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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 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 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.

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

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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

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.

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!

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]]> http://annkroeker.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/looking-forward/feed/ 0 annkroeker crazyflusoup2 http://annkroeker.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/served-by-a-prince/ http://annkroeker.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/served-by-a-prince/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:54:24 +0000 annkroeker http://annkroeker.wordpress.com/?p=5135 ]]>

I’ve had the flu for the past three days. Bedridden.

I haven’t been sick like this in years, so my eight-year-old son has never seen me this, well, needy.

Compassionate and eager to serve,  he heard me ask for a piece of toast yesterday.

“Can I take it to her, Papa?” I heard him ask. “Please?”

Apparently he was granted permission, though I didn’t hear the reply. I only heard my son’s steps bounding up the stairs. Thump-thump-thumpa-thumpa-thump.

“Mama?” he asked, bursting through the bedroom door, “do you want one or two pieces?”

“One is fine, thank you,” I whispered, trying to keep my voice low and avoid a coughing fit.

“Okay!” He took off running back down the stairs. Tromp-tromp-tromp-tromp-tromp.

A few seconds later, he returned. Thump-thump-thumpa-thumpa-thump.

“Mama? Do you want butter on your toast? Or anything else?”

“Butter would be nice,” I answered.

“Okay!” Tromp-tromp-tromp-tromp-tromp.

A minute or two later, I heard him returning: thump-thump-thumpa-thumpa-thump.

“Would you like anything else, like an apple cut up?”

“Yes, that would be wonderful.”

Tromp-tromp-tromp-tromp-tromp.

Finally, he came up the stairs slowly and carefully.

Step-pause. Step-pause. Step-pause. Step-pause.

He came through the door with a tray. On the tray, a piece of buttered toast on a plastic Pocahontas plate and a bowl filled with apple slices. It was as if he read my post at NotSoFastBook, “Home Sick? Make the Most of a Forced Rest.”

I felt like a queen.

A sick-as-a-dog queen, but a queen nonetheless.

Blessed by a servant-hearted prince.

(With support from the Belgian Wonder, serving quietly and lovingly in the background)

I’m doing better, obviously, capable of sitting upright at a laptop and tapping out relatively coherent thoughts.

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

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(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!

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Kids pick up stuff.

I know this firsthand because over the past two weeks, we’ve gone through about 12 boxes of tissue and two bottles of children’s Motrin trying to manage mucus and control fevers. Because, you see, my kids picked up the flu.

(This is a big reason I’ve been rather quiet here on the blog—I’ve been attending to sick kids.)

But kids pick up other stuff, too, like good habits and bad attitudes.

It leaves me wondering, What am I modeling?

Inspired by stories from two HighCallingBlogs.com bloggers—Jennifer of Getting Down with Jesus and Ann Voskamp of Holy Experience—I wrote about how kids follow our example, imitating what they observe in us.

If they’re following my example, what example am I following?

Read more here…

(You’re welcome to comment there and/or here—High Calling Blogs folks as well as my own readers would love to hear your thoughts!)

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

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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 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)

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

Shhhh…

People are quieting down all over the place.

They’re discovering how to be still … or, at least, they’re trying to.

They’re stopping. Pausing. Praying.

People are enjoying silence.

Ann Voskamp at Holy Experience is taking us by the hand this week and leading us to quiet places with her primer on slowing down and how to seek. She invites others to post on intentional slowness. Scroll down her Wednesday post to visit others who are seeking to slow.

L.L. Barkat, too, at Seedlings in Stone, is returning to lazy moments, outside, stopping and sitting in the yard to breathe in the air. Her heart, she says, “still needs rain, seeds, wind, sky.” She’s invited others to slow down, as well. Visit her post “Drift Me” and scroll down to visit those who have shared their thoughts and experiences on slowing.

Jennifer at Getting Down with Jesus is seeking quiet in order to find stillness.

Laura Boggess at High Calling Blogs is leading an online book club discussion about The Wisdom of the Wilderness. In her recent post “Power of the Slowing,” Laura describes a busy morning packing lunches for her boys. Her 10-year-old son asked, “Have you seen the moon this morning?” Laura writes:

We were going to be late.

But I couldn’t help myself.  I paused what I was doing and joined him in front of the window. And there it was, my full faced moon-friend, hanging low in the misty dark of the pre-dawn. I moved behind my boy and wrapped my arms around his ever-growing body.

And. We. Just. Looked.

Just taking a moment here and there—pausing to look at the moon, sitting for a moment of quiet, turning off the television for one half-hour—we can take baby steps toward living a slower life.

We can begin to listen.

We can go from the rush, to a hush.

The children’s book Goodnight Moon is a favorite with children. I think it’s because after full, rushed days, the simple process of saying “goodnight” to each item in the room is a child’s way of slowing. It’s an antidote to the sped-up, frenzied day the family may have endured.

Goodnight moon.

Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.

The day is coming to a close. I think I’ll sip a little cocoa.

Goodnight light and the red balloon.

Turn off the computer. Look over my planner. Scribble another to-do list item. Write a thank-you note.

Goodnight clocks and goodnight socks.

Pull out a journal. Pen. Bible. My Utmost for His Highest. Set them on the table next to my bed. Before settling in with my books and writing, however, I prepare to tuck in the children.

Goodnight little house and goodnight mouse.

Room by room, I will kiss children and pray. Then I’ll climb into my own bed.

Goodnight stars, goodnight air

A page in My Utmost for His Highest.

It says, “If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him for myself, and how to get alone with him; I must take time to worship the Being Whose Name I bear. ‘Come unto Me’—that is the place to meet Jesus.”

Goodnight noises everywhere.

I must know Him for myself, and how to get alone with him.

And it occurs to me, as the day winds down, that I might actually be the old lady whispering “hush.”

Find silence; be still.

“‘Come unto Me’—that is the place to meet Jesus.”

Each of us must know Him for ourselves … and how to get alone with him.

Shhhh …

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(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 Ann

All 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 breasts
1 onion
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
2/3 cup orange juice
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
3 tsp curry powder
1 clove garlic, minced

Instructions:

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)

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