A View of the Valley

by Linda Schwanke Years ago, my husband and his BFF were working on some kind of man-project like chain-sawing the neighborhood while I was in the house baking cookies for some function or another. Pretty old-fashioned of us. Jim loves warm cookies just out of the oven so I took a couple cookies out to them. Teasing me, Jim’s buddy said, “Oh these are terrible, terrible. You’d better not take them to your thing. I’d better eat them all for you…” Jim agreed and the pair laughed and laughed. It’s become a family joke that when I make something especially good to share for a worthy cause, whoever I select as my test subject tells me the cookie or cake or whatever is so bad that I should just let them eat all of it.  I was thinking of it this weekend when I had a cookie marathon. Most of the cookies were destinated for friends. It was also a jump start to my holiday baking which I never seem to have enough time for. Spending time baking for those I love is one of my favorite pastimes,  not the least of which is because no matter what fool thing we say to each other, we know it will be understood. Which isn’t true of everyone, least of all in this day and age.  I think perhaps I spend too much time in my pod because there are times when I’ve forgotten how to people. I hear the most foolish things coming out of my mouth that are so totally unlike me that I shock myself. But I’m not alone. Also shocking to me is that I have, in recent conversations, learned that this is happening to lots of people. We find ourselves tongue tied and blurt out ridiculous things. Then we can’t sleep because it made us feel so awful. We’re tired so it happens again and apologizing only seems to make it worse…  How did this happen? How did we get here? I think it’s stress that has been building for a long, long time. The recent past has been one awful thing after another. Big things. Little things. Here in the Valley, the dog kennel issue was awful. On a larger stage, a possible new war in the Middle East. The pandemic hitting. An election (spring of 2019) that was crazy because the rules changed as fast as they were written. Stay at home order, mask orders, people dying, another insane election… We finally found some peace when vaccines for COVID-19 – for those who got them – but it turned out they weren’t as good as we’d hoped. Back to lock downs and not going all the places we want to go and doing all the things we want to do. Through it all, social unrest has been growing and growing and growing. Social unrest is not a bad thing in and of itself but the divisiveness that we are seeing that is going with it is appalling. Bullying, for example, is ok as long as you’re being a bully about a thing I agree with. Otherwise you’re a bad person for bullying. Inclusiveness should be a good thing but it seems like those wanting you to be inclusive only want you to be inclusive about their thing, not everything. Those who have are “so over the pandemic” and have stopped doing anything to keep COVID-19 from spreading, if they ever did, campaign against those who are doing everything possible to stay safe. And on and on and on. There is some comfort knowing that we are all to some extent feeling the stress of these crazy times. Which is why I spent a day baking cookies. To relieve the stress. To stay busy and not think about all the bad things but think about good things and those I love. Even if my cookies are terrible ϑ Here’s a recipe for one of the cookies I made. They look a little terrible but are really yummy and perfect for fall: From allrecipes.com, by Gina  Iced Pumpkin Cookies  Ingredients for cookies: 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour  1 teaspoon baking powder  1 teaspoon baking soda  2 teaspoons ground cinnamon  ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg  ½ teaspoon ground cloves  ½ teaspoon salt  ½ cup butter, softened  1 ½ cups white sugar  1 cup canned pumpkin puree  1 egg  1 teaspoon vanilla extract  Ingredients for glaze: 2 cups confectioners’ sugar  3 tablespoons milk  1 tablespoon melted butter  1 teaspoon vanilla extract  Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork. To make glaze: Combine confectioners’ sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency. It’s time to “fall back” so don’t forget to set your clocks back this weekend. I saw a meme on the internet that said, “Getting an extra hour of 2021 is like getting a bonus track on a Yoko Ono album.” It’s mean but it is true, at least to me because I’m not a fan of her music. On the bright side, gaining back the extra hour we lost in the spring means it will be lighter in the morning when we get up for a bit longer. It will still mess with us so please be tolerant and eat a cookie to help you lighten up.  Stay in touch. My phone number is (608) 574-3159 – call or text me anytime. You can also email me at homenewseditor@newspubinc.com or write to me at the Home News, P.O. Box 39, Spring Green WI 53588.  Visit our website at homenewsrv.com Get in touch with Gwen for sports or features at homenewssports@newspubinc.com. If you need a display ad, Dave Pronold can be reached at homenewssales@newspubinc.com or by calling him on his cell at 588-4777. Display ads, or ads that are in boxes, are due by 1 p.m. on Wednesdays. The classified ad deadline is noon Thursdays the week prior to publication for both the Buyer’s Guide and Home News. Classified rates are $13 for the first 10 words, then 30¢ per word for each additional word. Call (608) 767-3655 or email classifieds@newspubinc.com  Legal notices are due by 2 p.m. on Fridays, email them to legals@newspubinc.com Call the NewsPub central office at (608) 767-3655 for subscriptions and all other information Monday through Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon, although afternoon hours can vary. Closed Fridays.