Jennifer Bohnhoff's Blog, page 33

For the Late Bloomers

My New Year's Eve blog was about a valiant little amaryllis that began blooming too early. I deemed it crippled for life and hopeless, but was inspired by its tenacity in the face of impossible odds. You can read that first blog by clicking on the picture.

The little flower surprised me. When I thought all was hopeless, it put up a second, glorious head which had
Click on the picture to continue reading the story of the amaryllis that wouldn't give up. four beautiful blooms on it. It was even bigger and more beautiful than the other amaryllis I had, which had not started life so badly. 

The moral of the amaryllis story changed. It had started as bloom as if your life depended on it. Do the best you can. An ugly little bloom is better than no bloom at all. Now it became have patience and great things will come. Have the grit to keep on going and what started out badly can still become something beautiful.

But that amaryllis wasn't done teaching me life lessons. When the four blooms had faded, one more, even bigger than the rest, came out of the top. It was almost like a fireworks show: every time I went "ooh, ahh" and thought it was done, another flower arrived. The new message: keep pushing. When you think you've hit the top, you've still got something wonderful to give. The top flower fell off and I stuck it in a glass of water, where it's continued to inspire me. But the plant itself wasn't done. Another bloom came out at the base. 

Another flower, another message. This time, I think the flower's telling me that even now, in my old age, I should not give up. I turned 60 last month. I've been trying for 25 years to get a publisher to take on one of my manuscripts. So far, all I've done is pile up rejections.

In 2014, frustrated, I started self-publishing. It felt a little like starting the process crippled; I'd hoped for the help in marketing that a contract with a publisher would provide, and the credibility to have my books accepted in schools. I had to do it all myself. It's been a lot of work, but a lot of people have thanked me for taking that step of faith. The enjoy my books. They've learned a lot while reading them, too.

How about you? Are you blooming where you are planted, in spite of the difficulties that the world throws your way? Be brave, like this little flower. It's my hope that this is the year that the world looks at you and says "ooh, ahh."
Jennifer Bohnhoff is a middle school English teacher and track coach in rural New Mexico and the author of 7 self-published novels. You can read more about her on her website. 

In Praise of Bad Boys

My two classes of seventh graders read an excerpt from the autobiography Bad Boy, by Walter Dean Myers this past week. 

Myers is probably every English teacher's favorite bad boy. As a child he was a wiggly, fidgety, squirmy boy who was always talking out of turn, wandering the classroom, and not getting his work done. He freely admits he lacked self control and frequently got into fights. In short, he was very much like many of the students I teach now.

After his mother's death, Myer's father gave him to another family. Even thought they raised him as their own, it must have been hard to live with the memory of that early rejection. Much of the anger and acting out that he did in school might be traced to his childhood.

Luckily for Myers, the woman who raised him also read to him. He found solace in books and used reading as a way to escape bad situations. When he was in high school, one of his teachers recognized that he was not only a good reader, but a good writer as well. She encouraged him to continue writing, no matter what was going on in his life.

Myers didn't immediately follow her advice. He dropped out of high school and joined the Army. It was only after he was discharged that he picked up the pen. Before he passed away in 2014, Myers had written more than 100 books. He is  best known for his young adult literature, but he also wrote picture books and nonfiction. He was the recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award for African-American authors on five different occasions.

Maybe one of the bad boys in my class right now will pick up a pen and become the next generation's Walter Dean Myers. Maybe not. Writing is not for everyone. But I can encourage them to read and write, for literacy opens many doors. I can help them overcome their own anger and feelings of rejection and find the self discipline to settle in and "get the job done," even when it's not what they want to do. I can recognize the good in each of them, and encourage them to find the one thing that is their passion. My bad boys might grow up to be auto mechanics, ranchers, businessmen or teachers. Perhaps there's a lawyer, doctor, or truck driver in the bunch. They may not all become writers, but these bad boys can all become good men.

The First Gun is Fired and the First Song is Written

George F. Root The first song specifically written for the American Civil War was published and distributed just three days after the Battle of Fort Sumpter.

"The First Gun is Fired: May God Protect the Right," by George Frederick Root was wildly popular in its day, but it isn't the most recognizable of Civil War songs to 21st century listeners. Root, who was born August 30, 1820 in Sheffield, Massachusetts, went on to write many other songs, such as Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! and The Battle Cry of Freedom, that continue to be well known. The prolific songwriter, who died in 1895, also wrote many church hymns and popular parlor songs. Here are the lyrics to the Civil War's first song:

1. The first gun is fired!
May God protect the right!
Let the freeborn sons of the North arise
In power’s avenging night;
Shall the glorious Union our father’s have made,
By ruthless hands be sunder’d,
And we of freedom sacred rights
By trait’rous foes be plunder’d?
Chorus--Arise! arise! arise!
And gird ye for the fight,
And let our watchword ever be,
“May God protect the right!”
2. The first gun is fired!
Its echoes thrill the land,
And the bounding hearts of the patriot throng,
Now firmly take their stand;
We will bow no more to the tyrant few,
Who scorn our long forbearing,
But with Columbia’s stars and stripes
We’ll quench their trait’rous daring.
3. The first gun is fired!
Oh, heed the signal well,
And the thunder tone as it rolls along
Shall sound oppression’s knell;
For the arm of freedom is mighty still,
But strength shall fail us never,
Its strength shall fail us never,
That strength we’ll give to our righteous cause,
And our glorious land forever.

Manic Muffins for February

Last month I posted a recipe for a muffin mix that you could make up in advance and have on hand for those manic mornings when you wanted something quick and satisfying. If you didn't make up a batch of mix then, you can now. Here's the link to the original recipe. 

This month's adaptation of the original recipe features two yummy additions: cherries and chocolate, plus a little addition to sprinkle over the top to finish them off.
February has two big holidays. One, Valentine's Day, is the more celebrated, but the other, President's Day, gives the day off! I think most of us teachers appreciate President's Day more than Valentine's Day because we get tired of the sugar coated frenzy of children who've been eating chocolate all day and are anxious about who might or might not like them. Don't get me wrong: I love chocolate, just not when it's affecting the already radical mood swings of a middle school student.

Cherries are associated with George Washington because of the lovely myth of our future president refusing to tell a lie as a small boy. Although this story is undoubtedly apocryphal, it's still a good excuse to eat cherries in February.
The cherries I chose to use are dried bing cherries, available from Trader Joes. These are big and juicy, and I love to use them in winter salads, sprinkling them over dark greens along with sliced almonds and goat cheese. They're good to just eat straight from the bag, too. 

I chop them until they're about the ​
size of raisins, then mix them with a little of the dry muffin mix. This step keeps the chopped cherries suspended in the batter so they don't sink to the bottom of the muffin cups. 

I sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon sugar over the top of each muffin. The difference it made was subtle, but I think pleasant. You can sprinkle any remaining cinnamon sugar over buttered toast if you're feeling nostalgic. I store mine in a glass jar intended for parmesan cheese.

The addition of cherries and chocolate stretches the recipe a bit. Instead of getting 12 muffins, I got 16. Cherry Chocolate Manic Muffins Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tins with paper liners.

2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup water
1/2 cup oil

2 3/4 cups manic muffin mix

1 cup dried cherries
1 TBS. manic muffin mix
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1/4 cup sugar
1 TBS cinnamon

Chop cherries. Stir together cherries, 1 TBS dry muffin mix and chocolate chips and set aside.

Mix together sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

Mix together eggs, vanilla, water, and oil in a bowl. Add muffin mix and stir until no lumps appear. Blend in cherries and chocolate. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full.

Scoop up 1/8 tsp cinnamon sugar and sprinkle over two muffins. Continue until each muffin has about 1/16 tsp. sugar sprinkled over it.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Chocolate in New Mexico

Jicaras, or chocolate cups from Abo and Quarai New Mexico, 17th C. Chocolate made its way up to New Mexico through the same trade routes that brought scarlet macaw feathers to Chaco Canyon. The same residue found in ancient Olmec bowls has been found in the pottery of the Four Corners region, and it dates perhaps a thousand years back. The Spanish reintroduced cacao into New Mexico when they began exploring the region. In 1692, Diego de Vargas, the Spanish Governor of New Mexico, met with a Pueblo leader names Luis Picuri in his tent. The meeting included drinking chocolate. ​ The Palace of the Governors, New Mexico’s History Museum, has on display some artifacts that are associated with chocolate.  This storage jar was used to keep cocoa powder. New Mexico was quite isolated and life was rough here. People had few luxuries. The fact that cocoa was stored in such an ornate jar, with a metal lid indicated just how highly prized it was.
​ This is a molinillo, or chocolate whisk, from about 1830. The large end would be placed in the pot of hot chocolate and the thin handle was held between the palms of the hands and spun to make the beverage frothy. Want your own molinillo? Jennifer Bohnhoff will be giving one away, along with a package of Mexican chocolate, and a cookbook that contains a recipe for a traditional New Mexican chocolate drink. Join her Friends, Fan, and Family email list by February 1 to be entered in the drawing. Sign up here.

A History of Chocolate

When I think of hot chocolate, I think of mugs of warm, sweet comfort. I lived in Massachusetts for three years in my childhood and have many memories of sledding until my fingers and toes burned with cold, then rushing home to cocoa in a steamy kitchen. I also think of a warm chair by the fire, and curling up with a good book.

But hot chocolate didn’t originate in the frozen north, and its history has more to do with diplomacy than comfort.  Still from a YouTube video on cacao production. Chocolate is made from the fruit of cacao trees. These small trees are native to Central and South America. They produce fruits, called pods, that are roughly the size of a person’s hand and are shaped like footballs. Within their tangy-sweet, gummy white flesh, each pod contains around 40 cacao beans that are bitter in taste and nothing like the chocolate we know and love. ​ It appears that the ancient Olmecs of southern Mexico were the first to dry and roast cocoa beans. Because they kept no written history, it’s hard to know exactly where, when, or why the Olmecs began processing cacao beans, but pots and vessels dating back to around 1500 B.C. have traces of theobromine, a stimulant compound found in chocolate. Archeologists believe that early recipes were for drinks or gruels that were likely very bitter and used for ceremony rather than pleasure.
After the Olmecs, the Mayans continued to use chocolate. Fortunately for historians, the Mayans kept written records, and through them we know that Mayan chocolate was thick and frothy. It often included chili peppers and honey. We know that cacao drinks were commonly drunk in everyday situations, and became part of the Mayan identity like wine is to the French, coffee to the Arab world, or craft beer to many locations today. Records indicate that many Mayan households drank chocolate with every meal.
But cacao wasn’t just a drink. Mayan written history indicates that chocolate drinks were incorporated into religious ceremonies, were used in celebrations, and helped finalize important transactions. These beverages were part of initiation rites for young men and celebrations marking the end of the Maya calendar year. In the early 12th century, chocolate was part of the dowry used to seal the marriage of a Mixtec ruler in the sacred Valley of Oaxaca.
The Aztecs continued the love of cacao beans, which they considered more valuable than gold. Although it’s likely that Spanish historians have exaggerated, they claimed that Montezuma drank fifty cups of chocolate each day, both for the energy it gave him, and as an aphrodisiac. It’s likely that Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes was introduced to chocolate by Montezuma and in turn introduced it to the Spanish court of Philip II of Spain in 1544. Want to try making your own cacao beverage? Jennifer Bohnhoff will be giving away some supplies and cookbook to one lucky member of her Friends, Fan, and Family email list on February 1. To join in the drawing, sign up here.

A Drum from History

Two weekends ago my husband and I took a little trip to Santa Fe. We spent a very delightful morning wandering through the New Mexico History Museum.

New Mexico's History Museum has a lot of history, even without the exhibits it contains. It is housed in a building called The Palace of the Governors, which was built by Pedro de Peralta soon after the King of Spain appointed him to be the governor of a Spanish territory that covered most of the American Southwest. That was 1610. Governors appointed by Spain, Mexico, and America have used the building, and it has served many other functions besides governor's mansion and museum. It is the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States. I went specifically to see the relatively new exhibit on New Mexicans who served during WWI, but I don't have much to report on that.

​What did impress me, though, was a snare drum that I hadn't noticed before.

This snare drum, the label indicated, was found in the Pecos River about a decade after the Battle of Glorieta Pass.  Willie, as I imagine him Those of you who've read Valverde , the first book in my trilogy of Civil War novels set in New Mexico, will know that it has a Confederate Drummer Boy named Willie. Willie is a fictional character, but this is exactly what I think he looked like: small and dark eyed, with a pale, round face. The drum that he would have carried into the battle of Valverde and, if he were there, the Battle of Glorieta Pass, looks very much like the one that was found abandoned in the Pecos River.

I'm presently writing a first draft of Glorieta , the second book in the series, and I'd had other plans for Willie than for him to lose his drum in the Pecos River. However, sometimes real life interprets fiction. I just may have to have him lose his drum in the river somehow.    Valverde is available in paperback and ebook from Amazon. If you want more information on Valverde, or would like to buy a signed copy directly from the author, click here.

The Continuing Saga of the amaryllis that could

On the last day of last year I posted a story about an amaryllis bulb that had started to grow while stick in the box. I didn't think it would amount to much, but I was impressed with how determined it was to become all it could be. You can read that blog entry and see a picture of that first, failed, flower here. That determined little bulb has surprised me. After I cut off the first, stunted blossom, the leaf part started to stand straight. It's turned green. And surprise of surprises, it has two more flower blossoms coming!

There's a big moral here for everyone: sometimes life is hard. Sometimes it can leave a person a little damaged. But perseverance - that quality now popularized as grit - can see you through.
I'll continue to post pictures of my miracle amaryllis. I'm hoping to follow its lead and make this year the year that I overcome a lot of obstacles, stand tall, and really bloom where I am planted. Here's wishing the same for you. Jennifer Bohnhoff is a middle school English teacher in rural New Mexico and the author of a number of novels for middle school and above. You can learn more about her books here.

Manic Muffins

​Ever have manic mornings when you wish you could get something good, hot, and satisfying on the table quickly? I know I do. 

Having Manic Muffin Mix in your pantry might just help. Today I'll post the recipe for the mix and for basic muffins. On the first Monday of every month throughout 2019 I'll post a new recipe that uses the mix. That adds up to 12 different  muffins that I hope will take a little of the mania out of your mornings.  Manic Muffin Mix 9 cups flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk blend
3 TBS baking powder
1 TBS baking soda
1 TBS salt
1 1/2 TBS cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix all ingredients well and store in a sealable container. Everything in this recipe is a common pantry staple with the exception of buttermilk blend. I use Saco Pantry Cultured Buttermilk Blend, which is kept next to the yeasts and baking powders in my local grocery store. If you can't find this, or a similar product, substitute powdered milk and your muffins will turn out just fine. Basic Manic Muffins These are sweet and a little spicy. Making up a batch will make your kitchen smell wonderful. I recommend you put out butter and jelly to go on them, but my husband likes to split them and slather them with peanut butter. ​Preheat oven to 350. Put muffin papers in 12 standard-sized muffin cups, or grease cups with spray oil. Mix together in a large bowl. The batter should be slightly lumpy: 
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup water
1/2 cup oil
2 3/4 cup manic muffin mix.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes until the tops of the muffins are golden.  These muffins freeze well. If your family is small, I recommend putting single muffins in sandwich bags, then putting them all in a ziplock freezer bag so you can pull them out one at a time. Frozen muffins are ready to serve after being  reheated in the microwave on high for 30 seconds. Jennifer Bohnhoff writes fiction for middle schoolers and adults, but she has to eat, too. You can find out more about her at her website or Facebook page.

Bloom as if your life depended on it

My Christmas miracle. Some dear friends came to visit just before Christmas. They brought an amaryllis that was part of a kit: a bare bulb, a red planter can, and a disk of dehydrated soil, all sealed up in a box and ready to put together.

What none of us realized until we opened the box was that it had been kept in a place that was too warm. The plant had begun growing in the dark enclosure and the flower stem, when it met the lid of the box, turned downward seeking space. What we found were white nubs of leaves and 
a ghostly pale bud bending down. It was clear that this plant would never amount to much; it had been crippled by the box and was doomed from the moment it began its premature growth. Obviously the thing to do was to throw the bulb away. 
​
But I didn't. I planted it anyway and set it in a sunny window. And on Christmas Day, defying everyone's predictions, it bloomed.

If I were the writer of feel-good stories for children, I would say that my little amaryllis saw the sun, and the flower bulb changed directions and stood up, proudly becoming the most beautiful of Christmas flowers. But this isn't the story of the Ugly Duckling. This story is more honest and more true. The stunting that occurred in the box dealt irrevocable damage.This poor bulb didn't become much to look at. On New Year's Day the petals are already browning on the edges and the leaves, although a little greener, still haven't grown much. 

This is the message this amaryllis brings us: We can be irrecoverably damaged by this world, but in spite of all that is done to us we must bloom. We will not all become the most beautiful of blooms, but we can be the bravest.