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| Photo taken with my NEW CAMERA! |
A warm welcome and well wishes to you all in 2011! I am simultaneously glad and sad to be moving out of the holiday season and into this New Year. I received blessings in 2010 that I may never be able to express ample gratitude for, and pray especially that 2011 will be a year of health and happiness for my family. I am grateful that I live in a place where I can experiment with different foods, and that I have been given the resources to mess around in my kitchen in hopes of “mastering meals,” and that there are people out there who enjoy my ramblings, and have even tried a thing or two from this blog. Most especially, I am grateful for Mr. McQuillan and his patience and willingness to eat whatever is put on his plate.
I often dream about the type of home we will create one day, and when this daydreaming is taking place, I conjure images of the multitude of “traditions” we will implement. With that said, I have always enjoyed my step-father’s stories of his Grandmother who immigrated to the U.S. from Denmark. He tells stories about her in the same way that Chris talks about “Grandpa Walt.” As the stories come to an end, I always wish that I could meet her and talk about Denmark and their Danish traditions.
A few years ago, a friend vaguely mentioned that their family always had Danish pancakes, known as Ebelskivers, for breakfast on Christmas morning. I love traditions like this, so when I recently saw an Ebelskiver pan at Williams-Sonoma I put together an argument for why we needed one to Chris and we made the purchase! I must say, they were out of the “special turning tools” and I would quickly learn that this was for good reason…
Now, when one is setting out to create new family traditions, you would assume that great care would be put into the first time the “tradition” would take place…WRONG! I was such a ding bat about this that I literally dinked around my home all day on Christmas Eve, left my house at 5:45pm to head to the store only to find that they CLOSED at 6! Fuming at my own stupidity, I drove to Walgreens where of course they do not sell buttermilk, and sat (Blackberry in hand) searching for a dumbed-down recipe for Ebelskivers that did not involve buttermilk in the aisle.
When I had finally got what I needed, and was driving away, I called home to ask Mike if his grandma had ever made Ebelskivers for him. Of course, he reported that she made them “all the time.” I read online that Danish women turn them with a knitting needle, and even if this isn’t how she turned them, this is how I picture her doing it. It makes for a much better picture than me and my goopy fork!
These really were very easy and I would recommend them as a fun variation on the traditional pancake. Chris really enjoyed them, and next time I will experiment with different fillings to see what we like best.
Slainte to more meal mastering in 2011!
Recipe:
*This is the recipe that I was hoping to make. I think that it will be better than the one I used as the only variation is the use of buttermilk, and I think this would likely make a big difference.
Enjoy!
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| Finished product: a little toasty due to my slow turning skills :) |
The start of your tradition sounds fun. Sorry about your ingredient fiasco. I hate realizing too late that a recipe calls for something I don't have!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, you can sub for buttermilk by adding either lemon juice or white vinegar to milk. It may not be exactly like the "real stuff," but it definitely works in a pinch. Just google buttermilk substitutions.