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    Home » Amish Breads

    Plain Kansas: Rosanna Serves Up Fire Crackers

    Published: Jan 7, 2015 · Updated: Apr 26, 2022 by Kevin Williams | Leave a Comment

    PLAIN KANSAS

    By Rosanna Bauman

    If Kansas, if the ice is thick enough on the ponds, we feel obligated to make the most of it, even if it isn't glass-smooth. The snow gave the ice a dimpled appearance, resulting in a very rough surface to skate upon. You have to use twice as much muscle to skate on the rough stuff, because you don’t glide very far. After several hours of skating on rough ice, however, our skates will pretty much shave off the big bumps. To a certain extent, the longer we skate on rough ice, the smoother it becomes. There ought  to be a life lesson in that, I suppose.

    Fire Crackers

    Rosanna is a firecracker on the ice who enjoys Fire Crackers

    We really don’t skate roughly, but is a sport, so accidents happen. Just tonight one of the boys fell while playing Freeze Tag (aptly named in more ways than one) and split open the skin on his forehead. We had my uncle, who is a paramedic, superglue it shut. Sometimes an ankle is sprained (I did that last winter). The worst thing that has happened was 12 years ago when Marvin collided with a friend, breaking the fellow’s jaw.

    In sounds a little funny but we just build a fire on the ice so we can just skate right up to it to warm ourselves. As the evening progresses the fire begins to sink a bit as the melted ice makes a pool around the logs. There’s always a jug of coffee and cocoa present at a skating but the cold water jug gets emptied first because the active skaters  re-hydrate after working up a sweat. Sometimes a pan of brownies or cookies will appear which we make sure are situated away from the smoke. Once we didn’t pay attention and smoke drifted over the food table giving t cookies a campfire smoke flavor.  Those were terrible cookies.

    A quick snack that is always popular at the skating are the “Fire Crackers.”   One doesn't really crave sweets in the cold winter atmosphere but the carbohydrates and the heat of the Fire Crackers is a nice combination. But that is just the nature of those Fire Crackers. They show up everywhere, for any occasion, and the container gets cleaned out.  On “dressing day” we will serve Fire Crackers in place of potato chips because they are more popular. Nearly any soup is elevated by crumbling Fire Crackers into it, or simply serving aa a side in place of bread,   Fire Crackers made an appearance at our large Bauman Family Christmas gathering and we served as a snack right alongside the homemade chocolates.  The Fire Crackers were eaten first.  Part of what makes those Fire Crackers so popular is that they are so simple to make.  Fire Crackers are a last-minute finger food that you can throw together from pantry ingredients you already have on hand and that is guaranteed to get devoured.

    Plain Kansas: Rosanna Serves Up Fire Crackers
     
    Print
    Prep time
    10 mins
    Total time
    10 mins
     
    Serves: 20 servings
    Ingredients
    • 1 box (4 sleeves) of saltine crackers
    • 1 1 /4 cup canola oil
    • 1 package ranch seasoning mix
    • 2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
    Instructions
    1. Carefully open the sleeves and stand the crackers on edge in an 8 X 8 plastic container with a lid.
    2. A Tupperware dish works great for this as the sleeves fit snugly in their 8 X 8 dish.
    3. Whisk together the oil ranch and pepper and then pour evenly over the edges of the crackers.
    4. Snap the lid on the container and flip it slowly upside and back so that the oil can cover the crackers.
    5. Flip immediately so that oil is absorbed and serve immediately.
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    About Kevin Williams

    Hi, my name is Kevin Williams and I am owner of Oasis Newsfeatures and editor of The Amish Cook newspaper column.

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    Kevin Williams - The Amish Editor Amish Cook Column

    Hi There, I'm Kevin!

    Welcome to Amish365, where I share my knowledge of Amish cooking and culture! I’ve spent almost three decades exploring Amish settlements and kitchens from Maine to Montana and almost everywhere in between. I’ll occasionally throw in stories of my travels, journalism adventures (I’m a Pulitzer prize-nominated journalist), fascination with grocery stores and Kmarts, and much more!

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