Food on Fridays - Ann Kroeker. Writer

Food on Fridays: Bell Pepper Ring Mold

May 17, 2013 by annkroeker 12 Comments

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 button to include with 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

Cook an egg in the middle of a slice of sweet bell pepper? Brilliant!

I spotted the idea at a blog entitled Apron Strings. Head over via this link to check out her cute-as-can-be shots.

So late one night I try it. I slice a yellow bell pepper and toss one ring into the oiled pan.

egg in pepper 1

I crack an egg and release it from its shell into the center of the ring, but…

egg in pepper 2

…egg white escapes the confines of the pepper ring, oozing randomly from under one side. So much for “cute.”

I sort of herd the egg back into the center, but it is no longer attractive. Now, it is merely functional.

egg in pepper 3

When it cooks solid enough, I flip it, and eat it anyway with a little salt. Apparently looks don’t affect taste, because it’s yummy.

Despite the obvious flop of this first attempt, I will make it again. Don’t let my failure keep you from an attractive breakfast (or anytime) treat.

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Photo by D. Kroeker. “Pin” these images in a way that links back to this particular page, giving proper credit.

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Food on Fridays: Throwing a Party

May 9, 2013 by annkroeker 9 Comments

Food on Fridays with Ann

No celebration is complete without food, so our daughter’s graduation open house menu included sandwiches, cheesy popcorn, tortilla chips and dips (including guacamole), grapes and strawberries. In the crock pots: meatballs in sweet and sour sauce.

food table open house

In the kitchen, guests served themselves lemonade, sweet tea, and water from three big beverage dispensers I borrowed from friends. And near the drinks we set up a dessert table with brownies, no-bake cookies, and ice cream sundaes with lots of toppings.

My daughter wanted things casual. We can do casual.

Even with the casual theme, however, which is quite forgiving, I wasn’t sure how this whole set-up would work. My dining room, which you can see in the above photo, has been turned into my office. To return it to its dining room status, we shut the rolltop desk (as you can see on the right side of the photo), moved the table back in, covered it with a black tablecloth and nice centerpieces, cleared away my office junk, and set out the snacks.

My daughters worked on signage and decorated with Japanese lanterns and brightly colored crepe paper; meanwhile, I got some last-minute help from friends who helped me pull together final details. I was still mixing up a batch of guacamole when the first guest arrived, but it all came together quickly.

What fun to celebrate with friends the closure of my daughter’s K-12 years and look forward with delight to her future—and to do so with a set-up that worked well! I guess sometimes you just have to go ahead and throw the party, figuring things out along the way.

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Food on Fridays: Frommer’s Natural Foods Granola Bars

May 2, 2013 by annkroeker 13 Comments

Food on Fridays with Ann

Not long ago, my mom picked up some natural granola bars from a farmer’s market in South Carolina and shipped them to me here in the Midwest. Rather than gobble them down, I set them aside thinking I’d save them for our next road trip.

But today I was hungry for a snack and decided to try one.

I opened up a Frommer’s Natural Foods “Chocolate Strawberry Chia Granola Bar” and took a bite.

Delicious!

I highly recommend them. Not only have they made a super-tasty granola bar, but they did so using gluten-free, Fair Trade, local, and organic ingredients as much as possible.

Like them on Facebook and learn more. The good news for those of us who live outside the Carolinas? They ship!

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Food on Fridays: Hash Brown Solution

April 25, 2013 by annkroeker 8 Comments

Food on Fridays with Ann

I love hash browns. Unfortunately, I have not yet perfected the art of making them at home.

I try different oils and different amounts of oil; I try different kinds of potatoes and different spatulas. Every once in a while the hash browns will turn out edible, but more often than not they stick to the skillet, or burn, or end up too thick or too thin. No matter how I try to adjust, I can’t get the hang of it.

A week or so ago, I burned a batch. I looked up at my husband and groaned, “I don’t know what to do about my hash brown problem.”

“I have two words for you,” he replied. “Bob. Evans.”

The next night, we met friends at Bob Evans, and my son ordered a breakfast meal that included a side of hash browns. He promptly passed them over to me, and I flopped them right on top of the hash browns I’d ordered for myself to create a double-stack, if you will.

But I can’t go to Bob Evans every time I hanker for hash browns, so I decided to test an idea I spotted on Pinterest: the waffle iron method recommended by rick-a-bam-boo.

I pulled out my 22-year-old waffle iron, lightly sprayed the surface with cooking oil, shredded some potatoes and plopped them in.

The photo’s not that great, but the hash browns tasted just right.

Problem solved. Now I can enjoy nicely cooked hash browns any time my heart desires.

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Filed Under: Food on Fridays Tagged With: hash browns, waffle iron hash brown

Food on Fridays: Well-Designed Garlic Press

April 18, 2013 by annkroeker 15 Comments

Food on Fridays with Ann

My cooking frequently calls for fresh minced garlic. I’ve relied on garlic presses over the years, but they inevitably break. I’ve gone through three or four, maybe more. The hinge snaps or the screws pop off from the repeated stress of pushing that clove through holes.

So the last time my garlic press broke, I gave up. I said I was all done with garlic presses. Instead, I resolved to learn how to use my knife to mince cloves. Forget the garlic press. I’d go old-school.

But my husband didn’t give up so easily. He likes well-designed gadgets, so unbeknownst to me he headed off in search of a quality garlic press. A visit to a kitchen store turned up a high-end, German-designed garlic press (Rösle 12782 Garlic Press) that he brought home and presented with excitement and hope that I might have something that will allow me to mince with ease once more.

I tried it, and could not believe how with one squeeze of the handles, the entire clove smooshes through with very little waste. I could tell from the first press that the design was different and more effective, avoiding too much stress in a spot that couldn’t handle it.

I wish I knew enough about physics to explain why this works so well, but I’ll show you pictures and maybe they’ll speak for themselves to those who understand these things.

Stick a clove in the hole so that the flat metal surface will press against the hole-y metal piece. This minces the garlic. When you pull the handles together, the pressure is not, like most garlic presses, pulling on the screws and hinge.

It seems to distribute the stress somehow. This is what it looks like closed shut. The minced garlic, had I actually stuck a clove in it, would have squished through the holes. If you look close, you can see some remains on the edge.

To clean, you open it up again and swing the piece with holes out to conveniently scrape off the remaining garlic bits due to this easy access. You can get to both sides without having to reach a finger in and dig out the remains.

This well-designed garlic press is not a cheap contraption, and I sure don’t deserve something so nice. But its ease of use has supported and simplified my culinary creativity. I love it, and if we had a fire and I knew my family, pets, computer, and photo albums were safe, I daresay I might run back in for it.

What’s one of your favorite kitchen gadgets?

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Filed Under: Food on Fridays Tagged With: garlic press, Rosle garlic press

Food on Fridays: Dairy-Free Spinach Artichoke Dip

April 11, 2013 by annkroeker 4 Comments

Food on Fridays with Ann

I’ve been craving all kinds of food I really shouldn’t eat. Familiar food. Comfort food. Fattening food.

One thing I’ve missed? Creamy hot spinach artichoke dip. I had given up on that, assuming that any attempt at recreating it would disappoint.

Then I found a recipe in Vegetarian Times online that intrigued me, so I gave it a go.

Hot Artichoke Dip

Source: Vegetarian Times, 2005 (available online)

1 12-oz. pkg. light silken tofu
2 Tbs. reduced-fat mayonnaise
1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1 Tbs. lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced (about 2 tsp.)
½ tsp. onion powder
1 15.5-oz. can artichoke quarters in water, drained, rinsed, chopped
1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese [I subbed in almonds whirred in a food processor; a reviewer suggested trying nutritional yeast, but I didn't have any]
paprika for dusting

Preheat oven to 400° F. Purée tofu, mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, garlic and onion powder in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to bowl.
Stir artichokes, spinach and Parmesan cheese into tofu mixture. [instead of stirring in these extra items, I pulsed them together in the food processor, leaving chunks of artichokes]
Spoon into 8-inch glass pie dish or casserole. Bake 20 minutes. Dust with paprika; serve [I served with tortilla chips and rice crackers].

I added a tiny shake of chili pepper, and I think I would do that again, but just a bit. Don’t skip the paprika, and shake in some salt.

No, it doesn’t taste as rich and creamy as the original, but this gluten- and dairy-free version served as a satisfying alternative to traditional hot artichoke dip. It makes me happy…plus, it’s kind of healthy.

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Filed Under: Food on Fridays Tagged With: artichoke dip, dairy-free artichoke dip, gluten-free artichoke dip, hot artichoke dip, hot spinach artichoke dip, spinach artichoke dip

Food on Fridays: Shrimp Taco

April 4, 2013 by annkroeker 14 Comments

Food on Fridays with Ann

This isn’t a recipe; rather it’s a quick meal idea if you happen to have the right things on hand.

I plucked a bag of frozen shrimp from the freezer, sauteed them in an iron skillet with a little oil, added taco seasoning (I used an Ortega seasoning packet) along with a splash of water to create the sauce, then plopped them into some warm corn tortillas with avocado (cut them up any old way), lettuce (I didn’t have much), tomatoes (I cut up some grape tomatoes I had on hand), and some diced sweet red pepper.

Usually I just substitute beans for the ground beef, but something made me think of the shrimp, and boy am I glad!

I could eat this every day for a week and not get tired of it.

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Food on Friday: A Small, Good Thing

March 29, 2013 by annkroeker 14 Comments

Food on Fridays with Ann

When a family faces the loss of a loved one, friends show up at the house holding platters of cold cuts and crock pots full of meatballs. People bring coffee and bagels and donuts, chips and pulled pork and ham and potatoes and rolls.

What can we do to console our dearest friends whose fragile souls heave with the howl of grief?

We feel helpless. We try to love and serve them as our own shredded hearts gush tears.

Someone comes up the steps holding a container of soup and cornbread. “I wish I could do more,” she says.

“We all do,” someone else responds, and then we push the bowls of trail mix and plates of cheese cubes to the side to make room.

The older brother and his friends from school come through and load their plates with cookies and donuts and slices of salami and piles of chips and then return to a back bedroom. The sister comes through and grabs a bottle of water. Little brother rushes in, “Where are the Sprites?”

“Down here,” I point.

He grabs a can—”Thanks!”—and runs off.

Later, the family will ladle soup into bowls and serve themselves squares of cornbread. It feels so small, so insignificant, to offer nothing more than a bowl of soup or a decanter of coffee or a box of Dr. Pepper, but it is something tangible…a small, good thing.

The lonely baker from Raymond Carver’s story, upon realizing their loss, served two grieving parents fresh baked rolls, straight from the oven, as they sat together in his bakery kitchen.

You probably need to eat something,” the baker said. “I hope you’ll eat some of my hot rolls. You have to eat and keep going. Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this,” he said.

Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this. We know this, so we bring rolls. But all the rolls in the world cannot possibly fill this gaping hole, and we know that, too. The only thing that fills the gasping heart is the Bread of Life, broken for us.

We continue to offer warm rolls and chicken noodle soup, and we pray. And on this day, Good Friday, all over the world, Christians remember the suffering Savior and fall to the foot of the cross in worship.

And we cling to the deep, nourishing hope of Resurrection.

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Filed Under: Food on Fridays Tagged With: Easter, Good Fridays

Food on Fridays: Iron Skillets

March 22, 2013 by annkroeker 4 Comments

Food on Fridays with Ann

When I complained that I couldn’t use an iron skillet because I have a smooth-top stove, my friend Linda assured me that a smooth-bottomed vintage Wagner or Griswold skillet that sits flat would fit the bill.

She suggested I watch for one on Ebay, but cautioned me to avoid the ones with heat rings, because they might be more likely to scratch. But more than anything: make sure it sits flat.

For years I thought what a good idea to invest in one of those brands, but they don’t run cheap anymore. If you spot one at a secondhand store, grab it. Even if it looks a little grungy, you can clean it up and season it yourself.

I ended up buying a small skillet on Ebay as a Christmas present and a few months later I bought another, larger skillet for my birthday.

They came already seasoned, but regular use has enhanced their nonstick qualities.

At first I thought the small one would be too small. But I use it almost every day.

The large one works perfectly for anything the small one can’t handle.

I looked at Griswolds, but they’re expensive. I ended up settling for Wagner Ware. I don’t think mine are that old, but these seasoned iron skillets are workhorses and, as I already mentioned, provide a naturally nonstick surface for cooking.

What’s more, while browning my potatoes to perfection or frying my morning egg, the pans add a mineral to my diet that is essential to life.

And they both do so without scratching the stove’s smooth top, because I made sure these had no heat rings and they sit flat.

What about you? Do you use iron pans and skillets, stainless steel, glass, ceramic, or Teflon?

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Filed Under: Food on Fridays Tagged With: cooking with iron skillets, iron skillets, Wagner Ware

Food on Fridays: Downton Abbey Tea

March 15, 2013 by annkroeker 14 Comments

Food on Fridays with Ann

My husband and I began watching Downton Abbey just this year. We would watch an episode whenever we had a free weekend, and at least once during every show I would crave tea. The characters sip it at breakfast and in the afternoon—even at night, Mrs. Hughes would settled into her room with a tea tray for a few moments of reflection at the end of her day.

Not only the sight of tea pouring from the pot, but the gentle clink of porcelain cup against saucer would stir something inside of me. For a few minutes during any given show, all I could think about was tea. But Downton Abbey offers no commercial breaks that would release me to hustle downstairs and fill the kettle with water.

So I’d just sit there, longing.

My husband and I managed to catch up on back episodes so that I could tune in with the rest of America to watch the Season 3 Finale.

And finally, I remembered the tea before the show began.

I put the water on to boil, pulled down the silver tray normally on display on the fireplace mantel, and selected a teacup from one of many my mom has given me—a Royal Albert pattern made in England: “Old Country Roses.”

Though I presumed Mrs. Hughes would be sipping Earl Grey or some other black tea, I can’t have caffeine after twelve o’clock noon, so I brewed an herbal blend, carrying everything to the room where I’d be watching the show.

I settled in and waited. When the music began and the dog’s bottom waggled onto the screen during the opening credits, I poured the tea.

I lifted the cup to my lips and sipped as ladies on screen interacted. When I set it down again, the cup clinked against the saucer. I smiled, enjoying the sensory experience and feeling connected across time to my English ancestors.

At some point, however, I realized with a gasp that the unpolished silver tray—purposely left that way to contribute to our Shabby Chic decor—would agitate Mr. Carson, the butler, who would most definitely disapprove. And for all I know, it might even shame my English ancestors.

So when the season finale ended, I picked up the tray, carried everything downstairs where I washed the cup and saucer and returned them to the cabinet. I rinsed the teapot and placed it on a shelf. Then I wiped off the tray and leaned it against the fireplace bricks where it will stay—unused and unpolished—until the start of Season Four, when just maybe I’ll consider pulling out some silver polish and giving it a shine.

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Filed Under: Food on Fridays Tagged With: Downton Abbey, tea

Food on Fridays: Bell Pepper Ring Mold

Food on Fridays with Ann

Food on Fridays: Throwing a Party

Food on Fridays with Ann

Food on Fridays: Frommer’s Natural Foods Granola Bars

Food on Fridays with Ann

Food on Fridays: Hash Brown Solution

Food on Fridays with Ann

Food on Fridays: Well-Designed Garlic Press

Food on Fridays with Ann

Food on Fridays: Dairy-Free Spinach Artichoke Dip

Food on Fridays with Ann

Hot Artichoke Dip

Food on Fridays: Shrimp Taco

Food on Fridays with Ann

Food on Friday: A Small, Good Thing

Food on Fridays with Ann

Food on Fridays: Iron Skillets

Food on Fridays with Ann

Food on Fridays: Downton Abbey Tea

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