Our Most Fun and Festive Creation of 2011: Flower Power Eggs

We had a blast cooking up recipes in 2011, and as Exhibit A of that proposition, I give you the photo above – our Flower Power Eggs — a idea I created one day when thinking of how to turn eggs into a flower shape and wound up using bell pepper rings, which, turns out, look a lot like flowers when sliced up.

In Januaries past, I dutifully penned my wish list: Lose weight. Exercise more. Read more. Blah, blah, blah.

This year, I’m throwing caution to the wind and centering my resolutions around my passion for food. C’mon. If you’re reading this blog, you must have a few food wishes of your own for 2012, No?

Okay, food fans, I’ll take the plunge first.

1.  MAKE MORE MISTAKES

It is often said that we learn more from our failures than from our successes. This is especially true in cooking. I remember the caramel that turned to cement, the fondue that was a clump of cheesy greasy goo and the souffles that flopped much more than I do the enchiladas I can make in my sleep. I hereby resolve to be willing to make more mistakes rather than going with what is “safe.” Because sometimes, just sometimes, the”mistakes” turn into a whole new door being opened, a new talent being discovered. Heck, who knows? I might even try baking some bread!

Other resolutions are:

2.  Take on a charitable food cause.
3.  Join a CSA.
4.  Try something new every week.
5.  Expand my repertoire.
6.  Clean out my freezer.
7.  Small healthy changes in Baby Steps
8.  Learn how to use my pressure cooker
9.  Stop taking labels for granted
10.  Have more fun in the kitchen!

Read more about upcoming foodie adventures in 2012 . . .

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It’s a natural inclination at this time of year to look for ways to help others, and for us, those that involve the fundamental, communal connection of food are of special note. This project is particularly inspiring, as it seeks to help youth provide for their own community – an investment that will grow for years. And the impact on nutrition, and thus on their health, is part of the mission as well.

Every little bit counts in their Start Some Good fundraiser. From their site:

This year at Grow Dat Youth Farm, we will hire 20 teenagers to grow 10,000 pounds of food. To make this a reality, we are excited to announce our first annual campaign to “Grow the Green”. Help us employ teenagers to grow food for their community! 

The Grow Dat Youth Farm came to life last year with the mission to nurture a diverse group of young leaders through the meaningful work of growing food. The idea for Grow Dat is simple: hire young adults, whose job options are often limited to fast food restaurants, to grow food for their community. In New Orleans we suffer from diet-related disease in numbers even higher than the staggering national averages.  We believe in the ability of young adults not only to change those patterns in their own lives but to be leaders who can affect change throughout their community. At Grow Dat, we give young people the skills to do just that. 

Each youth employee earns $1550 over the course of their 20-week job training program. They learn how to grow, process, sell and prepare fresh food by working on the farm, at farmers’ markets and at hunger relief agencies. Youth employees also receive training in communication, public speaking, cooking and nutrition, financial health and food justice.

We have raised two-thirds of the money necessary to hire 20 teenagers in January. We are launching this campaign to raise the remaining $9,300 we need. During the holiday season we are hoping you will help us by giving the gift of employment. Everyone who donates will receive a downloadable PDF “Thanks For Giving” card which you can share with friends and family on whose behalf you have purchased this gift.

For more information, check out the Grow Dat Youth Farm page. Please consider a contribution to this wonderful project!

Who needs expensive copper or stainless steel egg or pancake ring molds when you can use pretty, bright bell peppers?

For those of you alive in the 1970′s, travel back in time with me for just a minute. Remember “Flower Power?”  This was a slogan of the anti-war protest raging in the country when I was a teen.That is exactly what these eggs in pepper rings look like – the bright, round flowers that were plastered on posters, walls and even our clothes back then. You can even play some Simon and Garfunkel while you eat these Flower Power Eggs to complete the ambiance. Go-Go boots optional, but Out-a-sight, Man!

There’s no recipe, really, just three steps: 1) Cut bell peppers into 1/2 inch rings; 2) Place in a non-stick lightly oiled skillet; and 3) Crack an egg in the middle of each ring and cover and cook over low heat until done. If you like your yolks runny, just cook over low heat until whites are done. If you like your yolks firm, break the yolks and then cook over low heat until both whites and yolks are firm.

We didn’t have Meatless Mondays in the 70′s, but if we did, we would have been making these for breakfast!

Easy. Fun. Colorful. Healthy. Groovy, Baby!

– posted by Donna

Just a reminder to all our fabulous followers: THERE ARE THREE DAYS LEFT TO ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY OF A BLENDTEC BLENDER! You can enter to win up until midnight on Monday, August 15th.

In honor of culinary icon Julia Child’s 99th birthday on Monday, August 15, 2011, we will be selecting the winner through random.org on Monday at 11:59 p.m. and posting the win on Tuesday, August 16th. Be sure to stop by and see who wins!

Oh, and here’s a bonus: We have enjoyed all your comments so much that we have decided to give away three BONUS PRIZES! Yes, you read that right: we’re picking three of our favorite comments and giving away three copies of Julia Child’s Two Volume set: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the cookbook that started it all ~

So, get those last few comments written by clicking on our giveaway badge at the top left.

Good Luck, Everyone!

– Donna and Anne

Birth Mom Donna and Daughter Anne - Reunited for just over 10 years now!

Remember this post? When we attended BlogHer Food 2010, we had some revelations.

Everything that was talked about – relationships with food, emotional connections, and the deep value of cooking itself – affirmed exactly  what has been calling to us. And so we will finally begin to write about our story [as a reunited birth mother and daughter], our connection with and through food, and how it has changed both of us.

We are changing up our focus to devote more time and space here to what matters most to us food-wise: How food binds us together as families; how food is always more than just food – it is a statement of who we are and where we’re going; how food grounds us and family recipes and traditions give a richness to our lives and to those we love. And for us, specifically, how food played a major role in how food brought us together when we reunited.

Food is the story of us, and we plan to devote our space in the world and on this blog to that concept.

For most of the month of April, we’ll be remodeling. There may be an occasional post from time to time, but most of our work will be on a makeover, rename and redirect (don’t worry, you’ll still be able to find us and our Fab Frugal Food archives right here in the same place as the newly rechristened blog). And we’ll certainly still be out and about on Facebook and Twitter.

What can you expect? There will be stories and recipes from the past, from the time Donna and I reunited and started to connect in the kitchen. There will be stories and recipes from our lives as they unfold now. There will also be stories and recipes about the food in our lives before we met – from Donna’s childhood in Tucson, Arizona and then starting her own family in Hood River, Oregon, and from Anne’s youth in Denver, Colorado – things that we want to share with one another for the first time while we share them with you.

And there will still be the occasional stand-alone fabulously frugal recipe! So if you’ve come with us this far and like what you see, come a little further.

Our grand re-opening – with a giveaway, too – will be, of course, on Mother’s Day!

See you then!

– posted by Donna and Anne,
birth mother and daughter, co-bloggers
and dedicated food enthusiasts

There are no falling leaves. We’re not going to the pumpkin patch this weekend. We know. It’s not Fall.

But.

We just found out yesterday that Donna’s Cranberry Clementine Salsa Fresca won a California Cuties recipe contest, and we couldn’t wait ’til Fall to brag!

So, put this recipe on your Must-Try List to make when you see pumpkins piled outside your favorite grocery store. Better yet – if you have a bag of cranberries stashed in your freezer since November, like I do, make it NOW.

Fruit salsas are so yummy, and so I used California Cuties, which are a perfect pairing with the cranberries.

So, on Thanksgiving last year I tried out a cranberry and clementine salsa on all my relatives. I kept all the ingredients raw, or “fresca.”All 18 who tried this refreshing, fruity salsa voted a Thumbs Up! Waaaaay Up!

The combo of clementines and cranberries is delightful!  And I added jalapenos, but you could add any peppers you want.

Your taste buds will have a fiesta!

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