Photoshop has become my new friend...I've been playing around with all of these different action settings for creating aged pictures, pictures that look like they are in polaroids, etc etc. Please do excuse of all the different washes as I stretch try and learn the application (or let me know which variations you like). My latest photoshop muse, and treat for the weekend...Aebleskivers!

I first read about aebleskivers on the blog 'Baking Bites'...they are a Danish filled pancake made in this special aebleskiver pan. Not even a week after reading about them, I was in my neighborhood thrift store and found an old cast iron aebleskiver pan for $4. Talk about coincidence! On the back of the pan, it even said "Product of Norway", so I was certain it was a good investment. Especially since it would give me an excuse to say "aebleskiver" as much as possible.
Oh, I love my local thrift store for baking equipment finds!

The pancake batter is pretty standard, with the exception of whipped egg whites that help give these pancakes their lift. You can add a dollop of raspberry or strawberry preserves, or a piece or two of apple or other fruit, which ends up in the middle once the pancakes are flipped (many times, these are referred to as "filled pancakes". I'll have to try more fancy variations when CW visits later in the month.



Whipping egg whites into soft peaks by hand is hard work!




I found this quote on Epicurean: "Aebleskiver - a Danish dessert, like doughnut holes, but sweeter and much better traditionally served with glogg during the Advent. Cooked in a cast iron pan that resembles an egg poacher. Serve hot with syrup, jam or powdered sugar."

So apparantly, I'm a bit late making these in February. Oh well! Next, Pat will have to teach us how to make glogg ;-)


Here are links to some recipes and variations...looks like I'll be using this pan alot!

Williams and Sonoma has a ton:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/srch/recipe.cfm?action=RCP&searchform=1&searchtype=recipe&recipe=filled+pancake

Discussion from Chowhound that references a savory shrimp cake:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/358209

A classic recipe:
http://www.aebleskiver.com/Recipes.htm

This weekend was Morgan Brown's 1st birthday party, and Elizabeth asked me to make the cake for her. It was my first chance to try out the fun new cake decorating toys I got for Christmas! Jason took some photos of me making the cake so I could post them on our blog...

I really love the turn table. It made spreading the icing and doing the fondant work much easier...it worked perfectly, I dont know why I didn't think to use something like that sooner!

And the cake leveler worked like a charm too! I used it to level the tops of the cakes, and to cut the layers in half so I could add more filling between the layers.

Here's a photo of the finished cake...

And one of the birthday girl...

So this week was my week for Goody Club....a Wednesday rotation of dessert-bringing amongst members of different labs. It's enough to satisfy even a sweet-tooth like mine. I worked on these Samoas, a home-made version of the strangely addictive Girl Scout cookie. For those of you who haven't had one recently (tsk tsk) it is essentially a basic butter cookie cut into a doughnut shape, topped with caramel-covered coconut, and dipped/drizzled with chocolate. They're like the cookie cousin to Amanda's crack muffins.



I'm not gonna lie, these cookies took a lot of work. I had to gerry-rig a cookie cutter that was 1.5 inches across, and make a whole in the center (I ended up with the cap from my can of PAM and the top from my vanilla extract). Then after baking the cookies, the coconut had to be toasted for 20 minutes. Then the topping had to be made, and applied to cool cookies(no easy task, it was super sticky, and kept burning my fingers), and the cookies had to be both dipped and drizzled with chocolate. Well, they didn't *have* to be, but I always bake with flourish.




Of course, all of the attention they required was worth it, because these cookies are straight-up delicious. I know A is considering making this recipe for J, so here's my thoughts on improvements--I wish I had used better quality chocolate. I used store-brand chocolate chips (I wasn't going to get the good stuff just to give it away to a bunch of science nerds!), but the chocolate really is a dominant force when you first taste of the cookie. The caramel and coconut notes come in a second or so later. The recipe called for dark chocolate (yum!) but I just used semi-sweet. I thought the regular Kraft soft caramels worked fine, but if you can find another better quality soft caramel, its probably worth investing there as well. And make sure you have 2 hours or so to devote to making this cookie, because it needs it. If you wanted to be smart about it, you could toast the coconut and bake the cookies one night, then let them cool overnight and do the caramel/chocolate flourishing the next day.

You can find a link for this recipe, as well as other homemade Girl Scout knockoffs (yay for Thin Mints!) here.

The people at "Schmap" found one of my pictures of Discovery Park on Flickr and asked if it might be included on their website, which is essentially a photo-documented map of the city.

http://www.schmap.com/seattle/sights_interbay/#p=21032&i=21032_55.jpg

I didn't get paid for it, obviously, but my name and photography is on the map, and that's sorta fun.

:)

I broke out the stick/immersion blender that Jason got me for Christmas this afternoon! I wanted to to whip together some butternut squash soup that I've been meaning to make for awhile (Literally, awhile-- using the squash I bought back in...oh...November sometime. Luckily, they keep like potatoes ;-)

The blender worked wonderfully, it took me about 2 or so minutes to break the squash down into a nice puree. And cleanup was a cinch, since I didn't have to dirty any additional dishes, other than the small bottom of the blender, which I rinsed easily at the sink.

The resulting puree was pretty sweet, probably from the squash and the carrots (check out all that beta carotene!). I added a little curry powder and turmeric to balance the flavors, and put a dollop of sour cream on it as a garnish. And to think I wanted to make a healthy soup! Not only is squash super cheap this time of year, the squash (and carrots) are packed full of vitamins, and the soup as a whole is super low in fat--if you can resist the garnishing! The soup was also pretty rich, so a small bowl was satisfying.


To make:

I cut the squash in half, scooped out the seeds, and brushed it with a little olive oil. I roasted it for half an hour or so (400 degree oven, you could probably use higher), and dropped a couple cloves of garlic down into the scooped out part to roast as well. While that was going, I sauteed some onion and carrots in butter and a dash of olive oil, then added 2 cups chicken stock and 2 cups water into the pot to bring to a simmer. I skinned the squash halves and cubed the flesh, and threw them into the simmering water. After about a half an hour, the flesh got nice and tender. You can use any sort of blender at this point (although you might want to let it cool for use in a traditional blender) to make a nice puree, then thin as needed with additional water or stock, and season to taste. I felt like mine needed quite a bit of salt and a nice kick of cayenne, but a lot of the recipes I saw called for a variety of different seasonings, including thyme/sage, or even cinnamon.

This is the recipe Mom has been asking for since she was out here visiting us...it's from our "Easy Dinners, Healthy Recipes" cookbook.

Slimmed Skillet-Style Lasagna

Start to Finish: 35 mins
Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients:
8 ounces uncooked ground turkey sausage
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups bottled spaghetti sauce
1 cup water
2 cups dried wide noodles (vegetable bow-ties work well too)
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped zucchini
1/2 cup fat-free ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
1 tablespoon snipped fresh parsley
1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese (2 ounces)

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, cook sausage and onion until sausage is browned, breaking up sausage during cooking. Drain off fat. Stir in spaghetti sauce and the water. Bring to boiling. Stir in uncooked noodles and zucchini. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 12 minutes or until noodles are tender, stirring occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together ricotta cheese, Parmesan or Romano cheese, and parsley.

3. Drop cheese mixture into 6 mounds over the sausage-noodle mixture in the skillet. Sprinkle mounds with mozzarella cheese. Cover and cook on low heat for 4 to 5 minutes or until cheese mixture is heated through. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Nutrition facts per serving: 235 calories, 8 g total fat, 38 mg cholesterol, 418 mg sodium, 26 g carbohydrate, 18 g protein.

(Sorry for the year-long delay in sending the recipe, Mom!)