The post A Teaspoonful of Icing appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

For the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. We’re pretty relaxed over here, and stories and photos are as welcome as menus and recipes. When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button to paste at the top of your post. It ties us together visually. Then fill in the boxes of this linky tool to join the fun!

Food on Fridays with Ann

Sometimes, after a long, full day, we realize we don’t have time or energy to make dinner from scratch. That’s when we send everyone to the fridge for “Fend for Yourself” night. They dig around for leftovers and heat up a plate of whatever looks interesting.Do you think that might work for Thanksgiving?I could make the turkey, mashed potatoes, corn and pumpkin pie in advance, stick everything in the fridge, and then invite our guests to forage.Well, I don’t think I can get by with that for Thanksgiving Day, but I did hear an interesting idea from a friend of mine. She is going to make her turkey a day in advance, carve it, store it in the fridge covered in foil and sitting in broth, and then simply heat it up on Thanksgiving Day.Unconventional? Perhaps.Convenient? Definitely.And it sounds like the closest thing to Fend for Yourself I could get by with.Would you do it, if you were hosting?

:::

Credits: photo by Ann Kroeker.

There’s always more to come: subscribe to Ann Kroeker by e-mail

Want to slow down in our fast-paced world? Check out Not So Fast.

“Like” me on Facebook.

Follow me on Twitter.

The post Food on Fridays: Fend for Yourself appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Though I often crave caffeine, I can only tolerate it until noon, when I must stop drinking it or risk lying awake until two in the morning. Fortunately, I glanced at the clock on the stove: just after 10:00 a.m. I had time.

I spooned some caffeinated black tea into a paper loose tea filter, lowered it into the deep pottery mug, poured steaming water from the electric tea kettle over it and let it steep while I answered a few e-mails. A few minutes later, I returned to the kitchen and drizzled some honey into the mug and stirred. Breathing in the aroma, I knew this would keep me going for a few hours.

Both physical and virtual paperwork awaited, as well as phone calls and e-mails. Later in the day, an errand or two. The to-do’s of the day were flowing like the steady stream of a kitchen faucet—not as forceful as a fire hydrant nor as annoying as a drip, but I had to pay attention or the sink would fill and overflow, figuratively speaking.

So I kept at it, task after task, decision after decision, e-mail after e-mail, errand after errand. These things weren’t overwhelming; just steady. Somewhere in the afternoon, though, I needed a pause.

My cup, as it were, was empty.

I’d drained my literal cup of tea, and I had drained my figurative cup, my very self, of rest.

Life needs pauses.

I’d scheduled tire rotation and a medical test for my daughter, shopped for groceries and filled the gas tank; I printed off papers for my daughters’ schoolwork and agreed to bake brownies for a church function.

But…a pause. I needed a pause.

Late in the afternoon I returned to the kitchen and opened the cabinet to stare at my boxes of tea. I saw some chai tea. Decaf. By then it was past 3:00 p.m., so I could only handle decaf.

Filled the tea kettle.

Instead of racing around the corner to my desk, I leaned against the counter while the water boiled.

I waited.

Paused.

How easy it would be to check my phone for e-mail while the water boiled.

But, no. I paused.

And when the electric kettle bell dinged, I lifted the plastic kettle from its base and poured hot water over the tea bag, watching the bag rise with the waterline, all the way to the top, before it was soggy enough to sink. I took hold of the tag and dipped it down and up several times then let it settle at the bottom.

I briefly considered carrying my drink to the desk, but changed my mind. Instead, I walked to the table and sat for a moment, both hands hugging the mug to warm my palms.

Tea, I decided, is necessary.

Tea, I realized, is a slow-down solution.

Tendrils of steam drifted up from the glimmering dark surface of the tea and dissipated.

I lifted the mug and blew across the top, making ripples.

Then I tilted the mug and the tea touched my lips.

Slowly, I sipped.

_______________________________

Is every hour rush hour at your house?

Explore the jarring effects of our overcommitted culture and find refreshing alternatives for a more meaningful family and spiritual life.

Find a pace that frees your family to flourish.

“Not So Fast is a gift to every reader who takes the time to slow down and breathe in its pages.”

—Lee Strobel, best-selling author of The Case for Christ

:::

For the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. We’re pretty relaxed over here, and stories and photos are as welcome as menus and recipes.

The post Food on Fridays: Tea Is Necessary appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

For the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. We’re pretty relaxed over here, and stories and photos are as welcome as menus and recipes.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button to paste at the top of your post. It ties us together visually.Then fill in the boxes of this linky tool to join the fun!

Food on Fridays with Ann

Birthday boys and girls at our house get to request a special breakfast on their big day. I used to be able to guess pretty accurately who would ask for crepes and who would want chocolate croissants.But times and tastes have changed, and my 16-year-old daughter surprised me by requesting biscuits and gravy.This surprised me not only because she usually requests crepes, but also because my biscuits are inconsistent—they turn out dry and hard frequently enough that I asked if she was sure she wanted to take the risk.She assured me that she likes them even if they turn out like hardtack. “After all,” she pointed out, “we’ll be putting the gravy on top, so that will moisten them up.”So I pulled out my recipe and mixed up a double batch of biscuits.While they baked, I pulled out a package of frozen sausage for the gravy.And it worked. It all worked.The biscuits were light and fluffy.The gravy was rich and flavorful.I usually request a Trader Joe’s chocolate croissant for my own birthday breakfast, but I might rethink that selection, because I seem to be getting the hang of biscuit-making.Biscuits Supreme(from Better Homes & Garden cookbook)Ingredients:

• 2 C flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 4 t baking powder
• 2 t sugar (I left out the sugar)
• 1/2 t cream of tartar
• 1/2 C shortening (I used half butter, half applesauce)
• 2/3 C milk

Directions:Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Cut in the shortening until it resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well, add milk (and applesauce). Stir quickly with fork till dough follows fork around the bowl. Turn onto lightly floured surface. Knead gently 10-12 strokes. Roll or pat 1/2 inch thick. Cut with cutter (I used a juice glass). Bake on ungreased baking sheet, very hot oven (450) 10-12 minutes.GravyGravy instructions: Brown 1 pound thawed breakfast sausage. Sprinkle about 1/4 cup flour (maybe less) into the pan. Stir to make a kind of roux. Add milk and stir on low to medium heat until gravy thickens to preferred consistency (add milk if it thickens too much). Salt and pepper to taste. Add additional sage if desired.

:::

Credits: All photos by Sophie Marie. Used with permission.

There’s always more to come: subscribe to Ann Kroeker by e-mail

Want to slow down in our fast-paced world? Check out Not So Fast.

“Like” me on Facebook.

Follow me on Twitter.

The post Food on Fridays: Birthday Biscuits and Gravy appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

For the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. We’re pretty relaxed over here, and stories and photos are as welcome as menus and recipes.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button to paste at the top of your post. It ties us together visually.Then fill in the boxes of this linky tool to join the fun!

Food on Fridays with Ann

By the time Charity and I squeezed into seats 26E and 26F, we were hungry. We thought we had a full hour layover in Houston, but our plane arrived late and we weren’t paying attention to the time. Instead, we were hunting for an airport Wendy’s. Just as we were anticipating a satisfying meal of a burger and fries, we realized with a gasp that we only had fifteen minutes to catch our flight. We rushed to the gate burgerless.We strode down the long hallways, turned a corner and continued down more long hallways. Eventually, we saw the gate. Over the sound system, Now boarding all rows flight 1155 to Indianapolis. We made it. Just in time.On the plane, as we jammed ourselves into Continental’s economy class seats, all we could think about was food. The stewardess said they were serving complimentary drinks, but no free food. We could buy a snack, though, so Charity pulled out the airline magazine to study the selection. One of us guessed they’d charge four bucks for a bag of five M&Ms. We were close. They charged $2.99 for a 4 oz bag of Twizzlers. But while Charity leafed through the magazine, she also spied a photo of tapas.Bruschetta on crackers, boursin-style cheese spread, olives, hummus, almonds, and a little candy mint. The selection seemed classy and European, like something a first-class passenger would be served with cloth napkins and a mixed drink.Tapas.It’s all we could think about.How much would the tapas cost?Would they serve tapas on this flight?Would so many people buy tapas that none would be left for us?Afraid that they would only offer the overpriced Twizzlers on this flight, I started to manage my expectations. telling myself to stop thinking about the tapas so that I wouldn’t be disappointed if they were out.The plane took off, and when we were at cruising altitude, the stewardess wheeled a cart down the aisle. “Snacks!” she proclaimed. “Would anybody like to buy a snack?””Look!” Charity nudged me. “Sticking up on the end.””Tapas!” I exclaimed. We counted them and wondered if any would be left when she rolled past row 26. The stewardess moved slowly, calling out “snacks” like a vendor at a ball game, but no takers. Plenty of tapas on hand for us.We waved our hands excitedly. “Over here!””Snacks!” she continued, turning away from us as if she didn’t hear.Charity let out a little gasp. “We’d like tapas, please?”The stewardess started laughing. Good joke. Except we were starving. She was grinning big as we paid for our tapas, handing the slender packages to us as we giggled and thanked her. We could barely wait to rip off the plastic while I snapped pictures. We unpacked the little dips and spread, selecting the ideal cracker to carry the hummus and considering which would complement the cheese spread.  We crunched almonds and poked marinated olives with toothpicks. Fancy.”Look at that poor chump,” I whispered to Charity as we munched our goodies, gesturing to the guy sitting next to her. He was quietly reading a book. Unlike us, he was snackless. “He’s stuck in economy class with nothing to eat. But not us! We’re flying First Class, eating tapas.”We scraped every last smear of spread from the containers and crunched every last crumb of the crackers. At the end of our feast, Charity unwrapped the mint and popped it in her mouth. Immediately, her face reacted. “Ewww!””What?””This mint. It’s not a mint. It’s licorice!””What a shock, to expect a mint and get licorice.”She subtly spit it into a paper napkin and tucked it into the remains of our First Class feast—a disappointing end to our moments of luxury flying. Nevertheless, we were satisfied. I even tried the licorice, just to see what it was like.We were stuck in coach, but faked First Class, just for fun. Well, we were hungry, but why not amuse ourselves—even treat ourselves—in the process? We’ll never afford First Class, but it doesn’t mean we can’t make life special in small ways. Even at home in our everyday activities and meals.Why not use cloth napkins and light candles at dinner and pretend our table is newer and classier than it is? We Kroekers do that. It’s easy to make small choices that turn a simple meal into something special.I once wrote about 10 Ways to Class Up One’s Act a Notch, everyday things that make me feel a little more civilized. Here is a selection demonstrating ways my family and I have “faked First Class” in our everyday lives:

1. Goblets. Drink everyday beverages from goblets. I picked up a pair of pretty goblets from a neighbor’s garage sale and drank my iced tea from one. Nice. The kids think so, too–use goblets for their milk, juice and Kool-Aid. If someone accidentally breaks one, no big deal. Keep your classy cool and simply go get another from Goodwill for a dollar.
2. A Toast. Now that you’re holding glasses with a stem, how about a toast? “Here’s to unexpected elegance”–ching, ching. Seriously, a little toast gets our minds thinking differently. What is special about our lives? How can I piece together a one- or two-sentence speech? It’s an interesting little exercise for our kids (me, too).
3. A European Course. Serve something kind of European at dinner. I skimmed the book French Women Don’t Get Fat a few weeks ago, and one idea Mireille Guiliano had was to slice tomatoes, spread them out on a bed of lettuce, salt heavily and sprinkle them with goat cheese. Simple to prepare with an  unexpected flavor combination (for a normally unclassy American). And delicious (you could substitute feta, if you like). That’s just one idea of many simple courses one could add to dinner (another common dish is to serve each person a slice of melon with a slice of prosciutto as a course before what we would call the entree. It would, in France, actually be called the entrée–the “entry,” if you will, to the main dish.). Go ahead, drink another toast to goat cheese and French simplicity: “Vive la chevre! Vive la simplicité!”
4. Candles at dinner. They’re cheap, and the kids love ‘em. Turn off the lights and they’re even an alternative source of lighting in this age of low-impact adaptations. Might as well make it a regular thing. It’s funny, but when we use candles at dinner, the kids are usually quieter, less restless, and a bit kinder and more reflective. It makes me wonder why I’ve been so stingy with candles in the past. All those rowdy, tiring dinners might have been redeemed with the magical, classy touch of low lighting.
5. Classical music. Now, I don’t mean to advance from a tiny notch classier to downright snobbish, but honestly, something happens to the family when we play classical music during dinner. Just as the candles seem to have a calming effect, classical music seems to provide a classier mood and mentality. Even kids who prefer rock or pop or country will tolerate classical style music if it’s just “dinner music.” Stop by the library to borrow a Vivaldi CD, or just flip on the classical station and accept whatever they have to offer.
6. Flowers. While we’re still at the dinner table, may I suggest setting out a simple bouquet of flowers beside the candles? Today, I picked six or seven flowers from the garden and stuck them into glass Coke bottles for vases. The kids loved them. Class meets casual. I know a few classy ladies who can serve meals in the dining room with kids all around while an ornate vase bursting with roses graces the space, but I’m just a daisy-in-a-Coke-bottle gal most of the time. I guess I’m casually classy when I’m classy at all, and this illustrates why I qualified this whole post by saying it would only be classier by “a notch.”

How do you fake First Class, not just on airplanes, but every day?

:::

Continental’s Tapas Snack Box*

• Oloves Marinated Olives, Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta Spread, Wild Garden Hummus, Rondelé^® Peppercorn Parmesan Cheese Spread, Fratelli Laurieri Scrocchi Al Rosmarino Crackers, Jacobs^® Cream Crackers, Partners^® Olive Oil and Sea Salt Crackers, Emerald^® Natural Almonds, Fantis^® Ouzo Candy Mint
• $8.49

*Item is offered on select flights onlyCredits: Tapas photos by Ann Kroeker.

There’s always more to come: subscribe to Ann Kroeker by e-mail

Want to slow down in our fast-paced world? Check out Not So Fast.

“Like” me on Facebook.

Follow me on Twitter.

The post Food on Fridays: Faking First Class appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

For the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. We’re pretty relaxed over here, and stories and photos are as welcome as menus and recipes.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (My daughter doesn’t quite have the new one ready, and now a second daughter wants to battle it out by offering her own version! Until they’re ready, grab the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post. It ties us together visually.Then fill in the boxes of this linky tool to join the fun!

Food on Fridays with Ann

A few scrawny seedlings dropped haphazardly into the soil sometime late in May or early June…

…offer me this in August.

I didn’t plan or prune; I’ve barely watered and weeded.

I don’t deserve this goodness, this grace.

God is great, God is goodAnd we thank Him for our food.

:::

Photos by Ann Kroeker.

There’s always more to come: subscribe to Ann Kroeker by e-mail

Want to slow down in our fast-paced world? Check out Not So Fast.

“Like” me on Facebook.

Follow me on Twitter.

The post Food on Fridays: Grace appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

For the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. We’re pretty relaxed over here, and stories and photos are as welcome as menus and recipes.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (My daughter doesn’t quite have the new one ready, and now a second daughter wants to battle it out by offering her own version! Until they’re ready, grab the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post. It ties us together visually.Then fill in the boxes of this linky tool to join the fun!

Food on Fridays with Ann

When we vacation, we usually camp. And we like almost everything about camping except the cooking and clean-up.I would sigh to my friends after a trip and say, “My dream is to find a beautiful place we can camp, where I don’t have to cook. That would be perfect.”One day about eight years ago, I said this to a friend, and she said, “Seems like you need a family camp.””I’ve thought about that,” I said, “but I don’t want to pay a huge amount of money, and I don’t want a lot of activities and programming. It seems like most of them are highly programmed and costly.””Do you know Katie Henderson?*” she asked. We all attended the same large church, but I’d never overlapped with Katie. “Well,” my friend continued, “she and her family go to some family camp up north every year, and it sounds like it might be just what you’re looking for.”I phoned Katie and explained about the beautiful setting and the food hassle and the preference for little to no programming. “If someone else was making, serving and cleaning up after meals,” I said, “I’d feel like I was really on a vacation.”“This is your place,” Katie assured me. She said the food was good, the setting was gorgeous, and there was very little programming. “There’s no speaker or music or chapel. Just a service on Sunday morning, and an optional Bible study two days of the week. Actually, there’s so little programming, we call it ‘Heathen Week,'” she said, laughing.”Perfect!” I said.So our family took the risk. We signed up, paid what seemed to be a reasonable amount of money for the week, and drove north. But it was a long drive and we didn’t have Google maps back then, so we underestimated how long it would take to get there. We rolled in late, just as the opening activity—Saturday evening dinner—was ending, but we’d phoned to say we were running late and they saved food for us. I was stressed out, and when they brought us a high chair for our youngest and set out the food that they’d reheated, it had to be the most delicious, nourishing chicken dinner I’d ever eaten in my life. If we’d rolled into a campground and had to fix our own meal, I would have done it with cranky, needy kids tugging on me. And I would have done it all in the dark. Thinking back to being served with such compassion and attention, I’m sure I cried: from relief.We slid the pop-up between slender cedar trees and went to sleep that night hearing the water of Lake Huron lap against the shore. Next morning, we woke up to dim dawn light revealing colorful kayaks lined up along the sand; shore birds laughing; a green boat anchored and bobbing in the water; the gray-green lodge and dining hall; Adirondack chairs lined up on a porch overlooking the bay.So this is vacation.I didn’t have to think about breakfast. I just had to listen for the bell to ring, mosey to the lodge, and there it would be: a delicious, warm meal that I didn’t have to plan, shop for, prepare or clean up after.Relax, play, rest, read, swim, boat, chat…listen for the meal bell…show up and be fed.Perfect.I thought I would use this post as an excuse to show you a few photos from the trip that have something to do with food…food I didn’t fix.This isn’t at family camp, but Biggby Coffee is a chain we’d never heard of that is big in Michigan. We stopped en route to try some. Two of the girls got lattes and loved them.Quiche for breakfast one morning at family camp—one of many options. The cook accommodates dietary needs, providing options on the buffet for vegetarian campers or those who deal with allergies and food intolerance.A favorite hot breakfast of mine: Red River Cereal, made with three grains: cracked wheat, cracked rye, and whole flax. So simple. Some tease that it’s birdseed, but I love it.Two afternoons they set out food for us in the morning so that we pack lunches for later that day. Some people drive to local tourist spots, but we just stayed on property, hiked out to this beautiful spot, climbed a big rock, and ate lunch together overlooking Lake Huron.S’mores fixin’s provided on the last night during campfire.Cocoa, teas, coffee, and cold drinks like fruit punch and lemonade are available 24 hours a day. Kids and adults alike grab mugs, serve themselves something refreshing, and sit on the porch to read.I didn’t really think to take a lot of photos of food—I was too busy eating it, I guess.

We left family camp and stopped by a couple of other places in Canada, including Niagara Falls, before winding around into New York and Pennsylvania, sliding along the edge of Lake Erie.

The Belgian Wonder exited the freeway and drove on a scenic road that offered tantalizing glimpses of the water. We longed to drive close and dip our feet into the water, but he’d turn onto a road that looked promising only to discover it was a private drive.Finally, we found a little public park where we could stop, get out, stretch our legs, and eat our peanut butter sandwiches and carrot sticks packed from our own meager provisions. The tiny concession area sold only pop and chips, but I was so grateful that they were maintaining this pretty little place where we could pause, I broke down and bought a Coke and a Sprite as a small thank you.We lingered for a while.Then realized we had to get on the road.We munched on snack food on the long drive home.We’d been gone for nine days, camping in a beautiful setting, and the only thing I had to fix was a stack of peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, and instant oatmeal that we ate with plastic spoons from paper bowls on the morning we drove home.I can handle that.

:::

* Name changedAll photos by Ann Kroeker except Lunch on the Rock, by P. Kroeker.

There’s always more to come: subscribe to Ann Kroeker by e-mail

Want to slow down in our fast-paced world? Check out Not So Fast.

“Like” me on Facebook.

Follow me on Twitter.

The post Food on Fridays: Vacation Food appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

For the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. We’re pretty relaxed over here, and stories and photos are as welcome as menus and recipes.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (My daughter doesn’t quite have the new one ready, and now a second daughter wants to battle it out by offering her own version! Until they’re ready, grab the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post. It ties us together visually.Then fill in the boxes of this linky tool to join the fun!

Food on Fridays with Ann

Great for a special breakfast or brunch, baked oatmeal is delicious served plain or with a few spoonfuls of yogurt.Here’s the version I’ve made:Baked Oatmeal

• 3 C. oatmeal
• 1/2 to 1 C. brown sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 C. applesauce
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 C milk (rice or soy milk is fine)
• 1/2 to 1 C. raisins or blueberries (but blueberries are way better)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl. Stir the wet and dry ingredients together and add the raisins or blueberries. Spread in a 9×9 pan, lightly sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake 20-30 minutes. Serve as-is, or top with yogurt or some sort of milk.

Photo by Ann Kroeker

There’s always more to come: subscribe to Ann Kroeker by e-mail

Want to slow down in our fast-paced world? Check out Not So Fast.

“Like” me on Facebook.

Follow me on Twitter.

The post Food on Fridays: Baked Oatmeal appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

The post Get Used to It appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

[T]ears streamed from his eyes as he read about ‘The Inconsolable Heartburn…by which the heart looks out astonished at the world and in its loving, wakes and breaks at once.’ This heartburn, Capon says, this sadness for what is not yet here is ultimately a longing for God’s final feast, the supper of the Lamb, when the Host of Creation will set all things right and will do so more beautifully than we can imagine. (Fields 76)

She reflects on this with astonishment:

The created order cries out—I knew that from Romans. Creation groans for further greatness still. Greatness in the kitchen? Greatness as a supper? …As if it were a near-death experience, my life flashed before me … I remembered my first taste of Communion wine at midnight Mass in the Colorado Rockies, my favorite sugar cream pie, and my grandmother’s homemade noodles with chicken. (Fields 76)

Like I said, her writing—her story—left me stunned. I’m not entirely sure why I connected so strongly with her piece, but I’ve continued living with my own food recollections. It seems that each day, scenes flash before me; blurry snapshots from my history with food slowly come into focus:

• Spooning my own grandmother’s noodles over mashed potatoes, starch on starch—forking down serving after serving until my stomach pooched out.
• Attempts at making whole wheat bread, mixed and kneaded by hand as a teenager—each loaf turning out more brick-like than bread-like.
• First taste of sautéed mushrooms prepared by my college roommate when we rented a house together.
• Learning to make my mother-in-law’s roux.
• My first successful crepes.

Harlan’s essay convinced me to order The Supper of the Lamb. She says:

Capon warns in his book that The Supper of the Lamb is a way of life, not merely a recipe that requires eight chapters of diversions to reach a conclusion. I read the book and reread it, as this way of life becomes mine. And I will tell you the truth: I’ve never grown tired of exploring the minute corners of life. I tossed a handful of lettuce seeds into the potted rosemary plan several days ago, and the sprouts stretch green leaves upward, and the anticipation grows. It might not work, but I had the seeds handy, and I was hungry for green things. I am hungry, still. (Fields 79)

I am hungry, too, for green things; for good words and good food; for bread and for truth.The Occasional VegetarianSo I read on. This week’s book club selection included “Tasting the Animal Kingdom,” in which I was taken back to my teens.Like Alissa Herbaly Coons, I committed to vegetarianism around age thirteen. Though my dad raised Black Angus cattle, my parents—Mom in particular—supported my decision. Dad worried that I wouldn’t get the protein I needed, but Mom fixed vegetarian casseroles as a main dish for me and a side dish for the rest of the meat-eating family.At Thanksgiving that year, my beloved grandmother prepared a turkey. I was torn. Should I take a serving to honor her labor of love? Or should I stick to my vegetarian lifestyle?As I smelled the turkey and remembered how it tasted—and as I looked at my grandmother’s beaming smile—I made my decision.I took a serving of Grandma’s turkey savoring forkfuls of dark meat—alongside her noodles, of course—and I gave thanks: for turkeys and family and Grandma. I think she was pleased that I ate it all.And it was very good.These days I’m eating meat, but I’ve been known to suddenly convert back to a plant-based diet again. Each time I transition to or from the vegetarian lifestyle, I find myself appreciating all food, all sustenance, more than I would if I ate without thought and concern.I was touched as I read about Coons’ careful preparation of a chicken all the way to boiling the carcass with vegetables to make stock. A sense of reverence and gratitude flow through her story to the end:

For hours, I boiled the last nutrients out of the chicken, claiming the goodness of its skeleton for myself and for the soups of my future, a small act of faith in my slow reconversion. As I strained the brother and finally discarded the bones, I found the wishbone, whole in the pot, which had slipped unnoticed through my earlier bone breaking. I held it for a moment, and then I left it intact. (Fields 95)

Sitting in my fridge is a container of stock that I made from the turkey carcass at Thanksgiving. I froze it in November, but recently pulled it out to thaw and use in a sauce.With what remains, I will make soup. Vegetable soup.

Join the conversation at TheHighCalling.org.

_______________

Source:The Spirit of Food: 34 Writers on Feasting and Fasting Toward God, edited by Leslie Leyland Fields. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books. 2010.

Photos by Ann Kroeker.

The post The Spirit of Food: Food Heritage and The Occasional Vegetarian appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you want to talk about the blueberry seed that lodged between your teeth, that’s great. Posts like that are as welcome as menus and recipes.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post. It ties us together visually.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with AnnToday is kind of a Food on Fridays “Show-and-Tell.”First, I made Charity’s Zucchini Bread in the form of muffins. The final product tasted something like pumpkin bread, and we love pumpkin bread. I barely had time to snap the picture before these muffins were gone.I slipped chocolate chips into some of the batter at the end. I know it’s not part of Charity’s directions, but I couldn’t resist.Also, I don’t think I showed you my first ripe tomatoes of the season. I was late getting the garden in, so everything seemed to be ripening kind of slow. But once those first small tomatoes presented themselves, it seemed like the entire garden turned bright red with full-sized cousins to these guys. And I have to say…there’s nothing quite like a homegrown Indiana tomato.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Show-and-Tell appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you want to talk about the spinach that lodged between your teeth, that’s great. Posts like that are as welcome as menus and recipes.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post. It ties us together visually.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with AnnThis hasn’t been the bloggiest week for me. Sorry to be so quiet. It’s sort of ironic given all the talk of how “real” we are over at High Calling Blogs this week and last. How “real” am I, if I don’t even show up to chat here with readers?Please forgive.First there was a wedding…Last weekend my son had the honor of being a ring bearer and I had the joy of reading a passage of Scripture in the wedding of a dear friend of mine.My son took his job very seriously. His fellow ring bearer didn’t hesitate to grin, but my son felt that it was a serious occasion that called for a serious demeanor. He claims he bit the insides of his cheeks whenever he felt a smile coming on, in order to keep a straight face.Following Saturday’s nuptials, we launched a close-to-home vacation week. This week of the summer, we normally drive north to a family camp that is ten hours away, but our involvement in the wedding made it too complicated to pull off. The Belgian Wonder had already requested time off from work, however, so we planned various outings that have kept me from blogging.One of those outings took us to lower Michigan for blueberry picking; or, as one of my daughters put it, “Blueberry Mania”!We picked five buckets of blueberries. Is that crazy? We enjoy them simply because they’re delicious, but you probably know that they’re on the list of superfoods. In fact, WebMD’s article on “Superfoods” places blueberries at the top of the list. “Packed with antioxidants and phytoflavinoids,” they claim, “these berries are also high in potassium and vitamin C, making them the top choice of doctors and nutritionists. Not only can they lower your risk of heart disease and cancer, they are also anti-inflammatory…blueberries have a host of benefits…[so] have a serving (about 1/2 cup) every day.” (And they say that frozen are just as good as fresh.)So today’s Food on Fridays features a few snapshots of our annual blueberry stock-up:We’ll eat them fresh for the next few days, share some and freeze lots. They’re my favorite thing to mix into steel cut oatmeal or pancakes, and we add them to coffee cake, muffins, smoothies, or even another crisp.With five buckets of blueberries sitting in our kitchen, I’d have to say that blueberries will be incorporated into every meal for the next few days (and months). If I may tap into the incredible resources represented in my Friday visitors, would you share a favorite blueberry recipe before you go?

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Blueberry Mania appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you want to tell us about the first person who taught you to cook, that’s great. Posts like that are as welcome as menus and recipes.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Simply Linked (a new tool I’m trying out this week).Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Charity!This week at High Calling Blogs (HCB), we launched a writing project called “You Are Real,” inviting network bloggers to write about connections they’ve made—real connections—with other bloggers. People throughout the HCB community are swapping posts. Charity Singleton of Wide Open Spaces is my guest blogger today for Food on Fridays, and I’m appearing at her place. Click HERE to read my post for today.So… may I introduce to you my new and very real friend, Charity Singleton:Long before I drove the 20 minutes to Ann Kroeker’s house, I knew we were both Hoosiers. She had told me so on Facebook.Before I ever sat with Ann on her patio and talked about organic farming, I knew she pulled her weeds by hand. She wrote about once in an email.And before I had the chance to sit at the dinner table with her and her children or drink a cup of her husband’s strong coffee, I knew Ann cared deeply about her family. I read about them in one of her posts on The High Calling Blogs.By the time I actually met Ann, we were already friends.

—

Developing relationships online is relatively new for me. Until about four years ago, I thought of the internet as nothing more than a tool. I used it for researching recipes, sending emails, and occasionally buying a book or an airline ticket. But then, I started writing a blog.Blogging gave me a way to claim a little space of my own out in cyberspace. As an aspiring writer, I had hoped it would be like hanging my virtual shingle. As it turned out, it was more like creating a home where I could invite people in. And the community that eventually developed is what this “We are Real” project is all about.It was my very first contact in the blogging world that providentially made my online life “real.” Ironically, I met her first in person at a writing conference. But since we lived several states away, our friendship quickly took to the ‘net.In those early days of blogging, I wasn’t always sure what to make of it, what would become of it. Back in 2006, I posted this comment on my friend’s blog: “Blogging is just another hue on the increasingly gray-scale palette of my life. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sometimes a waste of time. Sometimes a perfectly useful way to process. Never always one way.”Then I was diagnosed with cancer. I hadn’t been blogging much in the few months prior. I was restless and distracted. The relationships I had started to build online seemed easy to set aside in favor of the drama that was unfolding in my real life. But I knew the people I was avoiding were real, too, and were probably wondering where I was. So I told them.Two days later, I found myself in the hospital.I know it was God’s providence that I reached out to my online community like I did just days before cancer. He knew I would need their support, would need their words of encouragement. When I finally made it home after a couple of weeks in the hospital and gathered the energy to post what I had been through, the response was overwhelming. Our relationship wasn’t just bits and bytes floating through cyberspace. It was real.Through continued connections with this same community that supported me through the ups and downs of cancer treatment and recovery, my path eventually crossed with Ann. Because we already knew each other online and had many mutual friends there, it was only natural to meet in person when we discovered we lived only 20 minutes apart.

—

The other thing you should know about my relationship with Ann, however, is this. Long before we ever sat at my table and enjoyed zucchini brownies, and long before we sat at her table sharing a plate of cookies, I knew Ann likes food. I read about it here, on a Friday.One of our first interactions came as a result of her now famous steel cut oatmeal recipe. And since then, every time we’ve met there’s been some type of food exchange, including the zucchini dumping (er, I mean “gifting”) that I did the morning we went running togetherThese online relationships, they’re real alright. Ann has the zucchini to prove it.

—

In the tradition of Food on Fridays, here’s a great recipe for artisan bread I shared with Ann recently. It is from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007).Serves 4Note: This recipe must be prepared in advance.

• 1-1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (about 1-1/2 packets)
• 1-1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 6-1/2 cups unbleached flour, plus extra for dusting dough
• Cornmeal

In a large plastic resealable container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm (about 100 degrees) water. Using a large spoon, stir in flour, mixing until mixture is uniformly moist with no dry patches. Do not knead. Dough will be wet and loose enough to conform to shape of plastic container. Cover, but not with an airtight lid.Let dough rise at room temperature, until dough begins to flatten on top or collapse, at least 2 hours and up to 5 hours. (At this point, dough can be refrigerated up to 2 weeks; refrigerated dough is easier to work with than room-temperature dough, so the authors recommend that first-time bakers refrigerate dough overnight or at least 3 hours.)When ready to bake, sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza peel. Place a broiler pan on bottom rack of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and preheat oven to 450 degrees, preheating baking stone for at least 20 minutes.Sprinkle a little flour on dough and on your hands. Pull dough up and, using a serrated knife, cut off a grapefruit-size piece (about 1 pound). Working for 30 to 60 seconds (and adding flour as needed to prevent dough from sticking to hands; most dusting flour will fall off, it’s not intended to be incorporated into dough), turn dough in hands, gently stretching surface of dough, rotating ball a quarter-turn as you go, creating a rounded top and a bunched bottom.Place shaped dough on prepared pizza peel and let rest, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it in lidded container. (Even one day’s storage improves flavor and texture of bread. Dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in airtight containers and defrosted overnight in refrigerator prior to baking day.) Dust dough with flour.Using a serrated knife, slash top of dough in three parallel, 1/4-inch deep cuts (or in a tic-tac-toe pattern). Slide dough onto preheated baking stone. Pour 1 cup hot tap water into broiler pan and quickly close oven door to trap steam. Bake until crust is well-browned and firm to the touch, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven to a wire rack and cool completely.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: We Are Real (and so is the food) appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you want to research plantains or papayas, that’s great. Posts like that are as welcome as menus and recipes.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with AnnWhen we planted our garden, we put in three zucchini plants.“I can’t wait to eat zucchini bread!” my son exclaimed. “I looooooove zucchini bread.”That was back in May. When we would go out to weed or water the garden, he’d ask if the zucchini was ready.“Not yet,” I’d reply.“Awwww….I was hoping we could make zucchini bread.”“We have to wait until we get a bunch of them,” I said, “or a couple of big ones.”I sent out my son with peelings and egg shells for the compost. “Do we have any zucchini?” I asked.“Nope,” he replied. “I looked. Not yet.”The other day I was invited to Charity’s house for tea. But she didn’t serve just tea. She made brownies, as well.Zucchini brownies!They were fantastic! I eagerly and shamelessly accepting a second piece when she offered!I told her that my son often asked if the zucchini was ready, but we got our garden in late and so…no zucchini. In fact, I told her I’d seen blooms but no fruit, so I wondered if they needed pollination. She described how she successfully pollinated hers the year before. I thought about enlisting the help of my science-minded daughter for that task.“For now, I have more than enough to share,” Charity said, “so I’ll send some home with you and you can make zucchini bread with your son.”What a fantastic offer: I’d be bringing home zucchini for my little boy.After the brownies, we got involved in discussions about blogging and art. We forgot all about the zucchini. I left without it.Fortunately we saw each other a couple of days later, and fortunately Charity kindly remembered the zucchini.What’s more, the very next day I discovered our first zucchini of the season, ripe and ready for picking. Right there in our garden!Suddenly, we were awash in zucchini (cucumber, too, but that’s another post)!So I set my son to work making the zucchini bread. He said he wants to be a great cook, so we decided he should learn to make the things he likes, to share them with his friends.He followed this recipe, underlining where he was and checking off what he’d done:I pulled down some of the ingredients for him, but my son did it all himself…everything except pouring it into the pans.He even handled cleanup, which is important for a beginning cook to learn.And the breads turned out great.He was only interested in learning to make zucchini bread, not the brownies.But I was interested in making Charity’s brownies.The batter looked kind of weird and wormy at this point, with the shredded zucchini mixed into the batter. My picky-eater daughter refused to touch it.For some reason it looked better when spread into the pan.I snapped a picture after it was baked. It’s no thing of beauty, but boy was it moist, rich and fudge-like.We’ll be making these recipes again, not only because we’re about to be inundated with zucchini, but also because they were delicious.Charity’s Zucchini BrowniesFrom Simply in Season

• 1 cup flour
• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup baking cocoa
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

Combine in a large bowl.2-3 cups zucchini (shredded)Stir in.

• 1 egg
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup plain yogurt
• ½ cup oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine in separate bowl and beat with fork. Stir into zucchini mixture. Spread evenly into greased 9×13 inch pan.

• ½-1 cup semisweet or mint chocolate chips (Ann’s note: I used semisweet and mixed them in instead of spreading on top)
• ½ cup nuts (chopped; optional)

Sprinkle on top of batter. Bake in preheated oven at 350F until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes.NOTE: I (Charity) used yellow squash instead of zucchini. I stirred in a whole bag (12 oz) of chocolate chips rather than pouring on top. Also, I had to bake for close to 45 minutes.My Son’s Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread

• 3 c. flour
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 2 c. grated zucchini, unpared
• 3/4 c. oil
• 3 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts (we left out the nuts)
• 6 oz. chocolate chips

Mix all dry ingredients together; then mix eggs, oil, vanilla and zucchini in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients to wet mixture and mix well. Add nuts and chocolate chips.Grease pans. This batter can be poured into 2 loaf pans or 4 to 5 mini loaf pans, or into muffin pans (about 24). Bake at 350 degrees. Large loaves take about 50 to 60 minutes; mini-loaves about 30 minutes; and muffins about 15 to 20 minutes.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Zucchini Recipes appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to confess that you just ate the last Girl Scout thin mint cookie in the house, go for it.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts. ALERT: Something weird is happening with Mr. Linky. LEAVE LINK IN COMMENTSPlease note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

(Please forgive double-posting. I hand-crafted the first set of participants and then was able to open Mr. Linky to get that list. It’s a confusing day, technologically speaking.)

1. Cook with Sara: Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Pie
2. Under the Big Oak Tree: Free Sippy Cup
3. Under the Big Oak Tree: Easy Fruit Dip
4. Feels Like Home: Chicken and Cheese Stuffed Zucchini
5. Gluten-Free Easily: Crab Claws Cocktail
6. Gluten-Free Easily: Blueberry Honey Pie
7. 21st Century Housewife: Delicious Chicken Marinade
8. 21st Century Housewife: Creamy Summer Spaghetti
9. Breastfeeding Moms Unite: Peach Coconut Pancakes
10. Wide-Open Spaces: Cupcake Love

1. Cupcake Love @ Wide Open Spaces2. Kristen (Southwest Crepes!)3. Alison (Fruit Dip and GIVEAWAY) 4. Scallops in Cream sauce @ frugalcrunchychristy5. Breastfeeding Moms Unite! (Peach Coconut Pancakes) W/ VEGETARIAN LINKY6. Breastfeeding Moms Unite! Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil Giveaway7. April@ The 21st Century Housewife’s Creamy Summer Spaghetti8. Penniless Parenting- Delicious Food Scraps9. See How They Grow10. ~ Cornbread Muffins~11. Aubree Cherie @ Living Free (Sweet and Spicy Cherry Salsa)12. Kohlrabi with Peas and Potato (The Local Cook)13. Family Camping Handbook w/Real Food (Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship)14. Little Bit of This and That (Tina’s torte with Door County Cherries)15. Shirley @ gfe (Blueberry Honey Pie w/ Honey Whipped Cream & Raspberries16. Suzie Lind17. Suzie Lind – Food Inc Review18. Easy To Be Gluten Free – Antipasto Salad19. Cooking Light Strawberry Muffins20. Mediterrean Pasta With a Trio21. Trish Southard (Marilyn’s Barbecued Brisket)22. eggplant and four- cheese cannelloni @ tweetysnest

Food on Fridays with Ann

One of the vendors at the farmer’s market had one lone bag of rhubarb left on his table. I asked if he’d take a dollar less for that bag so he could be finished for the day, and he agreed.

So I went home with a bag of rhubarb.

What will I do with rhubarb? I wondered.

Never fear, I decided. I’d just poke around my freezer for some kind of fruit to mix with it, and poke around the Internet for a recommended recipe.

I knew that rhubarb was often paired with strawberries, but after poking around, I discovered that the girls used up the last of our frozen strawberries making smoothies. I still had frozen blueberries, however, and I figured that could be good.

Poking around the Internet, I turned up this super-easy and delicious recipe for Blueberry-Rhubarb Crisp, which I’ll include below:

Blueberry-Rhubarb Crisp6 cups diced rhubarb1 cup blueberries1 cup sugarTopping:1 cup rolled oats1 cup brown sugar½ cup flour½ teaspoon cinnamon½ cup melted butter or margarinePreheat oven to 350° F. Coat a baking dish with cooking spray. Combine rhubarb, blueberries, and sugar and pour into baking dish. In a separate bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon and mix well. Pour in melted butter and stir until moistened. Sprinkle topping over rhubarb and blueberries. Bake at 350° F. for 25-30 minutes or until rhubarb is bubbly and tender and topping is golden brown. Serve hot with ice cream of whipped topping. Easy!Enjoy some snapshots:

The crisp assembled, ready to bake.

Still bubbling, straight from the oven.

I accidentally flipped it upside down so that the topping is underneath.

Rhubarb and blueberries worked well together. And the oatmeal-brown sugar topping could make shredded tennis balls taste divine. I highly recommend this.

In fact, if I had more rhubarb, I’d mix up another batch right this minute.

Or maybe I’ll just look in the garage for some tennis balls…

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Blueberry-Rhubarb Crisp appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to record your daughter singing, “I like apples and bananas,” that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with AnnAt the farmer’s market last Saturday, I bought “living lettuce.”Until that moment, I never gave much thought to the fact that cut lettuce or any vegetable that’s picked is dying. But I guess once it’s cut off from its source of nutrients, it’s the beginning of the end, which is why we should try to eat fresh-picked fruits and vegetables to enjoy peak flavor and nutrition.You can’t get much more fresh-picked than plucking a leaf from a head of living lettuce and immediately eating it.How does it work?The fellow selling this lettuce grows it hydroponically, allowing him to sell it long after conventionally grown lettuce is out of season. The roots are still attached and he says this lettuce is living until the moment I use it.In fact, he says if the roots stay moist, this head of lettuce will stay perfectly fresh—and alive—for four weeks. And one source online claimed there’s no use for pesticides or herbicides on lettuce grown hydroponically. Intrigued? This video explained how to select, store, clean and use living lettuce (her example is butter lettuce—pictured above is green leaf).Here’s how one guy grew it on a really small scale.Here’s a more involved set-up a guy created:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhAferKRXh4]Here’s how to grow it on a really, really large scale:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHBhyqowSEc]

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: It's Alive! appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to promote your local CSA, that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

I met with an organic farmer and his sister. We chatted about a wide range of topics, including his CSA deliveries. I asked the farmer what would come in my box this week if I started ordering, and he listed, among other things, greens. I can’t remember if it was kale or collard greens, but I stopped him and said, “Greens? I’m just not used to eating greens.”

“What? You have got to get greens in your diet. Please, please start eating greens! There are things in greens you can’t find in anything else–things that our bodies need that help us process other food, even junkier food, so if you eat your greens, you can get by with eating Twinkies.”

I got a little defensive. “Well, we sure don’t eat Twinkies.”

“Regardless,” he urged me, “you’ve got to eat greens. Besides, they’re delicious!”

His impassioned plea inspired me to buy kale the next day:

Being a Northerner, I don’t regularly prepare greens, so I had to look online for ideas.

I found a discussion thread about cooking kale leaves and followed the instructions from the first post:

Take fresh kale and chop it up. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle black pepper into the hot oil, then add garlic (preferably fresh chopped). Let it brown but not burn. Toss your dark green yummies into the hot oil until they’re slightly soft (but not disintegrated) Add salt, pine nuts & Parmesan cheese while cooking but only until very slightly melted/browned.

Love it, even without the Parmesan cheese.

And it may just be psychological, but I think I do feel a little healthier.

So I join the organic farmer in his plea: Please eat greens!

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Please Eat Greens appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to take a photo of black raspberries (I hear they’re in season around these parts), that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with AnnWe need to “defrost” the deep freeze (read: melt away the massive hunks of snowy-looking ice attached to the interior walls).In order to defrost the deep freeze, we need to clear it out.In order to clear it out, we need to eat the food that’s in it.So we’re digging around trying to get creative with the things I’ve stashed in there over time.This morning I found a roll of sugar cookie dough (so much for cooking from scratch) and decided to make something that I’d seen before. I don’t know the official name of this treat, so I’m calling them “Sugar Cookie Cups.”This is how they turned out:This is how I made them:

1. Plop a blob of sugar cookie dough (or cut a thick “slice” into fourths or halves?) into mini muffin tins.
2. Bake for about 10 minutes. Maybe 12. I can’t remember.
3. When they are kind of brown around the edges, pull them out. Try not to squish the edges of the cookies with the oven mitt like I did.
4. Stuff something chocolate-y into the center when they’re still hot (could be mini Reese’s cups or kisses leftover from Easter). I shoved into the dough pieces of Hershey’s bar broken in half.
5. Watch the chocolate pieces get gooey.
6. Dig the Sugar Cookie Cups out of the muffin tins.
7. Pour a glass of milk to wash them down, because these babies are rich.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Sugar Cookie Cups appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to list your three favorite cookbooks, that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with AnnI had almost everything on hand to make Curried Chickpea Soup, a recipe that Breastfeeding Moms Unite included in last week’s carnival.So I tried making it, with modifications. I’ve annotated the recipe below.The biggest change was that I had to make a much smaller amount, but was too lazy to do any math. I also kept skipping over ingredients and then going back and adding things later. It got better and better. By the time I was done, this soup tasted so different from anything I’ve ever eaten and was so delicious, I wanted to cry. I ate three servings right away. Couldn’t stop myself.Curried Chick Pea Soup

• 8 cups vegetable broth (I used one can)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (probably less, but I rarely measure olive oil)
• 1 yellow onion, finely diced (I used a tiny bit of onion—too much and I have digestive issues)
• 2 tsp salt (much less)
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 garlic cloves (Whoa! That’s a lot of garlic. I used one clove in the mincer)
• 3 Tbsp minced ginger (Forgot the ginger—added a little bit upon reheating, but it was delicious without)
• 2 jalapeño peppers, seeded (Didn’t have these and can’t stand the heat; used part of a green bell pepper)
• 1 red pepper (I had part of one)
• 6 ripe tomatoes (I had one big one)
• 1 tsp cumin seed (I had some ground cumin)
• 1 tsp coriander seed (Didn’t have this)
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garam masala (I didn’t have this, either)
• 1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1/8 tsp turmeric (I happened to have some of this)
• 3 cups canned/cooked chickpeas (I only used one can, which is why I had to monkey with the amounts of everything else)
• 1/4 cup prepared mango chutney (just a bit of Major Grey Chutney and once blended added sooo much to the flavor, wow)
• 1/2 can coconut milk (used almost this much, even though I made such a small amount of soup overall—gooooooood)
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, minced (Obviously just a sprig for the smaller amoung, but yum!)

Directions:Heat the oil in a soup pot and add onion, 1 tsp salt and bay leaves. Sauté until onions are soft and golden. Meanwhile., places the garlic, ginger, peppers, and tomatoes in a food processor and pulse until the vegetables form a rough purée. Set aside. Note: What makes this soup so good is the purée!Next, grind the cumin and coriander seeds. Add these and all remaining spices to the sautéed onions and continue cooking and stirring for 5 minutes. Add the vegetable purée and another tsp of salt and simmer until blobs of oil pool on the surface. Add the chick peas and vegetable broth and bring to a simmer. Cook several minutes, then add the chutney and coconut milk. Using a potato masher, gently mash the chick peas against the bottom of the pot to break them up slightly and thicken the soup. If this is something you don’t care about, don’t do it, as mashing the chick peas will cause their skins to come off, which many folks, including me and my kids don’t care for on their own. Simmer and season to taste with salt and cracked pepper. Add chopped cilantro just before serving.Serve with warm whole wheat chapati or pita bread and a salad.(Or just eat three bowls in a row without worrying about sides, because this is now what you crave more than chocolate.)

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Taste-Testing Chickpea Soup appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—it doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to describe the stinkiest cheese you’ve ever eaten, that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

These little eggs are dying to change their reputation to “heart healthy.”How do I break it to them? That the trouble is right there in those heart-shaped yolks?Well, I know they aren’t part of a low-cholesterol, heart-healthy diet.And my vegan friends may be frustrated with me.But I must admit…I {heart} eggs.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Egg Hearts appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—it doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to list what’s in your crisper drawer at the moment, that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

My in-laws just left after staying with us for several days. My mother-in-law is a clever cook, making the most of every little tidbit, nourishing people creatively.One night I made Mexican food, per Christy’s suggestion. My mother-in-law advised me to leave behind a bit of the sauce from browning and preparing the spiced ground beef. I transferred the beef into a bowl, leaving a dribble of the tasty red sauce in the skillet. She pulled out some leftover brown rice and dumped it right into the sauce, added a few crumbles of the beef, chopped up a tomato to toss in along with a bit of red and green pepper, onion, and some corn. She heated it all up, cooking the vegetables a little (it didn’t take long, they were chopped so small), and in seconds it was ready to serve. “When I’m making Spanish rice at home,” she explained, “I just use a little of this and that. Whatever I have in the fridge. I don’t want anything to go to waste.”I love that. I used to host “Make-Do Mondays” in an effort to encourage a make-do mindset. As a missionary, my mother-in-law often has to make-do, and it seems I learn some new solution or idea every time we’re together. In this case, we made the most of the odds and ends in the vegetable drawer to create a delicious side dish—such an great way to make the most of our resources! She taught me a simple, new way to add interest to our Mexican meals, and I’m delighted to share her easy, frugal, make-do Spanish rice “recipe” with you today.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Easy, Frugal, Make-Do Spanish Rice appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—it doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to share a list of favorite salad dressings, that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

My in-laws are here for ten days, but for three days we also hosted my sister-in-law and her family. When they were all here, I housed and fed six extra people. With our family of six, that makes twelve.

Then we invited some family friends over for an impromptu dinner party one night, which added four more for the evening. Total guests: sixteen.

I decided not to experiment with new recipes; I chose some tried and true meals that were easy to prepare.

You’ve seen some of them here before:

Breakfast Sausage Casserole (for a birthday brunch for my nephew): served with fruit salad, juice, coffee, tea and doughnuts that my sister-in-law bought at Dunkin’ Donuts for an all-American experience (they’re from France).

Hoosier Comfort Chicken (for the big dinner with 16 guests): served over egg noodles alongside a salad that my friend brought. We baked French baguettes, and for the vegetable I meant to cook peas—I thought I had some in the freezer—but I didn’t have any on hand. So we cooked corn. The meal wasn’t all that colorful, but it was tasty and well received.

Chili (for dinner the next day with just twelve people): I’ve not written about chili before, but here’s my recipe, if you can call it that:

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 3 or 4 cans of chili beans (one hot; the rest mild)
• 3 or 4 cans of chili-ready tomatoes

Brown and drain ground beef in a big chili-sized pot (if you’re going to cook it on the stove) or skillet (if you’re going to transfer to crock pot). Open all the cans. Dump them in. Warm it all up and eat when ready.

I served the chili with coleslaw (used the pre-shredded coleslaw mix and added mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and celery seed) and homemade cornbread using this recipe (I think I got it from someone participating in Food on Fridays, but I can’t locate the source):

Corn Muffins/Cornbread (adapted from Martha Stewart)

• 1/2 C butter (substitute applesauce for 1/2 butter or even pumpkin)
• 1 1/2 C milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 C yellow cornmeal
• 1 C flour
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1 T powder
• 1 t salt

Melt butter. Combine milk, butter and eggs. Sift the dry ingredients. Add to moist. Don’t overmix. Pour into 9×9″ pan or muffin tin. Bake in preheated 400° oven until done (about 15 minutes for muffins). Use the toothpick method.

The sister-in-law from France left, so it’s just our family with two extra laid back in-laws.

And we’re eating up the leftovers.

But tomorrow, I’m thinking I’ll make another crock pot dish:

Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes

How do you cook for a crowd?

Any tips? I’m all ears, because I’m hosting another gathering on Sunday!

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Menu for Guests appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—it doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to make up a recipe for dog food (I did that when I was about six years old), that’ll do just fine. When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

To ensure that I get a Mother’s Day brunch, I decided to go ahead and make a Mother’s Day brunch.

The main dish: Breakfast Sausage Casserole.

Yes, that’s right. Sausage. I’m writing about sausage. Even though L.L. Barkat warned me, I’m all about about sausage today. (I’ll keep an eye on my stats to monitor the sausage effect, L.L.)

Ann’s Mother’s Day Breakfast Sausage Casserole.

This recipe even comes with a complimentary (and complementary) sausage photo:

The recipe is easy, but I didn’t trust my kids to pull it off. Instead, I put it together myself and froze it. Surely they can take it out in time to thaw and bake it?

Here’s the recipe:

Breakfast Casserole

• 1 lb sausage, fried & drained (extra mild or turkey sausage)
• 8 eggs, beaten
• 2 C milk
• 3-4 pieces of bread, torn to bits
• 2 1/2 C grated cheddar cheese
• 1 t salt
• 1 t dry mustard

Mix all ingredients and pour into greased 9×13 glass baking dish. Refrigerate overnight (or not, if in a hurry), so it will congeal and become more firm. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Let set a few minutes before serving. Can be made ahead, baked, frozen and reheated.It’s an easy recipe. I even doubled it to share one with a friend.Please note that the cheese is supposed to be mixed together with the other ingredients. I forgot the cheese (who moved my cheese?), so I added it after everything else was in the pan and stirred it in as best I could. It’s a casserole; it’ll blend just fine, right?The kids might have done better after all.Along with the casserole, I’m thinking about coffee cake. Over the years, I’ve collected several recipes, including one for a blueberry coffee cake that I posted last August. I’m not making that ahead of time—hopefully it’ll be easy for the kids to prepare.They can oversee the casserole, mix up the coffee cake, cut up some fruit, make a pot of tea, and we’ll be good to go.For those of you who will be celebrating a mom in your life, I recommend the easy sausage casserole. I’m telling you, nothing says I love you like sausage … unless, of course, your mom’s a vegetarian.As an alternative to coffee cake, I could make a big stack of crepes Saturday evening that can be reheated Sunday morning. Yes, I like crepes. Everyone likes crepes.Mother’s Day is sounding better and better.Nutella, anyone?

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Mother's Day Make-Ahead Breakfast Sausage Casserole appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—it doesn’t have to be a recipe.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

Late Sunday night I returned home from Grand Rapids, where I attended the biennial Festival of Faith & Writing held at Calvin College. The past few days, I’ve tried to share some of my encounters and interactions with you. The following is a scene from last Saturday (root beer falls loosely into the category of food, doesn’t it?).

My editor and I arranged to meet for lunch on Saturday along with another David C. Cook colleague to discuss potential projects.

Ideally, I’d handle myself in a professional and poised manner. I dressed for it, wearing black slacks, a suit jacket and black pumps.

We couldn’t find a place on campus to eat, so we jumped in my car and drove to the first quick restaurant we spotted: Culver’s.

I placed my order and filled my large cup with root beer. I glanced at the lids and straws, but my hands were full. I decided that trying to secure the lid would be too awkward. I carried the open cup carefully to a small table that was the only one available at the time.

We sipped our drinks for a couple of minutes, chatting, waiting for our food to arrive. Finally I offered to launch into my ideas. I slipped some papers from a Kinko’s bag to hand to both of them as I pitched the first concept.

At that moment, our trays of food arrived. I set my papers down and reached for the tray.

As I brought it toward me, the tray blocked my view of the cup, and—thunk!

The entire cup of root beer tipped over, cold drink pouring onto my lap and down my pant leg. I was saturated. Sopping. The liquid soaked my pants and continued to flow all the way down to my shoe—into my shoe.

“Save the papers!” I exclaimed. My editor whipped up the stack of papers while the other lady rushed over to grab a wad of napkins. I blotted my pants a little, but it was too far along to make much of a difference. I resigned myself to sit in root beer pants.

Someone watched the spill from a big table in the corner. She came over. “I’m just one person at a big table, and you’re three at this small one. Why don’t we trade? You [she glanced at me compassionately] look like you could use the space.”

I thanked her with a sheepish grin. We gathered our trays and bags to walk the few steps to the bigger table.

Squish-squish-squish.

The root beer had filled my right shoe.

The post Food on Fridays: Festival Spillage appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Night & Day Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup baking cocoa
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white chocolate chips
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugars and vanilla until fluffy; blend in cocoa, eggs and baking soda. Add flour; mix well. Fold in chips; shape dough into 1-1/2 inch balls. Place 3-inches apart on greased baking sheets; bake at 325 degrees for 14 to 16 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; transfer to wire cooling racks.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

[post simplified January 2017]

The post Food on Fridays: Night & Day Cookies appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—it doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to post photos of your picnic basket, that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you can access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

I like flexible, forgiving recipes that are difficult to mess up yet allow for creativity.Quiches fit that description.I threw one together the other day. We’ll call it:Tomato-Bacon Florentine Quiche.I had a ready-made Pillsbury crust, so that part was easy. Cooked about half a bag of frozen spinach, drained it, and spread it on the bottom. Diced half a tomato and two leftover pieces of cooked bacon. Tossed those on the spinach.Pulled out a bag of Kroger Italian-style cheeses, a blend of Mozzarella, provolone, Romano, Parmesan, Fontina and Asiago. Spread about a cup, maybe a cup-and-a-half on top of that.Then, to make sure I had the liquids fairly balanced, I did a quick search and turned up this “Basic Quiche Recipe” and noted the remaining necessary ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 – 1/2 cups crème fraîche, heavy cream, half and half, or whole milk (I had fat-free half & half)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• dash of nutmeg

The recipe suggested cooking the crust at 400º for 12 minutes and then cooling before adding the filling. But I didn’t do that. The crust, which turned soft and moist instead of firm and crisp, tasted fine to me…but I’ll bet precooking improves the texture.Anyway, I followed the rest of the instructions:

• Using a whisk, beat together the eggs, creme fraiche (or heavy cream, half and half, or whole milk), and seasonings. Whisk just until mixed.
• Pour the egg mixture on top of the quiche crust and place in 375°F oven for 40 minutes, or just until the eggs are set (the quiche will continue to cook some after you remove it from the oven, so be sure not to over cook it). The quiche will puff up and turn a nice golden brown on top.
• Cool for 10 minutes, then serve.

Here’s how mine looked after I poured the egg-milk mixture on top and stuck it in the oven.Here’s how it turned out:And here’s the entire Basic Quiche Recipe that I referenced:

• 1 pie crust
• 2 cups filling
• 4 eggs
• 1 – 1/2 cups crème fraîche, heavy cream, half and half, or whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• dash of nutmeg

Fit the crust to a tart or pie pan, then prick the bottom all over with a fork. Place the pan in the freezer for 20 minutes or longer, then bake in a 400°F oven for 12 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients.Prepare the filling ingredients. Vegetables should be blanched to tenderize them and meat or seafood should be cooked. Cheese should be shredded or diced.Layer the ingredients in the cooled quiche crust, starting with the meat or vegetables, then adding the cheese.Using a whisk, beat together the eggs, creme fraiche (or heavy cream, half and half, or whole milk), and seasonings. Whisk just until mixed.Pour the egg mixture on top of the quiche crust and place in 375°F oven for 40 minutes, or just until the eggs are set (the quiche will continue to cook some after you remove it from the oven, so be sure not to over cook it). The quiche will puff up and turn a nice golden brown on top.Cool for 10 minutes, then serve.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s book.

The post Food on Fridays: Quiche appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—it doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to post photos of your knife sharpener, that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you can access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays with Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

The other day, we ran out of store-bought bread. Instead of running out for a plastic-wrapped loaf from Kroger, I decided to make some whole wheat bread at home. I tried one of the first recipes that came up with the search terms “whole wheat bread recipe moist soft”: Whole Wheat Honey Bread We tried it and loved it. It really is moist and soft, just like I hoped for when I typed in those search terms. We ate the whole loaf in record time.Next day, I made another loaf that turned out as fabulous as the first. Set a new consumption speed record with that loaf.The day after that, I made a third loaf that was just as good as the first two, quickly snapping a photo before it, too, was gobbled up.I’ve never had great luck with bread. Until now.This is officially our bread.I altered the recipe ever-so-slightly, so click on the hyperlink to see the original. My tweaks are indicated below.Everyday Whole Wheat Honey Bread

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Whole Wheat Honey Bread appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—it doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to post photos of your lettuce seed packets, that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

A few weeks ago I wrote about Lenten Lentils for Food on Fridays. My friend Linda and I were talking about the honey-baked lentils recipe I posted that day from the More-with-Less cookbook. I made a batch recently and devoured them. But she couldn’t say enough about the More-with-Less Lentil-Barley Stew recipe. Her enthusiastic recommendation convinced me to try it.As I was cooking the lentils with the sauteed celery and onion, it wasn’t looking super appetizing.But I still had things to add, like the barley, tomatoes and spices (picture doesn’t include everything).It started looking better as the barley began to cook.I let it simmer for quite some time. As you can see from the recipe, it cooks for 45-60 minutes. I actually ran some errands. When I came back home to check on the lentils…I dipped into a pot of thick, nourishing stew.When it was in the soup-stage, I was not overly impressed.In the stew-stage, however, I’m lovin’ it. Unfortunately, my kids aren’t lovin’ it. They don’t share our love of lentils at all.One of my daughters still gags on mashed potatoes and refuses to choke down more than one single pea. On the rare occasions we insist she ingest one single pea or one spoonful of mashed potatoes, she washes it down (after a weepy 20-minute delay) with an eight-ounce glass of milk. I won’t tell you how old she is; suffice it to say she’s definitely old enough to eat one pea or tablespoonful of mashed potatoes without a fuss. Anyway, after many years of these struggles, I didn’t even bother asking her to swallow a lentil. While the Belgian Wonder and I each enjoyed a generous serving of Lentil-Barley Stew (and packed some for tomorrow’s lunches), the kids defaulted to Leila’s Mac-n-Cheese. Yes, I caved. But at least it was effortless to throw together their alternative, thanks to Leila’s mac-n-cheese virtual mentoring.Enjoy the lentils.And if you don’t enjoy the lentils, enjoy the mac-n-cheese.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Lentil-Barley Stew appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—it doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to post photos of your food processor blades, that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with AnnFor years I’ve made macaroni and cheese from scratch by whipping up a white sauce (flour-based roux & milk), adding cheese, and mixing it into the cooked macaroni. Now that I’ve made it four hundred twenty-seven times, it’s easy to throw together. But it dirties a lot of pans.So when I read through Leila’s fast, easy, creamy, cheesy macaroni and cheese instructions, I couldn’t wait to try it.People, I will never go back.I’ve been transformed; or, my macaroni and cheese has been transformed, and that’s almost the same thing.So get out your cornstarch, pick up a bag of sharp cheddar cheese next time you’re at the store, and have fun with Leila’s charming, freeing, beautifully documented step-by-step tutorial.I’m here to tell you…Dinner will never be the same.

Photo of Leila’s Fast, Easy, Creamy, Cheesy Macaroni and Cheese from “Our Mothers, Our Daughters.”

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Leila's Fast, Easy, Creamy, Cheesy Macaroni and Cheese appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—your link could be your favorite lentil soup recipe, but it doesn’t have to be a recipe. If it’s about shopping at Aldi’s or you want to share your plans for Lent, go ahead and link up!When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

Valentine’s Day tradition at the Kroeker house is to have a family feast.We make a big meal, set the dining room table with a red or pink tablecloth and good china, light candles, turn on some fun music, and pass around homemade Valentine’s cards.After the meal, we take turns sharing at least one thing we enjoy, love or admire about each person in the family.Our hope is to create a tradition that the kids look back on with fondness and look forward to with joy, knowing that they are loved and accepted no matter what…that there will always be a Valentine in their mailbox.The main dish for our feast is a crock pot recipe for chicken. The original recipe is HERE, but we modified it and took the liberty of coining a much more satisfying name:Hoosier Comfort Chicken (crock pot recipe)

• 8 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (we slice them again into smaller pieces)
• 8 strips bacon (one slice for each piece of chicken, so you’ll need more if you cut the breasts into smaller pieces)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup (or I’ve substituted a from-scratch version made with flour and oil, adding chicken broth and some cream)
• 1 jar dried beef (the original calls for it, but we leave it out, sometimes substituting additional bits of bacon instead)

Preparation:Wrap a strip of bacon around each piece of chicken breast. Line bottom of crock pot with cut up chipped beef (you can substitute bits of bacon if you don’t use the beef…or skip altogether). Place the chicken breast halves or pieces on the chipped beef. Combine sour cream and soup; pour over the chicken. Bake in crock pot on low 6-8 hours or until chicken is cooked. (You can bake this in a baking dish in the oven; the cooking time is about 2 hours at 300º and bacon may get more crispy.) Serve on cooked egg noodles.Happy Valentine’s Day!

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Valentine's Day Feast appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—your link could be a recipe like your favorite Colts blue Superbowl party dip, but it does not have to be a recipe. If it’s about shopping at Trader Joe’s or your review of “Julie & Julia,” go ahead and link up! Think of it as a virtual pitch-in where you can sample what everyone brings and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

Today I want to introduce you to my friend L.L. Barkat. We met at the 2008 Festival of Faith & Writing, where we sat in the spring sunshine munching our pre-ordered box lunches and talked about writing, publishing, editors and agents. Little did I know that a year or so later, she would contact me in her role as Managing Editor at HighCallingBlogs (HCB) to ask me to serve as a volunteer contributor and later as a Content Editor. It’s been a privilege and pleasure following her work online, reading her published works, and now working with her through HCB.Ann: L.L., first off, what’s your all-time favorite recipe? Will you share it with Food on Fridays readers?LL Barkat: I have so many favorites! Here’s a Greek recipe I love. If you prefer to make it with beef, that can work too. But I’m a veggie girl, so…Greek Roasted Vegetables and ChickpeasAdd all to a large rectangular casserole dish and cover with aluminum foil. Roast at 400 degrees for about 2 hours or until very tender. Remove foil, lower heat to 350 and roast for another 15 minutes or until nicely browned…• assorted vegetables chopped chunky, such as turnip, carrot, potato, celery, red onion• 1 can or 1 1/2 cups dry and pre-cooked chickpeas (or 1 lb. beef if you prefer, sautéed first until brown)• 1 TB balsamic vinegar• 1 TB worcestershire sauce• 4 large garlic, minced• 1/2 jar Muir Glen Sauce• 1 TB Muir Glen tomato paste• 1 tsp. cinnamon• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg• 1/2 tsp. allspice• 1/2 tsp. ground clove• 1/4 cup red wine• a few pours olive oil• 2 cups water (add more as needed throughout, for desired sauce consistency)Finish…Add salt and pepper to taste and a few pours of olive oil. Mix in a handful or two of raisins.Serve over any kind of flat noodle, with salad or other green vegetable. The rich spices are an excellent complement to the mild flavor of chickpeas.Ann: Mmmm….I’ll bet the kitchen smells great while it’s roasting. Well, now that we’re off to a delicious start, let’s talk a little about HCB and your role as Managing Editor. Your Post “5 Things a Blog Network Can Do for You”  is a great overview of HCB. How would you describe your Managing Editor role?LL Barkat: It is my absolute dream job. I get to be social, strategize, write, host Twitter parties, go to conferences, work with Editors. Wow! I love it.The cool thing is that it happened because I started by volunteering, and then HCB entered a time of expansion and new funding (which, btw, should still be a trend going into next year, so HCB is a good place to watch for opportunities).Ann: How you do all that you do is beyond me—Managing Editor at HCB, keeping up three blogs, raising and educating two beautiful daughters, learning all about social networking trends, writing books and generating poetry—even hosting poetry parties! You lead Random Acts of Poetry at HCB and host poetry jam sessions through @tspoetry. How do you do it all?LL Barkat: Synergy. Everything I do works together. The Twitter parties, for instance, are also something I use to feed Random Acts of Poetry at HCB. And some of my best poems in InsideOut came from material I wrote during the parties. At my Green Inventions blog I process thoughts about education and technology. At Love Notes to Yahweh I think out loud about chapters I’m writing or material that I need to reflect on for talks.After blogging for more than 3 years, I found I had to approach on-line life this way or I’d burn out.Ann: Synergy. I like that. Now, I have to be honest with you, L.L. @tspoetry still  intimidates me a little. I don’t completely understand how it works. Can you explain it to us? And did your Lazy Blogger’s Tuna Casserole post flow from a @tspoetry party?LL Barkat: Oh, the Twitter parties are so much fun. @tspoetry announces the time (which is usually 9:30-10:30 pm EST every other Tuesday night), then we all get on Twitter and write poetry together. @tspoetry gives prompts, which we respond to. But we also lift and turn each other’s words. It’s challenging, hilarious, sometimes poignant. Check out http://tweetspeakpoetry.com/blog for more info on how to come to a party.Casseroles on Twitter! That post you’re referring to was just me keeping myself company on New Year’s Eve. I was cooking and tweeting and suddenly… The Lazy Blogger’s Tuna Casserole.Ann: I think the foodies here at Food on Fridays might be particularly interested in the food posts at Green Inventions, like your vegetarian dishes and The 30-Day Recipes. Any advice on what they should explore?LL Barkat: I’d probably start in the sidebar, at the recipe list. Or… I don’t know. Maybe begin with your favorite bean? Ann: You’re a woman of great spiritual depth and intellectual curiosity. You explore and express ideas, prayer, creativity and faith through words and art (and food!). One avenue is through blogging at Seedlings in Stone and, as you already mentioned, Love Notes to Yahweh and Green Inventions Central. How do each of these blogs capture/reflect some aspect of who you are?LL Barkat: Sometimes people ask me why I have three separate blogs (it’s not very effective for getting the most Google juice ). But the fun is I can be different things to different audiences; yet it’s the same old me. Writing about all the stuff I love: art, food, spiritual practice, writing, technology, education.Ann: Your book Stone Crossings was recently released when we met at that Festival. You’ve also recently released a book of poetry with International Arts Movement, Inside Out. In keeping with the food theme, would you share “Page 5,” the poem on p. 100-101? I’ll leave my readers with your words.LL Barkat: How delightful. Sure, here it is…Page 5The menusays strawberryshortcakewith whipped creambut here’s the deal:I remember what’s real,my mother’s child-smallhands turning floursugar, shorteningthe “size of a big egg”so the old recipeinstructed. I remembersun-kissed fields offurrows, hills mygrandmother’s roughpatched yet paintedhands turned and raisedto grow strawberries blushedand bleeding real juice,not perfumed waterthat pretends ripenesscut and strewn over too-sweet cake. I remembercream, real, whipped.

“Greek Roasted Vegetables” photo © 2007 by LL Barkat. Used with permission.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Go Greek with L.L. Barkat appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Edible Flower! appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome; that is, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. Think of it as a virtual pitch-in where you can sample what everyone brings and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

For dinner the other day I made a gigantic omelet that I couldn’t finish. So I saved half of it in hopes that it would reheat nicely the next morning.It did.Also reheated with great results: a side dish of cubed potatoes, cubed sweet potatoes, and diced yellow and green peppers seasoned with rosemary.It was good with this:While we’re on the topic of food, consider donating to organizations supplying food and water to Haiti.We suggest:Samaritan’s Purse (donate directly to Haiti relief HERE)Please mention in the comments organizations you trust to use funds wisely and provide relief that makes an impact.

Mega Memory Month January 2010 is under way!

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Breakfast-for-Dinner for Breakfast Again appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—to illustrate, you can cite your favorite tea (or coffee, if you must) or link to a YouTube video of your son singing “I Like Apples and Bananas.”My point is that the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. Think of it as a virtual pitch-in where you can sample what everyone brings and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

For Christmas, my son bought me a Vincent Van Gogh crock from Goodwill. I decided to store my all-time favorite tea in it—PG Tips.

I drink several cups of PG Tips each morning, so the crock sits next to the electric tea kettle alongside a vintage blue-green teapot (a Christmas gift from my mom) and the coincidentally matching sugar & creamer set (a Christmas gift from one of my daughters).

My tea station is an effective set-up for this bleary-eyed mom who stumbles around in the kitchen each morning, attempting, slowly, to wake up.

All photos © 2009 Ann Kroeker. All rights reserved.

Mega Memory Month January 2010 is under way!

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Tea Station appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Merry Christmas!

If you happen to have a food-related post you’d like to include in today’s Food on Fridays, by all means, link it up.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants1. Never Fail Pie Crust, Awards and GiveawayFood on Fridays with AnnYou are absolutely welcome here and I’m glad to share this space with you on Christmas Day.What’s your Christmas breakfast like?In the morning we’re having cinnamon rolls from a can.We were going to have Trader Joe’s chocolate croissants like this:

But we made a mistake and bought “mini croissants” instead (with no chocolate).

Once we realized our mistake and shed a few tears, we agreed we would be fine with plain croissants—perhaps with a bit of Nutella spread on them while warm—and cinnamon rolls from a can.

While enjoying the Nutella-smeared croissants and rolls, we’ll light the Christ candle in our Advent wreath, read some Scripture, pray, and then exchange gifts … all while dealing with a sugar high first thing in the morning.

I hope we can keep our focus.

Small traditions help keep our focus.

The Christ candle (which was, by the way, the unity candle at our wedding) is placed in the center of the Advent wreath as a reminder.

It reminds me that’s right where He belongs in my life, as well … in the center.

Get ready … Mega Memory Month returns January 2010!

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Christmas Day appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can describe your Christmas menu. I actually would be interested to know what you have for breakfast and the main meal.Anyway, my point is that the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays with Ann

Next Friday is Christmas Day. If I think of it, I’ll toss up a Christmas greeting with a Mr. Linky for super-motivated foodies, but don’t hold me to it.When I was visiting some of last week’s Food on Fridays participants, I was particularly intrigued by the very first link.Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker linked to a recipe for Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce.I’ve never made gingerbread before. The kids have never tasted it.So I decided to give it a try.Yum!Some of the kids weren’t too keen on the lemon sauce, but they’re picky eaters. So we won’t count their votes.Most of us devoured our first serving and helped ourselves to a second.She described this gingerbread as a cake-y, warm, “Old World” version that she found in a 1936 Pennsylvania Dutch cookbook.  The lemon sauce recipe comes from the 1945 American Woman’s Cook Book.Click on THIS LINK for her recipe.Here is a brief pictorial of my first experience making gingerbread.First I was startled by the amount of molasses required. One whole cup used up half the bottle. It smells a little weird, too, so I was glad none of the kids wandered in at this point.

What is molasses, anyway? I wondered this, and in the spirit of lifelong learning, I looked it up. Unlike my industrious son who heaved open the giant Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, I simply clicked on Merriam-Webster online.

What is molasses? Click HERE for dictionary definition. Click HERE for Wikipedia explanation. Click HERE to read about the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919.

One of the kids came into the kitchen and asked what I was baking.

“Gingerbread,” I answered.

“Oh! Is it gingerbread cookies?”

“No, it’s gingerbread.”

“Can we make it into a gingerbread house?”

“No, it’s just gingerbread. It will be like cake.”

“Oh.”

I repeated that exchange almost verbatim three times with three different kids.

Never made lemon sauce before. I think it turned out right.

Most of my baking takes place at night when there’s no natural light, so these pictures never turn out all that great.

Nevertheless, here it is. A slice of gingerbread with lemon sauce.

I don’t really have a particular holiday treat that everyone waits all year for me to make. I thought this could be the thing. I loved it and would make it again and again.

I suspect that the kids, however, would prefer that I try making the dough for a gingerbread man, instead.

Anyone have a good gingerbread cookie recipe for me to try?

May you enjoy many delicious Christmas memories!

Get ready … Mega Memory Month returns January 2010!

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can simply photograph your shopping list weighted down with an apple and call it a day. Publish. Link up. Believe me, as you will see below, if your post depicts, discusses or debates food in any way, it’ll do just fine as an addition to Food on Fridays.In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

I love clementines.That is all.

Clementine photos by Ann Kroeker © 2009.

Get ready … Mega Memory Month returns January 2010!

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Clementine Celebration appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can simply tell us how many dozen cookies you agreed to donate to the neighborhood cookie exchange or reveal how many bags of flour you have in the pantry for Christmas baking projects.In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

Some of you may have caught on Twitter (@annkroeker) or Facebook the fondue recipe I used from this site:Extraordinary (and Simple) Chocolate FondueIngredients:16 ounces dark, sweet or semi-sweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet chocolate chips)1 1/2 cups light cream (I used half-and-half)1 tsp. Vanilla extractInstructions:1. Break chocolate squares into smaller pieces and drop them into the fondue pot. (Or just toss in the chocolate chips)2. Add cream (which will prevent the chocolate from going lumpy) and stir gently but constantly until the chocolate is melted and smooth.3. Add vanilla extract and stir.4. Use a fondue fork to spear the fruit, then dip it in the chocolate. Enjoy!We dipped pears, bananas, and apples, and a few sticky old marshmallows we found in the back of the cabinet.I had everything on hand.It was ready in minutes.We ate too much.But it was good.(p.s. It reheats well)Gather some friends and family for a battle-of-the-fondue-recipes night:Try Extraordinary (and Simple) Chocolate Fondue next to…

• Stretch Mark Mama’s Fudgy Chocolate Fondue!
• Do you have a favorite fondue? Leave yours in the comments and I’ll update this list with your recipe link when possible.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Favorite Fondue appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can simply tell us your favorite Thanksgiving dish or post and link to a picture of your pies.In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

Thanksgiving is over and our fridge is packed with leftovers.So I decided to share some leftovers here, as well, adapting an old Thanksgiving post from the archives:I learned a handy potato tip from a Belgian cook named Jacqueline.My mother-in-law asked Jacqueline how she prepared for big gatherings. What did she do in advance?Jacqueline lifted the cover of a clean white bucket to reveal a mound of peeled potatoes covered in water.“What’s this?” I asked my mother-in-law in English. The meal wasn’t until the next day, but the potatoes were already peeled.“The potatoes,” my mother-in-law replied.“I see that, but…” I hesitated, not wanting to seem like I was doubting her friend’s kitchen know-how, “I thought potatoes go brown if you don’t cook them right after peeling.”“I thought so, too,” my mother-in-law admitted, “but Jacqueline says that as long as they’re completely covered with water, they’re fine!”Tip #1Get Some Dirty Work Out of the Way: Submerge Peeled PotatoesInstead of peeling potatoes at the last minute while the turkey is being carved, I follow Jacqueline’s example and peel them as early as the day before, though this year I peeled them in the morning. Then I just cover them in water and top with a lid, all ready to go.Tip #2Don’t Mash the Potatoes–Blend!Instead of mashing by hand, smashing for several wrist-wrenching minutes, simply plug in the hand mixer and whirr away. So fast. So simple. Such smooth, lump-free potatoes.And if you really feel crazy and daring (maybe not on Thanksgiving, but some other time), you can also cook sweet potatoes or carrots and blend them together with the potatoes.Tip #3Ann’s All-Time Favorite Pumpkin PieMy mom made the pumpkin pies this year, but when it’s my turn, I have a favorite pumpkin pie recipe.I’ve experimented with several recipes. Most of them have been, well, “meh.”My all-time favorite?Stokely’s:

PUMPKIN PIE (STOKELY’S BACK-OF-CAN)1 can (16 oz) pumpkin1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk2 eggs, slightly beaten3/4 C brown sugar1 T flour1/2 t salt1/2 t ground cinnamon1/4 t ground ginger1/4 t ground nutmeg1/4 t ground cloves1 9-inch unbaked homemade pie crust.Preheat oven to 450. Blend all ingredients and pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake 20 mins.Reduce temperature to 350. Bake 35 minutes more or until knife inserted comes out clean. Cool completely on rack.

I cover the crust-edges with strips of aluminum foil formed into curves and balanced along the rim of the pie pan. They stay there almost the entire baking time. For the last 10-15 minutes I take off the foil and let the crust get a little brown. Otherwise it almost burns.p.s. For those who saw my Thanksgiving Preview, I chose not to use the white tablecloth. Instead, I opted for two very long coordinating cloths on our two long tables. They’re golden. I thought you should know, as I felt sort of hypocritical folding up the white one and tucking it back into the storage cabinet. My mom assures me that we will, however, have pea salad; and for that, I’m truly grateful.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: 3 Thanksgiving Tips appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can simply tell us if you’re hosting Thanksgiving—link to your post quickly and then by all means, return to your shopping and cleaning!In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

I insist that to participate in Food on Fridays, you can link to posts that aren’t obviously about food; your content can be subtle. In the introductory paragraph (see above), it says that “any post remotely related to food is welcome.”So this is a chance for me to demonstrate how to jump in with barely applicable content. The kids and I went to the orchard recently to pick apples.We hunted for a “Potimarron” in a bin of squash, but only saw these:There were pumpkins, of course—lots of them. When the kids spotted them, one of them exclaimed, “The frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!”You see, many mornings, I read a poem aloud to the kids.A week or so ago, the poem I selected was “When the Frost is on the Punkin” by Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley.As you know, I’m trying to respect copyrights. To do so, I have to be cautious about posting poems and songs. Therefore, instead of typing out the poem in this post, I encourage you to click the title above or here to read the poem. It’s charming.And if you have a few minutes, I found a YouTube video of a cigar-smoking country gentleman named Ken Rislev reciting the poem by heart. Before Mr. Rislev begins, he explains that he memorized the poem to please his father. If you have 4 minutes 45 seconds, you can listen to the whole thing, including his personal story that provides context for the recitation. But if you only have time to hear the poem, move the counter forward to 1:45 and enjoy Mr. Rislev’s presentation of “The Frost is on the Punkin,” in a voice perfectly suited to deliver Riley’s humble, rustic dialect.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEY9iYQ-Ves]Bonus: Recipes from Ann that use Punkin

• Creamy Harvest Soup
• Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Soup
• Pumpkin Pie
• Chocolate-Chip Pumpkin Bread

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: When the Frost is on the Punkin appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

The post Food on Fridays: Food Stylist appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can simply tell us if you’re a late-night snacker (please include a list of your favorite indulgences).In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann YvonneMy sister-in-law Yvonne lives in France. Her daughter is finishing up university studies in the States and as she prepares to head out on her own, she has asked Yvonne to provide copies of her favorite family recipes.So that her daughter can access the recipes at any time, Yvonne set up a food blog and is posting recipes, one-by-one, in French. It’s called “Comme a la Maison.” She describes the purpose of the blog as follows:

Ce blog est pour ma fille, qui étudie au loin et qui veut retrouver ses recettes préférées. Ceci lui permettra de manger “comme à la maison”. Les recettes reflètent notre famille américano-belgo-française avec une petite pointe holandaise. La plupart sont très simples et les proportions sont souvent très approximatives… Soyez donc indulgents! N’hésitez pas à suggérer des améliorations dans les commentaires.

Visit “Comme a la Maison” HERE.If your French is rusty, you can utilize this handy translation tool (not always 100 percent accurate, however): Yahoo’s Babel Fish. You can translate to and from many languages using that website. Let’s say you aren’t sure what vegetable is pictured. Take, for example, this squash-like thing:

Yvonne says it’s a potimarron. You can pop the word into the Babel Fish text box and ask it to translate from French to English.It says, by the way, that a potimarron is a “potimarron.” So handy. (Not!)I poked around for an explanation online. The “poti” part of the word seems to come from the word potiron (pumpkin) and marron is the word for chestnut. I did a little research, and one website said that it does have a slight chestnut flavor. I’ve never seen a potimarron here in the United States; then again, I’ve never looked.Yvonne posted a soup recipe using potimarron (or substituting pumpkin). It sure sounds delicious, but I’m partial to orange soups.An easier and possibly more rewarding place to start?How about with some Mousse au chocolat?

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Comme a la Maison appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can simply tell us your favorite post-flu nourishment. You could share with readers the comfort food you crave when you’ve been under-the-weather or out-and-out ill.In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

I’ve had the flu. At first, I didn’t want much to eat at all. Then I had a piece of toast. Then I wanted grapefruit. Then I wanted soup. Chicken noodle soup. So I made some when I was able to get out of bed.

Today I’ve been getting better, but still want something warm to eat. I decided some kind of potato soup or chowder would be the ticket.

So with no solid plan or recipe, I started pulling out stuff that sounded like it would taste good together. All I knew for sure was that potatoes would be involved.

I’m calling this:

Crazy-Flu-Lady Potato Soup

I peeled and cubed some potatoes, then decided to add some sweet potatoes, too, for extra flavor and color.

Tossed in a chicken bouillon cube.

Fried some bacon in a skillet. I took a photo, but it’s out of focus and bacon is really kind of gross to look at up close, so I leave that to your imagination.

Realized that some onion would probably be good, but I can’t eat very much onion or my stomach gets upset. So I minced a teeny, tiny bit of onion, fried it in the hot bacon grease, fished it out and tossed it into the soup pan.

When the potatoes were soft, I pulled some out and mashed them in another bowl with a potato masher gadget.

Then I put the mashed potatoes back in to thicken the soup. No need for cornstarch or flour to thicken when I do it this way.

Added some fat-free half-and-half I had in the fridge, randomly pouring some in until it looked good.

Tossed in some frozen corn I found in the freezer.

Added the crumbled bacon.

Salt. Pepper. More salt. More pepper.

That’ll do.

When I’ve been sick—especially if my throat has been sore—I crave warm soup. And I’ll get some idea to toss a bunch of stuff together without a real plan and eat two bowls of whatever comes out at the end of 20 minutes or so.

That’s what crazy-flu-lady is doing, now that she’s out of bed.

But this isn’t just crazy-flu food. You could easily serve this and a couple more soups along with some good bread and a salad for a dinner with friends.

Invite some people over for the evening, as I recommend over at NotSoFastBook.com, and enjoy some conversation along with your soup.

And maybe even some community.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Crazy-Flu-Lady Potato Soup appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can simply tell us if you’ve ever gotten gum stuck in your hair or how many times you’ve bobbed for apples. Stories are fun, so please don’t feel constrained to linking up recipes and food photography.In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

I recently discovered I’m not the only one who loves Trader Joe’s Chocolate Raspberry Sticks. Dark chocolate coats chewy raspberry insides, which are a jellied candy similar in consistency to candied orange slices.

Also, I know the lighting is weird (I snapped the photo at night under a lamp) and the container is looking rather empty (*chomp-chomp-chomp*). This is critical brain food, and from the looks of things (there are no chocolate raspberry sticks above the layer you see at the bottom), my brain has been famished.

What’s your brain food? I won’t judge you if you don’t judge me!

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Chocolate Raspberry Sticks appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can just take a picture of your hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate at last week’s football game. That’ll do just fine.In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

When the temperature goes down, I start to monkey around with soup concoctions.

Tonight’s combination turned out particularly well—the Belgian Wonder, who grew up with soup as a dietary staple, praised the blend and balance of flavors. “Very smooth, very tasty, very healthy,” he said. He took two servings and set aside some for lunch.

Here’s what it looked like in the pot. It uses all orange veggies.

I’ll do my best to explain it below.

Creamy Harvest Soup

Ingredients:

• 2-3 T olive oil (I just poured a little in–I guess that’s about what it was)
• 1/4 C diced onions (at most–I have to go easy on the onions)
• 1 or 2 carrots, diced (I was using baby carrots, so I’m estimating)
• 2 cans chicken or vegetable broth (vegetable broth makes this vegan)
• 1-2 C water (maybe more–enough to cover the veggies when cooking)
• 1 butternut squash, cut into pieces (you can cut it up raw or pre-cook slightly to soften it in the oven or microwave)
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed or diced (cooks faster if diced)1/3 to 1/2 C canned pumpkin (I had some left from baking muffins; you could make this recipe without it)
• Additional broth to thin out as desired
• Salt to taste

Instructions:

• In a large pot, cook carrots and onion in oil until onion is soft (carrots don’t have to be cooked through yet).
• Add broth and then add squash and sweet potato.
• Add water to cover.
• Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer until veggies are soft.
• Add pumpkin (if you have some–not too much, though, or it will taste too pumpkin-y).
• When soup is slightly cooled, puree in batches using the blender; or it’s easier to use a hand blender to puree the soup right in the pot.
• Add water or additional broth, stirring until soup is desired consistency (I like my soup pretty thick, but some people like it thinner–you can experiment and decide what you prefer; after blending, this soup was very thick, and even I added a lot of water).
• Salt to taste.

If you have some, put a dollop of cream or half-n-half in the soup when you serve it. But it’s delicious without, so don’t sweat it if you don’t have any on hand.

Serve with a salad and thickly sliced multi-grain bread.

Food on Fridays p.s.

I scored big with a Kroger manager’s special: crème fraîche was on sale. Wow, was it good in this soup!

(a slightly smaller Food on Fridays button)

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Creamy Harvest Soup appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can just spell your name with macaroni noodles, take a picture, publish it on your blog, and link right up to the carnival. That’s fine with us.In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with AnnAll I can say is that if you like curry a little bit—and if you like sweet potatoes a lot—this dish is the next thing you should try in your crockpot.Crockpot Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes (and coconut-milk-rice)Ingredients:4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts1 onion2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced2/3 cup orange juice1 tsp salt1/4 tsp ground pepper3 tsp curry powder1 clove garlic, mincedInstructions:Main Dish: Cut the chicken breasts in half and half again, so they are skinny strips. Or you could cut them into cubes, I suppose. Arrange in the bottom of the crockpot. Cut up the onion in big pieces and place on top of the chicken. Peel and dice the sweet potatoes and spread on top of onion and chicken. Mix all the spices into the orange juice and pour over the top. Place the lid on the crockpot and cook for 5-6 hours on low (add liquid if your crockpot cooks a little hot or if you think you might be late–you can add more OJ or add some chicken broth or water with bouillon).Rice: One typical can of coconut milk yields about 2 C of liquid. I made the rice in a rice cooker using 2 C rice and for the liquid, 2 C coconut milk + 2 C water. The coconut milk adds subtle flavor to the rice, jazzing up the entire dish when served together. (** Updated **) Prepare rice as you normally would on the stove or in a rice cooker.I’ve doubled this many times and it does well in my big crockpot. On the other hand, tonight I made the standard amount in a baking dish in the oven.Visit this link for a nice photo-tutorial on how to prepare this dish.

(a slightly smaller Food on Fridays button)

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Chicken Curry w/Sweet Potatoes appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

My solution?

I turned to my friend Judy’s recipe for Quick Marinara Sauce.

Minimal ingredients, maximum taste. This simple recipe is a quick, flavorful sauce for pasta or pizza.

Quick Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1/4 C olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 T tomato paste (I put in too much paste, so the sauce in the photo is thicker than normal; I could have added water to dilute it, but didn’t.)
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, including liquid
• 3 T minced fresh basil (I didn’t have fresh, so I shook in dried until it started to taste right)
• salt
• pepper
• sugar (this cuts the acidity without the need to cook it down for hours)

Instructions:

Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Cook garlic, stirring for one minute. Add the tomato paste. Cook, stirring constantly, one minute. Add crushed tomatoes. Simmer 10 minutes. Add spices. (I added the spices before the 10 minute simmer so that the dried basil would soften up).

People are partial to various spice combinations and sauce consistencies—preferring, say, oregano to basil; or maybe they like a thicker sauce. I’m partial to this one.

And the kids liked it, too. I recommend it, therefore, not only for its quick preparation and minimal ingredient requirements, but also for its flavor. Simple, but rich. And very satisfying.

The post Quick Marinara Sauce appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can write about swallowing a bug on a recent bike ride or the Nutella commercial you just saw on TV.In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

1. Kristen (maple pumpkin muffins)2. e- Mom (Round Challah Bread)3. Twirland Taste4. Newlyweds (Chinese Hot and Sour Soup)5. Pamm @ Leftovers On Purpose (Mac N Cheese Pie)6. Geri@ heartnsoulcooking ( Spam and Potato Pie )7. Elaine (PB M&M Cookies)8. Alea @ Premeditated Leftovers (Easy Sugar cookies and Buttercream Frosting)

9. Alea @ Premeditated Leftovers (Easy Sugar cookies and Buttercream Frosting)10. Prudent and Practical (Projects and Potato Soup)11. Hoosier Homemade( Caramel Apple Smoothies)12. Kitchen Stewardship (Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing)13. Sara (beef with broccoli)14. Ashleys Busy ( Raspberry Sour Cream Muffins )15. Sarah @Beauty in the Mundane (Grace’s pizza)16. Steph @ My Country Haven (Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits

17. Frugalhomekeeping( Frozen Cheesecake)18. Breastfeeding Moms Unite! (Alternatives to Fruit Tree Waste Pear Crisp)19. Sarah @Beauty in the Mundane (peach smoothie)20. Mother Hen (Feingold Program)21. Christy @frugalcrunchychristy (things I wish I knew then)22. Jana @ The Summer House( homemade artisan bread in 5 minutes a day)23. Butter Yum24. Amanda@ Coping With Frugality (Asian Ramen Noodle Salad)25. Andrea@ Hopeannfaith’s Hope Chest (Chicken Cacciatore Crock Pot)

Food on Fridays with Ann

I couldn’t believe my eyes—the other day I saw a Nutella commercial on American television! It’s a pretty boring commercial, but still.

It’s Nutella!

In the USA!

The mom in the commercial tries to make it sound sort of healthy:

“As a mom, I’m a great believer in Nutella, a delicious hazelnut spread that I can use to get my kids to eat healthy foods. I spread a little on all kinds of healthy things, like multi-grain toast. Every jar has wholesome, quality ingredients, like hazelnuts, skim milk, and a hint of delicious cocoa. And Nutella has no artificial colors or preservatives. It’s quick. It’s easy. And at breakfast, I can’t use all the help I can get.”

Her narration made me laugh. They’re trying awfully hard to make it sound good for you.

We’ve loved Nutella for years. My husband grew up in Belgium familiar with Nutella. I married into it. From our honeymoon on, I sought out Nutella and enjoyed it in and on many things.

We like Nutella in crepes.

We like Nutella on French bread.

We like Nutella as a dip for apples or bananas.

We like Nutella on “all kinds of healthy things, like multi-grain toast,” like the Nutella mom says on the commercial.

We like Nutella with just about anything.

And believe it or not, in spite of what this list suggests, we eat Nutella in moderation. A little goes a long way.

I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but I will soon: Nutella pound cake.

(a slightly smaller Food on Fridays button)

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Nutella Commercial appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(alternative button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can write about your love of Twizzlers or type out a nursery rhyme that has food in it (I’m thinking of “Jack Sprat Shall Eat no Fat,” “Sing a Song of Sixpence” and “Hot Cross Buns,” for starters).In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with AnnThe other day we forgot to buy veggie dip for a party, so I quickly assessed the basic ingredients available in the fridge, then headed to the computer. What dip recipe could I quickly whip together?I combined recipes and ended up with this curry dip.Do you like curry? If so, I urge you to try some version of this dip. It’s creamy-delicious and pretty, too.I had to act quickly to get to the party, so I’m not 100 percent sure what went into it. But here’s what I think I used, more or less:Hurried Curry Dip(no need for slow-down jokes, thankyouverymuch)1 cup mayo (I didn’t have sour cream or yogurt, but either could have been a nice addition/substitution)1 teaspoon curry1/4 teaspoon turmeric (I happened to have some, but it wouldn’t be necessary)1/4 t cayenne pepper (I had some kind of Spicy Pepper stuff that I shook in)2 tablespoons ketchup2 teaspoons lemon juice1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (I must have left this out, because I don’t think I have any)2 dashes salt1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (I doubt I put that much in)Mix together, chill, and use as a vegetable dip; though I also thought it would be nice as a dip for fries or chicken fingers.

(a slightly smaller Food on Fridays button)

Don’t miss a word:It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Food on Fridays: Hurried Curry Dip appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

(photo credit: Queen of the Castle Recipes)

At Queen of the Castle Recipes, Lynn has graciously allowed me to share a few thoughts on food and slowing down. I included two European recipes, because from my visits to Belgium and France, I get the idea that they know how to slow down. About Belgium, I wrote:

[E]veryone in the country knows how to stop mid-morning and enjoy a leisurely coffee break. In fact, this might come as a shock, but vehicles in Belgium don’t come with standard cupholders … maybe Belgians would rather wait until they can sit down at home or a café and truly enjoy sipping it while nibbling a Speculoo cookie. I suppose we could argue that the caffeine from all that coffee negates their slow-down tendencies, but in general, Belgians seem to know how to hit the pause button.

2. High Calling Blogs

(photo credit: me)

If you’ve never been to HighCallingBlogs.com, you’re in for a treat. Not because of what I’ve written, though I did just publish an article for their “family” category, but because the bloggers in this online community are posting wonderful material covering a wide range of topics, including work, faith, and culture, as well as family. There are featured blogs and then you could spend weeks visiting those in the broader network.3. The Harvest ShowAt 9:00 a.m. today (9:00 on 9-9-09), I was interviewed live on “The Harvest Show.” You can watch online HERE (select the Wednesday, September 9 show).

Don’t miss a word: It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The post Where in the World Wide Web is Ann Kroeker on 9-9-09? appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.