What to cook Up this Weekend: Ebelskivers

For Christmas the Husband (the baker in the family) received an ebelskiver pan and cookbook from my parents. It was one of those gifts that was completely unexpected and hit the nail on the head! The husband is a big breakfast guy and unbeknownst to us, had admired the ebelskiver pan from afar. SCORE! Since Christmas we've been cooking them up on the occasional Sunday morning and they are a huge hit. So tasty, that I was unable to get a lovely staged final shot of the little treats before they were consumed! whoops.  Ebelskivers are basically little round pancakes. 

For the plain variety: you simply fill each pocket with the batter and then (once you get the timing down) flip them with the special wooden curved sticks. This was the trickiest part to get down, but I'm getting pretty good at it! Look at that handy work, so graceful!

You can eat them plain with a dusting of powdered sugar... OR you can be a rockstar and fill them with Nutella, jam, or peanut butter etc etc. The Nutella and jam ones have been the most successful... we have also combined a few fillings together like- nutella + peanut butter and a PB & J variety, but the classic solo fillings are the best. In order to fill an ebelskiever- you simply put less batter in each pocket. Then add your filling, and top it off with more batter before flipping them over.

So popular and dangerous, that this the only shot I was able to capture of the finished product! The cookbook provides a variety of other ebelskiver variations as well. I bet if you think of them as a miniature crepe you could really have some fun with them! Use cheese as the filling and poof- a fun appetizer party treat!

Yum, Yum!

~abs

Apples, in a new direction

It's apple season! And we have already made two apple pies with our crazy bounty, but then I read this month's REAL SIMPLE and they offered 4 tasty ways to enjoy this season's apples.  I'm going to give them a try and thought you might like to try too!

1) Grilled Apple and Cheddar Panini: Spread slices of raisin-walnut bread with dijon mustard and form sandwiches with thinly sliced apples and extra sharp cheddar. Cook in butter in a skillet, turning once, until cheese melts and the bread is crisp.

2) Roasted Apples with Red Onions and Thyme: Toss apple and red onion wedges with olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh thyme sprigs. Roast at 400 F, tossing once, until tender, 35-40 mins.

3) Apple and Fennel Salad with Parmesan:  Toss thinly sliced apples and fennel with chopped fresh parsley, fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Top with shaved Parmesan.

4) Sauteed Apples and Cabbage: Cook sliced onions in oil in a large skillet until tender, 5-8 mins. Add sliced apples and shredded cabbage and cook until just tender, about 5 mins. Stir in red wine vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

How do you eat your bounty of apples?

Cook these up this Fall- Pumpkin Cupcakes

I used Martha Stewart's Recipe for these pumpkin cupcakes and this Recipe for the cream cheese frosting. The Result- a tasty fall treat, more like a muffin (without the icing), AND oh soooo goood. PS: the recipe says it yields 18, but I easily made 24 cupcakes.  Enjoy!

Roasted Golden Beets- the Perfect Summertime Meal!

My Mother came to visit for a long weekend and although almost every meal was eaten out at one of Portland's tasty restaurants- we had a few very lovely meals at home as well. On Saturday I took her to the Local Farmer's Market where we purchased blueberries, raspberries, some sour cherries, lettuce, and BEETS!

They were so tasty I thought I would share how she cooked them.

1) Preheat the oven for 400. Lightly wash each beet, remove the beet green stalks just above the top of the beet, leaving a small flat top of stems. Keep the root on and do not peel the beets- this happens after you cook them.

2) Put the beets in a 8x12 pan. Drizzle them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and lightly sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Let them marinate a little while. (5mins or so)

3) Cook beets for about 45mins or until they are soft when poked with a fork. (cooking time varies due to size of beets) 

4) Let them cool- then peel the beets and cut off the roots and the remaining top of the beet. Slice them and drizzle with more olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste!

She paired them with a salad that was a lightly dressed with... YUP with olive oil and balsamic and topped with walnuts and grated parm.

How do you like to cook up beets!?

Petite Individual Cherry Pie recipe

I Heart Cherries- BIG TIME. I wrote a post about my love for them HERE.

I've been craving a good 'ol cherry pie all summer and after buying a little bin of sour cherries at the farmer's market- I set out to make myself my very own personal cherry dessert- a pie, a crumble if you will! SO here's a how to....

First I pre heated the oven for 350...

Then I washed the ruby jewels, de-pitted them with my de-pitter (as seen above) then placed them into one ramkin. I sprinkled a bit of sugar on top and let them sit while I mixed up the pie crust- like topping.

The crust: Like the crumble I've mentioned before- I used the same recipe for the crust.

In a bowl mix 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour and 1 egg. Put the mixture on top of your dessert then drizzle butter on top of that (usually one stick for the large casserole crumble, but I used a tiny amount on this). I made half this portion and saved the rest in the fridge for later in the week. I sprinkled a touch of sugar on top once again! ; )

I cooked the treat at 350 for 25 mins, or until the crust was golden and the fruit juice was bubbling. 

The English in us- inspires my family to pour heavy cream on our fruit desserts- and so I did just that, but of course Ice cream is good too! Overall this was a SUPER fast dessert for one person. It was on the healthy side- ie natural and minimal ingredients, no preservatives or weird food coloring or corn syrup....

I can see this being a fun dessert to make for an intimate dinner party! I'm sure this wont be my last cherry pie of the summer!!

I Scream for home made Ice Cream!

With the summer solstice on Monday, we decided to celebrate with some home made ice cream! We received our Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment 2 yrs ago and this was sadly it's maiden voyage.  And now that we have hopped aboard the natural ice cream train there might not be any way of getting off.

We decided to play it safe with our first ice cream experiment and start by making classic French Vanilla. The ice cream maker came with a little how to instructional including a few recipes. In the future we plan to venture out beyond the standard recipes with green tea ice cream and maybe even a rhubarb sorbet.

While at Whole Foods I also picked up a little organic instant cookie dough set- that makes 24 cookies, by Immaculate Backing Co. Very tasty and affordable (around $3)! Thus I made myself a little ice cream sandwich! In the future- when I am perhaps not so impatient to taste the ice cream, I will spread the ice cream between the cookies and then put the sandwich back in the freezer to solidify the combo into a tasty treat. Our ice cream was so good it seriously rivals Haggen Daz!

Happy Summer and here's to more home made ice cream!

Instant Cookies- by Pillsbury, a review

If you saw our grocery chart brimming with 90% produce and fresh ingredients you would not expect to see a packet of instant cookies in the mix.  But on Sunday, after having to cut our Memorial Day weekend way to short in order to get back for the husband's 2am baking shift- I felt like we needed a little pick me up, a treat if you will. And when I saw this little packet of instant cookies by Pillsbury with its 0g trans fat, no high fructose corn syrup, or added artificial preservatives- I thought, alright let's try this!

We made a crazy dinner Sunday night- a pasta recipe from our Jamie at Home- cookbook with the most awesome stinky cheese sauce EVER and a cucumber salad from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook (will blog w/ pics & details soon) we were so full that the cookies had to wait just one day. So today, after returning from a little memorial day hike- the time had come for our taste test. The result- GOOD. Of course what beats the joy of an instant warm cookie!? So effortless and very tasty, plus the added benefit of these guys being void of trans fat etc....  I still cringe at the idea of buying things with loads of packaging and ultimately I will just not buy something if I feel it has too much packaging or essentially if I stop and realize the amount of packaging is not worth it...  But I splurged. Plus this packaging was relatively minimal- consisting of a cardboard tray= recycle, and its plastic packet. And although this isn't something I would do once a week, I recommend them if you are in a pinch for a little set of 12 cookies, or want to treat yourself!  It's the best 12-15 mins cookie experience!

Wacky Cake- easy & tasty WWII rationed recipe!

Need a cake in a pinch?! Love chocolate! Then try "Wacky Cake". (how's that for an ad campaign!?)

Wacky Cake- as it is affectionately known in my family was born from the days of WWII when eggs and butter were scarce. Thus this cake is a fun modern day vegan option!

How to:

Take a large 9x13 or 10x15 pan UNGREASED and mix the following ingredients in the pan. (So easy!)
3 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 6 Tablespoons of cocoa, 1 Tablespoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of baking soda.

Then ADD 1 Tablespoon of vanilla, 2 Tablespoons of white vinegar, and 10 Tablespoons of vegetable/canola oil. Add 2 Cups of water. Stir together in the pan using a fork until just mixed.

COOK in your oven at 350 for 30 minutes- check it at 20 mins just to be sure!

When it's done it tastes awesome with cream cheese icing and ice cream or super light and fluffy with out icing!  Enjoy!

the yippity yo cooking show- a 3yr old bakes cookies!

Saw this clip today of a 3yr old's cooking show, too funny! Reminds me of my niece. Well my niece doesn't have all the "vocabulary" as this little one does...! And since I'm pregnant- and feel like it's a girl, I'm pretty sure this is what any daughter of mine would be like.

A quick pasta sauce

In keeping with eating what's in the cupboard- tonight we cooked up some leftover lasagna pasta and a cream sauce to go with.  The sauce turned out really great and was quick to make so I thought I would share.

I've probably mentioned my cream sauce before in other pasta related entires but I will repeat it once again because it's so good and easy to make!

Chop 1 onion and cook it in a pan with olive oil.  Once that onion is golden and soft, add 1/3 or 1/2 cup of flour to the mix. Stir it in so the olive oil really mixes with the flour. Then add milk in proportion to how thick you want the sauce to be.  Salt and nutmeg are great additions!  TONIGHT- I tried something a little more "fun"- which is all relative to your own personal level of fun! Yes folks- I added a can of mushroom soup to the sauce. How daring, quite the back of a soup label am I! In doing so I didn't have to add as much milk since the soup provided the liquid. However I did taste as I cooked along and added milk here and there to balance out the salty-ness of the soup.

The sauce went on top of the lasagna pasta and was topped with some parm. The whole thing took maybe 20 mins tops! If I had walnuts I would have chopped them up and added them to the mushroom sauce. We have enough sauce leftover for a future use and I know I will be doing this again. Next time I might try the squash soup.

Tasty Vegan inspired meal

In keeping with our new vegan-esque eating regiment, the husband cooked up an old staple!

I first had this surprisingly delicious meal while living in Alaska. One night Cam picked me up from work with this tasty treat waiting for me!

It's acorn squash with rice, but in this case there was the addition of mushrooms and chickpeas. 

You cook up the rice separately on the stove, while the squash has been cut and cleaned and cooks with a bit of butter- inside the oven in a brownie pan. 

When ready, scoop the rice medley into the squash and eat!

Lobstah

The other evening, after a full day of rain, we decided to cash in on our little Lobster dinner birthday celebration event and all around tasty evening... So we went to our local seafood place on Commercial Street and got two big ones. It's nice to get super super fresh lobster and especially great when it costs less than Salmon!

It all felt so appropriate with the howling winds and rain beating down on our windows, we already felt like we lived in a light house so having a fresh catch was very ideal. As we picked apart our lobsters we spoke of future abodes with our very own row boat and lobster traps to catch our own meals!

some day some day

Home made pasta!

For New Year's Cam and I decided to make home made pasta! A feat Cam had been talking about forever! So we rented some movies, stayed in and dusted off the 'ol pasta attachment for our Kitchen aid. It is truly amazing what can be made with flour and an egg. And the result was probably thee best pasta I have had in a VERY long time, Of course it's easy for one to be biased when you make it yourself. We used a Mario Batali recipe and in his book he mentions when in Italy not only did they use their kitchen chairs to dry the pasta but even their beds! ( You'll be happy to know we used our chairs)

Here's a picture of Millie waiting for the scraps to inevitably fall from the cutting process. Unfortunately Millie had too much pasta which resulted in us taking turns through out the night to let her out.... mental note for the future! Whoops, poor little dog!

Here is the video of the cutting process. Excuse my bad stereotyping, maybe watch it with the volume off! And the second video is what comes before- the pressing. Each section is pressed 6 times at different pressures.

I made a cream sauce which I perfected while living in Italy- simply a coincidence. You start with olive oil in a pan fry up some garlic and maybe some onion if you like. Then add 1/2 cup of white flour to the oil, stir it around and when it becomes pasty, add 1/2 cup of milk. You can add cheese if you like, but this time I added one can of diced tomatoes and some sun-dried tomatoes we had lying around. You will need to keep the milk near by in case the sauce really starts to thicken, then just keep adding milk until you get the right proportion. And with all cooking and with typically Italian cooking- it's all about the feel of something and is ultimately up to you the cook!

I hope this has inspired you to make pasta if you haven't before. This is just the beginning of our pasta making endeavors, although I doubt we will do this every month!

Fantastic Pancakes!

The Perfect snowy winter morning calls for a nice cup of tea and some warm pancakes!

The Husband has been making these of late and they are GOOOOooood! Sometimes they can be a nice thin crepe, depending on the ratio of some ingredients. (leave your inhibitions and diet consciousness at the door, these are worth it)

Here's the recipe:

2 cups of flour

2 tblsp of sugar

4 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of fine salt

Combine these in their own bowl.

2 cups of buttermilk (or substitute- 2 cups milk, 1 tbl apple cider vinegar)

4 tblsp of melted butter

1 tsp of vanilla extract

2 beaten eggs

combine the wet ingredients in with the dry and whisk!

Fry in a pan with butter then top with REAL Maple syrup and butter and if you really want to gild the Lilly- maybe top with Jam! After all they are crepe-like, so do it up! We have had these for leftovers for Lunch or dinner with cheese and a bowl of soup, rich but oh so good!

Enjoy!

Tis the Season for... PIES! (A repost)

I decided to repost this from last Thanksgiving- to offer our family pie recipe! Enjoy!

My Mother is the queen of pie making hence why at every birthday and at our wedding reception I asked for Pies please!

With her recipe you will be making delicious pies too! The recipes are SOO easy!

HERE GOES!

Pie crust:

1 crust- ie just a bottom crust for a pumpkin pie

1 and a 1/3 cup of flour

1/2 tsp of salt

3 Table spoons of cold milk

1/3 cup of Wesson oil/ veg oil

1/4 cup of sugar

2 crusts- ie top and bottom- for an apple pie

2 Cups of flour

1 tsp of salt

1/4 cup of milk

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1/4 cup of sugar

HOW TO!

Measure out your oil in a measuring cup then add the milk to the measuring cup- DO NOT STIR

In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients- the flour and salt. ADD the liquid to the flour mixture and mix with a fork. Here comes the improvisation- if the mixture is too dry and not sticking together then add a touch a milk until it begins to look like dough. Sometimes you will need to do this and other times you wont! Its part of cooking!

Then wet the counter and lay one layer of wax paper down (the dampness allows the paper to stick and not move).

Then put your dough on the paper and layer another piece of wax paper over top. Then roll it out with your rolling pin. Be sure to change directions to get an even circle and not an oval!

Then take the top piece of paper off and scoop your hand underneath the paper with the dough on it and flip it over into the pie pan and remove the wax paper.

If you are baking just one pie crust for a pie whose contents you don't have to bake- ie a French silk chocolate pie- then you will stab holes in the crust with a fork- to avoid any air bubbles being created btwn the dough and the pan. You will cook it at 500 for 5-7 mins.

APPLE PIE recipe- (what to put between your pie crust!)

NOTE when making an apple pie you will prep the apples before making the crust- because since this is an easy pie crust recipe it doesn't keep like the standard old fashion crusts do- and you will need to cook this one right away.

Peel and core 6-8 apples

Put them in a bowl and squeeze a lemon over them to prevent them from browning.

In a separate bowl mix sugar 1/4- 1/3 cup of brown sugar and the same of white sugar. 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and a 1/4 tsp of nutmeg and a pinch of salt AND mix!

ASSEMBLE the crust and place the bottom crust in the pan and then layer the apples into the crust.

After the first layer of apples- you will sprinkle on a layer of the sugar mixture. You will repeat the altering layers until you have reached the edge of the pie crust. I usually over layer because the apples cook down a bit and you want your pie to have some apples in it!

The last layer will be the sugar layer.

Then cut 2 Table spoons of butter and put it on top of the apples.

Put the top crust on and pinch around the edges of the crust- sealing the two crusts together.

Cut 4 holes in the top crust as a vent to let the pie breath when being cooked. THEN sprinkle a little bit of white sugar on the top of the crust.

COOK!

Preheat the oven at 425- you will cook the pie at this temp for 15 mins

THEN turn the temp down to 350 and cook the pie for an additional 30 mins.

The pie will be done when the edges are golden brown and there is a nice bubbly over flow around the edges!

EAT UP!

Recipe: squash and white bean soup

Tis the season for squash! And since we have a direct hook up to a local farm- we have had a bounty of squash lying around! And thus we embarked on that pesky recipe folder that never sees any love... Until NOW!

This recipe comes from Real Simple magazine and we fudged some of the ingredients to accommodate our sparse pantry. The subs will be in parenthesis.

Cook 1 onion in olive oil in the bottom of your soup pot.

Then add in 1 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes, 1 small butternut squash, peeled- should yield 4 cups once chopped.

1 table spoon of thyme, salt and pepper.

2 15 ounce cans of cannellini beans, rinsed. (we used one can of pigeon beans and one can of cannellini)

1 bunch of spinach, thick stems removed+ 4 cups (we used leftover beet greens from a farmer's market trip over the summer- they were kept frozen in our freezer)

1/4 cup shredded parm (we used cheddar slices- see pic).

It was super tasty, a great fall soup that provided many meals and great for taking to work!

scrimp, save and eat

The Husband and I have been attempting to keep better track of our finances (thanks to the mac program "numbers" we have spreadsheets that would make you blush!).

The only thing, besides rent, that we spend money on- is our groceries. There is a lot of advice out there on how to be a better shopper, and I found a great article that gives praticle advice while covering all the bases! Here's the link.

ON a lighter cooking note- I am making a mental effort at this point to cook more fall goodies! Whole Foods website has a fun assortment of treats and their pumpkin chocolate cake- pictured above, is on my list this week! And keeping my buget in mind, it helps that I have most of the ingredients to begin with.

Happy cooking and share your own fall favorites if you like!

UPDATE:

The husband and I made these for Knit night on October 27th- and they were really good! The pumpkin ingredient makes the cake super moist! It reminded us of "Wacky cake" for those of you who are familiar! I bet it would have been banging with some home made icing, next time. PS- super easy to make!

Happy October with a fall recipe!

As Promised- here is a fall recipe! And what a way to welcome in October with a warm meal. I made this Goat cheese and Mushroom Quiche with the help of my Husband (as always) for Knit night this past Tuesday. It was a hit, and I'm sure we'll make it again.

I got the recipe from recipegirl.com

A great site full of fun ideas and easy to follow recipes! The link will take you to the exact recipe.

(Before the quiche went into the oven. No after picture because it wasn't around for very long!)

NOTE: We ended up cooking the Quiche for almost an hour as opposed to the 30-35 min suggestion. I'm not sure if it was our oven or the cookie sheet she suggests you place underneath the pie plate, but it seemed to take a long time! And we didn't want to serve raw egg! Oh and as it turns out the cookie sheet is necessary since the egg really bubbled over. The only suggestion I have is if you have one of those oven sheets that sits on the bottom to keep your oven clean- then and only then eliminate the cookie sheet!

Happy cooking and happy October!

Presto it's Pesto!

It's that time of year when things are beginning to cool down and with temperatures hovering in the 60's we realized our time with our home grown produce is coming to an end. Thus we decided to make some pesto this Labor day from our Basil Plant!

We used Mario Batali's recipe and our food processor attachment that goes with our blender.

Makes 1 cup:

3 table spoons of Pine Nuts

2 cups of Fresh Basil

1 clove of Garlic

Pinch of Salt (I used two pinches of sea salt- to taste)

1/2 cup of Olive oil

1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmigiano cheese.

You blend, or pulse, the basil, salt, pine nuts and garlic together.

Then take it out of the blender and dish it into a bowl for the remainder of the making.

Drizzle your olive oil over the pesto-ish mixture and stir. Continue to add the olive oil drizzle at a time and keep mashing it up. Once the olive oil is all poured and mixed add your cheese one table spoon at a time. And TASTE! (here is where I added another hint of sea salt I think my "pinch" wasn't generous enough on my first go around).

And PRESTO you have PESTO! So tasty and smells fantastic.

We mixed it with chicken and pasta and finished it off with more parmigiano. Enjoy!

PS-if you are making a lot of Pesto you can store it in ice cube trays in your freezer, than pop them out of their trays and store them in a ziploc bag in your freezer. Then you can have pesto whenever the mood strikes! Or if you are going to use your pesto in the near future- ie within a weeks- Put the pesto in a jar and pour olive oil on the top and seal and store in your fridge, use within a week.

a meal for one from two cans

okay so I've been making this "dish" lately and it's really good. cheap, a quick fix and makes a few meals- making it easy to take to work etc...

The top can is this great beans and rice combo. You can't get any easier than that!

1st I fry onions in oil in my cooking pot. Then I add the beans and rice and the diced tomatoes. You really only have to cook it for 5-7 mins. tops.

Finish it off with avocado and sour cream- and you have a tasty meal!