatus. A touring band will need to take a hiatus if the lead singer gets in an accident. The key thing about a hiatus is that it’s an interruption of something that was happening, but it’s not a permanent break.”

Even writers need to take a hiatus, especially if they get so busy that they don’t know whether they’re coming or going. So, yeah… I did NOT take a permanent break from the publication of my vanity posts… just a hiatus. It’s good to be back!

As Maria Gracia noted in one of her newsletters: “This year, Father’s Day and the first day of summer [the summer solstice] arrive together…”

So, I am going to celebrate with some quotes:

“A father is neither an anchor to hold us back nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way.”

~ Unknown ~

One way of celebrating the solstice is to consider it a sacred time of reflection, release, and renewal.”

~ Sarah ban Breathnach ~ [Note: Sarah is one of my favorite authors.]

“Let the energy of the summer solstice help you to balance release, recharge.”

~ Unknown ~

“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.”

~ Billy Graham ~

And I’m going to end with the paraphrasing of something I received from one of my aunts AND then a quote that brought tears to my eyes:

“… Dad, I’m grateful for every memory, but God, how I wish I could hug you one more time.”

“Dad, wherever you are, you are gone, but you will never be forgotten.”

~ Conrad Hall ~

Yesterday, I went through my current “Holler Happenings” notebook, and I wrote down a list of unfinished tasks — things I’d planned to do throughout the month but hadn’t yet accomplished. Sadly, it’s quite a long list, but I’m hoping that something I found in Jill Winger’s book, “Old-fashioned On Purpose: A Homesteading Manifesto” will help me turn all of the afore-mentioned tasks into completed ones.

“That something” is what she calls “The Result Road Map”, and it’s an exercise that’s designed to “break giant undertakings into small, bite-size steps”. That’s exactly what I think I need since I’m often overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of some of the “giant undertakings” I’ve been trying to accomplish!

Hmmm… I just realized that “The Result Road Map” five-step process reminds me A LOT of what I did as a special education teacher. When working with my students, I would create goals for my students that we’d work on together throughout the year. These annual goals would be broken down into “short-term objectives”, which are the equivalent to the “small, bite-size steps” mentioned in “The Result Road Map”. Don’t know why I didn’t think of breaking down my annual goals into the “short-term objectives” objectives like I did while I was teaching. Anyway…

“The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything up close.”

Yesterday, I had to use Vanity Post #14 because I had myself on a strict schedule in order to make sure I was able to get to my EARLY doctor’s appointments on time today. I’m happy to report that I did, indeed, get there on time — fifteen minutes early, in fact. Even though I was stressing a bit about it, the procedure went well — though I haven’t heard the results yet. However, I was reminded of something after one failed attempt at having an IV inserted into my arm: I MUST remember to request an “ultrasound IV” whenever I have such a procedure done in the future!

Anyway… Since Sweet Thing also had a doctor’s appointment later this afternoon, I had thought that we could have a picnic between appointments, especially since today is International Picnic Day. Sadly, the “picnic between appointments” didn’t happen, but I WAS able to celebrate International Picnic Day — with a “picnic on the porch” overlooking my beautiful pond. While I ate, I did nothing but enjoy the sights and sounds of “my holler in Kentucky”: ripples on the pond’s surface from the rain and a bunny grazing “al fresca” in the front yard, seemingly oblivious to the pouring rain, along with the chirping of nearby birds and croaking frogs. It was a relaxing — and enjoyable — way to end the day of many appointments!

Nothing worth and/or no time… Vanity Post #14

This is my official “I have nothing worth writing about and/or no time to write it” vanity post. From now on, whenever my schedule is so busy that I don’t feel I have time to come up with something interesting in a timely manner, I’ll publish “Vanity Post #14 — my version of Chuck Lorre’s vanity card #111.

This is my official “I have nothing worth writing about and/or no time to write it” vanity post. From now on, whenever my schedule is so busy that I don’t feel I have time to come up with something interesting in a timely manner, I’ll publish “Vanity Post #14 — my version of Chuck Lorre’s vanity card #111.

For this vanity post, I am borrowing the concept behind Chuck Lorre’s vanity card #111, which begins as follows:

“This is the official ‘I have nothing worth writing about’ vanity card. It will run whenever I have nothing worth writing about.”

However, I am going to add to it by saying:

“From now on, whenever my schedule is so busy that I don’t feel I have time to come up with something interesting in a timely manner, I’ll publish “Vanity Post #14″ — my version of Chuck Lorre’s vanity card #111.”

Because I’m borrowing from the original creator of “vanity cards”, it didn’t take me 110 previous vanity cards to figure out when I either have nothing to say or no time to say it. It only took me 13 previous “vanity posts” AND one very busy day to realize that I needed my own version of #111.

Just know that more original vanity posts WILL be “coming soon”, so stay tuned for more.

Happy “National Sewing Machine Day”!

Did you know that…

• “before the invention of the sewing machine, tailors and sewists [seamstresses] created clothing by hand, one stitch at a time”?
• “the invention of the sewing machine brought about revolutionary change”?
• many men, such as Thomas Saint, William Newton Wilson, Walter Hunt, John Greenough, Isaac Singer, and Elias Howe, invented various kinds of sewing machines — going all the way back to 1790?
• “industrial use of the sewing machine reduced the burden placed on housewives, moving clothing production from them and seamstresses to large-scale factories?” [Because I don’t like much of what these “large-scale factories” (especially those located overseas) are putting out these days, I’m going to be putting MY sewing machine to work as I start making my own clothes again.]
• “quilters across America [of which I am one] are also known as sewing machine experts” AND that not all quilters use sewing machines?

Well… According to the folks at nationaldaycalendar.com, all of these are true!