Welcome to Week 156 of Mmm Mondays, where we turn Monday woes into Monday whoas!
Header image for Week 156 by Jake Stephens on Unsplash
The Stroke of Midnight
Many know the tradition of Kissing at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. But why do we do it?
It appears that this custom comes from England and Germany where it was believed that locking lips at the chime of midnight decides your next year’s fate. For those in a relationship, it is said that simple kiss will strengthen your bond, creating harmony and prosperity in the coming year.
For those flying solo, it was said to be an indicator of loneliness, but if you were lucky, someone might just plant one on you, predicting love to come.
Tradtionally, the New Years kiss was with the first person you saw at midnight. Over time, we’ve kept our loved one close when the clock struck.
One of the first references of kissing on New Year’s Eve was found in a New York Times article from 1893, where it discussed German celebrations:
“As the clocks ring out the hour of midnight, all this festivity pauses for a moment, to listen, and as the last stroke dies into silence, all big and little, old and young, male and female, push into each other’s arms, and hearty kisses go round like rolls of labial musketry, with the exclamation ‘Prost’s Neujahr!’ (Hail the New-Year!)”
Whether your happily single, or living your best life of love,
Out with the old, in with the new: may you be happy the whole year through. Happy New Year!!
Last Week’s Links
It being Christmas for most, there were no links last week.
You can read Week 155 here.
Week 156 Recommended Reading
Mmm’s on Medium
There’s a big change coming to Mmm Mondays on Medium. Watch for that! Until then, check out what we’ve had this past week.
Last Week saw one from Jupiter Less about being SAD during the Holidays, a new recipe for Alfredo from Laura Knapke, and musical memories from Jacinta Palmer.
Find Mmm’s on Medium here.
Book of the Month
Last week of December, last week for…
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado
In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.
A wife refuses her husband’s entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store’s prom dresses. One woman’s surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella Especially Heinous, Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naively assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgangers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes.
Earthy and otherworldly, antic and sexy, queer and caustic, comic and deadly serious, Her Body and Other Parties swings from horrific violence to the most exquisite sentiment. In their explosive originality, these stories enlarge the possibilities of contemporary fiction.
The husband stitch —
Inventory —
Mothers —
Especially heinous —
Real women have bodies —
Eight bites —
The resident —
Difficult at parties
Next Month’s book is All the World’s a Wonder by Melia McClure. Genre: Literary Fiction
Week 156 Recipe
One more shebang before we end 2023. These bacon-wrapped dates are so delicious, you may just find a “special occasion” to make them before next New Year’s Eve.
Bacon-Wrapped Date
Ingredients
- 2 oz. cream cheese softened
- 2/3 c. blue cheese crumbles
- 1 tbsp. thinly sliced chives plus more for garnish
- 1/4 tsp. paprika
- 20 medjool dates pitted (from 12 oz. package)
- 10 slices bacon not thick-cut, halved crosswise
- 2 jalapeños cut into 20 (1/4-inch thick) slices
- 2 tbsp. honey
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and set aside.
- Stir together the blue cheese, cream cheese, chives, and paprika in a small bowl.
- Cut lengthwise down the side of each date, cutting just far enough so the date can be opened up like a book, but not all the way through the other side. Stuff each date with about 1 teaspoon of the blue cheese filling and fold date closed. Wrap each date with a bacon piece, top with a jalapeño slice and secure with a toothpick. Arrange dates on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake dates until the bacon is rendered and beginning to crisp, 20 to 25 minutes, flipping dates once after 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately drizzle the hot dates with the honey. Transfer dates to a serving platter and garnish with chives. Serve hot.
Notes
This Week’s Links
For bloggers, Mmm Mondays opens Friday at noon (MST- that’s N. America) and closes Tuesday December 31/2024 at 6pm. If this is your first time joining the fun, please read the rules and grab a badge. You can add your post(s) below using the linky tool.
Don’t know how to take part? Find out how, here. You don’t have to have a blog! And we love images too!
Since you’re already here, take a second and read one or more posts (you’ll be glad you did!). And don’t forget to like or comment if they make you say Mmm too.
I always encourage sharing, so for any posts you may have missed, watch for them on Monday when I share them via Twitter.
For those on Medium, you can find the guidelines here.
What makes you say Mmm?
2 thoughts on “Week 156”
Comments are closed.