When CW was out to visit a few weeks ago, we impulsed shopped at the Ballard Market and came home with some beets. I don't know exactly what we were intending to do with those beets, but buy them we did.

We never really ate beets as a kid, did we? Except for those weird, jarred, pickeled beets that I wouldn't touch. (I guess they could've been quite good, I honestly wouldn't know). At any rate, I had to scour some of my favorite food blogs for inspiration. I thought since cooking with beets had a *huge* resurgence this year, that there would be plenty of options to choose from. And could you believe it? The only recipes I could find about beets were variations on a beet vinaigrette salad. It seems this huge resurgence was in fact a huge resurgence in vinaigrette salads.

So I made a salad.

Why not?




It was my first time working with beets, clearly, so I followed the directions here almost to the T. Its an arugula and red onion salad, tossed with a red wine vinegar/olive oil/lemon juice vinaigrette. The only change that I made was to substitute some feta I had in the refrigerator for the goat cheese (though I think that would be delicious as well). The recipe recommended that you roast the beets whole, tossed in olive oil and wrapped in tin foil, for about an hour before using. They roasted beautifully. I was highly impressed by their color....(yes yes I know its beet juice, but still). I'll probably have nice red fingers for a day or so!

The inspiration:
Pan Drippings, Gloriously

The experiment:
After I read this article, I was quite excited to try my own rendition. Chicken thighs are a staple in my house, and I typically bake them with just a light coating of adobo seasoning (which is quite savory) when I'm feeling lazy (which is quite often). So, I decided to bake them on a bed of bread, with a few additional ingredients. I chose to use baguette due to its high crust-to-insides ratio. Since the recipe calls for stale bread, as most dressings do, I first baked slices of fresh bread at 300°F for about 15 minutes until crisp.

I cut each slice in half and tossed them in a bowl with one diced onion, several smashed garlic cloves, a bunch of sage leaves, juice of half a lemon, and a drizzle of olive oil to aid the mixing process.

The mixture was then spread in a baking dish.

The adobo-seasoned chicken thighs were laid on top.

The dish was baked at 425°F for 45 minutes.

And the final product, which was delicious.

Notes: The lemon was a bit overpowering in spots. I would recommend using less juice and perhaps adding some zest after baking, instead. I may also try additional stuffing ingredients (e.g. celery, oysters... bacon??!!) in the future.

For Valentine's Day this year, CW sent me a beautiful orchid. The first bud just opened the other day, so I'm sending along pictures of what it looks like. There are quite a few, because I couldn't pick a favorite!






The plant in its rightful home, my bathroom windowsill.

Sharing the windowsill with my VDay orchid from last year (I think it might be a bit jealous.)

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...