Ebelskivers

Ebelskivers are a classic treat that is made in Denmark.  They are light, round pancakes that sometimes have a filling in them.  I remember my mom and my grandma making them when I was a kid.  I have a lot of Danish roots on my mom’s side of the family, and this was a tradition they passed down.

A couple of years ago Melinda and I saw an ebelskiver pan in Williams-Sonoma.  We’ve seen it a few times since then, but last week Melinda got it for me as an early father’s day gift.

Miles helped me make them, and they turned out great.  They are delicious with real maple syrup and sprinkled with powdered sugar.  We also tried a few with different fillings.  We tried Jarlsberg cheese, blueberries and strawberry jam. 

They take a while to make, but as a once-in-a-while treat they are definitely worth it.  They definitely brought back some sweet childhood memories.

Here’s the recipe (of course you’ll need a pan for it as well).

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Ebelskivers

A classic treat in Denmark, ebelskivers, are light round pancakes filled with jam, curd, fruit or cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 Tbs. granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 4 eggs, separated
• 2 cups milk
• 4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt.

In a small bowl, lightly whisk together the egg yolks, milk and melted butter. Whisk the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well combined; the batter will be lumpy.

In another bowl, using an electric mixer beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff but not dry peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whites into the batter in two additions.

Put 1/8 tsp. butter in each well of a filled-pancake pan. Place over medium heat and heat until the butter begins to bubble. Pour 1 Tbs. batter into each well and cook until the bottoms are golden brown and crispy, 3 to 5 minutes. Put filling in the center of each pancake and top with 1 Tbs. batter. Using 2 wooden skewers, flip the pancakes over and cook until golden and crispy, about 3 minutes more.

Dust the pancakes with confectioners' sugar and serve warm with maple syrup.

La Paisa Grill

This week I’ve been attending a short SharePoint training class in West Valley.  It’s been pretty informative, even though I’ve missed half of the labs.  On Wednesday several of our facilities couldn’t connect to our Internet apps.  So between e-mails, phone calls, and texts, I missed quite a bit.  We didn’t actually figure out the root of the problem until this morning, when more clinics wouldn’t connect.  It turns out our anti-virus program did an update that blocked all secure Internet sites.  We made a few calls, did a bunch of uninstalls and everyone is up and running again.

Yesterday for lunch I drove down Redwood Road looking for someplace to eat when I saw the Latino Mall.  It was awesome!  It felt like I was somewhere in the middle of Mexico.  I bought some Mexican vanilla, dulce de leche, and dulce de membrillo from Ranchos Market.  Then I got a carnitas burrito from La Paisa Grill.  The meat was cooked just right, it had freshly prepared beans, and was wrapped in a fresh homemade tortilla.  ¡Qué rico!  ¡Muy auténtico!  It was so good that today I went there and had tacos and a cold glass of agua jamaica.  I can’t believe we sometimes settle for such low-quality, mass-produced food at places like Taco Bell.  This is place is definitely one of those “best kept secrets.”

Tomorrow is my last day of training.  Hopefully things will be quiet at work so I can concentrate a little better on SharePoint instead of putting out fires.  I think I might just have to make another visit my new favorite little taco shop, too.

Wild berries

We came to Alaska before during springtime. It's nice to be here in the fall to pick all of the wild berries. Its great; they grow everywhere! You can go for a walk and have a snack on the way. The blueberries are very tasty and the red/orange/yellow berries called salmon berries. They have a very mild flavor, but they are good.


Melinda picked all of these berries in the wild area just behind my parent's house. We've put them to good culinary use. So far we've made (or I should say Melinda has made):

• Blueberry muffins
• Blueberry pancakes
• Blueberry pie
• Salmon berry/blueberry smoothies
• Blueberry corn muffins
• Mixed berry shortcake

Tasty!

Vacation at home (day two, part 2)

We got home from the aquarium later in the afternoon. Melinda and I had reservations for the Armstrong Mansion, so Connie came over to stay with the kids overnight. We got some Papa Murphy's pizza for them and they watched movies and played Lego Star Wars.

Melinda and I went out to eat at Christopher's Seafood and Steakhouse downtown at the Peery Hotel. Since it was the Friday night after Valentine's day, every restaurant was packed. But after a 35 minute wait, they seated us. The wait was definitely worth it; the food was absolutely fabulous! I had a pork chop stuffed with crab, spinach, parmesan, and wrapped in bacon; it was divine. Melinda had a tuna steak with wasabi cucumber sauce, it was quite tasty. It was kind of expensive, but we used Brian's Happenings card, so it wasn't too outrageous. Plus, it feels more like an occasion when it's at a really nice place.

Melinda was worried about leaving Saffron overnight, but she was just fine. Connie said when she woke up in the morning she growled at her (probably because she expected her mom) but then she went back to sleep anyway.

So it was nice to have a night out without the kids, though I suspect they thought it was even better to have a night without the parents.

Purple Haze

This year Miles planted a variety of carrots called Purple Haze. True to their name, these psychedelic vegetables would make Jimi Hendrix proud. They weren't as sweet as some other varities, but they tasted like any other regular carrot. Check out those funky shapes!

We ate these fab veggies raw with broccoli. Then Melinda made them into some really groovy technicolor soup. The taste was out of this world.

It was really hip, man. Can you dig it?

Rosemary potatoes and Saffron hugs

The kids and I watched Labyrinth tonight while I exercised. It was kind of refreshing to see a movie with good old fashioned puppet special effects instead of everything CGI. It was a pretty good flick, though it did have quite the 80's vibe. One of the puppet goblins sounded a little like Miss Piggy, which is always fun. I can't ever watch The Empire Strikes Back without visualizing Miss Piggy when Yoda speaks. I keep expecting for the little Jedi Master to say, "moi?"

Lisette forgot to eat, so when it was over she cried because she hadn't eaten anything. Melinda made vegetarian jambalaya, but that's not what Lisette wanted; she had her heart set on rosemary potatoes.

Saffron came over to comfort Lisette and gave her a big hug. She snuggled up in Lisette's arms and patted her on the back. Then occasionally Saffron would look her in the face, smile, and caress her cheek. Kids always have their little fights, but it's lovely to see them care for each other.

After a little slicing of yukon gold potatoes, a little olive oil and fresh rosemary in pan, and Lisette is good as new. Saffron's hugs didn't hurt, either.

Stressed desserts

Summer is winding down and it's time again for the Utah State Fair. We saw the usual sheep, goats, pigs and cows but we were utterly unprepared for the spectacle that was Deep Fried Desserts. Someone decided that Twinkies, Snickers, and Oreos don't have enough trans-fat already...

...so they thought they'd be better battered and dropped in boiling oil. I asked the guy about the fried Coke, and it's Coke mixed with a dough, deep fried, sugared, then covered with Coke syrup, and whipped cream. Sounds like a recipe for heart disease to me.

It's a potato, it's a corndog, no it's a DEEP FRIED SNICKERS BAR!! Miles and Ian paid $2 each to share this culinary creation. (Please don't report me to DCFS for letting them buy it). I asked Ian if he liked it and he said, "yes." I asked him to describe the taste and he said "it tastes like melted chocolate with the slightest taste of chicken." Miles said it tasted like "a caramel-nut waffle that is deep fried." I can imagine having to eat 2 or 3 of these in a row would make a great new method of torture.

The fair had a reading program this year, so Lisette, Miles, and Ian all read 10 books and got a free admission, a free ride ticket, and a free drink. The drink said "regular" but it ended up being about 8 ounces (how generous). Here are the girls waiting for the boys to get off the Tilt-A-Whirl.


Miles and Ian survived without puking (actually they probably could have rode it all night). Lisette ended up selling her ride ticket to Ian for 50 cents so she could see the Amazing Giant Pig and the 13 Foot Alive [sic] Giant Alligator. She was more impressed with the alligator, she said.



I saw my friend Ryan's family there at the fair. They have a farm which includes Dexter cattle, which is a really small breed. I got to talk to Ryan's dad and meet his sister. Above is a picture of a cute 1 1/2 week old calf they have. And yes, the sign says "DON'T TOUCH" and yes, that is what the mystery girl is doing. Obviously she must not have participated in the Reading Program. So much for literacy.