Food on Fridays: When the Frost is on the Punkin

(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 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.

Bonus: Recipes from Ann that use Punkin

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

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The Season of Getting, er, Giving

Well, it’s starting:

The season of getting—I mean, giving.

I think it’s hard to help our kids focus on giving when they’re bombarded by commercials, window displays, newspaper inserts, catalogs and radio spots whose sole purpose is to awaken a desire to get.

It’s hard for us as adults to focus on giving, too, because we’re bombarded with all those same enticing messages to acquire.

But one way I believe we all can attempt to counteract these messages is to practice, inspire, and provide opportunities for giving.

Whether the giving is giving thanks, giving resources, or giving intangible gifts that have a deep and lasting impact on the recipients, we can steer our kids away from the acquisition mindset and toward a sacrificial, others-centered attitude that lines up with our faith.

I wrote about this at High Calling Blogs (HCB) today. Before you pop over there, you should know that every other Wednesday, when it’s my turn to post, I try to link out as much as possible to High Calling Blogs members, to build a sense of community and highlight posts that may be of interest to HCB readers.

This particular post is packed with links. If you have time, click around and meet some new bloggers!

Read more at the High Calling Blogs website.

“Nestled Apple” photo by Ann Kroeker (2009).

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What’s Your Story?

The One-Year Bible reading for November 14 included the passage from Hebrews telling us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2)

What an image! Jesus as an author, composing, editing—perfecting—our faith!

I already had that passage floating around in my head when I sat down to watch the Steven Spielberg film “Amistad.”

In one scene, John Quincy Adams (played by Anthony Hopkins) talks with a fictional character named Mr. Jodson (played by Morgan Freeman) about who the Africans on the “Amistad” really are.

Someone published the dialogue from that scene in an essay both here and here, so I pulled from that source to post it. The interaction originated from the film:

Adams: In the courtroom, whoever tells the best story, wins. What is their story, by the way?

Jodson: Sir?

Adams: What is their story?

Jodson:  They’re from West Africa.

Adams: No, what is their story?

(Jodson remains silent, looking puzzled.)

Adams: Mr. Jodson, where are you from originally?

Jodson: Georgia.

Adams: Is that who you are, a Georgian? Is that your story? No, you’re an ex-slave who’s devoted his life to the abolition of slavery and overcome great obstacles and hardships along the way, I should imagine. That’s your story, isn’t it?

(Jodson nods, slowly, with a slight smile.)

Adams: You have proven you know what they are. They’re Africans. Congratulations. What you don’t know—and as far as I can tell haven’t bothered in the least to discover—is who they are. (Cunningham 1151)

I can fairly easily answer the question What am I?

I’m a wife, mom, Hoosier, writer.

But the more compelling question is Who am I … What’s my story?

As that scene in the film unfolded, I asked myself that compelling question, combining it with that passage from Hebrews:

With Jesus as Author, what’s my story?

It’s a good question to ask while reflecting in journal-mode. It’s important to ask when pondering what’s next in life.

What’s the next line of my story? The next page?  The next chapter? The next blog entry?

And how does it all fit?

As we try to discover the story that’s been written thus far, we have an opportunity to find themes in the unfolding of the years and purpose in the unfolding of our days.

When we get an idea of our story, we can understand better who we are—and who we want to be—and hopefully we’ll see what the Author has in mind.

Because for those of us who have given our lives to Jesus, our story … is His story.

Works Cited

Amistad. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, David Paymer, Pete Postlethwaite, and Stellan Skarsgard. DreamWorks, 1997. DVD.

Cunningham, Clark D.  “But What Is Their Story?” Emory Law Journal. Vol . 52 Special Edition (2003): 1151. Web. 15 Nov. 2009. <http://law.gsu.edu/Communication/Emory.pdf>.

Image by: Ivan Prole. “Notebook with spiral and red cover.” 2009. stock.xchng. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.

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Plagiarism Avoidance in Blogging

"Copyright Infringement" by Terry Hart

I was asked to talk with the literature students about plagiarism.

After introducing the topic and explaining a little about it, I summarized with the following statements:

1. Don’t present someone else’s ideas as your own—if you do, you’re stealing his or her intellectual property.

2. You are welcome to share other people’s insights, ideas and wording, if you give credit where credit is due.

(These ideas are presented in similar form at this Indiana University site.)

After class, I felt that they needed more information. So when I got home, I found some plagiarism tutorials. Going through the tutorials served as a good refresher for me not only as an instructor/facilitator of this literature class but also as a blogger.

We all hate it when we see one our own blog posts picked up and presented on another site as if it is original material.

But we need to be careful, too, when we are inspired by someone else, to give credit where credit is due.

Because I read so many tips, ideas, solutions and stories on blogs, websites and tweets, sometimes I’m not sure how something comes together in my brain. Nevertheless, I’m convinced that I need to be as careful and honoring as possible to those who have created original content that worked its way into my world. I have always tried to link you to the original article(s) from which I found inspiration and provide appropriate references.

After researching this topic, I resolve not only to continue my efforts but also to improve my practices.

As bloggers, we need to be careful to give credit where credit is due.

If you want to learn more about plagiarism and how to avoid it in your writing, here is a cute tutorial found at the Vaughan Memorial Library (Acadia University) website. It gives a good overview. I suggested that the students pick “Dylan” when they get to that step in the tutorial, as he fits our class. I think he would be the best “blogger” student, as well, so I suggest you pick him to walk you through.

If you want a more thorough tutorial, try this one from Indiana University (see the following links). The sample readings are a bit dry, but this tutorial illustrates very well how to spot plagiarism in your work (and how to fix it):

1. How to Recognize Plagiarism
2. Five Examples of Word for Word Plagiarism (go through these to prepare for the practice quiz)
3. Five Examples of Paraphrasing Plagiarism (go through these, too, to prepare for the practice quiz)
4. Practice: How to Recognize Plagiarism (this is the quiz—read each example and select the entry [click choice A or B] that you think has not been plagiarized to test your understanding. Immediate feedback provided.)

With ideas zipping and zapping across the World Wide Web in the form of tweets, posts and articles, it’s hard to remember precisely what impacted or inspired us to write something. And it’s a huge challenge to track every slightly interesting stop as we surf and explore content.

Yet, this is one of the recommendations provided in the tutorials—students doing research are urged to record every resource from which they might cite something either paraphrased or as a direct quote.

How do you track potential resources for your blog posts?

What are your plagiarism-avoidance techniques?

“Copyright Infringement” comic by “hartboy/Terry Hart” available at Flickr for download under a Creative Commons license for non-commercial use.

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Food on Fridays: Food Stylist

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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 simply show us a pile of apples you’ve picked at the orchard or snap a picture of your decorative fall pumpkins and gourds.

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

1. K @ Prudent and Practical (Crockpot Spicy Peanut Chicken) 2. e- Mom (Easy Chocoate Pecan Pie) 3. April@ The 21st Century Housewife 4. Tara @ Feels like home (easy cherry pie) 5. Hoosier Homemade( Veggie Twist) 6. Kristen (cherry cheese danish) 7. Family Balance Sheet (Pasta with Turkey Sausage, Arugula and Sun- Dried Tomatoes 8. Andrea@ Hopeannfaith’s Hope Chest (Pretending it’s summer~ Summer Food)

9. Carla (Chocolate Syrup) 10. Sara (cheesy vegetable soup) 11. Newlyweds (Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal) 12. Faith, Food and Family (Southwestern Egg Bake) 13. Sarah@ Beautyinthemundane 14. Sarah@ Beautyinthemundane( easy bruschetta) 15. Butter Yum (Chocolate Baby Oblivions) 16. Geri@ heartnsoulcooking (Christmas Rainbow Cookies)

17. Sonshine( Puppy Chow) 18. Marcia@ Frugalhomekeeping( Kids’ Cookbook Goes Step- By- Step) 19. Unfinished Mom (Chicken Mushroom Lasagna) 20. Breastfeeding Moms Unite! Weird Food Combinations (Chocolate Chickpea Cupcakes) 21. The Prudent Homemaker (Honeybaked Ham) 22. Leila at Like Mother, Like Daughter: Hospitality with your kids’ friends! 23. Jane Anne (Enjoy Life: Delicious Allergy Free Food)

Food on Fridays with Ann

It just happens that I am acquainted with the food stylist who created the Thanksgiving turkey for the November cover of Bon Appetit. She did everything except photograph the bird: after cooking it, she found the beautiful stainless steel pan to put it in and added decorative touches so that the photographer could capture a great look. I think you can see it at this link (the link takes you to a gift subscription offer for the magazine, but last time I looked, it showed the cover-bird).

Setting up for food photography takes among other things an artist’s eye, speed (food doesn’t look appetizing for long) and an ability to create an appealing arrangement.

My 8-year-old son is developing these food stylist skills.

Here is one of his recent dinner arrangements:

He ate every bite.

Giving kids the opportunity to be their own food stylists is a great way to engage them in dinner preparations.

Though she never used the term, Edith Schaeffer inspired readers to become food stylists while preparing and presenting everyday meals. In her book The Hidden Art of Homemaking, she wrote:

Meals should be a surprise, and should show imagination … It is not necessary to have an extravagant food budget in order to serve things with variety and tastefully cooked. It is not necessary to have expensive food on the plates before they can enter the dining room as things of beauty in colour and texture … This is where artistic talent and aesthetic expression and fulfillment come in. (Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking)

Schaeffer suggests thinking of the plate as a still life. She offers general considerations such as mixing up the texture, color, flavor, smell and shape of foods as well as specific ideas such as forming a mound of shredded carrots with chopped nuts and bits of pineapple and presenting it on top of a lettuce leaf.

Simple foods presented in creative ways.

We could all practice being food stylists by responding to Schaeffer’s call to creativity in daily life at every meal.

I should watch my son and learn.

It looks like all I need to get started is about 40 grapes.

A preview of The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer available here.

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Explore the Classics: The Scarlet Letter

This school year, I’m immersed in some classics of American literature, like:

• The Scarlet Letter
• Billy Budd
  
• The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
  
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin
  
• The Red Badge of Courage
• …just to name a few from this semester.

Once a week I meet with a class of ten students, leading them through discussions about American books, stories, and the occasional poem, such as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and William Cullen Bryant’s “To a Waterfowl” or Anne Bradstreet’s “To My Dear and Loving Husband.”

Preparing for classes, finding study guides the students can use as they read, searching for (or creating my own) vocabulary lists, making quizzes and tests, assigning and grading essays or projects—it all takes time.

Lots of time.

Teachers? I have always respected your work, but now I’m in awe of what you are committed to doing every. single. day.

Since I’m not a trained teacher, I’m piecing this whole thing together on my own. And many of my resources don’t come with teacher guides, so I have to do all of the same work I assign the students.

I have to say, though, that all of this reading, study and discussion has revealed to me the power of digging into a text.

It’s no surprise that the Internet offers many helpful resources to enrich my (and the students’) understanding of these classics. I have even begun to appreciate Cliff’s Notes and SparkNotes for how they provide explanations of difficult passages, keep characters straight, or point out symbolism I might have otherwise missed.

Now that I’ve been forced to dig deeper into these texts than I’ve ever dug before, I’m convinced I’d like to continue these methods and utilize these resources for myself, even when I’m not teaching.

The Scarlet Letter was my first book to try to organize existing materials. While there are many outstanding resources, and a trained teacher with years of experience would have much more insight than I, here is what I pulled together:

• Study Guide: For accountability and to check comprehension, I try to find a study guide for each book that the students must fill out as they read. We only meet once a week, so if they can’t figure out what’s important to note in the assigned chapters, they could be lost for days before we clear it up in class discussion. I used this Glencoe study guide that I found online, picking and choosing the activities (they had to complete the questions, but I skipped or modified some of the activities).
• Skit: Based on some feedback I got via e-mail, I got the feeling the students didn’t understand what was happening in “The Custom House” and the first few chapters of the book, so I brought in a construction paper “A,” a fake flower, and a big piece of cardboard. I had the students act out the basics of “The Custom House,” having the Nathaniel Hawthorne/Narrator discover the “A” among the papers. Then we switched to the story itself and someone held the cardboard to be the prison door. Someone else held the flower to be the rose bush. And we talked about the symbolism after they acted it out. I ran around sort of giving instructions and offering a sketchy narration, walking them through the first few events. The book has quite a dramatic opening, but I think its impact and drama can get lost in the difficult vocabulary. For a few minutes, I wanted them to experience the story without sifting through the words.
• Pillory: I found a great photo of a pillory to show them here, so they could envision where Hester was standing for her public humiliation.
• Journal: The students are required to keep a reading journal, one entry per school day (a minimum of five sentences per entry; yes, I’ve had to count). I check these to be sure they are tracking. They are asked to be responding to their reading in some way—I wanted them to have a safe place to talk freely about the books. I could probably do better at creating some vision for the journals. Some of them don’t seem to grasp the potential of recording their responses and struggle to fill an entry.
• Vocabulary: The study guide provided some vocabulary lists. I used those.
• Quizzes: Most of the quizzes were vocabulary quizzes, since there are so many challenging words in The Scarlet Letter. I had my dictionary next to me the entire time I was reading the book. I should probably try to design them SAT-style, but I haven’t yet; the quizzes have been straightforward, matching the definition to the word.
• Study Resources: I referenced the Cliff’s Notes for The Scarlet Letter as well as SparkNotes to see what those guides had to say. One that I like from a Christian perspective comes from Progeny Press. I borrowed it from a friend and used some of the questions, especially those that sent the kids digging into Scripture to formulate some ideas on what the Bible says about sin (here’s a sample from that very study guide).
• Story Chart: If you click on this link (the copyrighted material is for preview only), you can see the story chart I’ve been using (scroll to the last page, p.9). This sample shows what kind of information would go in each oval, and it helps organize information in class and stimulate discussion. I draw a blank story chart on the board and walk them through it, to make sure they see what’s going on in the plot, have some idea of themes, conflict, characters, context, etc.
• Test: I created the test by modifying the quizzes found at this and this link. I deleted some questions, changed some of the answers, and added more multiple choice along with some short answer. Some of the questions included the definition of “plot,” “theme,” and “conflict,” which we talked about in class. They also had to answer two short essay questions: (1) “How do guilt, sin and/or shame change Hester, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth?” and (2) “Which character in The Scarlet Letter felt the most alienation? Why do you feel this way?” They were expected to cite at least one passage from the book to support their point(s) as well as talk about plot points or turning points in their own words. They had access to their books for the short essay questions, but not for the multiple-choice/short answer portion.
• Essay Writing: To help the students learn the basics of character analysis, I referenced this and for comparison/contrast essays, I sent them here, hoping they would click all around on the tabs above, because there was a lot of helpful information there. This simple sample essay was annotated to show what worked well. And I really liked this mind map as a tool to help them organize their thoughts and ideas before writing their essay. I took some time one week to walk them through it, though I don’t know if they still reference it.
• Essay Format: To help them learn MLA format, I’ve sent them to the OWL at Purdue.
• Essay Grading: I’ve been using the 6+1 Traits rubric for grading the writing. I like this summary, because it gives me a quick reference while grading that I can also share with the kids, so they can see what I’m looking for.
• Final Project: For their final project, I pulled ideas from this page of Cliff’s Notes. They could choose from the following:

Final Projects

1. Rewrite the forest scene using modern language. (No one chose this.)

2. Write a short story about how the story would be different if Chillingworth’s ship had actually wrecked and he’d never come ashore. (One student wrote a new ending, sort of combining choices 2 and 3, and the result was a charming and much, much happier conclusion for the main characters.)

3. Write a description of Pearl’s future after the novel ends. Does she marry? Have a family? What is her life like? Be sure your choices are consistent with what you know about Pearl and the events at the end of the novel. (One student chose to do this, creatively working in facts from the original story to present a fascinating and detailed summary of Pearl’s future.)

4. Draw a picture or create a collage that shows the relationships among the characters in the story and explain your thinking to the class verbally the week they are turned in and/or on paper. (Most chose this, and the results were outstanding; I couldn’t believe the quality of artwork and fascinating symbolism.)

Read the Book!

You should be able to pick up a copy of The Scarlet Letter at Goodwill and used bookstores, as it is so often assigned in both high school and college—and the students get rid of it when their course is completed. Multiple copies would also be available at the library, along with an abundance of study guides.

But you can also read The Scarlet Letter online at many websites. Click around and pick your favorite background, font or navigation from the following sites:

• Page by Page Books
• The Literature Network (posts flashing, annoying ads at the top)
• The Literature Page
• Bartleby (searchable text)
• Project Gutenberg

Enjoy!

If you can use any of these ideas for personal study or with your own family to enrich your reading of this classic of American literature, let me know what you found useful.

Share!

If you find additional resources, I’d love to update and expand this post to include more ideas that deepened a reader’s comprehension and appreciation of The Scarlet Letter.

Stack of books photo by Ann Kroeker. Page from The Scarlet Letter by Ted Cabanes accessed from stock.xchng.

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Food on Fridays: Comme a la Maison

(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

1. Prudent and Practical (Grandma’s Pistachio Bread) 2. Tara @ Feels like home (easy crockpot mashed potatoes) 3. Samantha @The Good Stuff (Favorite Pumpkin Bread) 4. Kristen (quiche) 5. Hoosier Homemade( Peanut Butter Cookies) 6. Kitchen Stewardship (How to Make Ghee – a Nourishing Fat)

7. Sara (winter squash and apple soup) 8. Newlyweds (Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies) 9. Sharinskishe (Pork and Applesauce crockpot) 10. Twirland Taste- Butter RUM Cake 11. Marcia@ Frugalhomekeeping( The Madison County Cookbook) 12. Geri@ heartnsoulcooking (cranberry pecan pumpkin upside down cake)

13. Alison @ My Vintage Kitchen (cranberry- walnut fudge) 14. Breastfeeding Moms Unite! (Vegetarian Mulligatawny Soup) 15. Elaine @ At Home n About (Rice Krispy Turkeys) 16. Carla (Cockeyed Cake- Chocolate) 17. Greenearth Real Food After Cancer

Food on Fridays with Ann Yvonne

My 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?

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Fathers Form Us

 

Fathers form us.

Our fathers may have launched us into adulthood healthy, strong and confident having poured into us words of truth, love and life and surrounded us with the safety of strength and sensitivity.

Or perhaps our fathers left us emotionally shredded, grasping for something to staunch the wounds as we limped into the world to find our way.

Even if a father leaves the family, his children are formed by the hole that remains and by the future father figures who may seek to fill that hole.

Randy Carlson, in his 1992 book Father Memories, wrote, “Picture fathers all around the world carving their initials into their family trees. Like a carving in the trunk of an oak, as time passes the impressions fathers make on their children grow deeper and wider.”

That’s how I began a post over at HighCallingBlogs (HCB) today.

Highlighting two writers in the HCB network, I was able to share stories of fathers and the impact they’ve made.

If you have time, I invite you to pop over and leave a thought or two on fathers, the impact your father has had on your life, or even a small father-memory of your own.

READ MORE…

Speaking of parents, there’s a new post up at NotSoFastBook.com about the pressure of “Push Parenting.”

Vintage photo by Lynn Hopper.

Don’t miss a word:
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Food on Fridays: Crazy-Flu-Lady Potato Soup

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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 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

1. Mother Hen (Sally Mae Bakes!) 2. Pamm @ Leftovers On Purpose (Make Ahead Squash) 3. Newlyweds (Pumpkin Macarons) 4. Twirland Taste- CREAM PUFFS 5. Prudent & Practical (5 Min. Chocolate Cake) 6. Butter Yum – Italian Chicken Noodle Soup 7. Kristen (rosemary chicken) 8. e- Mom (Pumpkin Spice Lattes)

9. Stretch Mark Mama (Crispy Baked Chicken — super easy) 10. Meal Planning with Connie( Breakfast Casserole & Baked Pineapple Squares) 11. Sorry, HERE: Meal Plan with Connie (Delicious Breakfast Casserole/ Giveaway) 12. Tara @ Feels like home (orange cake w/ Halloween twist) 13. Kari @ Eating Simply – Homemade Plum Sauce 14. Sara (maple glazed pork tenderloin) 15. Chaya – golden soup 16. Chaya – scalloped potatoes

17. Heather @ Just Doing My Best (Ladybug Apples) 18. angie @ annies home = halloween recipes 19. Kristine – Halloween Spider Snacks 20. Faith, Food and Family (Apple Butterscotch Bread) 21. Geri@ heartnsoulcooking (butter pecan ice box cookies) 22. Hoosier Homemade( Halloween Treats) 23. Sharinskishe (Garden Cantaloupe) 24. Marcia@ Frugalhomekeeping( Bon Apetit’s Too Busy to Cook?) 25. You’re next!

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.

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

Looking Forward

When I’m totally better, I’ll be having some friends over for dinner to reclaim conversation.

In the meantime, while recuperating, I’ve been eating soup.

More on that when the Food on Fridays carnival goes live.

You won’t have to wait long—I’ll dish it up soon!

Don’t miss a word:
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Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.