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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!

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

Mega Memory Month Returns January 2010!

Imperfect but hopefully charming photos of a lifelong learner exploring the dictionary by Ann Kroeker © 2009

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 Big Books and Mega Memory: The Stuff of Lifelong Learning appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.