Riskless Risk
Don't have time to read?? Me neither! But I have to admit that I like the idea of a book club and all the fun of the discussions and snacks. This section poses a question and provides a great quickie snack recipe to munch while we answer the challenging questions in life.
What risky activity would you do if you had the opportunity to do it without the risk? Before I answer this week's question, I am going to make my "Bookless Book Club" snack.
People ask for my Cheese Straws recipe a lot. I think it is because my cheese straws look different. Most of the time when southern hostesses make cheese straws, the cheese straws are extruded through a cookie press into a long thin "straw." Since I don't have time to read, I sure don't have time to extrude! My recipe has the same ingredients as other cheese straws but I just slice and bake.
I think people are alway curious about them because the texture of these cheese straws comes out a bit lighter and flakier since they are not being jammed through the cookie press. It is a whole lot faster, too, giving you much more time not to read or not to clean or not to do other household chores. Okay, that's confusing but my point is that this is a fast, easy and delicious snack that doesn't have to be served for special extruding occasions.
Cheese Straws
1 pound cheddar cheese, shredded
2 sticks butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
dash red pepper or more to taste
dash paprika or more to taste
Combine cheese and butter. Add flour, red pepper and paprika, mix thoroughly. Form into a log and place in plastic wrap. Chill for one hour or if this is a real snacking emergency, freeze for a few minutes. Use a sharp knife to slice into 1/4 inch slices. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. If desired, use a fork to indent crisscrosses in the dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Note: I have heavy non-stick baking pans and often I omit greasing the cookie sheet. I would suggest cooking a test one first to see if you can actually remove the cheese cookie from the ungreased pan after baking before trying them all "greaseless!"
step 1 mix, form a log, and slice - okay, this is actually three steps but I don't have pictures of steps 1 & 2

step 2 criss cross
step 3 enjoy

Now, back to the question. What risky activity would I like to try? I must start by saying that I'm not much of a risk taker in general. I consider sitting on a public toilet seat without liberally wrapping it in layers of toilet paper to be about the riskiest thing I do or I should say... don't do. So, if I could do one thing without risk I would probably like to try Mexican cliff diving. You're thinking, 'Pretty drastic compared to sitting on a toilet.' It always amazed me that people would want to dive at a rapidly receding pool of water at just the right moment, glide through the air, and plunge into the water. They don't even hold their noses which I probably would still have to do even if I chose to do this risky business. Would I be safe from social risk, too, from all the bystanders laughing at my unconventional diving form or does that count as another question?





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