2021-12-15 Wednesday: Nut bread! :-)

[Richard Silk]

The night/day before last night, I had an unusual dream that I was viewing myself, except that the “self” that “I” (the dreamer) was viewing was a younger, perhaps somewhere in his teens to early 30s and had short, blondish hair, but for a moment or two, I thought it was “me.” The view wasn’t well lit, which seemed to be causing a bit of difficulty in viewing the person, but after I awoke it occurred to me I may have been looking at a future descendant who simply had my head / facial features (the area of the eyes and sockets / brows / supraorbital foramen were remarkably similar.) Then again, what if it were some image of a “childhood demon” that had tried to “take over” my thought processes / “soul”? Either way, he’s been “identified” now, as “Blondie” (I’d use “Sandy,” but that name’s already in use here) :-) Clarity 9- / 8+ due to dim lighting.
Speaking of “prior” dreams, I did post that one a few days ago about a spinning darkness, similar in mind to a tornado, which was followed a day or so later by the record-whopping 240-mile long tornado that went through 5 states, including Tennessee. So my concern / question is: was it A) coincidental, B) predictive, or C) premeditative? That last one concerns me the most. I’ve made a “mental note” to “avoid” tornado-type, swirling thoughts, if/when possible.
LAST night, there were some unusual dreams, at least one, involving non-standard dream images. The one with a dark (dirt/earth-colored) shape was similar to a termite mound, however not quite as wide, and more the size of a longer-sized dildo upright from the ground, around 9 or so inches. The earthen column seemed to be the source of some small, rather dark, spider-like creatures. I (the dreamer) tried to follow one of them visually, but it appeared to have made it “out the window” of whatever dream scene this may have been, and was no longer of any concern. The “other” spiders were simply ignored as the scene changed.
Another non-standard dream involved what began as a type of fox hunt, with the dreamer following a critter nearly dog-shaped / sized, along a kind of hallway into a kind of small, cubicle-shaped room, maybe 4’x4’x4’ or so. The critter no longer had forelegs of note, and seemed a bit like a robot-shaped version of a cartoon Snoopy, but more robotic than Snoopy. The dreamer was looking into this critter’s eyes, trying to determine what it might be, and there appeared to be words on display across the eyes, which the dreamer interpreted as being some form of communication portal. The dreamer said and spelled the word “uncle” (U-N-C-L-E) as the word may have formed in text across the pup-bot’s right (camera’s left side) eye.
Also, on a personal note, today I helped my elderly mother to bake what she claimed to be “her last” time at making nut bread for the holidays. She did require some of my “horsepower” at a few tasks.
Mom's "ancient" recipe (Makes THREE loaves!):

Cream together 3 eggs,
9 TBLSpns shortening (similar to Crisco)
3 generous cups of sugar,
3 tsp salt.
ADD 3 cups milk
(the idea is to mix all these "easier" things together BEFORE adding the flour, which starts to thicken things up considerably!)
STIR IN 9 CUPS sifted flour (NOT self-rising, YES all-purpose)
AND 9 tsps baking powder.
(Personally, I'd put in the baking powder with the earlier mix, BEFORE the flour, but "recipes have their process.")
"When batter is 'right' (might need to add more milk) add 2 generous cups pecans (and optional raisins.) Mix all together."
HALF-fill greased loaf pans. (LIGHT, NON-dark!)
BAKE @ 375°F (approximately 1 hour) until knife comes out clean.

YIELD: 3 large loafs & 1 small loaf (sometimes.)
(NOTE: I had no problem doing any of this, and only needed 3 pans. An elderly person perhaps shy of "overfilling" a breadpan? maybe that 4th one would be necessary, but not this time.)
NOTE: a "darker" loaf pan will likely require around 10 minutes *less* time OR a slightly lower temperature, as a full hour *may* result in singed-burned bottom edges/corners.