Just Dessert ?

Following this recipe, there is an explanation about the choice of the post title.

It's been awhile since I've posted a recipe. There's a few many reasons, but mostly as there's so many recipes in cookbooks and online. Nearly everyone has a favorite, better or new recipe.

Our favorite sweet treat, as many readers of this blog may know, is ice cream🍦. However, we have also been known to enjoy other delights, including some made at home.

Boston Cream Cake

Dessert 🥧 🍮 is a food group, isn't it?

 

That said, this post is for a recipe that turned out to be a not hard to prepare, delicious and a thoroughly enjoyed treat. That was the consensus of our dominoes playing friends who recently came for dinner and for dessert. 

If you enjoy Boston Cream Pie, this is not that recipe. Instead, this recipe is for a Boston Cream Cake recently featured in a local supermarket's monthly food magazine. 

While it was made at home, not everything was home made, for example the cake mix which was purchased at the grocery store. Other ingredients were purchased there too, aside from some that we (and you) may already have available like dark chocolate morsels (always stocked for chocolate chip cookies), salt, vanilla extract and honey (used as a corn syrup substitute). Heavy cream is not something usually purchased, but for the sake of trying this recipe, it was bought and leftovers would up in a mac and cheese recipe.

If you need a large sheet cake for a get together and want to give it a try, here's the recipe. 

(Of course, you could always make it for a smaller gathering with leftovers.)

Boston Cream Cake in 9x13 glass dish

Boston Cream Cake

Active Time — 45 min 
Total — 1 hr 20 min (plus chilling time)

Servings — 16

Cake Ingredients

• 1 (15.25 oz) yellow cake mix
• 1 C water
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 1 (3.4 oz) box instant vanilla pudding)
• 1-2/3 C heavy cream
• 1/2 C milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Ganache Ingredients

• 1-1/3 C dark chocolate morsels (about 8 oz)
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 C heavy cream
• 2 tsp light corn syrup (can substitute honey or maple syrup)
• Pinch of salt

Center a rack in oven and heat to 350°F.  

Grease a 9x13 baking pan/glass dish and set aside.

Cake: In medium bowl, whisk cake mix, water, eggs, and oil until smooth. Transfer to prepared pan, smooth top and bake until a toothpick inserted in cake center comes out clean (follow baking times on cake mix box), rotate halfway through total bake time.

After removing from oven, cool cake 5 minutes, then use handle of wooden spoon to poke holes all over the cake, spacing about 1 inch apart and poking down to bottom of pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk pudding mix, heavy cream, milk and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds. Immediately pour mixture onto warm cake and spread into an even layer, pressing gently into holes. Refrigerate until pudding is set, 1 to 2 hours.

Ganache: Combine chocolate morsels and vanilla in a medium bowl and set aside. In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream, corn syrup (or substitute), and salt to a simmer. Pour over chocolate morsels and let sit 2 minutes without stirring.

Stir chocolate mixture until smooth and glossy, pour over chilled cake and spread into even layer. Refrigerate until ganache is set, about 1 hour, before serving. Cut, serve and enjoy. Repeat as necessary.

(Per serving: 440 cal, 30g fat, 75mg chol, 340mg sod 40g carb, 1g fiber, 25g sugar, 4g protein)

🍰  🍨  🥮  🧁  🍧

After titling this post, I was curious about the phrase often heard as just deserts.

No, I didn't omit a letter in deserts above. Despite its pronunciation, just deserts, with a single middle S, is the proper spelling for the phrase meaning the punishment that one deserves. The punishment sense had been in use for several hundred years by the time, the after-dinner word for sweets, dessert, was adopted around 1600.

But as most modern English speakers are unfamiliar with the older sense of desert, the phrase is often written as just desserts.

Using just desserts isn't a serious writing error, and it's much more common than just deserts in 21st-century texts. That said, there are grammarists who consider it wrong usage. Whether or not this is important is for individual users to decide.

For the purpose of this post, just dessert, worked out very sweet for me.

Independence Day 2022

Nashua, NH, fireworks displays in previous years

Today, July 4, is the day set aside to celebrate the birth of the United States of America.

But, it's not actually when its independence was declared.

The actual vote for  U.S. independence happened on July 2, 1776.

The Lee Resolution ( named for Richard Henry Lee of Virginia)  also known as The Resolution for Independence  was the formal assertion passed by the Second Continental Congress on this date. It resolved that the Thirteen Colonies in America were free and independent States, separated from the British Empire creating the United States of America. 

So what happened July 4, 1776?

That's when, delegates from the 13 colonies at the Second Continental Congress  unanimously approved (ratified) the Declaration of Independence (formally The unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America).  This approval became the day know regarded as the birth of American independence.

The Declaration of Independence was not signed until nearly a month later on August 2, 1776 . That's when 56 delegates of the Second Continental Congress began signing it  in Philadelphia, PA.

We're celebrating the holiday at home, so no airport or road traffic delays for us.

As in previous years, we'll watch fireworks  from the riverbank near the mill apts. 

(Comments are off today.)

Friday Funnies

Who doesn't like to save money?
Nearly everyone does, especially these days.

Sometimes there's too much savings offered on products seldom used or purchased. 

Does this happen to you as well?

Last week, my scanned CVS retail pharmacy card, spewed out this ticker-tape of savings.

Make It Stop !

Saving $ is nice, but over 5 feet is way too much paper and a major waste as I'm sure many others will agree. Thanks, in advance, for your comments. All these coupons were recycled.

For those unfamiliar with the name, this retail company has its start here in New England. The former Consumer Value Store was founded in 1963 in Lowell, MA. Now CVS Pharmacy, the corporation is a subsidiary of CVS Health, based in Woonsocket, RI. The name CVS was used for the first time in 1964; a former CEO said it meant Convenience, Value, and Service.

CVS Pharmacy is currently the largest U.S. pharmacy chain by number of locations (nearly 10,000) and total prescription revenue. Its parent company ranks as the 5th largest U.S. corporation in the Fortune 500 (by FY2020 revenues). By comparison, the parent company of Walgreens, its leading competitor, ranked 19th for the same period. CVS sells prescription drugs plus assorted merchandise, including over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, photo finishing services, greeting and gift cards, and convenience foods in retail stores and online. 

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone

We've doing a home staycation for July 4th

Happy Canada Day today !

Still Waiting . . .

Yesterday, we found out that after 15 months, there could be another 12 weeks of waiting.

Not for Christmas, but it may as well be till then. 

We're waiting a refund on our 2020 US federal tax return, not the 2021 filing.

In a mid-April post, I noted that many other 2020 on-time taxpayers (like ourselves) were also still waiting. IRS officials blamed the pandemic as offices shut down and employees worked from home. 

Of course, that's the way bureaucracy works. 

A delayed tax refund can be taking longer for the IRS to process because it requires additional review. Reasons include incomplete filing status or missing information.

Refund delays were among the top 10 serious taxpayer complaints in 2020 and the IRS flagged 5.2 million tax refunds for fraud, a nearly 50% increase over 2019, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service. Of those, about 1.9 million were tagged for identity screening. In 2019, 63% of the refunds vetted for identity theft turned out to be legit, according to the organization.

The IRS scans returns for possible fraud. If a return is flagged suspicious, the agency will pull it for more review. A taxpayer is sent a letter (5071C or 6331C letter, Potential Identity Theft During Original Processing with Online Option) if it suspects ID theft or foul play. The IRS doesn't process a tax return or issue a refund until there's a response.

At times, the IRS sends ID verification letters to taxpayers after receiving an e-filed/paper-filed tax return, before processing a refund. This is to randomly verify identification as a measure to prevent identity theft and to test and strengthen IRS internal controls.

That's the way it's supposed to work.

Here's how it didn't work. We never received any letter requesting ID verification or an alert of possible fraud with our return.

What we received last summer was an IRS letter requesting additional information. It was referred to the CPA firm that prepared our return. We received assurances it would be addressed and had no reason to doubt that. Later, we were informed of a data breach and a ransomware demand and a letter noted this could affect IRS information. There's no way of knowing if or not this was a contributing factor to the red flag, but now we're wondering ???

The IRS has a website and under Where's My Refund, taxpayers can supposedly answer question to track their refund. Grenville tried it and, at first, received a message, that the return was still processing. As months went on, re-trys produced a message that his ID info was not recognized. The process was difficult — phone lines were clogged and online authentication was unavailable. He wasn't able to verify his identity online and couldn’t reach a phone representative due to a high volume of calls into the agency. 

How Grenville describes me, at times

Enough is enough, this refund was no small change ($3,300). We could use it much better then the IRS — and it was ours. Months had gone by with nothing happening — no info was forthcoming anywhere, certainly not from the IRS.

The term dog with a bone applies here. By definition it applies to someone who's stubborn, tenacious, persistent, relentless and dogged.

In this case, that would be me.

Holding on and on

I called every IRS number possible with the same result. After a series of questions and keypad responses, the line went to a busy signal or was disconnected, every time, no matter what time of day a call was made.

After finding there was an IRS office here in Nashua, NH, where appointments could be made and there was a listed phone number — that number was called too — same results

Until late Tuesday afternoon when, after going through the keypad queries, a recorded message came on and announced: your wait time is between 15 and 30 minutes, please continue to hold.

You bet I held on, despite that we were meeting friends to attend an outdoor concert. This was at 4 pm and we were scheduled to meet-up with friends at 5:30 pm in a local park. (Yes, we made it for the Neil Diamond tribute band show, not nearly as good as the prior week's Beatles Tribute band show. Both were part of the city of Nashua's SummerFun.)

It wasn't until 4:45 pm that a human voice came on and proceeded to ask us a series of questions, such as social security numbers, date of birth, filing status, address. Other questions pertained to our filed 2020 return. We had all the answers (and more if needed).

Our admission ticket for the local IRS

Then, came a final question—would we like wanted to make an appointment at the Nashua IRS office?

Hmmm, let us think a second (or less). 

Duh, of course, we wanted to do that! 

Not only that but we could get one for the next day as early as 8:30 a.m., we opted for 10 a.m. which gave us time to stop into the CPA's office to advise them of the meeting. We were given copies of info previously sent to the IRS in July.

As well prepared as possible, It was onto our Wed appointment and the chance to speak to an IRS agent in person. We brought assorted documentation: social security cards, drivers licenses for ID purposes, and out 2020 return.

What did we find out?

According to the IRS agent when the additional information was requested and sent in July, it apparently did not get connected with the previously filed return. The agent explained that the information took separate paths and our filed return was marked as potential fraud. Again, no notification was sent to us, which he found puzzling as well. Thankfully, the agent was helpful, more than informative and even apologetic for the long delay.

And, never the twain shall meet, which, in our case, meant the return was in limbo. If we not doggedly pursued a follow-up, the agent could not predict how long it would have remained there without intervention. He suspected it could have been indefinitely—just saying, YIKES!

What happens next?

More waiting — up to 12 weeks, as the agent explained he had reset the process so it could be sooner. However, we were cautioned not to contact IRS shy of the 12 week waiting time.

Up to 12 possible weeks

Good news is that if the IRS doesn't issue a due refund within 45 days after receiving a return, it's required to start paying interest on the refund amount. The 45-days starts on either the day that the return was due, or when a processible tax return was received by the IRS, whichever is later. While the IRS ultimately issues the refund (with interest), taxpayers can wait months. About 18% of refunds flagged for ID verification took longer than 120 days.

Bad news is that any IRS interest you receive with your refund will be taxable income, much like  interest earned from a checking or savings account. 

It's back to the waiting game, but at least now, we're back in the game. 

If something happens sooner, you all will be the second to know, after ourselves.

This was a longer-than-expected post, but helpful to vent our frustration. While we are a fairly patient couple, not being able to reach someone to speak with had become more than extremely frustrating. Finding out that the 2020 return had been flagged as possible fraud with no notification was really unsettling, especially as there are countless numbers of US taxpayers still awaiting refunds, perhaps for similar reasons.

Father's Day Was Grand

We had an unexpected treat on Father's Day as the two oldest grandchildren and their mom, Shannon, came for a visit from RI. It's been about 5 months as the last face-to-face get together was during the Christmas holidays.

In recent weeks, both grands have finished school for the summer. Elizabeth (Ellie) completed 5th grade and there was a certificate celebration. She starts classes at a new school in the fall. Grandson Bobby completed freshman year and will be a starting 10th grade in September.

There was some time for photos with grandpa Grenville. As  a teenager, Bobby is rarely without his headphones, but in his case wearing them helps with outside distractions.

There were some photos after lunch, before the family headed home. As most folks know, time always seems to pass way too fast during a family visit. An afternoon is never long enough to catch up between months and grandkids growing as well. We hope to see these family members next month. Both Grenville and Ellie celebrate birthdays in mid-July.

An update: Blogger seems to be playing well in recent days and the Update Failed message has not been displaying as before. Also, photo uploads are not taking as long as they had been. Hopefully, this trend will continue. Also, I'm making sure to check the spam folder on a regular basis in addition to deleting those comments that are obvious spam.

Friday Funnies

Does this look like a giant-sized game ?

Wood (would) you pass or stay behind this truckload (couldn't resist that bad pun).

Grenville passed safely ASAP. While we were not certain, the stacked wood looked like wooden trusses. Yes, they were secured on the sides, but why take chances. It reminded us (and maybe you too) of the toppling wood block game known as Jenga®.

Leslie Scott

This popular game was invented by Leslie Scott, a British board game designer and author. She launched it at the London Toy Fair in 1983 and it was introduced to the public at the London department store Harrod's. Jenga® was launched in North America in 1986 and has become an international family staple, with about 50 million units sold worldwide each year.

Born in East Africa, Scott grew up fluent in English and Swahili. Jenga® evolved from a stacking game her family played in the early 1970s with wooden blocks purchased from a Ghana sawmill. In England, Scott began trademarked the name “Jenga,” a form of the Swahili word kujenga, which means to build.

Game of Jenga

Traditionally, Jenga is played with 54 wooden blocks stacked into a tower. Success requires balance, patience, and manual dexterity. The blocks are made with subtle variations to add randomness and heighten the challenge. Players remove any block on their turn, placing it on top to heighten the tower without knocking it over. 

The game ends when any portion of the tower collapses, caused by either the removal of a block or its new placement. The last player to complete a turn before the collapse is the winner. The game is simple, easy to understand, and usually results in a rematch. 

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone

Temps climbing to the 90s, first time in weeks

Good weather to stay indoors and play a game

Blogger friends, while I check comments daily and delete obvious spam, I had neglected to check for spam under Comments which is where some comments had gone. After checking further, I found there were a number of many valid blogger comments marked as spam. These now have been  marked to publish; my apologies for this oversight in not checking sooner. Thanks, David G. and others  for the heads-up.

What's Up in Nashua?

There's been quite a lot happening here in recent months both at the mill apartment building as well as a major undertaking in the downtown area on Main St. with high-reaching projects. 

Renovations were completed to the cupola (also called the bell tower) atop the mill building at Clocktower Place Apartments, the mill building where we reside (only apartments, no condos). The above photos show the completed work which involved replacing wood and repainting. Originally, a building's cupola was functional and could be used to ventilate and provide natural light for the structure below. It also served could enclose a bell; this one formerly housed a bell (shown below).

This scaffolding was erected around the mill tower for many months during 2021. Workers didn't climb it to reach the top, but entered the rooftop work area from inside the building.

Many years ago, this bell was housed in the cupola and would be rung to summon millworkers. It was removed years ago and now resides in a separate area on the grounds and there are no plans to re-insert it in the repaired cupola. I don't know the exact reason for its removal which was done long ago, possibly when the mill buildings were renovated for other uses before their conversion to residential housing. 

Work has been moving along on a performing arts center in downtown Nashua. It's located on the site of a former shoe store, which relocated to a new and larger location outside the city. 

This popular 1960s shoe store was demolished to its foundations which were reconstructed to house the audience chamber, stage, and front of house functions. The exterior of an adjacent 1924 brick apartment building was retained and the redesigned interior will house additional lobby space and other functions. 

Completion of the 750-seat performing arts center is expected by late fall of this year. It is expected to host nationally touring musical performances and theatre acts. It will also serve as a local venue for concerts, plays, children's performances and other events. 

This is an earlier architectural rendering of how the project is expected to look on completion. Here, the name is shown as Nashua Performing Arts Center, but the official name will be the Nashua Center for the Arts.

That's because in late 2021, the Nashua Community Arts board announced that a local family had contributed an anonymous $1 million gift towards the $25 million project. It was given final naming rights as a result of that donation. 

The use of the word anonymous seemed puzzling at first since if you remain anonymous when you do something, you don't let others know. Don't misunderstand, this was a generous and wonderful donation plus the selected name seems more appropriate. In this case, as in others, the use of the word meant that those responsible didn't want their name shared publicly.

To follow up on a fellow blogger's comment that this looks to be an impressive center for a fairly small city. That's true considering that Nashua's population is under 100,000. But it's also the second largest city in the state of NH at just under 90,000. Manchester is the largest with a population of 112,600 and Concord is third with 43,500.

There's been a lot more going on around Nashua including some new wall murals. A future post will include photos of both older and newer ones.

Friday Funnies

Thanks to all who commented on my previous post about my tech issues with blogger. I appreciate that many of you shared details about some of your issues. While most were not the same as mine, hopefully all will be resolved — one day.

To briefly recap, I was getting an Update Failed message at the bottom left when working on a draft post. Yet, was able to save the draft and preview it without losing anything. Photo inserts would either not upload or finally do so after much waiting. It's ongoing still. Online searches haven't produced a solution or workaround. My hope is to continue posting, despite the message and uploading delays. 

Thankfully, the Friday Funnies are shorter posts, and here's a new one.

This is not the type of caution sign that you would normally expect to see.

When you're using this method ↑ of transport in a hotel given its ups and downs (awful pun).

The signage was displayed on both the exterior and interior of a hotel elevator where we stayed recently. This was the only elevator and ourselves (and other hotel guests) used it without any mishaps or delays (that we heard about).

Enjoy Your Weekend Everyone

Best wishes to everyone celebrating Father's Day on Sunday

The RI grands and their mom will be visiting here

Technical Difficulties ?

Just wondering if anyone had a blogging issue, yesterday.

That's because the message Update Failed kept showing up repeatedly in Blogger when I was working on a draft post. 

And, when trying to upload a photo, it would not complete that task. But, I was able to insert this → graphic, go figure.

Additionally, I was unable to post a comment on a couple of other blogs, but this didn't happen on a consistent basis as I was able to post a comment on a few others.

An online search to learn if any issue(s) had been reported by other bloggers produced no results. I couldn't find info on whether Blogger had issues.

Has anyone else experienced similar issues now or in the past? 

Hopefully, this was just a(nother) blogger glitch that will be resolved.

Friday Funnies

There's been a lot of foul-ness in Nashua, NH, in recent days and not all weather related.

This was not the prettiest view from our apartment window

Of course, the weather has been a factor with overnight rain on Wednesday evening followed by heavy downpours and thunderstorms all day on Thursday.

Canada geese goslings from several families

The biggest waterfowl situation has been the very population of Canada geese on the Nashua River near the mill apartments. There's up to four families with about 18 fast-growing goslings between. (Maybe the geese self-isolated the past couple of years like a lot of humans.)

Canada geese families on the Nashua River, NH

The families often stay together when out on the Nashua River. Adult geese stay in front, back or to the side of the goslings, which do not stray far from parental supervision. 

Canada geese families on Water St and along the Nashua River walk

Recently, the goose families have become adventuresome and can be seen en masse on the roadways and walkways near the Nashua River walkway. Hopefully, the recent rains will help clear up the foul messes that all these fowl have been leaving. Walking to avoid them has become quite a challenge.

Anywhere from 4 to 6 Mallards gather on the river bank

Things are just ducky and Canada geese not the only waterfowl here. Recently there's been a larger-than-usual population of male Mallards (drakes). Their female counterpart (hens) haven't been seen and could be nesting nearby; more waterfowl updates may be coming in the future.

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone

Nashua River lighted boat parade is back after 2 years

 2020 Lighted Boat Parade on the Nashua River