Sweet! Potatoes!

I was one of those people who swore up and down they didn’t like sweet potatoes. Nope. No, thank you. Don’t want ’em, won’t eat ’em, PASS.

Boy, am I glad I gave them another chance here now that I’m a bit older. Turns out, I really, really like sweet potatoes! A lot! The problem was, I just didn’t like them loaded with sugar and oozing with melted marshmallows. Yuck. I don’t care for marshmallows on my dessert plate, let alone my DINNER plate. Blech. For some reason, it never occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, there’s other ways to prepare them. Ways that are bit more modern, a bit more sophisticated and every bit as delicious.

This is kind of  hybrid of a couple recipes. There were elements of both that I wanted to try, so I kind of just combined them into one tasty side dish. These smashed sweet potatoes get a flavor boost by being roasted in a hot over until fork tender. Then kicked up a notch with hint of sweetness from pure maple syrup and a hint of spiciness for chipotles in adobo before being smashed into a puree. We both enjoyed these a lot. Anytime I can get my husband to eat something that’s not the color of meat or bread, I call it a win.

Speaking of win, I’m proud to report that I knocked the 30 day NaNoWriMo challenge out of the park for the second year in a row! Crossed the 50k mark on Thanksgiving afternoon. Now, thank GOODNESS that’s over. I can get on with my life and back to my regular scheduled blogging. Whew!

Hi, I’m Tangent! Have we met?

Okay, back to the food. 🙂

MAPLE-CHIPOTLE SMASHED SWEET POTATOES (Recipe inspired by: These two recipes by Alton Brown and Claire Robinson

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large sweet potato
• Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 of a chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, very finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon adobo sauce from can
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• chopped parsley for garnish (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel and chop the sweet potato into one inch chunks and spread onto a cookie sheet in an even layer. Drizzle with olive oil and maple syrup. Toss to coat. Roast in oven, stirring occasionally until just fork tender, but not crisp; about 15 minutes.
2. Place potatoes in a large bowl. Add butter, chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, salt and cinnamon. Smash with a potato masher or fork until combined. Garish with copped parsley and a bit of freshly ground black pepper, if desired.

Makes 2 to 3 servings.

ENJOY! 🙂

One Year Ago:
Texas Chili – this is my favorite chili recipe. YUM!
Rigatoni All’Amatriciana – Past in a bacon and onion sauce. Spicy and delicious!

 

 

NaNo? No Problem!

Okay, this novel writing stuff? Yeah, It’s ridiculously easy. 50k in 30 days? No problem. Go ahead, make it a 100k, I triple dog dare ya!

It’s only the 25th of the month and I am INCHES away from winning. Like 500 words away. Woo hoo! Eat my dust, NaNo! Next stop, the winner’s circle.

Of course, I’ve sacrificed every weekend afternoon and all my favorite TV shows in the evening to get this far. I ate Zatarain’s Jambalaya mix for dinner. Quite a few delicious Lean Cusisines as well. And, I have to be honest and admit that the entire thing a huge, gigantic pile of crap, that no will ever get to read, but hey, I’ve managed to crank out 49,000 words plus in just 25 days. That’s gotta count for something.

Why am I not getting paid for this?

Anyway, I’m pretty psyched I’ve been able to stay ahead of the game with NaNo and update my blog as well. Last year, I couldn’t do it. I could not multitask and write a novel and blog at the same time. This year, I’m more comfortable, cruising at a comfortable speed of anywhere between 2,000 and 3,000 words a day. It must get easier the longer you do it.

Again, why I am not getting paid for this?? LOL.

I think the reason I’ve done so well with this is because I thought I was going to fail miserably. See, I woke up on November 1 sick. Sick, sick, sick. And remained so for the next three days. You might think, oh, it’d be easy to get a head start when you’re home sick, all you have to do is lay there with a laptop and type. Well, yes, in theory it should work that way, but in reality, my brain was so fogged and medicated I was having trouble concentrating. My word counts the first three days were dismal. I was off to such a rough start, I thought there’s no way I can do this. The minute I felt better I started working extra hard to make up for my loss. Which I did, and then some. Go me!

On one of those sick days, after deciding that the blinking cursor on my screen was making me dizzy, I tossed my novel to the side and turned on the TV instead. To Rachael Ray’s talk show. I’ve said it before, I like her talk show. (This is so embarrassing.) I can take or leave 30 Minute Meals but if I have the chance to catch her talk show on a weekday afternoon, I always do. Come on, Michael Buble was on. And he sang his new song ‘Haven’t Met You Yet’ to an audience member’s pregnant belly. I coughed. I sneezed. I swooned!  He’s adorable.

And she made a delightful fall twist on lasagna that I knew I just had to try! Roasted butternut squash, layered with sweet Italian sausage and a creamy sage béchamel sauce. Sign me up, please!

Well. Making this was quite the ordeal. And all the while, I’ve got my novel breathing down the back of my neck. “Work on me!” It whispered in my ear. “You should not be cooking, you should be working on me! Order pizza!”

I had a few…issues. This recipe and I had a bit of communication problem. You will notice the recipe calls for TWO boxes of no boil lasagna sheets. You will then notice it says that it serves six. Say WHAT? Two entire boxes of noodles for 6 servings. No freakin’ way.

On the show she layered all the ingredients into one casserole dish. Okay, that must have been one HUGE honkin’ dish because there’s no way in h-e-double hockey sticks anything I owned was going to accommodate two entire boxes of noodles. Of course, I didn’t realize this until I was well into the assembly process.

So let me tell you how this ended up working out for me. In the end, it was edible. Not just edible, quite delightful actually. I really like the combo of sweet butternut squash and flavorful sausage. But it was touch and go there for a while.

I made a couple changes to lighten it up a bit, subbing 2% milk for whole and using my standard turkey sausage instead of pork. My package of sausage was 20 ounces, so not quite two pounds. I meant to pick up a second package when I shopped for groceries earlier that day, but for some reason they didn’t have any. Sigh…typical. I figured, okay I’ll just lighten it up even further by decreasing the amount of meat. I kept the quantities of squash puree and béchamel sauce the same.

So I start assembling. In a 13×9 inch pan. I realize when I’m half way through that I should have laid the noodles in the pan horizontally, thus allowing for four sheets per layer. No. I did them vertically and only got three. That was mistake number one. Mistake number two- I really poured on the puree and the sauce. I mean, practically drowned the thing. It was then I realized, I’m not fitting all these noodles in this pan. Meanwhile, it’s swimming in sauce.

Hm. Due to my error in laying my noodles, I actually didn’t even get ONE whole box in my pan. And even though I doused the thing in puree and sauce I still had quite a bit left. Scared and with the phone in my hand ready to call up for that pizza after all, I tossed that thing in the oven and said a little prayer.

When I removed the foil cover from the pan after 30 minutes, as per the recipes instructions, all I saw was a white, runny, bubbling mess. Eek. I left in uncovered for another 15, as the recipe says to do. Still didn’t like what it looked like after that, so gave it five minutes more. Finally, I decided to take it out and hope for the best.

I let it rest before taking a knife to it. I let it rest a good 20 minutes actually. And when I cut it into it and lifted the first piece out, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it held together. Yes, it was soft, but overall, not too bad. Plus, it tasted good! Really good actually! I’ve only recently started purchasing whole squash and this was a GREAT way to use one. Roasting it in the oven makes it easy to work with.

So, if you decide to take on this recipe, here are my suggestions. 1. If you make the entire recipe, be ready with a giant casserole or two 13×9 inch pans. Then be prepared to be able to feed at least a dozen people. Otherwise, I would plan to use one box of noodles, half the puree and the sauce, and use about a pound and half of sausage. That would probably fit nicely into one 13×9 inch pan and give you 6 extremely generous servings – Actually, more like 8 if you want to be realistic. I will be making this again for sure…with a few adjustments, of course.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND SAUSAGE LASAGNA (Recipe adapted from: Rachael Ray)

Note: The recipe below is adjusted to make one 13×9 inch pan, serving 6 to 8. For the entire recipe, click the link above. If you know six people who can eat all that then…wow, you have some very hungry friends!

Oh, and in the interest of full discretion, the photo below was actually taken the following day, after the lasagna had a chance to set in the fridge overnight. The actual first pieces out of the pan after it was made were a bit oozier, so heads up there.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound butternut squash or pumpkin, halved and seeded
• Extra virgin olive oil, for liberal drizzling
• Salt and pepper
• Freshy grated nutmeg
• 1.5 cups chicken stock
• 1 tablespoons honey
• 1.5 pounds sweet Italian turkey sausage
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups 2% milk
• 6-8 leaves fresh sage, very thinly sliced
• 1 box no boil, flat-edged lasagna sheets
• 2 cups grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400ºF.
2. Drizzle the squash with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and a little freshly grated nutmeg. Roast cut-side down until tender, about 40 minutes. Let cool until it’s cool enough to handle, then scoop the flesh out of the skin and add to a food processor. Puree the squash with the stock and honey and set aside.
3. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and brown the sausage, crumbling it into very small bits as it cooks, about 7-8 minutes.
4. While the sausage cooks, heat a pot over medium heat. Add the butter and melt, then whisk in the flour, cook for 1 minute and then whisk in the milk. Season with salt, pepper, a little freshly grated nutmeg and sage. Cook until thickened, about 7-8 minutes, whisking occasionally.
5. Dot some squash puree in the bottom of a 13×9 inch dish, then add a layer of pasta. Top with a third of the cooked sausage and cover lightly with squash puree. Cover with another layer of pasta, a third of the béchamel sauce and 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano. Repeat with two more layers, ending each with béchamel sauce and using all of the remaining cheese for the top layer. Sprinkle parsley across the top, cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and cook 15 minutes more to brown the top. Let set a few minutes before serving.

ENJOY! 🙂

Decisions, Decisions

People are always asking me to make decisions. Not big, life altering, finger-on-the-button, pull-the-plug type decisions, of course. I have no say in what happens in the White House, for example. Just little annoying, everyday things.

What movie should we watch?
All heads turn in my direction.

Where should we go to eat?
Erin will chose for us.

Heads or tails?
Erin, you call it.

These types of decisions prove to be too much for me. Yep. I can’t handle it. These are the things that leave me baffled, have me throwing my hands up in despair and declaring WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO PICK? I’m not hard to please – I have strong opinions on almost nothing – but yet for some reason everyone feels like I have to have the final say.

I guess what I’m saying is I am incredibly indecisive. It’s almost a problem it’s so bad. I simply cannot decide. Not only that, I don’t really want to decide. What if I say I want to go out for pizza and everyone else agrees even though they’d really rather have burgers? I’d feel bad. Plus, I’m not married to pizza. Burgers would be fine too. I just want everyone else to be happy, that’s all.

So, family, if you are reading this and we come to another crossroads here in the near future where we are trying to decide something, anything at all, the reason I don’t want to pick the final outcome is simply because in my daily life, I like to put others happiness and preferences before mine. There. That’s it. No arguments. I’ve decided I don’t like to be the one who decides. Glad we could come to an agreement. 🙂

Now that we are well into November here, a mere week and half from Thanksgiving, you are probably trying to decide what to put on your Turkey Day menus. Well, if you are anything like me,this task is probably killing you. Don’t panic! Here’s a recipe to make things a bit easier – at least as far as dessert goes.

With this moist, delicious, fall inspired cake you don’t have to choose between two fall favorites – apple and pumpkin – you can have both in one fabulous package. This Pumpkin-Apple Streusel Cake is like a cross between pumpkin pie and apple crisp. A moist and spicy pumpkin cake is topped with a delicious layer of cinnamon-spiked caramelized apples, then smothered in a crispy, crunchy streusel topping. Mmmm. Serve with cinnamon ice cream alongside and you’ve got the perfect fall dessert. These are simple, familiar flavors presented in an unexpected way. It’s really very delicious.

I didn’t deviate from the recipe too much here, but I did make a couple changes. I didn’t have pumpkin pie spice so I used my own combo of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. I had a small pouch of pecan pieces left over from another recipe so I tossed those to the topping for some added texture and crunch – that’s a personal preference. It would be delicious without the nuts as well.

PUMPKIN-APPLE STREUSEL CAKE (Recipe Adapted from: Epicurious.com, Originally from Bon Appetit, October 2001)

INGREDIENTS:

Topping:

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 cups diced peeled cored Granny Smith apples (about 4 large)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup reserved cake mixture
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cake:

• 11/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup (firmly packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or any combination of your favorite ‘warm’ spices)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 large eggs

DIRECTIONS:

For the Apple Topping:

1. Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples; cook until apples begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add sugar and cinnamon and cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes longer. Set aside to cool.

For the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9-inch-diameter springform pan. Combine flour, brown sugar, butter, and salt in the bowl of of an electric mixer. Beat until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside 2/3 cup of mixture for topping. Beat pumpkin, sour cream, 2 tablespoons sugar, spices, and baking soda into remaining flour mixture, beating just until smooth. Beat in eggs. Spread batter in pan. Scatter apples evenly over top. Add pecans to reserved topping (if using) and mix to combine. Sprinkle topping over apples.
2. Bake cake until topping is golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 20 minutes. Run knife around pan sides to loosen cake. Release pan sides from cake. Transfer cake to platter. (Can be made 6 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.) Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream.

ENJOY! 🙂

Willpower. I Don’t Gots It.

Hi. Remember a week ago? When I said I was saying goodbye to blogging for the entire month of November to write a the World’s Worst Novel for NaNoWriMo?

Well. About that. Apparently, I’m a big fat liar. I apologize. If it helps, it’s a definite possibility that my pants are in fact on fire.

See, here’s the thing. I’ve had a really great first week of NaNo-ing. Really great! I’m currently a mere seven days into this journey and I am sitting at a comfortable 18,000 words. Only 32,000 to go! It’s been a ride so far, I tell you what! I really didn’t think it was possible for a pile of words to be as crappy as last year’s NaNo, but I’m really out doing myself this year. I’m telling you, this novel is ripe with suckdom. But, I shall press on. Because that’s what NaNo is all about. It doesn’t have to be good…it just has to fill up 50k. And I’m well on my way to reaching that goal for the second year running!

So. Since I am sitting at a comfy, cozy, cushy almost-20k, I decided to take a little break and treat myself to a little blogging. And a couple cookies! See, no willpower. Cannot.Stay.Away.From.Blog. And I can’t really stay away from these cookies either, so I guess it’s just one of those days. One of those Give in to All Your Cravings kind of days.

Man, I love those days!

Now, let’s talk about these cookies. Or as I like to call them – Cinnamon-kissed Crescents of Pure Christmas Perfection.

Oops! I said Christmas. Oh man, it’s only November and I let the C-word slip. I’m sorry. That was wrong. I hope my punishment is a few more 70 degree days like we had today and not an early blizzard. I promise I won’t say Christmas for at least another three weeks if we can squeeze out a few more nice days, k? Awesome.

The reason Christmas came to my kitchen a bit early this year is not because I’m just really excited about hearing Willie Nelson’s version of that Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons song I hate so much or because I’m anxious for a repeat of last year’s Looking All Over Town and Can’t Find Season 1 of The Office on DVD gift shopping fiasco. Although both those sound tempting…

No. The real reason is my local paper is having a holiday cookie recipe contest. And I wanted to enter. Specifically, I wanted to enter these. Seeing as I have never actually made them myself, I decided a trial run before entering the recipe was probably a good idea. Plus, I needed to take a drool-worthy photo to submit along with it. Oh, and I was quickly running out of time, as the deadline to enter is Tuesday.

So yeah, Welcome, Christmas! (Don’t all the Whos in Whoville welcome Christmas even though the Grinch stole all their decorations and trees and things? They totally do – take a lesson from Cindy Lou Who…you don’t need Christmas “things” for it to be Christmas! So if I want it to be Christmas on the 7th of November, then so be it!)

It just wouldn’t be Christmas at our house without Stellas. They have been gracing (the same) cookie tins in my family for as long as I can remember – one of my mom’s gold standards. Right there along side her insanely tender and delicious butter spritz cookies and her knock-your-socks off, to-die-for kolache. (Except for the prune ones. She can keep the prune for herself. Ha. 😉 ) As I kid, I’d watch my mom roll, cut and shape dozens and dozens of Stellas, just waiting for the chance to grab one, warm from the oven, to pop into my mouth.

They bake up so flaky, so light, buttery and golden brown, you’d swear you were sinking your teeth into a delicious pastry. Pair that with warm cinnamon-sugar and delicious, crunchy pecans and you’ve got yourself one amazing cookie that has the holidays written all over it.

These are a true labor of love, as they are a bit time consuming to make. Not only do you need to chill the dough overnight before working with it, the cutting and rolling of each individual cookie does take some time. It is well worth it though, just trust me. They are addicting. And, take it from someone who knows, they are phenomenal first thing in the morning. For real. All too often growing up, I’d get up after sleeping in over Christmas break and help myself to a couple of these for breakfast. And a couple more after lunch. And after dinner, of course…

Ohhh. See. Willpower. I Don’t Gots it. You won’t either after you try these! Consider them for your holiday treat trays this year. (You’re planning already, aren’t you? Yeah…that’s what I thought. 😉 )

STELLA COOKIES (Recipe Source: My mom, Nadine M.)

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups finely chopped pecans
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 3 egg whites, lightly beaten
• Powdered sugar (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Sift flour into a large bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or fingers until crumbly. Stir in sour cream, working the dough with a spoon until it just holds together. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least six hours or overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
3. Combine pecans, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.
4. Divide dough into four equal parts. Working with one part at a time, shape the dough into a ball. Dough will be quite soft and sticky. Leave the remainder of the dough refrigerator until ready to use.
5. Sprinkle work surface with flour, then heavily with granulated sugar. Roll out the dough into a round slightly larger than 8 inches across (dough should be quite thin).  Using an inverted salad plate as a guide, cut an 8 inch circle out of the dough. Refrigerate the scraps for later use. Cut the circle into 8 equal wedges.
6. Brush the entire circle with the beaten egg whites. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the pecan mixture over the circle. Starting with the wide edge, roll up each wedge and shape into a crescent. Place one inch apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with remaining dough quarters. Form leftover scraps into a ball and repeat as above.
7. Brush the tops of the cookies with remaining egg whites and sprinkle with remaining pecan mixture. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. (Check them after 15 and keep a close eye on them. They seem to go from looking not quite done to overdone in just a minute or two. I should know. I burned my first batch. HA!) Remove to wire racks to cool completely.  Store in an air-tight container for up to two weeks. Sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving, if desired.

Yield: About 5 and half dozen

A few words of wisdom about this recipe:

• Resit the urge to sub reduced fat or fat free sour cream in this recipe. Really, just don’t do it. You’ve already committed to three sticks of butter, might as well just keep the Full-Fat Train a-movin’ and go with the real stuff. I think you really need the thick, hearty texture of full fat sour cream to give your dough the right consistency and keep it together. The other varieties are going to change the texture way too much.
• Do not be shy with the flour and sugar for rolling! The dough may seem hard, cold, and almost crumbly  when you first start out rolling but it will get soft and sticky REALLY quick at room temp. Make sure your surface and rolling pin are well floured and sugared so the dough doesn’t stick.
• Try using a metal pizza cutter to cut your circle and wedges. It won’t stick to the dough or pull it out of shape like a knife will. Perfect circles and wedges, every time, guaranteed!
• When shaping the cookies, make sure the pointed edge of the wedge is on the bottom. They will keep their shape better while baking. I found that when the pointed was on the top of the cookie, they tended to open up in the oven and not look as pretty.
• The cookies will probably grow “feet” of egg white and melted sugar in the oven while they bake. If that happens, as soon as they come out of the oven, grab a knife and start pulling the sugar puddles away from the edge of the cookies – it will be soft and pull away easily. Work quickly, as the sugar puddles will harden fast, even on a warm cookie sheet. You’ll end up with cleaner edges this way, instead of having to break off the hardened sugar after the cookies cool.

ENJOY! 🙂

Pssst. Merry Christmas. Pass it on!

So Long, Farewell…

Friends. It is time. I must bid you adieu.

It is that time of year again. November. I can’t believe how fast it’s come around again but yet here we are, staring down the barrel of the end of the year. And so I must say goodbye to blogging for 30 days.

I have decided once again to put blogging on hold in the month of November while I tackle the NaNoWriMo 50k novel in 30 days challenge. Last year I did it and I won. That’s right. I WON! All I won was the satisfaction of a job well done, but apparently that was enough for me to get the urge to try this crazy little thing called writing all over again.

As much as I love blogging and sharing my recipes and stories with you, I must spend November completely and totally focused on this project. I just can’t put my creativity, words or spare time into anything else. NaNo WILL consume me for the next 30 days. It WILL torture and torment me. Each keystroke more painful than the last. Hamburger Helper may or may not be consumed as I rush to put something, anything in my stomach so I can write in the evening when I get home from work. Ideas and characters and plots will tumble out onto the page at lightning speed and when it’s all said and done – I’ll be blurry-eyed, exhausted and five pounds heavier. But I’ll have a novel. A craptastic novel, no doubt. But a novel nonetheless.

Two words: Worth. It.

As I prepare to step away from the food blogging world for the next 30 days, I just want to encourage anyone who’s ever had a story floating around in their head to consider giving this challenge a try. Writing is extremely therapeutic and a lot of fun. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. You’ll be amazed at how awesome you feel when what’s in your head is out of there on paper. It’s…life changing.

Inspiration is everywhere. Can’t help but smile when you think about that childhood friend who had a knack for getting the two of you in trouble? Write about their adventures. Still feel that little tug inside when you think about the one who broke your heart? Let it all out. Change the ending, if you want. Heck, plop your characters right smack dab in the middle of a restaurant kitchen, bakery, or culinary school and see what they cook up. Think about what inspires you, think about what you love, think about what you know. Think about what you wish you knew then. There are no rules. There is no right or wrong. There are just words. Your words.

Just start writing. That’s what I’m going to do. So what if you’re no Shakespeare? I’m not either. I’m just going to throw caution to the wind and have one crazy, rowdy, writing November. I hope you do the same!

So anyway, I hope you’ll all bear with me in my absence. I will return in full force on December 1 armed with a mixer and bowl to take on the upcoming holiday baking season. I hope to check in at least once or twice throughout this process.

Oh, treats for a sugar pick-me-up are welcome! Please send care packages and good thoughts to:

Disgruntled Wannabe Novelist
c/o: A dark corner in the public library
Iowa, USA. 🙂

See you in 50,000 words!