Come to the Table

Easter Ebleskivers

For Easter brunch we wanted something delicious that we could make without too much fuss after an exciting and hectic week.  Eric suggested Ebleskivers, a round Scandinavian pancake. They hadn't been in our brunch rotation for a while and they are a treat.  It was a great choice.

I have my grandmother's ebelskiver pan which has 7 half-circle impressions.  After making a simple buttermilk batter and folding in beaten egg whites, you pour a small amount of batter into each section.  Once the bottom is cooked, you turn each ball with a wooden stick or fork to cook the next side, and so on until you have an evenly cooked "puff ball" with a nearly hollow center.  After removing the ebleskivers from the pan, you can fill them with butter and jam and/or cover them with powdered sugar or maple syrup. 

I will print the ebleskiver recipe I use below, just in case you have one of these pans mouldering away in your cupboard and don't know what to do with it!  Along with the pan, I received a number of different ebelskiver recipes, from "Easy Do Ebleskiver" made with yellow cake mix (this one doesn't sound too appealing to me) to a Bisquick recipe, to one featuring cardamom.  Besides using buttermilk, the ebleskiver recipe we've decided is our favorite has the added feature of being a yellowed Tacoma (Washington) News Tribune clipping from October 11, 1972.  (It was a Wednesday, in case you're wondering.)

The article explains that Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) faculty wives will be presenting a "Yule Boutique" featuring their brand new cookbook, Christmas craft booths, and a magic show for children.  Regarding ebleskivers (spelled Aebliskiver) the article explains, "A special treat to be served will be Aebliskiver submitted by Mrs. Neale Nelson, which was given to her by a Danish housewife.  It is a Scandinavian delicacy, light and tasty, a round little griddle cake like a pastry baked in a special iron atop the stove.  Faculty wives, dressed in colorful costumes, will also serve hot rolls, breads and coffee for patrons."

I wonder if the faculty wives (and husbands) are still hosting a "Yule Boutique" these days.  In case you can't make it to one, the recipe for ebelskivers follows, for Easter or any other joyous morning!

Coconut Almond Granola

There are many granola recipes out there that I've viewed and planned on making someday, but somehow the 30-item list of ingredients deterred me from ever getting started.  Until now

In the newspaper recently I found a granola recipe and I had all of the ingredients in the pantry (which seems to be a theme for me lately), so I went for it. 

The granola was a delicious first attempt at making my own breakfast cereal.  The recipe calls for making a yogurt, fruit, and granola parfait, but it's great with milk, too.  Now I'm ready to try some more complicated granola recipes.  But not until every last morsel of these brown-sugar covered oats, almonds, coconut, and wheat germ concoction has been eaten!

Irish Soda Bread

One of the cookbooks I've had the longest is Cooking A to Z edited by Jane Horn and published by the California Culinary Academy.   My parents gave it to me as a gift when I was striking out on my own after college.  It is a useful reference book, kind of an encyclopedia of food and cooking, organized alphabetically as the title suggests. 

Last week I tried a new recipe featuring Swiss Chard.  Since it was my first time cooking with it, I looked it up in this book.  Little did I know that Swiss chard "is a variety of beet grown for its leaves rather than for its root."  That explained the deep red color in the stalk and stems.

What does this have to do with Irish Soda Bread?  One of the first recipes I cooked from this first cookbook falls in the "B" section under "Baking Soda."  I don't recall why I stumbled upon it, but that's how this book works.  You flip through until you find a topic, ingredient, or technique that interests you, read the article, and then see what recipes are included with it.  I guess that for the editor Irish Soda Bread fit the bill as a recipe to illustrate the powers of baking soda.

SHF #15 Chipper Banana Muffins

The concept for Sugar High Friday #15 is to make something sweet without using sugar.  I admit that my entry does have a bit of white sugar, and, oh, some chocolate chips.  But I think it still qualifies as low on the sugar scale.

These "Chipper Banana Muffins" from the Weight Watchers cookbook Simply the Best include bananas, unsweetened applesauce, and skim buttermilk.  You could omit the chocolate chips to make them less sweet, but who would willingly omit chocolate?!

Toasted Almond Waffles

It's fun to receive a new cookbook as a gift.  So many new recipes and tastes to try.  It's especially fun to receive a new cookbook that comes with the giver's typed recommendations and variations on a majority of its offerings!

I received The Totally Pancakes and Waffles Cookbook and an accompanying guide last summer.  Recently, I made Toasted Almond Waffles according to the giver's specifications, which increased the almond extract and decreased the vanilla.  I think that was a good idea, an I might try even more almond extract next time to heighten the nut flavor.

Pancakes, Nigella's Way

How many pancake recipes can a person have in her breakfast repertoire?  As many as she wants!

Usually I make buttermilk pancakes with a classic Betty Crocker recipe (my version of Betty Crocker's cookbook is from 1987 with "Betty" wearing a fluffy white bow tie on her blouse.)  But without any buttermilk in the fridge and an urge for pancakes, I turned to Nigella to infuse some Domestic Goddess-ness into this simple morning treat.

I used Nigella's recipe for American Breakfast Pancakes.  My favorite discovery from this recipe is her suggestion to "put all the ingredients into a blender and blitz."   Now when I make pancakes I put the egg in the blender first and run it for a few seconds, then I add the wet ingredients to the beaten egg and mix.  Then I add the dry ingredients which I have already mixed with a fork, and blend everything together for the shortest time needed until the dry ingredients are moistened.

A Thank You Brunch

During December I read and hear about office parties and staff lunches and holiday get-togethers with co-workers.  Since I have a small staff of three other people who work very hard throughout the year, especially around Christmas, I decided to start a new tradition and host a New Year's Brunch for us. 

As we ate, I asked everyone about their highlights from 2005 that were not work-related.  We told stories, laughed, and bonded.  What a great way to begin working together in the new year!

For this brunch, I wanted to make dishes from scratch, ahead of time, with very little assembly required.  Here's what I came up with:

Staff Thank You Brunch
Coffee Cake (recipe follows)
Smoked Ham Rolls with Barefoot Contessa's Garlic-Herb Cream Cheese
Fresh Fruit (Blackberries, Blueberries, Oranges & Bananas) with Barefoot Contessa's Honey Vanilla Yogurt
Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Cranberry Juice and Orange Juice